The Wooden Chair Read Online Free

the war. “Everybody’s gone.” Mamma’s lips trembled. She dried her eyes on a hankie. “First Papi is taken to the front, then only days later Karl, my only brother, is in the military, too. Now I have nobody.”
    Leini wanted to take Mamma’s sadness away. “But you have me.”
    Mamma’s mouth was like a trumpet as she snorted.
    Much as Leini tried to swallow the stale gruel, it stuck like paste to her palate. She took a sip of the thin milk. About to put down the glass, something funny happened to her eyes. She saw two edges of the table, missed, and the glass went crushing to the floor.
    Mira whirled on her. “Leini! You miserable brat! Why did you do that?”
    Leini recoiled, her whole body shaking from her Mamma’s angry voice. She hugged Maia hard and buried her face against the doll’s body, hiding her fear in its softness.
    “I didn’t mean to do it, Mamma. I put it on the table, but it just dropped.”
    “Don’t move.” Mamma shoved the chair to the side so violently it almost tipped over with Leini in it. Her mother bent and swept up the shards and mopped the spilled milk with a rag. While working, she mumbled to herself.
    Leini caught snippets of her monologue. “Ungrateful brat” and “Kid’s my daily punishment.”
    Leini concentrated on the food not to hear Mamma. She’d taught herself a trick. If she thought of something else when Mamma was very angry, she wasn’t so scared of her.
    Mamma rinsed the rag and left it to dry on the sink. She pulled on her black gloves.
    “I’ll go look and see if the transportation your grandpa arranged for has arrived to take us to the railway station. When you’re through with breakfast, wash up and stay inside. Do you hear?”
    Leini nodded.
    Mamma turned and walked through the living room. “I won’t be long,” she said before the door closed.
    The minute the front door shut, Leini rushed into the bedroom. Lying on her belly on the floor, she wiggled under her bed. If they were going away, she must have her toys. She pulled out Björn, her teddy bear she loved to cuddle. Mamma said it was dirty and stank of sour milk and threatened to burn it, but Leini hid it under the bed. She wanted her baby doll Katie, the one with real hair—well, almost real. When she squeezed its tummy, it said “Mamma,” like a mewl. Katie had to have all her clothes, which Leini had arranged in a cardboard suitcase, each piece neatly folded, because she liked to see the tidy piles of clothing.
    Leini crawled from under the bed and picked up Maia. To make sure they didn’t forget a thing, she brought her treasures into the hall next to the front door. She made one more trip to the bedroom and returned with the doll’s pram. Maybe they would never come back, so she must take everything with her.
    When Mamma returned home, she threw a fiery glance at Leini’s preparations. Her grip on Leini’s neck was like a steel claw.
    “What’s this?” Her voice sizzled as she forced Leini’s head down so close to the toys she was doubled over. “Where do you think you’re going with this stuff?”
    “To Vete…Vete…”
    “Not on your life.” Mamma pointed at the pile. “You can take one thing, no more.”
    Leini looked at her mother’s face. It was closed and mean, eyes black, the painted mouth like a red slash.
    Tears trickled down Leini’s face. Her glasses became blurry from crying, and she sniveled.
    “Please, Mamma, just Björn and Katie. Please.” She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her cardigan.
    “The answer is no ! There’s no room.”
    Leini cried out in pain as Mama wrenched her arm away from her face.
    “Haven’t I told you to use a hankie?” Mamma gave her the one from her sleeve. “Here, take this.” She thrust Maia at Leini and pointed at the bedroom. “You can take the doll, but you return the rest where you got it. Immediately, you hear?”
    Leini blew her nose and tried to wipe her glasses, but only smudged them more. Why doesn’t Mamma