Chapter 35

Morty does not waste any time.

As soon as the divorce between him and Stella is final, he and Michelle get married in a private ceremony at home.



It soon turns out that Michelle’s greatest interest is photography. She always has her camera with her and is constantly taking pictures.



Xander and his father get used to posing ...



But Michelle has no problem finding other motives as well. Just about anything could make a great picture.



She likes to experiment with her pictures too and wants some place where she can produce her films (this occurred before the “digital days”), so the garden shed gets turned into a darkroom.





Michelle is very nice and pleasant to Xander when his father is present ...



... but when Morty is not around, she is completely indifferent towards Xander. She seems to be mostly occupied with her own appearance ...



... but she also spends a lot of time in her darkroom – where a strange red light can be seen through slits in the blinds.



Meanwhile Alex is dizzy for happiness. At last Patricia has opened her heart and let him in, and he is more in love with her than ever. He does not want to rush things and scare her away, but now he is thinking of proposing to her.



But when he starts thinking about marriage, something he has tried to repress cannot longer be avoided and makes him feel quite worried: Stella. What will she feel about this? She won’t be happy, he realizes that. And Ingmar is the closest he has to a father. Alex will cause him pain now, but it impossible to get around. He loves Patricia and wants to marry her. He must tell Ingmar about that now.



So he calls Ingmar and asks him to come up to Alex’ apartment and as Ingmar only has to walk up the stairs, he arrives shortly. When he gets to hear about Alex and Patricia, he gets as concerned as Alex has feared – and expected. But as Ingmar knows Alex so well and really wants him to be happy, he accuses him of nothing and wishes him luck. But he also tells Alex that Stella most probably will not want to see Patricia ever again.



Ingmar decides to tell Stella about Alex and Patricia right away. He does not want any secrets between them, and nothing can be gained by waiting. He finds Stella in the living room playing the grand piano. At first she seems not to understand what he is saying. But when his words sink in, her face fills with pain.
“I need to be alone for a while”, she says, and goes for a walk. She stays away for several hours and when she comes back she is very silent and withdrawn.



She stays silent and withdrawn for a couple of days. Suddenly she feels so distant. Ingmar feels very unhappy about it, but there is not much he can do. He tries to show her that he is there for her if she needs him at the same time as he tries to leave her in peace. He doesn’t want to choose between Stella and Alex, but somehow he doesn’t think that Stella will demand that of him. It would be very unlike her.