When the Cranes Fly South

At 8:15 AM, Eva-Lena writes that she has given Bo his medicine. Though he asked her to walk Sixten, she claims that she did not have the time.

After Ellinor leaves, Bo reaches for the jar with Fredrika’s scarf but cannot open it. He rests a hand on Sixten and falls into a memory of returning from the lake with young Hans on the bike’s pannier rack. They stopped to watch a crane family by the trees, and Hans dropped a tin of worms. Bo was about to scold him but then saw his face and said that it “d[id]n’t matter” (129). Hans said he was tired; they headed home as the cranes flew overhead. 

Hans’s voice pulls Bo back to the present. Hans calls from the porch and then enters holding Fredrika’s jacket and says that they must get rid of Fredrika’s old clothing, as he cannot “just have her stuff lying all over the place, as though she still lives here” (129). Bo stays on the daybed, remembering his promise to himself that he would “fix things before [his] time is up” (130). Hans folds the jacket and puts it into a carrier bag in the porch.