Unavoidable Confrontations: Day 9

Word Count: 54,036

Summary of Events:

Axel and his uncle paid a visit to a lawyer whom they intended to have represent them in court to get recompensed for the loss of the combine and crop, discussing the facts of the investigation — so far — with him. Mrs. Kulak came over to do some baking with Madeleine in an effort to keep her company, and they got discussing Thanksgiving, which was coming up in less than a month, with Mrs. Kulak extending an invitation to join them to Madeleine . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“I think it would be lovely to have your family come join us,” Mrs. Kulak said. “The two of you have, in a lot of ways, become something like family to us over this last year, it would be lovely to give thanks with you and you with us.”

“What time is it?” Madeleine asked. “And would we bring anything?”

“Usually we have our goose for lunch,” Mrs. Kulak replied. “Then we mostly talk, if the weather’s warm we go sit outside around the fire. I’ll have to discuss with the girls what they all want to bring, I think if you were to just bring a dessert would be fine, no sense asking you to do anything too intimidating.”

Madeleine nodded, she thought it would be nice to participate in a uniquely Canadian event that wasn’t tied to national sovereignty — not that she’d necessarily disliked participating in the Canada Day festivities two months before — it would be like a special taste of Canadian culture, not unlike Midsommardagen being a special Swedish cultural event.

There was, according to the calendar she had hanging on the refrigerator, more than a month until Thanksgiving, which would give Madeleine plenty of time to decide on what kind of dessert she would want to bring, or to plan for possibly something a little bit fancier if Mrs. Kulak and her daughters and daughters-in-law were inclined to let her make something else.

Of course, they would probably all be interested in having something particularly Swedish, but Madeleine had to admit that she didn’t really know what she would make, unless she made something that was typically made for Christmas in Sweden, but then it would be all wrong, she’d have to see what Erik thought about the idea too.

As she mixed the batter of the light-coloured cake, however, a thought came to her mind: Thanksgiving was in October. If she was going to be a bridesmaid in Nellie’s wedding she was supposed to give Nellie an answer by October; which meant it was possible that Nellie might want her in Sweden in October, thus she might not even be able to go.

But, at least — if she were to have to leave for Sweden — Erik would have somewhere to go on Thanksgiving so someone like Kaira couldn’t invite him to her place, which would surely only lead to disaster.

Or was it November that she was supposed to get back to Nellie? She couldn’t remember, but it’d been awhile since Nellie called her, and she’d not actually contacted Nellie since, so there was the possibility that Nellie might end up calling to see if she’d remembered to ask Erik soon, so then Madeleine could ask when the deadline was.

Pronunciation:

Midsommardagen: mihdsaummahrdahgehn