The Atlas of Us by Tracy Buchanan

Author:Tracy Buchanan [Tracy Buchanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Inari, Finland

2000

The land Filipe’s family lived on was a long drive from Iso-Syöte. They finally arrived just before lunch at a large flat plot surrounded by a pine fence, a huge forest of trees beyond it. In the middle of the plot were several pine houses, including tiny constructions Filipe explained were for storing food standing a few feet above ground on poles. In the centre were several teepee tents and then beyond, hundreds of grazing reindeer surrounding a hill.

Sofia stepped from the car she’d hired, patting down her dark jeans. When she looked up again, she caught Claire’s eye. Things had been tense yesterday when they’d all spent the day together, Sofia watching Milo with narrowed eyes, Claire watching him too, hoping and praying that was it now, no more secrets.

‘Buorre idit,’ Filipe said as he approached them all. ‘A Sami good morning.’

‘Buorre idit,’ Holly replied, pulling her red knitted gloves off.

Filipe smiled. ‘Hungry?’

She nodded so he led them all towards a tepee made from a tan-coloured hide slung around several sturdy twigs.

‘We call these lavvus,’ Filipe said. ‘They’re temporary structures normally used for herding. We now use them for gathering and traditional days like this.’

Over the next hour, they gorged on a feast of traditional Sami food, including the Bierggojubttsa soup made by Filipe’s aunt, as well as delicious cloudberries picked that very morning. They ate and drank from plates and cups made from reindeer antlers and wood, which Filipe explained were traditional ‘Duodji’ art.

When they’d finished lunch, they headed towards an area lined with several tree trunks, large antlers protruding from them.

‘We practise lassoing our reindeer with those,’ Filipe explained. ‘I was going to suggest we all have a go.’

‘Now this is more like it,’ Sofia said, smiling. ‘My Texan clients taught me how to lasso when I visited years ago.’

Alex rolled his eyes as Claire smiled to herself.

‘Can I sit this bit out, it’s freezing?’ Holly asked, wrapping her arms around her slim frame as she watched Sofia with narrowed eyes.

Could she sense Sofia’s distrust of her and Milo? Claire hoped not. She didn’t want Holly to feel isolated. Claire had benefited from a tight family unit when she was a child. But when she was around Holly’s age, her dad had smashed that all to pieces by leaving them. Claire had felt so disorientated and lost, she’d spent months trying to find him, desperate to bring him back and force that unit back together again. That destruction of the family unit had all happened to Holly when she was even younger, and to have the tragedy that followed … Claire looked into Holly’s green eyes, thinking of the conversation they’d had in her room. She felt this overwhelming urge to recreate a family unit for Holly, to hold her close and make her feel safe and wanted.

‘Of course you can,’ Claire said. ‘Why don’t you take Archie back to the lavvu, he looks cold too?’

As Holly took Archie to the lavvu Claire strolled over to the fence, taking photos as the others played.

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