by Julie Caplin
They lapsed into thoughtful silence.
‘Do you want any music on?’ asked Alex, his hand straying to the radio.
‘Hmm, not sure. Apart from Björk, I don’t know any Icelandic music.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got a playlist on my phone.’
‘Could be interesting,’ said Lucy. ‘What sort of playlist is it?’
Alex looked worried. ‘It’s just a playlist.’
‘Not a driving playlist, then.’
‘No,’ he said warily. ‘A playlist of tracks I like.’
She pulled out her phone. ‘I have playlists for running, driving, cleaning.’
‘Cleaning? You have a cleaning playlist.’
‘Yes,’ said Lucy. ‘Doesn’t everyone?’
‘Clearly not,’ said Alex. ‘Although it’s not something I think about that much. I do the bare minimum when I absolutely have to.’
‘Typical man.’
‘I prefer to call it an efficient time and motion approach. So, what’s on your driving playlist? Is it fit for human consumption?’
‘Of course. Don’t you trust me?’
‘No, you might be a closet Metallica fan.’
Lucy pretended to think for a moment.
‘I might be.’
‘Are you?’
Lucy giggled and stopped. She was rusty in that department. It was a long time since she’d felt like giggling. ‘I couldn’t name a single one of their tracks.’
‘No, you look more of a Take That type.’
‘And what does that look like?’ She lifted one dangerous eyebrow daring him to comment.
‘Er … you know … normal.’
‘I’ll take normal. To be honest I’m not really that into music. I never had that much time to listen.’
‘Give us your worst, put on your playlist.’
Luckily Alex didn’t seem to mind her music and even commented a couple of times that he liked a track. He made her skip one but then she wasn’t a huge Justin Bieber fan either.
‘Look, the sun’s coming out.’ They’d been driving for forty minutes and the earlier thick black clouds had started to thin, like a ragged net, their edges tinged with pale pink and gold, and within the breaks Lucy could see pale blue sky.
‘I think Hekla might have got the weather right, it is going to be a nice day.’
‘Ah look, I think this is our turning. And yes, there’s a sign post.’ They followed the signs which were excellent, but then Lucy figured, you wouldn’t want people getting lost out here, the landscape was pretty inhospitable and even quite eerie in some places, like an alien planet. On some stretches of road, there hadn’t a been a single sign of human habitation for miles. She was glad that Alex was driving.
The road began to climb and before long they were pulling into the car park at Gullfoss.
‘Oh goodness, you can hear it,’ said Lucy, listening to the boom of water as they started walking up the footpath, passing early risers going the other way, drenched in their sodden waterproofs although managing cheery grins.
They stopped on the path as they caught their first glimpse of the torrent of water crashing down the craggy rocks. Fine sprays of water drifted through the air, rising up from the deep river bed billowing across the chasm like gossamer curtains floating on the breeze.
‘Wow,’ said Lucy, staring down at the roiling, foaming flow racing over the edge of the dark rocks like an unstoppable force.
‘It’s quite something.’ For a moment the pair of them marvelled at the view.
‘Do you want to go up there, out on the ledge?’ asked Alex, pointing to the rocky ledge protruding almost into the heart of the waterfall. There were already a few people up there, standing like tiny ants against the backdrop of the white foam of the water. It frothed, boiling with movement before racing down in perpetual columns through the rocks to the edge where the wide river simply dropped away into a deep channel.
‘Or up there?’ he turned and pointed to the much safer vantage point on the hill above the waterfall.
Lucy lifted her face welcoming the cold bite of the fine mist against her skin and looked at the wooden fenced enclosure on the top of the hill and then back at the ledge around which the water churned and foamed like furious white horses. Down there the sound would be deafening, the air laden with water droplets and the proximity to the edge terrifying.
‘The ledge,’ she said feeling a punch of adrenaline, turning and grinning at Alex, the hair escaping from her hat already plastered to her face.
‘OK,’ said Alex grinning back, taking her hand as he picked up the pace and headed forwards with a purposeful stride. ‘Let’s do this.’
By the time they reached the rocky plateau, they were both slightly breathless, their faces covered in a fine sheen of water, with rivulets running from chins and noses. Alex stepped out first, gingerly side-stepping puddles and sharp rocks, and then waited, holding out his hand again to guide her through. She hesitated, a mix of fear and excitement scrambling her thoughts and then saw him nodding at her, encouragement shining in those warm brown eyes. With a tremulous smile she took his hand and followed him out onto the shelf of rock.
When they reached the centre of the ledge, surrounded on two sides by water, her hand gripping his, they stopped. The roar of the water thudded through her body sending her pulse racing in tandem with the elemental thrill of the raw power of nature. She stood absorbing the sensation of sheer power and the feeling of being a hairsbreadth away from annihilation.
Alex caught her eye and she beamed at him. ‘This is amazing,’ she yelled above the noise of the water, unable to keep the emotion from her face. Exhilaration pumped through her along with the crash of the water. She’d never seen or heard anything quite like it. For a moment she was convinced she could conquer the world.
He grinned and pushed the water-soaked hair from his face, his skin coated in fine droplets. They caught in the faint stubble on his chin and sparkled like diamonds in the rising sun. When Lucy saw them, she smiled.
‘What?’ he asked loudly but she had to lip read to understand.
‘You’re sparkling,’ she shouted.
‘What?’
She lifted on to her toes and yelled again in his ear, ‘Sparkling!’ Raising a hand, she brushed at his jaw. He shifted his head, ducking his chin, laughing as if it tickled and her fingers accidentally grazed his lips.
For a brief second, something shimmered between them, as his eyes met hers. Hyper alert, every sense tuned in, she noticed the tiny amber flecks around his pupils, envied the thick dark lashes fringing the lower lid, felt the tiny prickle of stubble under her fingers and the dart of something hot and sharp in her chest.
The roar of the waterfall around them receded and it was just the two of them, holding each other’s gaze like a lifeline between them. She didn’t drop her hand like she should have done, instead for some crazy reason, her fingers explored that intriguing little indent in his lower lip. Hot breath caressed her skin and then his upper lip closed down in a barely-there kiss and … she felt the touch of his tongue. The shocking dart of heat between her legs made her drop her hand with a quick indrawn gasp.
The intensity of his gaze softened, replaced by the warmth and kindness she was used to, almost as he knew how unnerved she was by that sharp prick of desire.
‘Who doesn’t want to sparkle?’ He grinned at her again, that friendly happy smile she’d become used to and to her relief the moment evaporated. ‘Do you want to go nearer to the edge?’
‘You bet,’ she called back, surprising herself. This was what the old Lucy would have done. How long had it been since she had appeared?
Buffeted by the spray of water, they picked their way through the pitted surface of the rocks, by this time completely soaked and Lucy was extremely glad of the woolly hat and the super-efficient waterproof that Hekla had insisted she bring.
The thunderous roar of the torrents of water pounding over the rocks made it impossible to hear
but Alex mouthed the words. ‘You OK?’
She gave him a thumbs up even though she couldn’t decide whether she was terrified or exhilarated. When she pulled her phone out of her pocket to take a few pictures, the screen was covered in water drops within seconds and she quickly decided it wasn’t worth risking.
Out on the rock, so close to the water was like being in the eye of the storm. Water, thunder, fury. Pounding and cascading, torrents and torrents of water flooded down over the stepped rocks. She felt surrounded by sheer power, reverberating underfoot as the fine spray crept into the seams of her waterproof and coated her face. Awed, her pulse pumped hard and despite the moisture in the air, her mouth had dried up. Lucy kept well back from the edge where a single green rope was all that marked the end of the safe zone and the edge of the rock. If you went over, you’d be a goner. There’d be no coming back. It was easy to imagine you’d be swept into the depths of the earth. From here the waterfall dropped a good hundred foot to another ledge and then the water changed angle and there was another level below before the river cascaded into a deep rocky channel below to flow away to the sea.
She and Alex stood side by side, staring at the mighty show of raw power. He glanced at her and shook his head and mouthed Whoa. Amazing. She nodded back. Looking at this, her problems seemed puny and insignificant. The world, nature, so much larger than everything else. It was as if something loosened inside her, freeing her from the web of angst that had wrapped itself around her.
She lifted her head and took in a long deep breath, savouring the water on her face, the thunder in her ears. Alex caught her expression, concern shadowing his eyes. She gave him a brilliant smile, her mouth curving involuntarily. ‘I’m OK,’ she mouthed, wanting to share with him the delicious sensation of a load lifted. ‘I’m OK.’ When he responded with a sweet smile, it hit her with an unexpected ache in her chest, stirring an acute longing, for quite what she wasn’t sure. Whether it was the sense of the two of them being so small against the maelstrom of nature’s power around them, a subtle solidarity in a unique shared experience, she didn’t know but something shifted between them. He put an arm round her shoulders and pulled her to him and together they stood watching the sheer power of the water crashing around them.
Eventually the creeping cold working its way inside their layers drove them back to the path and they walked up to the vantage point, their hands still linked, saying little as if the power of the water had taken away the ability to think and talk.
Once at the top looking back down on where they’d been, Lucy felt as if she were coming back to earth.
‘That was quite something,’ she breathed as they leaned over the wooden rail watching the tiny figures of people standing where they’d been. ‘I’m going to tell all the guests that they have to come here.’
Alex laughed. ‘But it’s the first place you’ve been to. You might say that about our next destination.’
‘Seriously, if anything can beat this, I’ll eat my…’ she tugged at the woolly hat on her head. ‘Well perhaps not literally. But come on … how could anyone not be impressed by this? I had no idea it was going to be… Do you think the other places are as amazing?’
‘This is what people come to Iceland for. The geological and natural wonders. I’m guessing a geyser that shoots boiling water 100 foot in the air every few minutes is fairly mind blowing.’
Lucy shivered. ‘Boiling is starting to sound good. I’m getting cold.’
‘Me too, shall we track down a coffee and something to eat at the visitor centre? Hekla says we have to try the meat broth.’
Lucy hid a wry smile. ‘You’re as bad as me. What Hekla says goes. She’s very keen that we fall in love with Iceland.’
Having dried off and warmed up with coffee and a bowl of the very heart-warming lamb and vegetable soup, which was delicious, they got back in the car and headed off to see the geyser geothermal springs, which Lucy read up on from a leaflet she’d picked up at the visitor centre. Feeling that she’d been woefully under prepared in coming to Iceland, she read the leaflet from cover to cover before peppering Alex with facts as they drove. Whatever had happened to the queen of TripAdvisor and planning the shit out of everything, as Chris had accused her of doing? (And he wasn’t being complimentary.)
‘Did you know the last time‒’
‘Enough, enough,’ teased Alex. ‘Take a break Tour Guide Lucy. I know enough for the specialist subject round on Mastermind.’
‘You’ll be grateful, when we get there,’ said Lucy primly, burying her nose in the leaflet again with mock indignation, before adding with a quick mischievous grin, ‘did you know, they used to put soap in the geyser to make it erupt.’
‘Really?’ He shot her a disbelieving look.
‘Honest.’
The weather had completely changed when they arrived at the carpark and they abandoned their waterproofs as they climbed out of the car.
‘Phew, it’s a lot quieter here,’ said Lucy, stretching her arms out, welcoming the warmth of the sun’s rays and the silence after the constant roar of water which had left a ringing in her ears for a while.
‘And drier,’ said Alex running his hand through his dishevelled hair.
‘It’s lovely to be outside,’ observed Lucy, realising that since she’d arrived she’d stayed inside far too much. They crossed the main road to the site of the geothermal field, which needed no signage. The rolling clouds of steam were advertisement enough.
‘Did you get out much when you were in Manchester? There’s some nice scenery around there isn’t there? Moorland. Not too far from the Lake District.’
‘There speaks a Scot,’ said Lucy. ‘It’s a good hour or two.’
‘That’s nae time at all,’ he said, his accent broadening.
‘I guess not,’ said Lucy sadly. ‘But I never seemed to have the time.’
They strolled along the path, Lucy tipping her head up to catch the sun on her face.
‘Sounds like you worked pretty hard in Manchester. What made you move out here? Take on the Lodge? It’s quite a radical change.’ Somehow Alex had taken her hand again and it didn’t feel odd or strange.
Despite feeling comfortable with him, the familiar lie slipped out easily, she couldn’t bear to see disappointment on his face. ‘I fancied a change of scene. I was a bit burnt out. Fed up with working for a big faceless corporation. I wanted to…’ she gazed over to where a large crowd had gathered in a semi-circle. Everyone was watching a small crater in the centre of the pond, the water roiling and bubbling. She knew how that felt. When she thought about her old job, that same bubbling anger rose to the surface. She pulled her hand from his and shoved both hands into her pocket, forcing her face into a mask of calm serenity she certainly didn’t feel.
‘Wanted to?’ prompted Alex as they veered towards the gathered people.
Diverted by the anticipation of the crowd, Lucy reconsidered what she’d been going to say. Ever since she’d come to Iceland, she’d had a glib rehearsed line about wanting to reconnect with the guests and get to know her colleagues. For a minute the words eluded her as if she couldn’t bring herself to spoil the day with lies. She stared at the smooth film of water covering the dome in the centre of the circle of people. The surface began to move and there was a whisper of anticipation, the water seemed to breathe, taking in a breath, before exhaling and then with an almighty force there was a belch and Lucy jumped as a column of steaming water shot into the air, before drifting away soaking the people in its path.
‘Wow, that surprised me, even though I was expecting it,’ said Lucy, her hand over her chest, still a little shocked. ‘The force of it is quite scary.’ And quite cathartic, she realised. The angry roll and boil before the explosion and the serenity afterwards. Perhaps keeping everything inside wasn’t such a good idea.
‘Do you know, there’s a lot to be said to downsizing,’ she said, giving into the anger. ‘I didn’t come here by choice.’ She turned to him, her face
taut and teeth gritted. ‘You might as well know.’ She paused before giving the words the venom they were due. ‘I was sacked.’ The release of words, like the geyser, spurting out with raw honesty brought a burst of freedom.
Now she realised how mad she felt about it. Furious. Before she’d been too stunned and dazed by the decision and the overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
Alex looked genuinely shocked.
‘And I don’t want to talk about it,’ she snarled. ‘Iceland was last chance saloon.’
Alex being Alex didn’t say anything, he was good at this stuff. Instead he let her rant.
‘End of the road. Because I was shafted big time.’ She lapsed into silence waiting for the geyser to erupt again. There was a hushed quiet among the gathered anticipatory crowd and a collective gasp when it came with an explosive shower.
‘Can I ask you a question?’ His words came as the geyser settled. The calm voice of reason.
Surprised that her brief burst of anger had made her feel better, she nodded.
‘If this is end of the road, do you care about the Lodge? Or is it another job?’
His quiet question made her give careful consideration to her answer. Taking hold of the barrier in front of them, she weaved her fingers around the rope, watching the glassy surface of the waterhole in front of her. It took a while for her to think things through, the geyser erupted twice more and not once did Alex press her for a response or give up by starting a new subject of conversation. He exuded that quiet strength, standing next to her, not pushing or prompting.
At last she turned to him, feeling an unexpected sense of release. ‘I think you must be some kind of magician or a mind reader.’
His eyes crinkled at the corners, making her heart bump a little as they shared a long look.
‘Thanks for bringing me out today. I feel like I’ve reset myself. I feel a bit more like me again.’
‘Glad to be of service.’
‘That’s what it’s about isn’t it? Service. Although “in service”. That was sort of seen as a dirty word wasn’t it? But I was always proud of my job.’