A TWIN IN MANCO

Kjell just disappeared

(Etterlyst = wantet.  Ring = phone)

One sunny day Kjell vanished, and the world went off the shaft. Some larger search party and resurrection has hardly been Bringsjord since Anne Larsen disappeared without a trace in three days. For my part I think it was okay that he was gone for a while, and I got then also blamed for the whole tragedy.

But was it really my fault? No, if there is anyone who should be criticized, it must be sister Thorhild. She worked at the time at the police station in Mandal and had settled into the habit thing that she came home almost every weekend. On Saturday evenings, after we had gone to bed, she came in and wanted a "good night" and stuck to us each our chocolate Freia "Four-Leaf Clover". We always ate four leaf clover with the same, we could not stop once we had begun to nosh us.

But one Saturday night I must have been possessed by a nasty bluish green demon. I refrained from open “four-leaf clover” and hid it in a hole in the straw mattress. While I was listening to how Kjell candies in his “four-leaf clover”, route for route, bit by bit until there was not any left and smacking stopped, I thought of all the good stuff that were waiting downstairs in my mattress.

The entire Sunday I saved on chocolate. But on Monday morning we had school holidays and lay relaxed out of the morning, and coincidentally, I brought “four-leaf clover” waving around a bit with it in the air. It was a riot of heaven. Kjell thought that he was right in half “four-leaf clover” of mine, from the golden principle that twins always share equally. I declined, politely but firmly: "We were each given our Freia chocolate of Thorhild; and it was equally divided, that your “four-leaf clover” is now away digested and consumed, is not my responsibility. "

Breaking battle that followed changed as usual not the state of affairs. Whine-Pope trotted then down to the kitchen and leaves the matter to her mother, who soon came tramping up loft stairs and poured her heart anger over his youngest son: "Finn, what is that kind of selfish behavior you have added you? Will not you share Thorhilds´ “Four-leaf clover” with your dear twin brother? "

No, I was referring to my defiant laid reasoning, and she had to trudge down to the angelic child empty-handed. I was now a thought demonstrative excited into high gear, but fortunately I thought of Big Brother Ludvigs' wise words that one should not stretch bears leather longer than a bear sure-shot, so I cooled me down and hid chocolate meticulously in bottom of the madras.

Downstairs at the two sour in the kitchen, I spread myself a double slice of bread with a thick posts by cinnamon gooseberry between the discs, (rascal Tordis had that year emptied the entire contents of cinnamon bag into the jam pot with gooseberry), and went down on ånebråtet to build on in "Block house", a defense facility at that time I acted on the ruins of fathers abandoned Fox farm.

Well at twelve o'clock my father came home from Neset and mother came down the field to Anna Kvavik and shouted: "Now you boys must come to dinner!" I have wondered that she shouted "you boys" and replied: "I'm coming now! But Kjell is not here ... "

Mostly we ate the remains of the heated Sunday roast in oppressive silence, although with repeated elements of concern from the mother how Kjell could have taken the road, and that now was the food cold and everything was in shambles. Finally dried father meticulously up brown sauce from the plate, looked at me and said, "As soon as you have eaten plum porridge, Finn, you must take a walk out and look for Kjell. See if he is at Harald Garden ... or at Gunnar and Jahn. "

I borrowed Mom's bike and swerved around to the different objects sitting on a wooden plank I had wedged across the frame, but no one had seen anything of Kjell that day and my mood gradually rose; imagine if he had taken on the run?

I enjoyed the thought. But suddenly vent a black suspect into me. Quickly I turned nose homewards, crashed the bike into rear door wall and stormed up to the attic where I systematic ransacking mattress two or three times, but it did not at all; “four-leaf clover” of mine was taken away - disappeared.

Immediately I went to the father and told about the simple theft, and whom I held as the prime suspect behind this serious crime. In my view, were now both disappearance cases were solved; Kjell, as the spring had gone and whiny over long days picking weeds in carrot fields on slave contracts, had now seen his chance to stock up on “four-leaf clover”, and now escaped from home for good.

"What are you saying, boy?" Dad said and looked like he was horrified, "Kjell has escaped from home for good?"

I realized that he needed a word of comfort and said with grave seriousness, "But father, a big loss it will not bee, You remember that he only was an obstacle when we crafted new summer barn out on Nodeneset."

Father felt surely better, but he got some coffee in the throat and began to hawk and cough, "You do not speak to anyone else about the missing “four-leaf clover”. It is only when we have spoken with Kjell, we certainly can say what has happened - is that okay?" I nodded.

But mom and dad did not just easy on the disappearing act like me. Three o'clock was Laila and Tordis come home from school, and from then onwards the day, it was full mobilization of local searchers. It was first searching from house to house and from barn to barn throughout Austigarden and down with Uncle Anton in Vestigarden, then in Navershølen - and along the river - and inward in the heath to Ingridkjødna (Lake Ingri).

Home set mother and schoolgirls in great trouble. "Just do not Kjell is gone up on Vågefjellet (a little Mountain behind the back yard) and fell over the edge," said mother and shuddered at the thought. "Boy Mom," said Tordis, "Erling and they've studied all over the mountain and all Hasselnøttlia (the hill-side). He has not fallen anywhere. "

"Only he has not fallen through the big toilet-hole located headlong smothered down the pit," said Laila.

"I think he is too big to fall through toilet-hole " said Tordis, "but we can try to cram Finn down there, so we can see if it goes" ... What should one with brothers when one has such sisters?

I felt rather one to much in this company, and went down to the grandmother in Newhouse to hear how they rediscovered lost people in the old days, and ... she had certainly some America-drops that could cheer us up a bit.

Grandma was happy when I knocked on the kitchen door. She wondered what happened to the search of Kjell, and she would not go out to ask as long as they year advanced sisters Edvarda and Jenny, "patrolled" at mail road. It was not big chance that they would find a brother sleeping in the road ditch, but when Jenny, who was the youngest, noted that some shouted "Kjell" Soon from the one, now from the other end of the village, she reported this loudly on to their older, weak-hearing sister. How they kept up to date.

Among other women who took a stroll in front of houses in the hot June afternoon, soon began rumors going about that last night had a huge gypsy family stayed down on " gypsy acre " in Hauan and that some strangers during the night had been afoot and milked "Goros," one of the cows that went out to pasture down there. It was built up great excitement in the air, and soon would the evening come ... and all wondered when Thorvald was going to call and notify the sheriff.

Grandmother in Newhouse had last year received his electric stove and cooked not as much coffee as before, but when she realized that I had come to hear about the disappearance of the old days, she found up coffee pot and poured some water from the water bucket over the old coffee grounds and curled stove plate 2. So she fetched the coffee-mill and coffebox, and I helped her to count up twelve coffee beans that we meticulously worked on the mill until I pulled out the small bucket and poured the coffee into the kettle.

"Good coffee should always boil over three times," I said, "huh, Grandma, what you have said."

She nodded and explained that it vent for the old wood stove - and for the large pot used at the meetings in China Mission's Women's Association. "But," she continued, "three is the lucky number so we'll boil over three times in this afternoon; so probably Kjell soon being recovered. "

"Yes, three is the lucky number for" Trinity "does it not, Grandma, it's what Miss Grosås said," rumbled I in way, "and when the mission kettle boils over three times, they get a little dab mission provide all three, as they agreed and in a good mood, so that you and I always will when we drink coffee and sucking on sugar cubes, right Grandma?"  Granny ruffled my hair and said," Yes, you Finn, you Finn, you will probably be kina- missionary a beautiful day! "Then she went smiling to kråskapet where she spent a long time and a fork to chop away America drops from glass jar, and finally we started with coziness; Grandma Supt hot coffee from the bowl, and I clucking away about candy.

"In the old days," said Grandma, "in the really old days - when my own mother was a little girl - and they missed some, they went to an old, wise woman they called the Wise-Todne and asked her for help. She could always tell where the missing was, whether it was man or beast that was lost. People said she was "psychic" and that she had been from childhood - as soon as she learned to talk she could tell all sorts of secrets that were hidden from others."

"But Grandma, what a strange name she had, Wise-Todne?" Grandma told that in reality her name was something else, Anna Pedersdotter, or something like that, but all in Å parish and in the neighboring parish called her Wise-Todne. Here at Bringsjord said that she was psychic because she had eaten fat from a white worm that her mother had caught and boiled alive in black cauldron, but my father has told home on Dragland they thought she was psychic because she was born with four wisdom teeth in the mouth, and that "todne" means "teeth" (dialectical: a tånn, several todne).

 The drawing shows the View Todne just before she sticks his finger away in the shiny fat bladder from white worm. She burns in fat and sticks his finger in his mouth, and then it's done.

"But Grandma, how could ... (?) Now I have to go ..."

Through the window I saw my father come up Kjerringdølda, and I ran out after him, "Hey, Dad! What are you going to? "Dad had wet shoes and wet trousers up over his knees after being on man garden that waded out into the river and the parish under the alder trees. "We find no trace of Kjell anywhere, and now I'll go to Katrina and call the sheriff." It quivered slightly in father's mouth, and then he turned away, I saw a glimpse of black despair in his eyes, and the seriousness sock into my stomach and squeezed.

There was no longer any “hide game” we were doing. Kjell was gone, and it was my fault. I had sold my own twin brother and best mate and friend for a half four-leaf clover. I folded my hands so the knuckles whitened, where I hastened to follow in father's footsteps, and promised The Trinity that if we only found Kjell before the sheriff came and took him, I'd always eat up “four-leaf clover” as soon as I got it. "Father," I cried in despair, “can you not wait to call the sheriff; I'm the one going to jail, not Kjell. "

Father hurried away in thought about what he would say on the phone to the sheriff Kvarnes, as a quirky boy's voice penetrated: "I am the one going to jail, not Kjell."

"What are you saying, boy?" Dad said and turned; "going to jail?"

"Yes, Dad, you know that it is I who have been miser and sneak and informer of gossip to you about “four-leaf clover”, but we cannot be sure that Kjell has taken it until we have spoken with him, we cannot be sure, father? "

Far ruffled my hair, "You Finn, You Finn, your mind flying like swallows on a summer evening, soon here, soon there. I will not tell sheriff about “four-leaf clover”, but Kjell has been missing all day, and that we do not find the slightest trace of him anywhere. Now we're concerned that someone may have lured with him. "

It was the second time in a short time some ruffled my hair and said; "You Finn, You Finn," and now I realized how my father had taken this custom from. Grandma must quite often have ruffled his dark hair and said; "You Thorvald, you Thorvald," for now, he had not much hair left on top, which he sought to compensate by lowering distinction further and further down on the right side of the head. All decent people who went to church and chapel in the year of our Lord 1949, had distinction. There were only sailors and other wicked who went without separating the hair, of course, with a few honorable exceptions, such as Peder Sandal, the man with the four-inch wide center divider on top of the head and who was married to the sister Lillian.

Father hurried on up the road to Jakob and Katrina, so he turned and said, "Is there any strangers who have spoken to you today, Finn?" But I could only shake my head; "No, no one has been down at the" block house" in the morning, but saw a large company of gypsy with two horses * went down the road to Garden, and I saw that grandmother was quick and took down from the clothesline."

* Animal Welfare Act of 1951 forbade itinerant people to keep horses, so this was one of the last few years found used horse ride.

Katrina and my mother were waiting for us out in the yard when we came to call, and Katrina had news to tell. Sisters Edvarda and Jenny had told them last night had seen the light in the attic window at Fillip. Probably it was from a flashlight. But they were not quite sure, it could also have been the glare from the headlights of a car. House of Philip was from the 1800s and had been empty for people in the last two years when the owner was in America. It had a high, wide stone staircase in front of the main door in the middle of the front. The stairs were just one step away from post road, and was widely used as a kind of public bench and gathering place for people of Austigarden.

"Think about Kjell seen anything unusual there and gone away to investigate?" Mom said, "He have to past that house when he should hit Harald in Garden."

Father nodded thoughtfully: "I'll mention this to the sheriff, maybe we can get him to unlock the door, it's not just for us to break us into another man's house."

A little later my father came out and told that Kvarenes should retain a "locksmith" and come as soon as he could. Dad went down on post road and met the various exploration teams that eventually came empty-handed; from the river, from Neset, from Ingritjønna and from woods, and mother and the girls came by with a little milk cans filled with juice and water. People settled in the roadside in front of the house to Fillip and waiting for the sheriff would come and break the door.

Sheriff Kvarenes came in gold-plated uniform

When sheriff's car with Kvarenes in gold-plated uniform a bit later turned into the yard, I immediately recognized the young "locksmith", for his work in the forge of Sigurd Seland, and had honed our skates last winter. He carried on any special tools, and after my father had given a detailed briefing to the Kvarnes about the disappearance, were getting ourselves all four down to Fillip house and the crowd that waited there. The sheriff greeted politely  in all directions before we took the top of the stairs. The locksmith started the elusive surgery, and I kept the tool ready for him, much like an excessive surgical operation sister at Farsund Hospital.

People thronged on in a tight ring around the stairs if possible, to intercept one or another trick on how to open an 1800-odd door without a key. I and sheriff Kvarenes thrived well in the center of events, but the young "locksmith" was clumsy and nervous and father swung and steeled himself inside for what he had to face inside the door. 

No one made note of the young boy who managed to plow through the crowd and up the stairs. "What are you doing?" He asked me. "Oh," I replied without turning my head, "the sheriff will break the door, and then we'll see if any vagabond  has left Kjell hogtied within."

Kvarenes meant it held with four men at the top of the stairs and chased the young intruderl down again: "So, then, boy, do not you ever come here and disrupt a sheriff at work!".  But as soon as the boy turned to go down, responded Uncle Anton and began excitedly shouting at Thorvald.

"Thorvald, now you have to turn around! Both twins are here !!! "

It was a very mess and commotion in the ranks, and father came close to falling off the stairs when he turned and saw Kjell force his way under the sheriff's raised "stop hand".

Father lifted him up and took a fling with son in his arms, before he calmed down and thanked everyone who so wholeheartedly participated in the search, and everyone was excited and clapped their hands and it became a loud applause that was no end to, and father swung the sixpence so pull up saucy fluttered and Kvarenes - that within a few minutes had solved a serious disappearance case - swung uniform cap in large movements, and Kjell swung his hand-knitted woolen cap, and the young locksmith gave up trying to open the door and the same could be, and I was carried away on the wave and swung an invisible sheriff cab with big, sheriff like gestures.

Kjell pulled his cap over his ears and fell asleep ...

Where had the prodigal son been all day? In a large crate that stood against the wall at home in the wagon stall. Father had made it for potatoes which he in autum got shoal cooked at the dairy and used for pig feed.

"Did he get scolded and raised forefingers from his old mother and father who was almost driven from the mind and intellect? No, quite the contrary; they killed the fatted calf for the "prodigal son” ...

In retrospect, I have tumbled with the following question: Had brother Kjell pilfered “four-leaf clover” and eaten it? Or had he simply removed it from the mattress to tease me? There are strong indications for lately. A brand-blank “four-leaf clover” lay on my pillow the next night, and I came to Trinity good mood and gave at least three squares of chocolate to the sweet hungry brother.

This story was printed in the local newspaper "Lister" on Saturday 15 August 2015