‘Thanks for taking me out tonight,’ she said to Gudrun.
‘I hope it will be the start of many nights out together.’
Iris wasn’t sure whether Gudrun meant because of the job, or because she’d be with Siggi. Most likely, Gudrun hadn’t been thinking so specifically.
She smiled and said good night to them all, then went inside.
‘Night,’ she said to Bríet as she went past the desk.
‘Goodnight, Iris. Sleep well.’
Siggi paddled out as the sun was creeping over the horizon. He’d have loved to see it emerging from the sea as he had done in other places around the world, but he was facing southwest, so he had to settle for seeing it emerge over the mountainous terrain to the east. Still, it was spectacular to see, glowing deep red and orange before it cleared the horizon and brightened. This was what he’d needed. This balance. The solitude. The space.
His phone lost signal somewhere between Keflavik and Sandvik, so he’d heard nothing from Iris and he felt fine about that. Over the past twelve hours, he’d come to realise that he was at a crossroads. But whichever way he chose, he knew that how he felt about Iris was a constant. He loved her. He was sure of that. The only thing he wasn’t sure of was whether that could endure in the face of the overwhelming fear he felt about the thought of commitment. Because that was what had driven him to push Iris away, and she hadn’t been asking him for anything. She’d made it clear that her decision to stay in Reykjavik wasn’t dependent on him, and he hadn’t listened to her. He’d jumped to his own conclusion about what she was saying.
Sat astride his board, he let the building waves bob him around before he committed to choosing his first wave of the day. He imagined Iris waiting on the beach for him. It was a nice thought. They could share a flask of hot chocolate like they hadon the Northern Lights excursion. That wasn’t frightening at all. Being with her had never made him feel trapped. That was his brain working overtime, over thinking.
Glancing behind him, he could see that there were a series of good waves building. He put his hands on the board and flicked his legs up and back so that he was lying on his stomach. He began paddling until he felt the wave lift the board underneath him, then pressed his hands to the board and in one smooth motion, was on his feet. The cold air and spray hit his face as he concentrated on balancing; riding the wave for as long as he could before he jumped off the board into the shallows, whooping at the sheer joy of it all. And then he turned straight back around and started all over again.
It was late morning by the time he was too weary to think about paddling back out to catch another wave. It had been awesome, but despite his thermal wetsuit, he was feeling cold. He picked up his board and jogged up to the back of the beach where he’d parked his jeep. He opened the tailgate and pulled out a towel, stripping his wetsuit down to his waist to dry himself as quickly as he could and get some warm layers on. After doing the same with his bottom half, he then closed the boot and started the engine, putting the heater on full pelt. He loved the feeling of being warm and toasty after the cold of the surf. It was part of the whole experience. Once, when he’d been to the south of England, they’d had a sauna on the beach, which was the best idea ever. Perhaps he ought to call in at the Blue Lagoon on his way back and have a quick go in theirs. He chuckled to himself because that would feel far too much like going to work. The number of excursions he’d taken to the Blue Lagoon on the way to and from the airport was ridiculous.
Once he’d warmed up, he drove the short distance back to where he’d camped the night before. It had been too dark to pack up before he surfed. After a quick lunch of some soup that heheated through on his small stove, he packed everything up and headed towards Hraunvik. That wasn’t the way he’d come, but it was a different way to drive back to Reykjavik and he wanted to see for himself if anything had changed since the last time he’d been with Iris. She’d mentioned some cracks beginning to appear in the main road.
He took the coast road towards the town, some eight miles to the east. After just a couple of miles, a roadblock stopped him.
‘Hej,’ he said, rolling his window down to talk to the official.
‘The road is closed. You will need to turn around and go via Reykjavik.’
‘To get to Hraunvik?’
‘Yes. The town is being evacuated.’
Siggi’s heart began banging in his chest. ‘My daughter is in Hraunvik.’
‘I cannot let you through. You are not a resident there.’ The guy raised his eyebrows in question, giving him the chance to say if his assumption was wrong.
It crossed Siggi’s mind to lie. But also, what was he going to do? Knock on their door and whisk Arna away? ‘I’m not. I just wanted to see if she is safe.’
‘I can radio in, see if they have left the residence. Do you have the address?’
‘Thank you,’ Siggi said with a sigh of relief. He turned the engine off while he waited to hear. No one else had come along after him, which was also a sign that people knew what was going on.
‘That residence has been cleared.’
‘Thank you.’
He had no choice but to turn around, but as soon as his phone had a signal, he pulled over and texted Hekla. They barely corresponded, but she acknowledged Siggi enough to keep him in the loop about important things. Generally, that meant aphoto on Arna’s birthday and not much else. Siggi had never initiated contact with Hekla before, but he felt that this was important enough to break the rules. He needed to know that not only were they out of the house, they were out of the town.
A text back came almost immediately to say that they were staying with friends in the town. They were aware of the evacuation order and were getting ready to leave.
Siggi couldn’t imagine why they wouldn’t have left already. Presumably they’d salvaged everything of importance from the house when they’d left there. There was no reason for them to delay. His first instinct was to take another route into Hraunvik and escort them out himself. It was all very well leaving Arna to be brought up by another man, but if he wasn’t looking after her, what choice did he have? It was down to him to make sure his daughter was safe.
He continued along the road towards Keflavik but took a right-hand turn onto a road that was barely more than a dirt track, going back east towards Hraunvik, this time with no chance of a road closure getting in his way.
There had been a text from Iris. In his haste to text Hekla, he had barely registered, but he remembered now. He pulled over again, leaving the engine running, and checked his phone. She was ready to talk. A wave of relief swept over him and he tapped out a reply.
I will be back later and would love to see you. I’ll call x
