Page 27 of Meet Me Under the Northern Lights

SóLHEIMAJ?KULL GLACIER

If there was one place on his island that helped put life into perspective, it was here at that glacier.

Gunnar looked out over the lake at its base, admiring the almost surreal-looking ice formations sadly retreating from what they once were.

Yet the view was still as captivating to him now as it had been on his very first visit here with his mother.

They had brought a picnic and she had likened the changes of this landscape to life itself.

It seems so immovable, Gunnar, yet it is always moving in some way.

Never forget that . No truer words had ever been spoken.

‘Some people are going behind the barrier,’ Magnús remarked, pointing.

‘Yes,’ Gunnar answered. ‘They always do. They want the best photographs. The closest they can get.’

‘And if they fall into the water?’ Magnús asked.

‘We will have more room on the coach. You can stretch out, have a sleep while I drive back.’

Magnús raised his eyes.

‘I am joking, Magnús. I will rescue them, of course.’

‘But, what if you get hurt doing that?’ Magnús asked. ‘Because they did not follow the rules?’

Gunnar sensed the boy’s unease. Just like that, the passengers ducking under the ropes and standing at the edge of the water, he was thinking about his parents and the fight for their survival they did not win.

He put a hand on Magnús’s shoulder. ‘Magnús, nothing is going to happen to me, OK?’

Magnús shirked off his hand and dropped his head a little like he was embarrassed to confess some kind of fear.

Gunnar remembered being his age, how he was stuck in that midway point between childhood and adolescence, not quite being oblivious to the struggles of life but still too young to grasp the full reality of them.

Yet, like Magnús, loss had struck too early, meaning that growing up had increased in pace compared to his peers.

Gunnar remembered wondering if his life would ever go back to being on the same base level as his friends one day, or if he would forever remain branded by tragedy.

That one night when he was six, his mother and the police turning up at school when he was in the Christmas show…

He pointed out at the ice. ‘Look, life is like the glacier, Magnús. On the surface, it looks the same, it behaves the same, people come to look and they see what they see. But underneath we know that many changes are happening, changes that we cannot always detect until more time has gone by and other things react to those alterations. Like the climate because of the glacier.’

Magnús sighed. ‘I am not a glacier. And school is not the climate.’

‘No,’ Gunnar agreed. ‘Life is the glacier, Magnús, and sometimes we have to change how we view it to protect it. Because it is precious and it is ours and we only get one chance.’ He looked at the boy. ‘You understand?’

‘Not really,’ Magnús answered. ‘Because it took away my parents.’

‘I think,’ Gunnar began. ‘That when faced with a difficult decision, your parents gave up their chance for their choice.’ He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder again. ‘They chose to protect you.’

He swallowed as memories of that night flooded his mind like the lava had flooded fields, roads, engulfing everything in its path.

It had been a reminder of how powerful nature was, how Iceland was governed by that force every single day and had to live alongside such ferocity mixing with all its contrasting beauty.

‘Do you think,’ Magnús began, ‘that they made the right choice?’

The boy’s large eyes found his then and Gunnar’s heart ached for him and everything he had been through. He squeezed his shoulder tight. ‘Yes, Magnús, of course.’

‘Even though I have been avoiding school and telling lies and… hid Hildur’s knitting needles last year.’

Gunnar shook his head. ‘Magnús.’

‘What?’

‘Your parents would be so proud of you. Look how you have grown! On the hockey team! Doing OK with your maths! Trying to deal with problems independently…’

‘I want to be better,’ Magnús told him. ‘I should be better.’ He paused before continuing. ‘Because they gave up everything for me.’

‘Magnús, your mum and dad would not want you to feel a responsibility for being anything other than exactly who you are. There is no pressure to… go into government or… be the next Alex Ovechkin. They gave you the gift of more time. For you. To just be. That’s it. That’s all they wanted.’

Magnús nodded. ‘OK.’

‘OK?’

He nodded again. ‘So now you can tell me why you talk funny when you’re with the English girl.’

Gunnar’s gaze immediately went to Chloe, standing with Kat a few metres ahead of them. ‘Well,’ he began. ‘I am still trying to fully understand that myself.’