The Simple Reality

Björn på Cirkus

It was either to be now or in additional two minutes, the man said to himself, sitting in the backseat of the car and already aware he can no longer back out of the decision he had made. The deal was set, the promise was sealed, the contract signed between the parties and now it was ready to be put in motion. People were already stretched in a crowd waiting for the arrival on the red carpet— children, adults, elders. He could see them through his dark tinted windows and it created a stir in his belly, leaving with him a bit more anxiety than he anticipated. Was he ready to face the day?

As ready as he would ever be.

He was naturally thinking about how differently this event turned out to be than he envisioned it six months ago, and his mind had tracked back to the thought that with the turn of events, all of his children except for Emma had changed their minds on attending, and had chosen to stay home instead. He was a little upset in his heart knowing that those who had supported him most during these years as he worked on Pippi would not be there to see the show. Those like Lena, for example, who was beside him when the idea had first been born, Agnetha who'd watched him write tirelessly and work countless hours away, or even Benny who had also written music for the musical with him. Those were the people he wished he would be walking down the red carpet with or at least to sit with, but that wasn't in the plans for this particular circus. Björn was to see that his fate for this day was for him walk with a woman he had only recently met with again, and one which the world would make of as his new found love... even if he had only spoken to her perhaps seven times at most.

How simple life looked just a month back and how clustered it looked now, he thought, recalling what he sat through two nights before with the family. It was like any other gathering, but this time, the grandparents were sitting with their children and grandchildren, and both of them were giving each other looks to tell the other to be the one who opens the conversation. Neither knew precisely where to begin as it wasn't the most wonderful conversation to have with their family, but it had to start somewhere.

In the end, it was left to Agnetha. Her anxiety with holding the information in was up to her impatience. She dropped the bomb in the living room and watched each of their jaws drop to follow after. Even Björn stared at her with the same expression as the rest, thinking that, "If you hear Papa has a new partner and that he is dating a new and younger woman, it's true," was not the best way she could have put it. The woman never meant to start chaos, but in the end, she always knew how to naturally. The family's chatter ended in a sudden like a whistle had been blown, leaving those gathered to watch her silently, dogs with ears turned, and the TV to be the only sound.

Agnetha and Björn both understood that choosing to tell their kids what would happen was vital in order to reduce the shock that would come when the headlines come in. They predicted their reactions would be immediate to them with questions like, 'What the hell are the papers meaning that grandpa is dating someone else?' And worst of it all, hearing it from news outlets with the fact that it is someone that isn't their grandmother. The silence was pressuring, not even a shift was made to make a sound, until Christian broke the silence.

"Hold on, a minute—"

"If I knew this is how you would put it, Agnetha, I would have brought it up instead." His frown and furrowed stare was visible past his glasses. Björn watched her stroke her eyebrow with a finger in thought. Her nervous chuckle of expression told him how she realized now the way she put it was more sudden than she meant to.

"I don't get it. What does that mean?" began the first grandchild.

"Did you break up again?" Signe asked. "Are you separating?" Her eyes were going back and forth, looking at her grandparents. Linda turned to her mother and she observed her parents who both sat across the room from one another, and let them be the ones to explain. She was curious now too.