Johanna and Maxine

Her phone beeped about half an hour later with a message from Åsa.

Åsa: Hej, how are you? Long time no hear.

Johanna: Are you awake? It must be 6 in the morning.

Åsa: It's 8am here but I've been putting the finishing touches on a program.

Johanna: Can I call you? I need a favour.

Åsa: Call me! I'm still awake, kind of.

She called a few seconds later and was rewarded with Åsa's voice.

"Johanna, how are you?"

"Åsa," she smiled, "I'm good. How are you?"

"Tired but content, what time is it over there?

"It's four o'clock in the afternoon, Saturday afternoon."

"Cool," she replied, "I bet the sun is shining."

"It's pouring rain," she turned to look out the bedroom window, "it's pissing down."

"That is so weird. I remember the pictures you sent of the snow. I showed Erik a few years ago and he thought it was photoshopped."

"I only went once with a girlfriend," she bit her lip at the memory, "how is it with Erik? I felt guilty that I wasn't more supportive."

"It's okay," she replied, "there was nothing to worry about. We didn't want to be married anymore and I moved to an apartment in Hornstull not far from the T-bana. Frida stays with Erik this week. He picked her up this morning."

"That's one thing I miss about Sweden," she chuckled, "everything was so civilised. Here they are at each other's throats when they get divorced."

"That is so weird. We fought towards the end but you know how it is, we just had to adjust. He has a girlfriend and I have a dog and we both have Frida," she paused.

"But this favour? What is it?"

"It's weird," she sat down on the bed.

"Is it weird as Surströmming or goats at Jul?"

"Maybe," she replied, "I've made a new friend and she wants to learn Swedish, she's been learning on an app but she needs a Swedish language partner and I volunteered but it's been years since I had to use it on a regular basis. I was wondering if I could call you once or twice a week and we can just talk about our week in Swedish."

Åsa didn't reply for a few seconds and she had a minor anxiety attack that maybe she'd pushed the boat out too far.

"Ja visst!" Åsa used the word for of course!

"I would love to hear from you more often but I thought you might call Pia instead."

"Pia and I are close," she replied, "but if I was to call her once or twice a week it might cause a bit of friction between Pia and her wife."

"Okay, we can do that and this woman, she is your flickvän?"

"Friend but maybe she might be a girlfriend in the future but I'm keeping it simple."

"For sure," Åsa replied, "but for you I will speak Svenska only but I want you to send pictures."

"Of Maxine?"

"Sure, but animals and the countryside. Frida loves koala bears."

"I'll send her a koala bear and a kangaroo."

"Bra," she chuckled, "she will love you forever."

They talked some more and she told her a bit more about Maxine but about five minutes into the conversation Åsa slipped into Swedish and after a couple of minutes Johanna found her voice again as she changed the topic to work for about half an hour.

After the call she fell onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She'd felt homesick a few times over the last few years but this bout felt particularly potent. Åsa was an old friend who, along with Pia, had been instrumental in helping her adjust to Swedish society. Hearing her voice again brought back pleasant memories.

She closed her eyes and let the memories flow through her. She'd been here for four years and had a total of three relationships behind her, the last had ended twelve months ago when Shona stormed out after an argument. Since then she'd contented herself with one night stands but they had been infrequent and it pained her to admit that fact. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling as she pictured Åsa and Pia's faces. Pia lived in London with her partner, Kelly and she missed her as well. Pia was half Swedish and half Danish and she'd had come out not long after Pia but the two of them had never taken it further than friendship.

Johanna pinched her nose and sat up.

"Focus," she stared out the window at the rain, "it's just a Swedish lesson."

***

The coffee shop had been going for years. Robyn had told her stories of the 'old days' when she was a team member back in the year 2000. It sounded like it'd been a lot rougher then, the youth of today had smartphones. Fighting with someone now meant leaving nasty comments on their page but Robyn could recall nights when they had to pull kids away from each other and sometimes the police were called.

Maxine turned as a Subaru with a particularly loud exhaust did a doughnut in the carpark whilst a small crowd of teenagers cheered and filmed it. She'd stepped outside for a minute or so to make the phone call but the boy racer had distracted her. A woman moved past her at that point, Angie was a couple of years older and more than capable of taking on rowdy boys and girls. She picked up her pace as she strode towards the group and a couple of the kids shouted out to the guy behind the wheel when they saw her.

Maxine leaned against a verandah post. Angie was shouting and Maxine cracked a grin at the rather unchristian, "stop that bloody racket!"

It was a study in interpersonal relations to watch Angie at work. She was five foot four inches but what she lacked in height was more than made up for in attitude. The guy got out of the car and he held his hands up, palms outwards as if to try and calm her down. She kept shouting but her voice was a little lower as she pointed to the car and then the onlookers. Two guys exited the coffee shop at the same time and started walking towards them. Their larger build served to further diminish the bravado the driver had shown just recently and now the onlookers were beginning to see that the show was over.

Maxine finally looked down at her phone and brought up Johanna's number and tapped the dial icon as she pictured Johanna's face. She might not even be able to answer the phone if she was going to the movies but then the phone clicked and she heard Johanna's voice.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"No but your timing is impeccable," Johanna slowed her pace, "we were just about to go into the cinema, I was just going to silence my phone when you rang."

"Oh, well I won't keep you long, would you like to do this Swedish thing tomorrow instead?"

"Sure, I can do tomorrow. That's not a problem. Your place or mine?"

"I'm easy," she chuckled, "it's up to you entirely."

"Well I've got to finish cleaning my house, I didn't get much time today so... your place?"

"No worries, my place it is then... do you fancy coming for lunch or dinner?"

"Well it is Sunday and I do have to clean the bathroom so let's say dinner."

"Sure, come whenever you want. If you want to come over at five then feel free, I'll be home all day, I'm going to church in the morning but I'll be coming straight back home afterwards."

"What time's dinner?"

"We tend to eat about six or half past six," she replied.

"Okay, I'll come by about six," Johanna nodded at Jodie, "I'll bring a dessert, are you allergic to anything?"

"No, I'm not... are you?"

"No and I'm not a vegan or even a vegetarian either."

"What movie are you going to see?"

"Money Monster," she replied.

"Oh, that's got Jodie Foster in it, hasn't it?"

"No she's the director, it's got Julia Roberts and George Clooney."

"Well you can tell me all about it tomorrow, I love Julia Roberts," she moved further away from the building, "she's my gay crush."

"Ha ha," Johanna grinned, "Clooney is my straight crush."

"You'd sleep with George Clooney?"

"Only if he left Amal," she chuckled, "and on that pleasant note I have to love you and leave you, Jodie and Sue are dying to go inside."

"No worries, have a great night."

After she'd ended the call Maxine turned to find Angie walking back towards her with the two guys who'd come out just after her. They were trailed by half a dozen fourteen-year-olds, the rest of the group were heading for the exit, no doubt they would walk down to the bottle shop and try to get an adult to buy them some booze.

Angie's eyes shifted as she drew nearer. She normally wore her hair up at coffee shop and church because it was so thick and long but tonight it was down and she felt a slight weakness in her belly. Had she gone to a hairdresser lately? It was hard to tell, she always came across as being a little butch although from what she could recall of her testimony at a youth service she had never been involved with women. She'd had a problem with dope when she was younger but the main factor that had driven her to church was the breakup of her parents' marriage. Maxine had felt drawn to her for that alone but now she felt drawn in another way and it felt a little weird.

Should she be looking at her physically? Angie came to a halt beside her but the rest of the group carried on inside.

"How are you?" Angie asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just had to duck out to make a phone call," Maxine stared straight ahead, "I'm learning Swedish and I've just found a Swedish language partner."

"Cool, I've always wanted to learn another language, about the only other language I ever learned was Drunkenese but it's been years since I spoke it."

"I've experimented with booze in the past but it always made me uneasy, like I was out of control and I hate that feeling."

"It has that effect," Angie replied.

"What was Rick's excuse?"

"He was testing out his new tyres," she replied, "I said fine, go to a deserted carpark and test to your heart's content but not while kids are standing around you. That's the problem with kids, they've got no sense of their own mortality."

Maxine nodded as Angie moved away, taking with her the scent of apple blossom perfume. She was wearing a red blouse under a vee-necked jumper and a pair of jeans tucked into black Ugg boots. A moment later she was on her own and feeling as if she'd just done something inappropriate and yet she also knew that it was just a feeling, not something based in reality but rather guilt.

What am I doing with him?

Maxine stared at the carpark. She'd been going out with Mark for three months and she couldn't think why. Was it just a habit? Maxine came out of her reverie as her phone beeped and she touched the screen to read the message from Rowena.

Rowena: Can you bring home some milk and bread please?

Maxine: Sure, I'll be home soon.

Rowena: Thanks babe! Have a good night!

She turned and walked back into the coffee shop as she mentally prepared herself for the next hour or two here. In recent years the coffee shop team had invested in board games. Granted, there were some limits to the games, adult-themed truth or dare type games were banned along with dungeons and dragons but that had been to please the older parishioners. She knew that many of the younger people here quite liked the latter game in private, despite repeated warnings from one of the pastors. Mark looked up as she sat down next to him at one of the tables, he was playing a quirky quiz game with three other younger people. She'd played one game of chess with a girl but now she'd gone to the next table to play a game of Monopoly that had substituted the traditional names for local names like Swanston Street etc.

"You're back," Mark put his hand on her leg.

"Yeah," she looked down at his hand, it was close to her knee, "I've changed my Swedish language session to tomorrow arvo."

"I thought we were going to mum's tomorrow afternoon?"

"We were but I changed my mind."

Mark turned to the guy facing him to answer a question about Battlestar Galactica, only to lose a point when the answer was revealed.

"So, what's brought this on?" Mark turned to her.

"Nothing," she replied, "I just want to practice Swedish, it's something I've wanted to learn for years and now that I've found a partner I just want to get started."

"How many people in this country actually speak Swedish?" Mark's eyes shifted slightly.

"None that I know of," she replied.

"So, why speak it then? It's not like you'll ever get a chance to use it."

"It's a challenge," she replied, "I like challenges."

"So do I but learning another language isn't one of them. This is Australia, we speak English here."

"That is so backwards," the teenaged girl sitting opposite him rolled her eyes.

"Exactly," Maxine stared at Janine, "people in Sweden can speak at least two languages, sometimes it's even more."

"I'd love to go to Sweden," Janine smiled as she tossed the dice, "I'd go to the Abba museum."

"I've been there," she replied, "it's an awesome place."

Maxine didn't reply as Janine answered the question put to her by Mark and to her amusement she got it right and moved her piece further along the board.

The conversation continued for another ten minutes or so with Janine and her girlfriend, Ayla asking about Sweden and Maxine telling them about her travels but it was obvious that Mark was starting to become irritated and eventually she stretched.

"Well, I'm going to head off home."

"Oh, don't go," Janine's eyes widened, "I want to know more about Sweden and London."

"Another night," she rose.

Janine also rose and leaning over the table, threw her arms around her. Maxine reciprocated but it felt a little awkward because of her current state of mind, almost as if she was flaunting her sexual desire in front of Mark.

"I'll see you later," Maxine released her and leaned over to kiss him on the lips, "tomorrow."

"No worries, see you then."

Nevertheless, as she walked to her car a few minutes later Maxine felt a twinge of guilt. She had no intentions of going to church tomorrow. Rowena and Dave would be going to the Croydon Market tomorrow but she'd have to face up to Mark later on.

Just not tomorrow.

To be continued...