One Night

by Tia Wilson

“I’m trying to boost the signal,” he said as he connected another wire to the back of the radio receiver. “Its coming from Jonas’s boat. He has hit some trouble and the engines and power system has been damaged.” Gudtor tried again and one final garbled message came through with the voice so faint that Sasha could only hear a whisper from her side of the room. “He says he is on his way back and they should limp in to the harbour in the next hour.”

  Sasha burst from her seat and crossed the room in two steps and then threw her arms around Gudtors neck. “Did he say anything else, how is Rafn, what happened to the boat?” she said in a stream of fast paced words that tripped over each other.

  “The signal was very weak. I’m not even sure if it was Jonas speaking on the radio,” Gudtor said and then recoiled with what he had said.

  Hanna raised her voice and said a few sharp words in Icelandic to her husband while Sasha walked as if in a dream and then slumped back in her chair. She had never considered that Jonas might not of made the call, that he could of got hurt in his rescue of his friend. Tears welled up and then rolled down her cheeks as her shoulders began to shake.

  “Look what you have done now,” Hanna said and came over to Sasha and rubbed her shoulders. “Don't mind my husband. All Icelandic men are like him, blunt in the extreme. They don't always think before they speak.”

  Gudtor got up from his seat and came over and anguish lined his face. “I’m sorry Sasha. I did not mean to put ideas in your head. The signal was faint but I’m sure it was Jonas who was on the other end. Don't mind me I’m just a foolish old man.”

  Sasha reached out and took his hand. “It’s ok. You two have been perfect hosts. Its the uncertainty of it all, I don't know if I can be as strong as you locals.”

  “We will be strong for you,” Hanna said giving Sasha a warm smile that reminded her of her beloved grandmother.

  Gudtor grabbed his car keys from a ceramic bowl shaped like a fish and said, “There is no use hanging around here. I’ll take you down to the harbour and we can watch the boat come in.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sasha and Gudtor headed back out in to the blowing snow and Hanna stayed behind to keep checking the radio. The road back in to town had not been ploughed yet and the rear end of the car swung about until the snow tires found a grip and they righted themselves. Gudtor glanced in the rearview mirror and said “Look at the road out of the fjord.”

  Sasha peered back through the rear window and through the blowing snow she could make out three flashing yellow lights high up on the mountain road at the end of the fjord.

  “It’s the snow plough. He starts up at the tunnel that leads to the next town and then makes his way down here. He should have the road cleared within an hour. For now it will be down to my superior driving skill to get us through this storm.” He winked and then hunched forward in his seat with a look of concentration.

  He’s enjoying this Sasha thought. She could see the shadow of the young man in the wrinkled brow and sagging chin of his seventy plus years. I’d say you were a bit of a daredevil back in your day Sasha thought as she watched the swirling snow illuminated by the car headlights. They were the only cars on the road and this only added to the feeling that they were in a giant snow globe that had been shook up vigorously. The wind shifted and Sasha caught a glimpse of the string of low slung lights that was the town of Isafjordur. From a distance it almost looked like the town was floating atop the crashing white tipped waves.

  They drove through town and then passed by the rows of fish processing plants until they got to the harbour. Gudtor stopped the car outside a wooden hut that had views out into the wide open entrance to the fjord. When Sasha opened the door of the car a strong blast of wind pulled it from her grip and it slammed open with a bang. Snow swirled in to the car as the clambered out. The soft graceful flakes of snow that had fallen earlier were now turned in to a countless barrage of icy pinpricks as they blasted Sasha's face. Gudtor said something to her but the wind was so strong that she could not hear him over the din. He waved her towards the cabin and he stooped down and grabbed a key from under the mat.

  “That was refreshing,” Gudtor said as he closed the door behind him.

  “I’ve never been in a snow storm like that before,” Sasha replied.

  The hut was big enough to house a small table and seating for two and in the corner was an area for brewing coffee. Large posters with illustrations of fish species hung on the walls as well as yellowed and peeling diagrams about safety around the harbour loading area. Sasha took a seat at the table at the large window that faced out in to the fjord. Gudtor flicked a switch on the wall and two spotlights outside came on. “He’ll be able to see the light when he sails in to the fjord. It can lift a mans spirits and drive him on when he can see the lights of home. Try these,” Gudtor said handing Sasha a pair of binoculars that had been on a shelf above the coffee station.

  Sasha scanned the churning sea for any speck of light and all she could see was the swirling whiteness of the snow storm. She put them down and told her self it was best not to keep checking. In less then a few seconds she had the binoculars in her hands again and she was straining to see any sign of Jonas’s return.

  “Visibility should improve soon I can tell the storm is about to calm down,” Gudtor said as he filled two plastic cups with coffee.

  Sasha looked out the window and the storm looked like it was blowing stronger than it was when they got out of the car. She suspected Gudtor was doing his best to try to keep her calm. “How can you tell, to my eyes it looks like its getting worse.”

  “The wind has changed direction, its blowing in from across the mountains. Thats usually a sign that the storm is about to take a break. Take a look with the binoculars to the mountains on your right. Can you see the black shapes clustered together?”

  Sasha scanned the steep sided mountains that were the walls of the fjord and through the blowing snow she could make out three huge boulders sitting on the lip of the mountain. “I can see them through gaps in the storm.”

  “In the old days it was thought that they were trolls that controlled the weather in the fjord. When the wind blew in from the direction of the boulders it was said that it was the trolls who blew the storms away and protected the people of the fjord. In english it would translate as a troll wind is blowing, it has a more poetic edge to it in the original Icelandic,” Gudtor said.

  Sasha remembered Jonas saying her name with his Icelandic accent and it made her heart speed up. There was a flowing lyrical way that he spoke that reminded her of the morning song of birds. She suspected that most things sounded more poetic in this strange and foreign language.

  Gudtor brought them coffee and they both sat and watched the gusting storm outside. Within a few minutes one final ice blast battered the hut and then stillness. Sasha grabbed the binoculars and scanned the sea at the mouth of the fjord. A tiny speck of orange light flashed on and off. Her mouth went dry and her hands began to shake. Gudtor took the binoculars from her and looked out to sea. “Thats him. He's the only boat out there tonight. It looks like he is at quarter speed, it shouldn't take long for him to get to the safety of the harbour.”

  Sasha wiped tears away from the corner of her eyes and she reached across the table for Gudtors hand. “Thank you for tonight.” She squeezed his hand in hers, she needed the contact to stop hers from shaking.

  As the boat drew near Sasha got her first proper look at it. Gudtor flashed the flood lights out on the harbour and then a figure went out on to the approaching boats deck. With two arms raised it waved back in their direction. Sasha gasped. Was that Rafn standing on the deck and not Jonas. All she could make out was the bulk of his silhouette. Her hands began to shake again. What did this mean if Jonas was not piloting the boat? She trained the binoculars on the small lighted wheelhouse and it looked empty.

  “I don't think that is Jonas,” she said passing the binoculars to Gudtor. Her mind filled of chilling images of Jonas p
ulling Rafn from icy waters only for him to succumb to the icy grip of the deadly waters. No don't let it be so she thought as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “I cant make out who it is,” Gudtor said. A gust of wind whipped across the open harbour and then the view was blocked by a huge flurry of snow. Gudtor muttered a few angry words in Icelandic that could only be a string of curses. “The trolls didn't hold off the storm for too long. I didn't get to see who it was before the wall of snow blocked my view.”

  The storm was back and more forceful than before. Outside the cabin the visibility was reduced to only a couple of feet. The cabin creaked around them and the overhead light flickered for a couple of seconds.

  “How long until they get back to safety?” Sasha asked as she stared through the binoculars in an attempt to see through the blizzard raging outside.

  “At the speed they are going, I think they’ll limp in to the harbour in twenty minutes or so. The wind is at their back so that will help them a little.”

  Sasha put the binoculars down and had to fold her arms because her hands were shaking so much. It was Jonas you saw on the boat it had to be she thought to herself, don’t let the horrible thoughts creep in. She tried but couldn't help it. Images of Jonas face down and floating in the storm whipped sea bombarded her and every bad scenario flickered through her mind as if she was flicking through a picture book of horrors.

  She stared out at the millions of snow flakes and tried to fixate on the swirling patterns, anything to keep her mind off how scared she was. Lights flickered amidst the falling snow and Sasha turned to Gudtor. “Did you see that?”

  Gudtor looked straight ahead and then looked with the binoculars. He put them down and a big smile spread across his face. “Its them. They are only about a minute or two away. We can wait here until they dock.”

  Sasha was already up on her feet and closing up her coat. “I want to be on the dock when he gets here.” Thats if it is him who survived, a cruel and scared part of her mind declared.

  Gudtor could see that there would be no dissuading her otherwise and they headed out into the blizzard. The wind smacked in to Sasha as she rounded the corner of the hut and she had to grab out for the wall to stop her feet from shooting out from under her. The wind whistled at a high pitch like the screams of a dying animal as Gudtor hooked his arm around her waist to give her balance. “Thank you,” she shouted and the old man nodded. They leant in to the storm and arm in arm made their way to the barrier at the edge of the dock.

  Gudtor pointed off to the right and Sasha could make out a pair of lights flashing out at sea. “Thats him now,” he said leaning in close to her ear and shouting above the howling wind. Sasha fixated on the blinking lights and watched as the shape of the boat became visible through the storm. He is alive, he is alive she repeated in her head.

  The boat was a few minutes from the dock and still only visible as a faint shape within the swirling white storm when the wind dropped and for a few seconds Sasha could see a clear view of the boat. Her chest tightened, she could see him in the wheelhouse steering the boat. Jonas was alive. “Its Jonas, he's ok,” she shouted and hugged Gudtor in pure joy.

  He held her tight in his arms and over the screech of the wind said, “I told you Jonas is one hell of a sailor. A storm like this is nothing to a man of his capabilities.”

  Sasha couldn't help herself and leaned in and kissed the old man on his cheek. Gudtor looked away and she could see that his cheeks had gone a deep crimson.

  The wind began to die down as the boat slowed its approach to the dock. The worst of the blizzard was over and large fluffy snowflakes seesawed through the air. Sasha got her first clear look at the boat and the wheelhouse. The light flickered above Jonas’s head and she could see that he was alone and that his expression was as hard as stone. He raised his hand and acknowledged them as he drew up beside the dock. Sasha was close to tears and she turned to Gudtor and could see a sparkling sheen to his eyes.

  The boat came to a stop and Jonas came out on deck, his eyes were rimmed with dark shadows and he went through the motions of tying off the boat without looking in Sasha's direction. He stepped ashore and trudged straight past them both and walked up to the wooden hut.

  The first blow shocked Sasha as Jonas punched the wooden wall of the hut with tremendous force. The hut shook on its foundations. Jonas rained down punches on the wall and let out a howl of pain as he continued in a frenzy. Sasha tried to call out to him and her mouth would not make a sound. She stared at his fists hitting the walls and watched as slick patches of blood formed at the impact zones. She ran to his side and put her hand on his shoulder. Jonas spun around with his fists raised and he looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “He’s gone. There was nothing I could do for him,” he said. He looked at his bleeding knuckles as if they were not attached to him. “I was too late.” All fight left him and Sasha could see nothing but pain and misery in his eyes as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in close.

  She held him tight trying to absorb as much of his pain as possible and trying to imagine the turmoil that must be going on inside the man she loved. He had lost a friend, he had lost a brother. I have to be strong for him now Sasha thought as she tried to fight back tears. “Come on inside and I’ll clean up your hands.” She needed to be doing something, anything to to take her mind off all that was happening.

  Inside the hut Jonas sat in a chair with his back to the window and Sasha realised with a cold chill down her spine that Rafn must be on the boat. Be strong for your man she told herself as she got the first aid box and checked its contents. She cleaned the wounds on his knuckles and as she taped on a bandage blue lights washed up the side of the walls of the cabin. Jonas continued to stare at the wall as the intensity of the flashing lights grew.

  “I’ll go outside and deal with them,” Gudtor said.

  Jonas rose from the chair and Sasha reached out and touched his hand. “You don't have to be here for this.”

  “I have to see this to the end,” he said and left the cabin with Gudtor.

  Sasha sat looking out the window as the ambulance pulled up in front of the dock. Two men in orange high visibility jackets got out and Gudtor spoke to them. Jonas stood there staring at his boat and he answered questions from the paramedics with a nod of his head. Light twinkled on the metal frame of the stretcher as they carried it to the boat. Tears began to fall from her eyes. I cant look at this she thought and she looked away as they boarded the boat.

  She sat alone in the cabin weeping for Rafn and for the the heart wrenching pain that Jonas must be going through.

  That night as they lay in bed together she held him in her arms and teased his hair between her fingers. At first he was stiff and rigid in her arms, all of his muscles tensed like he was about to bolt from the bed. When he finally let go Sasha was ready to hold him even tighter and do her best to get him through the night. They stayed wrapped around each other all night as pain and sorrow buffeted them unlike any storm Sasha had ever witnessed.

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  In the middle of the long Icelandic summers the sun never set and the darkness of the eternal winters were a distant memory to everyone. Sasha stood on the deck of a boat as it skimmed across the glassy surface of the sea in a place known as angel fjord. Winter had been hard for her and Jonas and during the darkest months it had felt like neither of them could free themselves from the constraints of grief. When the sun had finally clipped above the towering mountains of the fjord in early March the worst of the pain was behind them. The initial rawness was gone and for Jonas it was now replaced with a numbness that he would never see Rafn again. The coming of the first rays of sun in March also brought something else to them both, hope and a new life together. They had a love that had been forged and strengthened in one of the worst moments for anybody to go through and they had managed to get through it with their feelings for each other deepened and tempered.
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br />   “Are you nervous?”

  The questions snapped Sasha out of her deep thoughts and she turned to her three grinning friends who had made the journey from San Francisco for her special day. I’ve been through too much to be nervous about today she thought.

  “I’m happy and more excited than I have ever been in my life.” Sasha said beaming back at her friends.

  The boat passed by a rocky outcrop and for the first time the full length of the fjord was exposed to all on the boat. Sasha gripped the hand rail as she looked at the small farm off in the distance. It had been in Jonas’s family for over a hundred years and had been passed down to him over a decade ago. He had never done anything with it and it had been lying empty for years. The farm sat at the end of the fjord on a huge patch of land that included miles of its own sandy beaches, a glacial river flowing down the mountainside and in the autumn wild berried grew in huge patches under the shade of the mountains. Sasha had fallen in love with it the first time she set foot on the beach. The farm was only accessible by boat from the nearest town and when Sasha first saw it she knew this is where she wanted to get married and then start her new life with Jonas as they rebuilt the farm house together.

  The last year she had been in a frenzy as she organised her business so that she could do most of her work remotely. Weekly checkins from a quaint coffee shop in the sleepy town of Borgarfjordur was the only time she needed to reconnect with the office in San Francisco. On a regular day she would be able to take her laptop and sit outside the farm house with a view out into the fjord and code in peace with the sound of birds singing being her only distraction.

  Sasha covered her eyes as the sun sparkled off the glass smooth water and she looked ahead. She could make out the rows of table in the field beside the house and she could see a group of people waiting on the beach for her arrival. The whole day was going to be spent outdoors with her new friends from Isafjordur and her old friends from the states. Food would be prepared on a row of charcoal barbecues and a fire pit had been set up for later in the evening. Everything about what they had organised for the day was completely Icelandic in nature, simple, honest and authentic with everything stripped down to what mattered the most.