The Dinosaur Feather

probably your best bet. Another glass while you wait?’
    Søren declined.
    ‘I’ll come back and talk to you later,’ he said.
    Mrs Snedker pretended to be terribly flattered. ‘Perhaps you would be kind enough to buy me a small white loaf?’ she called out after him.
    Søren spotted Anna and her daughter almost immediately. They were plodding along very slowly and had only just passed the spot where Søren had parked his car. He followed them at a distance and when they crossed Ågade and walked down Falkoner Allé, he crossed to the other side and followed them on the pavement. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but he observed their body language. The child was walking at a snail’s pace. She kept stopping to look at things,and several times she sat down on someone’s doorstep. In one hand she held a soft toy which she trailed along the muddy pavement. Anna seemed lethargic. Her body language told Søren she needed every ounce of her strength to stay calm. Thirty metres from the supermarket, Lily sat down in the middle of the pavement. Anna pulled her arm. The situation boiled over and Anna stomped off after yelling at Lily so loudly that Søren could almost make out the words. When Anna had almost reached the entrance, she stopped and buried her face in her hands. Lily was still sitting on the pavement, sobbing her little heart out and several passers-by threw anxious looks at the toddler. Anna went back and picked Lily up. At first, the child kicked her legs in anger, but Anna whispered something in her ear and the crisis passed. For the time being, at least. Anna carried her daughter inside the supermarket, and Søren crossed the road and entered as well. He waited at the entrance where some measly-looking flowers were hoping to find a buyer and watched Anna put a coin in a shopping trolley, remove Lily’s snowsuit and ease her into the child seat. Their first stop was the bakery at the front where they bought a snail-shaped pastry for Lily. Anna took off her jacket and beanie and briefly looked up. Søren took a step backwards and when he looked out again, Anna and her trolley had gone down an aisle. Her face was grimy and her hair flattened and greasy from the woolly beanie.
    Once they were out of sight, Søren found a basket and started doing his own shopping. He trailed them around the store, keeping a suitable distance. He could hear snippets of their conversation. Lily wanted to get down from the trolley.As soon as Anna lifted her down, she ran off. Anna caught her and Lily laughed out loud. Anna wasn’t laughing. Anna grabbed her firmly to put her back in the child seat. Lily went rigid. The two of them struggled. Søren watched them and felt an urge to pick up the child. The girl was the same size as Maja would have been, Søren imagined. Not that he knew anything about children. Lily looked huge in Anna’s arms, like a wild animal Anna couldn’t control, but Søren knew the child would be tiny in his arms. She would curl up like a mouse and fit perfectly inside his shirt pocket. Together, they could smell funny cheeses in the delicatessen or find a bicycle with training wheels and coloured streamers on the handlebars while Mummy did the shopping.
    ‘Now stop it, just bloody stop it, Lily,’ Anna screamed. ‘Do you understand? Or there will be no ice cream for a week, no, a whole month!’
    Lily howled and Anna plonked her hard into the body of the trolley and stormed off. They stopped at the vegetable section and Anna patted Lily’s cheek to make up. Lily sniffled. Anna hugged her.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘All we need now are some potatoes and we’ll be done.’
    ‘Me do it,’ Lily yelled.
    ‘No, darling,’ Anna said, exhausted. Søren was very close to them now. Anna and Lily both looked dreadful. Tired, red-eyed and run down, mother and child both. Lily got ready to throw another tantrum, so Anna lifted her out of the trolley.
    ‘Okay.’ She gave in. ‘I’ll hold the bag and you put in the potatoes.’
    ‘Lily help Mummy,’ Lily insisted.
    ‘Yes, darling, that’s right,’ Anna said.
    Lily picked up potatoes with both hands and plonked them into the bag.
    ‘Gently,’ Anna said.
    ‘Gently,’ Lily echoed.
    ‘Gently, I said,’ Anna repeated. Lily carried on. There were now ten potatoes in the bag. Lily picked up a large potato with both hands and hurled it into the bag.
    ‘Right, that’s enough,’ Anna said, and at that very moment the bag