The American Girl (63 page)

T
HE WINTER GARDEN, 2008. RITA BUILT THE WINTER GARDEN
,
which was inaugurated in 2000, on New Year’s Eve. First she did away with the language: “adventure park,” “water park,” “recreational park,” “amusement park,” all of that. Which it was also going to be called. Because all of that, it is also in the Winter Garden. But that is not what the Winter Garden is
.

There is the other, the other rooms, the other games, which are also played in there
.

And all the rest
.

Rita, she did away with the language and started giving everything her own names
.

And brought her own images with their own meanings into the Winter Garden
.

And it was also interesting, a bit like on her brother Bengt’s maps once
.

“In the middle of the Winter Garden there is kapu kai, the forbidden seas.”

“Look, Mom, they’ve destroyed my song.”

There are many familiar stories in the Winter Garden, like the ones told by the images on the walls
.

The photographs
.

The drawings
.

The maps
.

Even some of Bencku’s maps
.

The District then and the District now
.

The Winter Garden is a place you love to describe. Exactly because you cannot
.

Not capture it
.

You know nothing of its secret
.

Johanna found the red room by chance. It was the same night the Winter Garden was inaugurated, New Year’s Eve 2000
.

It happened at Bule Marsh, in the room
.

The red room. She wandered in there by accident
.

But when she was going to look for it again she did not find her way back
.

She has never found her way back. But she knows it exists. She knows
.

The red room. The Bule Marsh Room. And all the images on the walls
.

The American girl, the one who died
.

That morning
.

The girl who is lying in the water, but no one helps her get out
.

And yet, on the beach across it is as if there was a whole family there swimming
.

And Johanna knows, she has already known for a long time, that she has to find her way there again
.

Project underworld. Orpheus was going to get his Eurydice from the underworld. She was dead. The gods had taken her to them, but Orpheus loved her so much that the gods had mercy on him. Go down to her, she will follow you, but do not turn around in the underworld
.

Project underworld. It is a project they had, in school, this semester
.

And now suddenly she gets an idea. Maybe she can use it
.

Because she cannot go alone. She needs a friend, an ally
.

It happened at Bule Marsh. Everything is there. She has to get there again
.

•••

But she cannot do it alone. She does not dare
.

So it is one evening, one of those dark and ordinary fall evenings in the District, when Johanna goes to the house in the darker part of the woods
.

The Marsh Queen lives there, she has come home again. Her, and her son, the one whose name is Glitter
.

She does not know him, but she does not bother about that now. She walks up the many steps and rings the bell, he is the one who opens. She says:

“Hi. I’m Johanna from school, you might know me. Now I want you to do a project with me.”

It is so simple
.

He says yes. “I’m coming.” Then Johanna and Glitter walk out into the Winter Garden
.

(to be continued)

The American Girl
is the first of two books, the second being
The Glitter Scene
, which together make up one story.

The text is fiction through and through. I have at times taken the liberty of translating the lines from well-known musical pieces and from pop songs on my own, so as to be appropriate for the novel’s plot.

I extend a thank-you to Pro Artibus in Ekenäs for the fellowship allowing me to stay in Villa Snäcksund 1999–2002 and to the Lärkkulla Foundation in Karis, which placed a workspace at my disposal several times during my work on this novel.

Also a thank-you to Merete and Silja for inspiration, ideas, and good advice; thank you Hilding. Most of all, thanks to Tua for your help and support that exceeded everything I could have dreamed of.

I wish to thank Other Press for allowing me the opportunity to translate such a remarkable piece of literature, in particular Corinna Barsan for her commitment and insight during the editing process. I would also like to thank Monika Fagerholm for taking the time to answer my questions. Being able to work with the author herself was a wonderful asset. Finally, thanks to friends and family for their support and encouragement, and especially Gerald for his patience and love.