When his mother was gone again, he sees that Gun has stopped. The water is up to her knees now, and with cupped hands she pours water over her thighs so that she won’t be cold. Believing she is alone, she pulls down the strap of her bathing suit and vigorously rubs her back. Almost immediately, she pulls the strap back up. Even so, her shoulder was naked for just a brief moment. But in that moment, he was able to figure out what it was about her that he hates. It is her body.
He also learned why he hates it. He hates it because it’s so unlike his mother’s, because it’s so beautiful, and because it’s so relaxed. The entire time she wades into the water—and that time is infinite—he keeps on hating her. He sees her body under the water, green like glass. But when she starts to swim, it is white. And when she floats on her back, her body shimmers through the water like a white stone. Then he picks up a black rock off the ground and throws it in her direction. He didn’t mean for it to hit her, and it doesn’t. He just wants to startle her. She whirls around in the water and looks in the rock’s direction. Then, when she sees a wide ring on the surface, she swims very calmly to shore, most likely thinking it was a fish. As she swims, he realizes why he threw the rock. He also realizes why he has to get revenge. It’s because her body has shimmered so in the water. It’s because her body is tainted. It’s because it is so beautiful. Furthermore, he realizes that he has been waiting for her all morning. The rock has waited, too.
When he goes back inside, the sliding door has just been shut. It’s warm inside, and her footprints have already dried. When he opens the sliding door, he hears the father snoring, so he closes it again. He darts to his alcove and yanks the curtain from his fiancée’s bed. He pulled the other curtain, too. When he lies down on her coat he sees that she’s awake. Then he becomes aroused and excited, caressing her and then kissing her. She says that she is ill. She said the word ill in that telltale way women do when men ought to know why they are ill without having to ask. With those words, his lips dry up, he releases her shoulder, is irritated, and lies silently next to her.
Draw the curtain, she whispers, someone might come.
He doesn’t draw the curtain but instead hopes that someone will actually come and see him lying there. When some footsteps approach the door, he kisses her again and rather violently. But when the footsteps turn in the opposite direction, he sees that her lip is bleeding. Then he lies silently on her coat for a long time, pondering whether she is really sick. The first time he knew her, he always tried to remember the date, so that in the future he would be able to know whether it was true or not. He can’t remember anymore. So he is upset with her.
Breakfast is late because the father has slept in. They eat it on the porch outside the kitchen. There, they have a view of the long island, just a small portion of the mainland, but a large portion of the sea. While Berit sets the table and Gun clatters about in the kitchen, Bengt and the father are sitting on the red folding chairs at the green wooden table. The father is looking at the sea, which he hasn’t seen in a long time. But Bengt is smoking and looking at the clothesline that stretches from the porch railing to a little pine tree. Gun’s white blouse is hanging out to dry, and the father’s silk shirt is flapping next to it, almost dry. For the first time, except for in his thoughts and dreams, he realizes that his father has another woman. So it’s difficult for him to tear his eyes away from the line.
The father is pleased and content, and for the first time in a long time, he is happy to eat. When he is happy, he likes to touch women, so he grabs Berit by the hips—as a joke, of course. She stiffens up and starts dropping the glasses, but the father doesn’t notice. The one who notices is Bengt, but when Berit looks at him, he still refuses to make eye contact with her. Just then, Gun emerges from the kitchen with fried eggs, but the father still doesn’t let Berit go. Laughing, he says to the son:
Take over!
Gun leans over the table. She is wearing her bathing suit and a yellow silk robe over it. For just a brief, brief moment, Bengt actually wants to touch her, just to get back at his father, of course. But he doesn’t, after all. A gust of wind thrashes the clothes on the line, so he looks at that instead.
When they eat they are all silent, except for the father, of course. The father can’t help but talk. He often speaks with his mouth full, so they can almost never understand what he’s saying. Bengt cringes. He doesn’t want his father embarrassing himself in front of Gun, because it will make her stronger. So he glances at her to see what she is thinking about his father. Gun glances back at Bengt and laughs. She is still laughing when the father offers her some liquor, but as she laughs, she holds her hand over her shot glass. Though it’s none of his business, Bengt is somehow pleased. Maybe not because she’s laughing, but because she doesn’t want to drink. His own glass is filled. And as the father screws the cork back on, Bengt gets a strange idea.
He personally finds it absurd, but he doesn’t do anything to stop it. He takes Gun’s shot glass and puts it in front of Berit, who is sitting next to him, poking at her food with a fork. She has her coat on, but he knows she is still cold, and therefore she should have a drink. The father also thinks it’s funny and pours a few drops— or several, really. When Berit refuses to drink, Bengt forces her by grabbing her harshly by the neck and raising the shot glass. Then she drinks voluntarily, so that he won’t cause her any real harm. After she drinks it, he is glad she did.
In the middle of the meal something beautiful happens. Gun suddenly points to the sea and they all look. A gray destroyer is coming in from the sea, clearing an ivory path through the water. Like a tiny rat, it scuttles rapidly into its hole between the high island and the mainland. Then it disappears. The ship isn’t what is beautiful. It’s what happens after the ship has disappeared. It is then that the swell comes gushing toward the island, no, toward the cottage, toward their porch—blistering, glass-green, and shimmering edges. This is when they instantly, and so beautifully, feel like they’re sitting together, all four of them, in a little boat. They are frightened by the vast size of the wave, but knowing that nothing could happen, nothing other than a little splashing, they become euphoric. There’s not a joy in the world that can bond people as strongly as fear does. Even Berit screams a little, out of enchantment, fear, and perhaps a little alcohol. Gun’s shoulders are soaked from sitting closest to the sea. So she pulls her robe down, and the father dries her off with his hands. When Bengt sees her shoulders, he thinks they are shamelessly naked, even though the swimsuit straps are covering them.
Now he is no longer happy. He has already started craving his revenge, and he will get it through a memory. Suddenly he says to his father: