"Keep the money safe and return in one piece, then go in to talk to Amelia."
"All right, Eric. I'll be back later," he said, then walked out into the chilly, moonlit night.
Amelia
One terribly hot day in August, about five months after we had arrived, when Bror was gone with the railroad and Eric was mucking out the stables, I came home from the hotel to find my mother sitting in her kitchen with a cup of coffee.
"Hello, Mother. What are you doing?" I asked, hanging my knapsack on a hook in the back hall.
She mumbled to herself something I couldn't hear, then something I understood quite clearly. "Otroliga barn," she said, then took another big drink from her cup. Her elbows were up on the table, her head hung low and her Swedish words slurred. I was sure, now, she was drunk.
"What a
