No need to stress, then, right?
As Penelope takes the steep escalator down to the subway platform, her heart begins to beat uneasily. She closes her eyes. The escalator sinks downward, seeming to shrink as the air becomes cooler and cooler.
Penelope Fernandez comes from La Libertad, one of the largest provinces in El Salvador. She was born in a jail cell, her mother attended by fifteen female prisoners doing their best as midwives. There was a civil war going on, and Claudia Fernandez, a doctor and activist, had landed in the regimes infamous prison for encouraging the indigenous population to form unions.
Penelope opens her eyes as she reaches the platform. Her claustrophobic feeling has passed. She thinks about Bjorn waiting for her at the motorboat club on Langholmen. She loves skinny-dipping from his boat, diving straight into the water, seeing nothing but sea and sky.
She steps onto the subway, which rumbles on, gently swaying, until it breaks out into the open as it reaches the station at Gamla Stan and sunlight streams in through the windows.
Like her mother, Penelope is an activist and her passionate opposition to war and violence led her to get her masters in political science at Uppsala University with a specialty in peace and conflict resolution. Shes worked for the French aid organization Action Contre la Faim in Darfur, southern Sudan, with Jane Oduya, and her article for Dagens Nyheter, on the women of the refugee camp and their struggles to regain normalcy after every attack, brought broad recognition. Two years ago, she followed Frida Blom as the spokesperson for the Swedish Peace and Reconciliation Society.
Leaving the subway at the Hornstull station, Penelope feels uneasy again, extremely uneasy, without knowing why. She runs down the hill to Soder Malarstrand, then walks quickly over the bridge to Langholmen and follows the road to the small harbor. The dust she kicks up from the gravel creates a haze in the still air.
Bjorns boat is in the shade directly underneath Vaster Bridge. The movement of the water dapples the gray girders with a network of light.
Penelope spots Bjorn on the afterdeck. Hes got on his cowboy hat, and he stands stock-still, shoulders bent, with his arms wrapped closely about him. Sticking two fingers in her mouth, she lets loose a whistle, startling him, and he turns toward her with a face naked with fear. And its still there in his eyes when she climbs down the stairs to the dock. Whats wrong? she asks.
Nothing, he answers, as he straightens his hat and tries to smile.
As they hug, she notices his hands are ice-cold and the back of his shirt is damp.
Youre covered in sweat.
Bjorn avoids her eyes. Its been stressful getting ready to go.
Bring my bag?
He nods and gestures toward the cabin. The boat rocks gently under her feet and the air smells of lacquered wood and sun-warmed plastic.
Hello? Anybody home? she asks, tapping his head.
His clear blue eyes are childlike and his straw-colored hair sticks out in tight dreadlocks from under the hat. Im here, he says. But he looks away.
What are you thinking about? Wheres your mind gone to?
Just that were finally heading off together, he answers as he wraps his arms around her waist. And that well be having sex out in nature.
He buries his lips in her hair.
So thats what youre dreaming of, she whispers.
Yes.
She laughs at his honesty.
Most people women, I mean, think that sex outdoors is a bit overrated, she says. Lying on the ground among ants and stones and-
No. No. Its just like swimming naked, he insists.
Youll have to convince me, she teases.
Ill do that, all right.
How? Shes laughing as the phone rings in her cloth bag.
Bjorn stiffens when he hears the signal. Penelope glances at the display.
Its Viola, she says reassuringly before answering. Hola, Sis.
A car horn blares over the line as her sister yells in its direction. Fucking idiot.
Viola, whats going on?
Its over. Ive dumped Sergei.
Not again! Penelope says.
Yes, again, says Viola, noticeably depressed.
Sorry, Penelope says. I can tell youre upset.
Well, Ill be all right I guess. But Mamma said you were going out on the boat and I thought maybe I could come, too, if you dont mind
A moment of silence.
Sure, you can come, too, Penelope says, although she hears her own lack of enthusiasm. Bjorn and I need some time to ourselves, but
2
Penelope stands at the helm. An airy blue sarong is wrapped around her hips and theres a peace sign on the right breast of her white bikini top. Spring sunlight pours through the windshield as she carefully rounds Kungshamn lighthouse and maneuvers the large motorboat into the narrow sound.
Her younger sister, Viola, gets up from the pink recliner on the afterdeck. For the past hour, shes been lying back in Bjorns cowboy hat and enormous sunglasses, languidly smoking a joint.
Five times she tries to pick up a matchbox from the floor with her toes. Penelope cant help smiling. Viola walks into the cockpit and offers to take the wheel for a while. Otherwise, Ill go downstairs and make myself a margarita, she says, as she continues down the stairs.