The Girl in the Woods

‘Pappa, push me higher!’

Tuva shrieked with joy when he gave the swing an even harder push, and she soared higher.

Her dark hair flew around her face and, as had happened so many times before, Martin was struck by how much the little girl looked like Pia. He got out his mobile to film her, backing up to get everything in the frame. When his heels bumped into something, he heard a loud cry. Startled, he glanced behind him and caught sight of a toddler who was screaming to high heaven as he held a sandy toy spade in his hand.

‘Oh, sorry,’ said Martin, kneeling down to comfort the boy.

He glanced around, but none of the other adults showed any sign of coming over, so he ruled them out as the kid’s parents.

‘Shhh, don’t worry, we’ll find your mamma and pappa,’ he consoled the toddler, who merely screamed even louder.

A short distance away, over by some shrubbery, he saw a woman about his own age who was talking on her mobile. He tried to catch her eye, but she seemed upset. She was speaking angrily and motioning with her free hand. He waved to her, but she still didn’t notice. Finally he turned to Tuva, whose swing was losing momentum now that he wasn’t pushing it.

‘Wait here. I have to take this baby over to his mamma.’

‘Pappa kicked the baby,’ said Tuva loudly, but he shook his head at her words.

‘No, Pappa didn’t kick the baby. Pappa— Oh, never mind, we’ll talk about it later.’

Martin picked up the screaming boy, hoping he could make it over to the woman before she noticed that a strange man was carrying her son. But he needn’t have worried. She remained completely immersed in her phone conversation. He felt a trace of annoyance as he watched her talking and gesticulating when she should be keeping an eye on her child. The boy was now screaming loud enough to pierce his eardrums.

‘Excuse me,’ he said when he reached the woman, and she stopped in mid-sentence.

She had tears in her eyes, and mascara was running down her cheeks.

‘I have to go now. YOUR son is unhappy!’ she said, and ended the call.

She wiped her eyes and held out her arms towards the boy.

‘I’m sorry, I stepped back and didn’t see him behind me,’ said Martin. ‘I don’t think he’s hurt, but I probably scared him a bit.’

The woman hugged the boy.

‘Don’t worry. He’s at that age when he’s scared of strangers,’ she said, blinking away the last of her tears.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked. She blushed at the question.

‘Oh my God, how embarrassing to stand here crying in broad daylight. And I wasn’t watching Jon either. I’m sorry. I must seem like the world’s worst mother.’

‘No, no, don’t say that. He was doing fine. Are you sure you’re okay?’

Martin didn’t mean to pry, but she looked so miserable.

‘Well, it’s not like somebody died, or anything. It’s just that my ex is such an idiot. His new girlfriend apparently isn’t interested in the “baggage” of his marriage, so he’s cancelled the three days he was supposed to have Jon. And his excuse was that she “was looking forward to the two of them spending some alone-time together”.’

‘How pathetic,’ said Martin, irate on her behalf. ‘What an arsehole!’

She smiled and he felt his gaze drawn to her dimples.

‘So what about you?’

‘Oh, I’m okay,’ he replied, and she laughed.

‘No, I meant which one is yours?’

She nodded towards the playground, and he slapped his hand to his forehead.

‘Oh, right. That’s what you meant. Well, my daughter’s over there – the little girl on the swing who’s looking a bit grumpy about not swinging any more.’

‘Oops. You’d better go over and give her swing a push. Or is her mother here too?’

Martin blushed. Was she flirting with him? He caught himself hoping she was. He didn’t know what to say in reply, but he realized he might as well tell her the truth.

‘No, I’m a widower,’ he said.

‘Oh, forgive me,’ she said, putting her hand to her mouth. ‘Trust me to go and make some crass remark like “it’s not like somebody died”.’

She touched his arm, and he gave her as reassuring a smile as he could muster. Something inside him didn’t want her to be sad or upset. He wanted to hear her laugh. He wanted to see those dimples again.

‘It’s okay,’ he said and felt her relax.

Behind him, Tuva was calling: ‘Pappaaaa!’ Her voice was getting shriller and more demanding.

‘Looks like you’d better go over and give your little girl’s swing a push,’ the woman said, wiping the snot and sand off Jon’s face.

‘Maybe I’ll see you here again,’ said Martin.

He could hear the hope in his voice. She smiled, and her dimples were even more visible than before.

‘Sure, we come here often. In fact, we’ll probably be back tomorrow,’ she said. Martin nodded happily as he started backing away to rejoin Tuva.

‘We’ll most likely see you then,’ he said, trying not to grin too much.

He took another step and felt his heels bump into something. This was immediately followed by a piercing shriek. Over by the swings he heard Tuva sigh.

‘Pappa, watch out …’

In the midst of the chaos Martin’s mobile rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the display: Gösta.

‘Where on earth did you find this person?’

Marie pushed away the woman who’d spent the past hour making up her face and turned to look at the film director, Jörgen Holmlund.

‘Yvonne is really good at her job,’ said Jörgen with that irritating quaver in his voice. ‘She’s worked on most of my films.’

Behind her, Yvonne was quietly sobbing. The headache that had plagued Marie since she arrived at her trailer was getting worse.

‘I’m supposed to be Ingrid Bergman down to her fingertips in every single scene. She was always flawless. I can’t look like one of the Kardashians. Contouring? Have you ever heard of anything so dreadful! My features are perfect. I don’t need fucking contouring!’