Willow Len

By Aase Olsen and Anna-Lisa Lundqvist

This short story is about Lennart who keeps his promise to his dead brother Åke. He marries Lena, who was Åke's fiancee and who is expecting a child. How will Lennart and Lena manage the marriage and how will the family accept this? This short story was written by an author at the end of the 50s, so you as a reader will have the opportunity to return to an era a half centery ago, which is shown both linguistically and in the environments described. The grandchild has made it possible for the short story to be published in the present.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anna-Lisa Lundqvist
• Release date: Jan 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223377436

Aase Olsen

In the summer of 2022, my family cleaned out old things from the summer house and then found stories that my grandmother had written. Neither my mother nor my aunt knew that my grandmother was writing, and I never got the chance to ask her about it as she died before I was born. Based on old letters that we also found, it seems that grandmother wanted to publish these short stories without having been given the opportunity to do so. I have therefore taken the liberty of rewriting these stories and using the exact words my grandmother used. Based on the letters that were found, the stories appear to have been written around 1959 and probably during this time, grandmother was a little too modern in her writing. Grandma uses the pseudonym Aase Olsen. The books she wrote will thus have 2 authors, Aase Olsen and myself. I hope you enjoy the books as much as I do.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Oh, what will it be.... How will it go.... What will mother say and Barbro and Marie-Louise? Åke is dead. I am in Paris far from home... I married a girl, who is almost unknown to me and I am a father in six months. What gossip there will be about this at Högenäs! That's so I can go crazy....

Lennart groaned loudly and twisted, where he lay on his bed to seek some rest. Everything was a jumble, thoughts, words and future dreams, all in chaos.

I have to go to Lena. To her, who will become my wife, my former intended sister-in-law.

Lennart sat down on the bed and pressed his hands to his temples.

I think I'm losing my mind! And I have no one to talk to!

Just then the phone rang. Once, twice, three times! Only then did Lennart realize that it was ringing, and went to answer it. It was Ove.

Lissen, we have to travel to Lena. I'm coming straight from there. I traveled home to her when I heard that Åke was dead, because I thought you were there. She is completely exhausted and doesn't want to live anymore. I'm afraid of what will happen to her. It is so terrible with Åke's death, but now we have to help Lena through the worst, because she is still alive. After all, we are the only ones she has here in Paris, yes, in the whole world, you might say. Her parents are dead and she is the only child, Åke told me once. How about you, Lennart? Are you sick? You sound so peculiar! This must go with Åke's death. It is difficult, but we have to take it wisely and arrange it in the best way. We have responsibility for Lena, don't we?

Oh, Ove, come to my house, please! Was all Lennart whispered in response.

Ove hung up the phone and ran down the stairs to his car.

Responsibility for Lena! After all, we have responsibility for Lena, for Åke's fiancée, my future wife! Spinned it in Lennart's tiring brain.

When Ove arrived, Lennart was lying on the bed completely pale and staring straight ahead, seemingly completely absent.

Should I call for a doctor? You look sick!

No, no, it won't help!

You have to pull yourself up after all. We have to get to Lena now, because she looks sicker than you if possible.

Ove, I'm getting married! It came in an almost inaudible voice.

But Lennart, have you gone crazy? It doesn't belong here. We'll talk about that later. We have to get to Lena right away!

I am going to marry Lena, my twin brother's fiancee. Can you figure this out? I will marry a girl, whom I saw for the first time a month ago. My brother's fiancee! What will mother say and Barbro and Marie-Louise? Lena is not my type at all. Fragile and small and tender, like a greenhouse flower, which needs all the support. My type is Marie-Louise's fearless, sporty. A girl, who can accompany me on the horse rides on the estate at home and who is not afraid to rein in a small yster horse. And not afraid to go hunting in the woods on a rainy autumn day with me. Can you imagine Lena with me in a hunting lodge on a dark autumn night? She would surely be terrified by a bat. As it is, I have not proposed to Marie-Louise, but we have spent a year together at balls and outings back home, and she is a lovely woman and surely she would make a wonderful wife one day. Sociable, dashing and sporty, just like her. She means so much to me. I don't love Lena and only like her as a sister, as my sister-in-law. Oh, how is this going to go....?

Ove had sat quietly the whole time.

But why should YOU marry her?

"I promised Åke that on his deathbed. When he understood that he would not survive the injuries after the car crash, he told me that Lena and he had been together ever since he came down to Paris to paint two years ago. They got engaged