"At least you have to comb your hair." Robert tried to arrange his daughter´s fringe with his fingers. Just when he thaught it looked quite good she shook her head so the fringe fell down her forehead again.
Rest of the day the reverend´s wife baked a name day cake.
"And a party", she said. "Who are we to invite, Hans? Your brother Theo and Marie?"
"Nope", said the reverend.
In his opinion Svante and Zoja Lidénius was enough.
Malin looked happily on her Future Telling Glass Ball. What would happen?
Hanna and Helena sat down with her in the sofa.
"Malin, will you tell our fortune?" Hanna asked. "We are going to make marzipan sweets."
"O.K.", Malin said helpfully, holding up the glass ball.
The girls looked at it carefully.
"Hanna, you are going to see a new blonde boy friend", Malin said. "I can see it here!"
"Oh!" Hanna looked delighted.
"And then?"
"His name is Pelle", Malin said. "And he has a little brother. They have a dog. Their father is a wine grower.
"Yes", Hanna said.
"Yes", Malin said and stred at the ball. Then she made a frown. Because now the picture had moved from the Ball to another.
"Ah, now we go", Helena said.
"No", Hanna said. "I want to know my fortune.
Then Eva comes.
"Malin, could you possibly tell my fortune", she smiled.
"Oh, yes, please sit down", Malin said.
Eva sat down opposite of her. And Malin looked at the ball.
"Here I see sickness and misery", she said hollowly. "Have you had a cold, Eva?"
"So I have", Eva said energetically. "Some veeks ago I had a major cold."
"I say!" Malin moaned. "But what is this? Tea! Lots of tea! How many cups have it been this year?"
"Well", Eva said happily. "Two or three cups a day, so...Imagine you can see all that in the ball concerning me! Cleverly! Or what do you say, Jhon?" she asked, when her son and daughter came home with Povel and Ivan and a new girl.
"Bah!" Jhon said thaughtfully.

"Is not mother following?" Eva asked.
"It is not necessary", Filipa said, and Jhon agreed.
Robert looked at Filipas backpack that was in a shape like a panda.
"Are you really going to have that?"
"Yes? Why?"
"Someone may think it is-different?"
"I think it is not", she said as a matter of course.

"Those sailing boots I had last time", Malin said.
"Yes, they were those you of which you changed one and came home with two right boots. Was it not?" the dean´s wife said.
"No, not them", Malin said. "They were the ones I had the time before last time. I mean the ones I had the last time."
"I know", Povel said.
"Shut up, Povel, I am telling",Malin said."It was like this, mother and I were in town", she started,"and then i was going to run up the escalator in a shop, and then I fell in a strange way. And when i looked down the toe was gone at one of the boots."
The remainder of the story they would listen to another time.
Ivan, Povel, Jhon and Filipa were going to school.

"At the attics", the dean said.
They sang "With a little tulip" for Malin. Then she got three parcels, paint box and
drawing-pad from Jhonson and a bird dictionary and acomputor game.
"Oh, thank you" Malin said, when she got the Fortune Telling Glass Ball from the dean. "If it is in this you found Agnes I would not give much for it."
Everyone looked at the dean. But Povel looked enviously at Malin´s Fortune Telling Glass Ball.
"Agnes Lindblom was the daughter of reverend Lindblom", the dean said.
He had met Agnes in church in Stockholm during a children´s hour when they were ten
years old. In a weak moment he had tried to teach Agnes New Testament, but the lessons went poorly. The dean on his side read of Jesus as he had learned of Jesus in school. Also he learned theatre- and coffee shop visits costed much money. The fact is, Agnes preferred theatre and coffee shops to the Bible.

The Fortune Telling Glass Ball: Tenth of December was Malin´s name day. At least she would remember that day. First the dean´s wife comes with the tray with candles and a cup of hot chocolate. Then come Eva and Robert behind their children and Hanna, Helena, Ivan and Povel.
But where is the dean?
"I heard him at the attics", Robert started, but was pushed a bit by his wife. Same moment the dean arrived. In his hand was a Fortune Telling Glass Ball.
"Hans, where have you been?" the dean´s wife asked anguishly.

Svante hesitated to answer, and when Ivan asked again the door to the boy´s room was opened and Mats Hörlin stepped in.
"Hey", he said.
Ivan nodded and Svante rose and gave Mats a hug. He turned and looked at Ivan.
"You! Mats and I planned to be together today. Maybe we can see each others tomorrow instead? All three of us?"
Ivan felt like if someone punched his stomach. He did not look at the other boys and left the room without a word. Svante smiled towards Mats. He did not even notice Ivan.
"We must have an exciting name while chatting on Internet. What do you want to be called? I am Cannel..."
From the school-room was "Shine Over Sea and Shore" heard on the piano, and the voices of the girl and her grandmother.

Ivan walked on towards Lidénius house. There he heard Zoja rehearsing the piano. He opened the unlocked door and went up on the turning stairs to Svante´s room
Ivan knocked. Svante asked him to come in.
"Oh, it was you?" vante said in a disappointed voice when he saw Ivan.
He sat in front of a computor and wrote something.
"What are you doing?" van asked.
"Surfing."
Ivan did not have a computor and there was no Internet at the dean´s nor at his father´s office, but everyone talked about it in school and it seemed like everyone was using it.
He sat down beside Svante and grabbed the mouse.
"Carefully!" Svante said impatiently.
"Could I not try?"