FÅ - 5 years later CONTINUED

[Kolya]

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Fucking Åmål - Five years later (chapter 4)
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Two weeks passed but no letter from Elin arrived. "She's never been much of a writer," Agnes thought, "she has other talents." She smiled and had to forcefully remind herself of what Elin had done to her. But with four years in between the wounds inflicted by Elin had been mostly substituted by an analytical view of her first relationship. So it wasn't the first time the thought occurred to her, that Elin's cheating might have been part the same chuzpe that had led Elin to bond with Agnes in the first place.
"I used to love her for that carelessness. And she still has it. That's why she came to Stockholm and kissed me on the platform before she left. But it's irresponsible and stupid to act on every whim and vagary without considering the consequences. And you cannot love a person like that without expecting to get hurt. I didn't know this back then, but I do now."
She looked at a framed picture that was standing on her desk. It showed Hanna and herself, back when their relationship had only just begun. They had gone through some rough times together since. But Hanna clearly was a keeper, a girlfriend like Agnes had always hoped for. Strong and beautiful like a Raven. She had always been supportive of Agnes. She was the first person Agnes had ever willingly shown her writings. Hanna devoured it all.
"Elin probably wouldn't have read more than one page before getting bored.", Agnes thought. But for some reason she had gradually written less and eventually stopped completely. Hanna still kept on rooting for her to keep on with it now and then. When she thought about it, Agnes couldn't say why she'd stopped. She had simply lost the incentive to do so.

One morning Hanna got up early to go to her daytime job. She worked as an intern in a news agency. As she was rushing out the door she quickly checked the mail and among leaflets and some bills she found a personal letter addressed to her fiancée. The name was written in proud oblique letters but there was no sender. Hanna looked at it for a moment. A cold breeze came down the hall and krept up her skirt. She turned around looking for the entrance but the door was still closed. Then she went back up to their apartment and silently opened the door. She left the letter on the desk, next to where Agnes was sleeping and went to work.

When Agnes woke up she made herself a coffee. Still in her pajamas she came back and noticed the letter on her desk. The moment she saw it she knew it was from Elin and hastily opened it. This is what it said:

Dear Agnes,

I'm doing it! I'm moving to Stockholm. About time, eh? I wanted to get out of these smalltowns forever! And now I finally quit my job at the hospital. I even have a new job there and it's the most amazing thing! It's probably just a short time thing, but my father arranged it and it sounds pretty serious. (He's actually been helpful with something for once.) Guess what? I'll act in a movie! Filming starts only in two months and I don't know much of the details yet. But I'm moving into a house in Stockholm next Sunday already! If you could come over and help me move the heavy stuff in, that would be awesome! No, just kidding! You don't have to do anything. I've hired some some big hunks. We will just sit and down and sip some champagne, watching over them doing the hard work, hehe. Please come, I can't wait to see you!

Love, Elin

On the backside Elin had written her new address and her estimated time of arrival.
Agnes had read the letter three or four times before she put it down. She simply could not decide if this was good news or spelled disaster from start to end. Also Elin hadn't mentioned Michael with one word. For the moment she decided to think about it as objectively as she could.
"What gives? She really wanted to move to the big city forever. Can't blame her, Karlstad is backwater, just like Åmål was. And that film-job is just Elin! She gets what she wants at the wave of an arm. I just hope it's not a letdown, coming from her no-good daddy."

That evening Agnes relayed the news to Hanna, although she avoided going into the details of the letter. To her surprise Hanna didn't seem put off by the idea that Elin would move to Stockholm. Instead she smiled and listened attentively to Agnes. Then she said:
"Well these hired arms may know how to pack a washing machine but there's usually a whole lot of smaller stuff to carry. In any case it will be faster when some friends help her out."
"Youh... I guess you're right." Agnes said slightly confused and absent-minded.
"Do you want me to help you?"
"Sure, I mean if you got the time."

In the end Agnes went alone. Hanna said she wanted to meet Lucy that day to get even on some quarrel they'd had over the phone. Something about Lucy's new girlfriend, whom Agnes did not know. She figured that Hanna could have solved the issue some other day if she'd really wanted to escort her, but she also was somewhat relieved to be able to meet Elin alone. "No need to further complicate an already complex situation."
She went down the waterside watching a few boats drift by. It was still rather early in the morning and not many people were out on the street. The sun was shining warm and brightly on this spring day. Agnes took off her black denim jacket that was plastered with quite a few buttons of virtually unknown indie rock bands. She swung it over her shoulder as it was getting too hot. It had not been easy to decide what to wear.
The address Elin had given her was on a lane by the water with few, but old and exquisite mansions. Agnes almost missed the gateway although it was the only one far and wide, thinking this could not be it. She even took out Elin's letter and compared the street number. There was no mistake though. It was the same as on the high, spike embattled brick-lined wall. And right under it the words "Olsson move: This way!!! →" were written with fresh white chalk. The rusty iron gate that the arrow was pointing at was left ajar, so Agnes slipped inside.
She found herself on a rather bedraggled gravel driveway, overarched on both sides by gnarly ginkgo trees that were only slowly awaking from their hybernation. A few pale blueish leaves broke from the branches here and there, looking like oversized clover. The driveway led up a steep hill and around a bend. No house was to be seen. Agnes stood there for a moment, feeling like an intruder in this secluded world.
Then she walked up the driveway. After two sharp bends the gravel way opened up to a small clearing and a big old mansion came into view. It was built on top of the hill on a clinker base but the house itself was completely made of wood. Once it had been painted old rose but the paint was chipping off in many places now. Before the house lay an overgrown meadow. A decayed looking wheelbarrow had been left there upside down a long time ago. It seemed to have sunk into the ground meanwhile. In the middle of the house's front a mossy stone stairway was flanked by adorned iron railings and led up to dark green double wing doors. There sat Elin on the stairs with a cloth covered basket by her side, smoking a cigarette.
When she looked up her face brightened, she flicked the stub away and screamed "Agnes!". Then she jumped down the steps. She ran towards Agnes who walked nearer, smiling at her. As soon as she reached her Elin hugged her rapturously, kissing her several times on her cheeks. "I'm so happy you're here." she whispered into her ear.
"Glad to see you too." Agnes felt slightly overwhelmed.
"So this is where you're gonna live?"
"Yes!", Elin said, turning towards the house, while still holding Agnes' hand, "Isn't it marvellous?"
"Yes, looks great. I didn't even know this existed although I've passed by here quite a few times."
"Do you want to take a look inside? It's huge... I'll just show you my rooms, the kitchen and maybe Leif's wing. Though it's still quite dirty and cluttered there."
"Leif is...?" Agnes asked while they climbed up the stone stairs.
"We share the house, he's the owner now. He inherited it last fall when his father died. But he's also just moving in. There's a lot that needs to be done, the roof is leaking in places and..."
"Well it's probably good if you don't have to live here all alone."
They entered the hall and Agnes' eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness. Dispersed dust was shimmering in the sunlight flooding in through the high open door. But it looked much better than she had suspected from the run-down outside.
She followed Elin through a corridor and up a wooden stairway that creaked cosily under their feet. The walls were decorated with labyrinthine damask. Eventually Elin opened another door and pointed down a big empty room with wooden board flooring that was connected to another equally sized corner chamber through an open wing door. Sunlight was pouring in through the recently cleaned windows and bathed the rooms in warm shades of yellow, orange and brown. A black iron furnace was cowering in a corner looking like a sleeping leprechaun.
"It goes around the corner a bit.", Elin said, "there's another room that I will probably use for a bedroom."
Agnes hesitatingly wandered to one of the windows. "Jösses, this is beautiful." she said silently. Outside she saw the meadow with the old barrow, the ginkgo's treetops and further down a boat floating down the waterline.
"How much do you pay for this?" she asked.
"Haha! That's the best part, I pay nothing at all. I'm just here to keep Leif company a bit, he wouldn't want to live alone in his father's house, you see. I mean, it's a great house but I wouldn't want to be here all by myself either."
Agnes squinted at Elin.
"Keep him company, eh? You think he could need some more company?"
"Heh, you can always stay as long as you like.", Elin said while kneeling down and examining some tiny hole in the wood floor. And standing up: "He's a really nice guy though, rather shy. It's not like that."
"Hey I wasn't thinking anything! It's just weird that he doesn't like, you know, rent the house out or whatever."
"Well, he wants to live here too and he says he doesn't like living around strangers."
"So how did you get to know him then?" Agnes asked, turning to Elin.
"He used to live in Karlstad before his father died. Just down the street, we were practically neighbors. Though we only talked a few times until he told me about his bequest. That was just a few days after I had come back from Stockholm. Felt like a sign or something..."
Elin suddenly seemed to want to leave the room. She was standing in the door already.
"He's a computerfreak, you can meet him later on, he'll come with the van from Karlstad. Anyway, are you hungry? I've bought fresh white bread and Italian cheese..."
"Not really..."
"But you will accept a glass of champagne, won't you?" Elin said with an enticing grin on her lips.
Agnes grinned back at her. "Well sure, that's what I came here for!"

A while later they were sitting out on the stairs before the house. It was noon now and the van with Leif and Elin's stuff was soon to arrive. A red and white plaid cloth was spread out between them and all of the goodies from the basket distributed over it. They were eating some cheese with grapes and drinking champagne from plastic glasses. They chatted the time away, mostly about Stockholm, about Leif, and their plans for the summer.
There rarely was any allusion to the time they'd spent as a couple. Åmål was far away, and Agnes felt very comfortable with the thought of having Elin back as a friend. In fact she was flying high, closely following Elin who dreamt up ever more wild and adventurous times they would have.
"You haven't changed a bit." she said after a small pause which had followed a big laugh.
"Yes, I have.", Elin said rather solemnly while fishing for another thing from the basket, "I've changed at least as much as you have." She eventually produced a pack of cigarettes and found some matches too. She lit one and threw the burning match into the grass. "I've made a lot of mistakes. A whole chain of painful, stupid and ongoing mistakes that I felt unable to correct for fear of losing even more than I already had." She took a deep drag. "But I kept on losing, no matter how much I tried and pretended it wasn't so."
"You mean Michael?" Agnes asked.
"Oh haha, yes, Michael also was a mistake. It all just seemed to drag me down more and more, you see? Like a rope attached to my leg with a weight that's falling. And I couldn't get it off. But now I'm here. And I'm about to change all that."
"You know that I'm living with Hanna." Agnes said friendly but firmly.
Elin smiled at Agnes. "Yes I know. And don't worry, I won't try to separate you two. She seemed like a really nice girl when we met. Of course I didn't have much time to get to know her."
"I'm not worried."
"In any case, I hope we can change that. We could go out together? You can show me the Stockholm scene and you can always bring her here of course. I'd be happy to have you both as my guests."
"She wanted to come initially. Just couldn't because of a friend."
"I think there's the van..." Elin stood up and walked a bit towards the approaching transport.

Agnes kept sitting on the stairs and watched it come to a halt. A brown curly haired boy jumped from the passenger seat. She realised that this must be Leif and was slightly surprised because he appeared to be no more than 17 or 18 years old. He wore a white shirt and black worn jeans and looked somewhere between skinny and athletic, not like a "computerfreak" anyway.
Elin welcomed him with a friendly hug and then went right to the back of the van, talking to a huge bald packer who climbed from the driver's seat and another bearded guy from the backseat. Leif came over to Agnes.
"Hey."
"Hey. You're here to help Ellie with her stuff?"
"Yeah, I'm Agnes. And you must be Leif."
"Oh so you are Agnes. She talked a lot about you. Mainly that she was happy to be able to see you more often. And that we all need to go out together and set Stockholm on fire...or something crazy like that."
"Haha, yeah she said the same thing to me."
"Well there won't be much to do. She doesn't have a lot of stuff and it's all packed up so the guys will take it in. Um, mind if I steal a piece of that cheese?"
"No, of course not. It's Elin's anyway."
They sat down together on the staircase again. Elin just came by showing the way for the packers.
"Have a glass of champagne Leif, there's still some left." she said before going inside.
"That's a great house you have." Agnes said a bit awkwardly.
"Yes, it is. Well it's a dump actually, haha. Still great. Reminds me of my childhood a lot."
"So you used to live here as a child?"
"Yeah I was born here actually. We lived in this house until I was about seven years old. Then my parents divorced and my mother and me moved to Karlstad."
"Mmh."
"I'm glad to be back though. Karlstad is nice but... well it's a smalltown. You always meet the same people, there's nothing going on at all..."
"Yeah."
"I heard you lived in Åmål with Elin? Must have been pretty much the same."
"It wasn't so bad. I just didn't want to stay there forever, you know?"
"She said the best thing about Åmål was you."
"Oh? Haha, well I guess, if Elin says so."
He smiled at her and in that moment Agnes really would have liked to know what Elin exactly had said. Instead she just looked at the ginkgo trees that were creaking silently.
"I heard you're good with computers?" she said.
"Yeah, but that's nothing special. A lot of people are nowadays. I make some music, that's the most interesting part I guess. That and the old games I have. Or were you asking because you have a computer problem?"
"No, no. I was just interested... You have to show me your games sometime. I like the classic arcade stuff, R-Type, Speedball... Haven't played those in a while."
Leif turned at her looking quite surprised. "Are you for real? I think you're the first girl ever who seems to even know about this stuff."
"And I haven't even mentioned Super Mario! Haha."
"No you haven't. That's a first! So you want to go up for a quick game?"
"Yeah, great."

An hour later Elin found them mashing buttons on an old standup arcade machine in Leif's room. She watched them for a while, happy that they got along so well. She even joined in for a game, only to see her meagre score getting beaten around the place by the two fanatics.
"Hey, is anyone here up to helping me rebuilt my bed and move the wardrobe?" she asked, but was promptly told to wait for the game to finish. Eventually they got around to it though. Elin placed her large low IKEA bed in a small secluded room which was filled out completely by the bed. She hung a big blue canopy above and then they carried the wardrobe into the corner-room.
"You will need more furniture." Agnes said looking at the still mostly empty rooms.
"No that's okay!", Elin answered, "All I want is a big thick carpet so people can sit on the ground. Otherwise I'm good."
"Yep, ties the room together." Leif said.
"Anyone wants to grab a bite?" Elin asked.
They went back outside and had the rest of the bread and cheese. It was late afternoon, the sun was still out and gave them a taste of the summer to come. Eventually Agnes said goodbye, but Elin insisted to bring her down to the street. For a while they walked silently until they reached the gate.
"So um, will I see you next week sometime?" Elin asked.
"Youh, sure. Why not."
Elin hugged her again although she was much more shy about it now then when they had met earlier today. But this time Agnes felt something that surprised her and she just quickly said "bye" before slipping out of the gate.
Elin went back up to the house, absorbed in thoughts.
"You alright?" Leif asked when he saw her trudging back to the house. He was leaning against the iron railing.
"Yeah, I'm fine. In fact I haven't been that happy since ... I don't know when."
"You're not going to cry on me, are you?"
"Haha, no you moron, I won't!" Elin said and kicked him.

[fish]

So, there I was on this boring Saturday, nothing on the TV, didn't fancy a movie just now, no-one even writing on this forum, thought I might have to go into the garden and pull up weeds for fun....and then there appeared Kolya, coming over the bridge to the rescue....

I guess I had just about given up hope of seeing any more of the "Five years later" story so it is such a relief to find that it's not dead. The quality of the writing is very high too, no wonder each new chapter takes so long to finish. I hope there is much more to come because what has been written so far is very special.

Thanks again Kolya.

Stuff the garden, I think I'll crank up the dvd player and put on Fucking Åmål again.

[snaps]

Loved it to effing bits Kolya.

I know you don't like me but respect where respect is due.

This was just so well ''dreamic'' I'm so glad you posted. I felt myself convincingly drawn into the scenario.

It is very differënt to how I would imagine things, but that doesn't matter. It is truly inspirational. This has been worth waiting for.

I know you don't trust me, and you are soooooo touchy, but if I do have any lit. crit. I will post you privately but only if yu want me to.

The whole effect is ''langourous" in that it brings to mind Francoise Sagan and ''Bonjour Tristesse''. The attention to detail etc.

Whicheverway. Thanks for sharing.

snapsie

[Kolya]

Stop talking nonsense, I have no problem with you. And I'm rather impressed you know Bonjour Tristesse.

[kant1781]

SIGNS AND WONDERS !! I would neva-eva have believed that I would see this being continued in my lifetime!
What a beautiful day!

[kant1781]

Sometimes you just happen to stumble upon a song that just fits your state of mind 100%. Some hours after reading Kolya's continuing story, I listened to Bloc Party's "A Weekend in the City" again, and suddenly realized how beautifully the lyrics of their song "I Still Remember" fits it all - the story, the movie, the spirit.

Here's the song.

Here's the lyrics.

"You should have asked me for it
I would have been brave
You should have asked me for it
How could I say no?
And our love may have soared
Over playgrounds and rooftops
Every park bench screams your name
I kept your tie
I'd have gone wherever you wanted
I still remember."

[fish]

I'd never even heard of Bloc Party before, must be something to do with living on the other side of the planet, but that is just such a good clip. The song is great, fits the story well, and the video effects are brilliant.
Technology left the likes of me behind when they introduced coloured pencils but I can sure appreciate the artistry of those that have the gift.

[LifeIsBeautiful]

What a wonderful story. When can we expect more?

[LifeIsBeautiful]

Still waiting on that update...

[sydney]

Great that some people are still working on the script, although it should be FÅ 10 years later, by now.

[Ian]

And counting!

[snaps]

*coughs*

[snaps]

Great that some people are still working on the script, although it should be FÅ 10 years later, by now.

http://showmelove.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=873&start=30#p8624 for example.

[fish]

I don't care whether 5 years or 10 years is the next to publish I would just like to read more of each story.

(Hopefully there'll be new chapters of both soon, especially now that their respective authors have received our gentle prodding. )

[LifeIsBeautiful]

I've been waiting so long to see this finished Hopefully that happy ending will come along soon