My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Britt-Marie and Elsa sit in the veterinary clinic’s waiting room. Britt-Marie explains that it was Kent who wanted to sell the apartments and move, but she wants to stay because it’s home. When Elsa asks what she wants to be, Britt-Marie replies, “I want someone to remember I existed. I want someone to know I was here” (336).

Elsa goes to lie down next to the wurse, who is dying. Green-eyes appears with Wolfheart and says she has to take him to the police station. Elsa hugs Wolfheart, who hugs her back. He tells Elsa that the wurse is very old and tired. He gives her a map that Granny drew of the seventh kingdom, Mipardonus, which means “I forgive” (339). Elsa says goodbye to the wurse, assuring it, “You’ve completed your mission. You don’t have to protect the castle anymore. Protect Granny now. Protect all the fairy tales!” (339).

On the night before Elsa’s birthday, Alf helps her make 99 snow angels, one of her favorite traditions. The woman in the black skirt (who is now the woman in the jeans) sees them and laughs. Elsa observes, “She’s getting good at that” (342).

They go to the hospital to visit Mum and the baby, whom they have named Harry, after Harry Potter. Elsa decides she wants to be good friends with her baby brother, so as not to turn out like Kent and Alf. She promises the baby that she will tell him all the fairy tales.

Mum’s doctor approaches; Elsa recognizes him as both the landlord’s accountant as well as the priest from Granny’s funeral. He introduces himself as Marcel, one of Granny’s good friends. He tells Elsa that Granny had owned the apartment building and gave it to Elsa in her will because she knew that Elsa would make the right decision about whether to turn the units into leaseholds. He says, “She always said that a kingdom consists of the people who live in it. She said you’d understand that” (350).

Back in the apartment vestibule, the crossword puzzle has been finished. Four letters are highlighted in bold print; they spell out “ELSA.” Elsa uses these letters to unlock the combination on the stroller, discovering Granny’s letter to Britt-Marie hidden underneath.

Elsa goes to Granny’s grave to tell her about Harry. She sprinkles the wurse’s ashes at the grave.

Elsa tells Dad that she wants to spend more time with him at his house, which makes him very happy. Dad has been listening to a Harry Potter audiotape because he wants to “understand the things that mean a lot to you” (359).

Meanwhile, Britt-Marie has packed her suitcases. She gives Elsa a letter from Granny, and Elsa gives Britt-Marie the letter from under the stroller. Elsa says she knows Britt-Marie solved the crossword puzzle. In Britt-Marie’s envelope is the key to Granny’s car; Britt-Marie drives off without a definite destination, but “she’s going to see the world” (363).

Elsa opens her letter in Granny’s wardrobe, which, along with the entire apartment and the envelope itself, smells comfortingly like Granny. The first line in Granny’s letter reads, “‘Sorry I have to dye.’ And that’s the day Elsa forgives her granny about that” (364).

Elsa and the other neighbors celebrate her birthday at Dad’s house. Elsa watches Star Wars with Dad’s wife Lisette, who knows all the dialogue by heart.

Harry is christened at the church where Granny is buried. Elsa says that Harry doesn’t need godparents because he has a big sister. In Miamas, instead of godparents, newborns get a Laugher, who is the first person to make the baby laugh. For Harry, this person is Elsa.

Life goes on for the tenants of the apartment building. Maud and Lennart visit Sam in prison every other week. Wolfheart, cleared of all charges, returns to his apartment. He and the woman in jeans both attend meetings in which they share their stories to “mend everything that’s broken inside them” (368). Everyone in the building has dinner at Elsa’s apartment every Sunday. Kent returns, and he and Alf attempt to restore their relationship. Britt-Marie writes postcards to both of them each week.

The residents still hold a meeting every month, and they still argue, “because it’s a normal house. And neither Granny nor Elsa would have wanted it any other way” (369).

Back at school, Elsa meets a girl named Alex who is also different, and they become friends. Soon they are joined by enough different children that no one bothers them anymore. The boy with a syndrome is teased for wearing a princess costume, so Elsa and Alex support him by wearing princess costumes over their Spider-Man costumes. From then on, they are the little boy’s superheroes, “because all seven-year-olds deserve superheroes. And whoever disagrees with that needs their head examined” (370).