S2E17 Beyond The North Wind Chapter 17

Anna reaches the glacier and hears the cry of the teenagers in trouble.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Beyond the North Wind Chapter seventeen There was a boat moving on the lake, two people in the wheelhouse, clear water parted by the bow, girls following in the wake. The teenagers were shouting and playing. Anna finished her lunch and watched the boat move along the water, the connection between communities. Then a cry went up, and a second yell, and then the calls were loud and urgent, and the shouts of hilarity became cries for help. She saw the first teenager, a boy with long black hair wearing a heavy metal t shirt, slowly slide down from where he was sitting on the rim of a bowl into an icy pool. He flailed about trying to stop, but he continued down, gravity and the icy lack of friction working against him. He slipped into the freezing pool. The other boy tried to help, bravely let himself fall after him. He ended up in the pool as well, holding on to his friend who he tried to pull out, spluttering and splashing to the edge. The boys struggled with one another and began to sink lower under the water. The girls' shouts for help grew louder as they panicked and tried to help the drowning boys, without any grip on the ice or the situation. Anna crunched over the ice and reached the boys in the pool. The struggling boy reached up for the walking stick she offered him, but could not pull himself out. Hold on, she said. Help is coming. She stood back, tugging on the walking stick, but the boys weighed her down, and all she managed was to hold them in the freezing water. Both boys let go of the stick and grabbed for the edge of the pool. Anna grabbed the youngest underneath the arms and tugged as hard as she could. Slowly she pulled the boy out of the pool like a seagull across the ice. She grabbed for the other boy on the pool but he was heavier, his skin shocked white, a blue line around his lips. She also grabbed him under the arms, feeling a weight that was too much for her, and despite herself grabbed his hair and pulled him to the side of the pool. Sorry, she told him, and she was scared to see the boy lose the life in his face and become even heavier. She had him up to the side of the pool, pushing his face up out of the water, trying to hold on. Call for help, she told the hysterical girls. One of the girls pulled out a phone and looked at it. Call the rescue service, she said. They'll come first. The boy fell slack in her arms, his face in the water. The rescue service would have to arrive instantly in their helicopters to do any good. Help me, she yelled, and the youngest boy, shivering and dripping, got off the ice and grabbed his friend's arms. The girls too, but they could not move him. Not another death, she thought. She could not bear it. The girl was talking on the phone, giving their location. Anna had tilted the boy's head back so he could breathe. If not for her arms around his neck he would have slipped away and drowned. The water rose over the edge of the pool, flooding the surface ice, soaking her where she lay, and making a foothold difficult. The boy's eyes were closed, his lips blue, his body slack. Hold on, she whispered in his ear, we'll get you out. And she heaved with all her might. The boy rose an inch further out of the pool, but he was too heavy to lift further. Anna and the girls pulled at his arms, at his hair, at his icy cold T shirt, trying to haul him out of the water. Hold him steady, she said, and she stood up ready to step in the pool. Perhaps she could hang on to the side and push him out. No, shouted a voice behind her. A young man with a pointed blonde beard and short hair, wearing dark sunglasses suddenly arrived by her side. He knelt by the edge of the pool, put his arms under the boy's shoulders, and with a tremendous heave, pulled him vertically out of the pool. He laid the boy prone on the ice. Anna looked at the badge on the newcomer's jacket. Twin jagged peaks. The guide had arrived at last. The young man spoke to the boy and slapped his face. Can you hear me? The boy lay still. The girls began to sob. What's his name? Marco spluttered the other boy, who was shivering, arms wrapped around his body. The guide sat Marco up and sat behind him, stripping him of his soaking shirt. Girls, give me your jackets. The girls obeyed, and the guide quickly wrapped the boy in the warm and dry jackets. Do you have hats? said the guide. No, of course not. Help your friend, sit with him, get him warm, talk to him. Marco came slowly to life, gasping and flinching like a fish on the slab. He held one of the girls tight and did not let go, as they tried to reassure him. The guide called a number on his phone. Anna watched his eyes flash blue as he talked. Get his trousers off, wrap him up in anything warm. I can't get them off, the younger boy cried. The guide reached down, a blade in his hand. He cut the boy's trousers away. Wrap him in your clothes quickly. Wrap his body, then wrap his arms, like this. And he swaddled the boy, wrapping a shirt around his chest. Lift him up, get the jacket around him, sit behind him and support his weight. Talk to him. Keep him happy. The guide's phone rang again, a melodic shrill. He spoke quickly, eyes fixed on Anna whom he now inspected. He needs attention in the medical centre, he told her. People are coming to help. Two more people arrived, a man and a woman, both in their twenties, she guessed, both dressed like the guide, carabinas, ice picks, sunglasses. The young woman skipped across the ice on her crampons like a young deer. When she reached the pool she removed a silver thermal blanket from her backpack and wrapped it around the body. The other guide, a solidly built man, bent down and lifted Marco, wrapped in an assortment of clothes like a vagabond, placing him over his shoulders, and carried him off the ice to where the boat waited on the lake. The younger guide spoke to the children. The girls hugged one another and dropped their heads as he spoke. Glaciers are dangerous, he told them, stamping his foot. They move, they surprise you. Where's your guide? Where's your equipment? Your friend would have died if it wasn't for this woman. He indicated Anna. Next time go with a guide. Now go with your friend. The children followed the young woman to the boat. The guide turned to her. Are you Anna? She nodded, taking off her coat that was soaked where she had laid on the ice. I'm Lars. He shook her hand. You saved the boy. You did, really. She checked that her jumper and leggings were dry. Lars shook his head. You acted quickly. I saw you as I approached. Last year we lost a woman here, down a moolin. She slipped from up there. He pointed up the glacier and went all the way down. We heard a calling through the ice. We sent down a rope, but she was gone. Anna shook her head. People forget the danger. Look, said Lars, he pointed to a whirlpool on the edge of the lake. Her spirit is still there. Anna looked at the water and the currents moving in a circle. She was thinking about Emil, about such possibilities. On the first anniversary of Emil's disappearance she had received a call from Rhoda with some shocking news. The police had found a body, a male of similar age and build, badly decomposed, at a point well down the coast from Uctorfjord, three kilometers away from where Emil was meant to be. She had travelled up with Burgot to identify the corpse. They had stopped at Oxford where the police had erected a white tent on the beach. Burgit had held a hand as she entered the tent. Two frenzied scientists were present dressed in blue overalls. The body lay covered on a trolley with wheels locked into position like a baby's pram. They were warned about the decomposition. When the cover was drawn back, it was a fair headed man with a brown beard, shorter than Emil and ten years older. Outside the tent she had remonstrated with the inspector. Burgit had not been helpful or understanding. When they set about notifying Emil's side the family of his disappearance, her sister had likened it to arranging a funeral, but without a body. We need a body, her sister had told her. Anna got the impression that any corpse would have done for her sister. Annoyed by her attitude, she took spiteful shots at the way Burgit dressed, the loose clothes she wore, the greying blonde hair she let frizzle over the place. That had been the low spot, the Nadir, her worst moment. But time passed, and there were no more calls to raise or ruin her hopes. She watched the boat with the third guide and the children slide across the lake back to the village. She tried to imagine Emil swimming away to a better place. The boy will be fine, Lars said. He'll think more clearly in the future. His companion, the female guide, came up to her. Hello, I'm Kristen. She offered her hand. She was beautiful, slender and tanned, with blonde hair under a black band. Anna, from near Buerford. You're going to Oxford? Anna shook her head. Uctorfjord. Lars said I've just come from there. It's an easy route. The glacial plateau is mostly flat. We have skis and rope for you so we can cross, but I can see that you have your own skis. If we find a crevass we need to stop and move around it. And leave no litter, no yellow snow. I know the rules. Do you need us then? I see you have a map and a compass. The ice shifts, best route changes, and I'd appreciate the company. Kristin fiddled with the black Alice band that held her sunglasses on her pretty head. Are you going to Uctifjord to meet the Guru, the giver of knowledge? The Guru again. That's twice today. I heard about him from a man called Thomas, who I met in the hut on the way. La's eyes lit up. Thomas, yes, I guided for him. He's an interesting man, very well read. He knows everything. This Guru and his followers don't sound so bad, but anyway, I'm visiting family. Kristen looked at her. I was only joking. We've all heard about the tourists and the funny meetings outside. We had something in similar in Finland for young people. Lars mumbled something and Kristen knocked him on the arm. We do appreciate nature, yes, our preacher likes to concentrate on that. And when the evening comes, said Lars. Anna watched Kristen blush, was made aware of the lithe body unencumbered by children. Kristen said What I know of the Guru Uctafjord is that he doesn't preach, he doesn't tell people to do anything. If he says anything it is to suggest that people discover the desire in themselves to be good. That's what people are saying about him. You see, he wants people to prove themselves. It's not what you say but we do that counts. He's a man of practical action. Did you meet him? Anna asked. Well no, but it's what I've read about him and what others have told me. He doesn't sound like much of a threat and not much help either, said Lars. In the distance the boat rounded the corner of the lake and disappeared. What would be helpful is if children would stop coming up on the ice thinking that they are Nansen. You did the same when you were their age, said Kristen. Lars shrugged. The young don't listen to anyone except themselves, said Anna. Not until things go wrong. And adults aren't much better, said Lars, no matter how many rules we have on the ice or off it. We'd better get moving. Kristen skipped away as light as a foal to fetch a spool of blue rope. They walked up the glacier in a gentle ascent, the ice crunching beneath their feet. Anna felt herself get stronger as her viewer head expanded in all directions. The call of that boundless, silent space filled with ice was overwhelming. She felt the shackles of her life fall away as she strode out into affinity, leaving herself behind. Here under the wide and boundless sky, she would have the freedom to think and let herself unravel.