Stockholm Syndrome: 26th June 1933

Dearest, darling Stina,

First of all, may I thank you for the wonderful hours you granted me on my visit up in Rättvik. I do not exaggerate if I say that they were the most wonderful in my life so far. I hope that it was not too unpleasant for you either.

How did it go? Did you manage to return to your room without anyone seeing or hearing you? What did your friends say when you came home so late?

We drove from Rättvik a few minutes after five. I actually found my friend - he was staying at Pensionat Enviken - and woke him.

We were back in Sandviken at 7.30 on Thursday morning. Then I worked until 5.30 in the evening. You can perhaps guess what I did after I had taken my dinner? Of course, I went to bed (at half past six) and slept until half past seven on Friday morning.

So, midsummer is over for this year. And maybe that is for the best. What did you do? If you had still been up in Rättvik I would naturally, with your permission, have travelled up there. But now I feel that it would have been all too sad to have gone there and not met you so a friend of mine (the tennis instructor in Sandviken who I mentioned) and I drove down to Öregrund where we spent midsummer. On midsummer day we bathed twice in the water and once yesterday. It was relatively cold though.

I presume you have told "Axel" all your adventures from your holiday - and that you have not fibbed too much to him. Did he meet you at the station? Who knows, perhaps he did not have such a bad time as you imagined while you were away? But you know him and know that he cannot lie to you.

"Anna" has sent me a greeting which I received yesterday morning. She says that she is enjoying herself down there; I hope she is so that she forgets me.

She wondered if I had made plans for a holiday trip and if I had anticipated taking her with me. I have not replied yet but I am trying to find a reasonable excuse so that I can get away alone.

The weather up here has been splendid up until yesterday afternoon. But when we set off from Öregrund at about five o'clock yesterday the rain began to fall and even now it is raining. It is a little lighter now, however, when all I am doing is sitting inside working.

Have you begun your work again yet? It probably feels a little unusual to start with, but if you think about your holiday and about HIM now and then, I guess you will get new energy, won't you?

Tomorrow I ought to go and pick up the film roll, which I handed in for developing and copying today, and on which I hope you have been truly captured. However, I could not wait any longer to write to you, so I will send you any photos with my next letter.

The trip to Lidköping which I told you about has been postponed for a couple of weeks because of the holidays.

I will end now, but I hope to hear from you very soon. Until then, I will think of you as much as I have since we parted. Take care.

Yours affectionately

Gunnar

Translated from Swedish by The Local