‘You mean you’re mad I don’t see a dog?’ Chloe said, with a laugh.
‘No,’ Gunnar said. ‘I am not mad. But, what if the beads were not droplets. What if they were something else?’
‘What do you think they are?’ Chloe asked, turning her head a little to look at him.
‘It does not matter what I think they are,’ he said. ‘Only what you think they are. Open to interpretation, remember?’
She looked back to the sky, her string of droplets. A strong, shining row of diamonds. What did they represent to her? And then, all at once it came to her.
‘Dreams,’ she whispered. ‘The beads are dreams.’
‘Very good,krúttio mitt. Very good.’
He drew her even closer towards him, wrapping an arm around her. She liked it. It made her feel special.
‘You know, the only other time I came here I was sad,’ Gunnar said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I knew my mother was dying.’ He took a breath that Chloe could almost feel inside herself. ‘I mean, I hardly remember a time when I did not think that she was dying because of how ill she always was but, when we came here, I knew it would not be long.’
‘Did she teach you how to tune in to the pictures in the sky?’
‘Many times,’ Gunnar said. ‘But when she brought me here, the way the sky is at this place, everything was more vivid – is that the word?’
‘Yes,’ Chloe answered. ‘That’s right.’
‘I very much think she wanted me to have comfort from the universe here. To believe there is something else, if only pictures we create in our own minds to manifest what we might like our future to be.’
‘I like that idea,’ Chloe said, nestling back against him and feeling so completely at ease with it.
‘So, tell me, what are the dreams on that necklace you see?’ Gunnar asked.
She tensed a little now the conversational spotlight was back on her. What were her dreams? All of them. Not just the career she had put all her focus into when things with Michael had ended so savagely. What did she want from life? What did she truly want? She took a breath.
‘To love and be loved. To feel that total balance with someone – both partners on the same page, trusting they are working towards the same goals.’
‘That does not sound like a dream,krúttiomitt,’ he whispered. ‘It sounds like something everyone deserves.’
‘It’s not easy though, is it? Because as beautiful as life is, it can also be harsh. You know that, from losing your parents like I lost mine. From losing Kirstin, maybe?’
‘I do not know if I ever had Kirstin at all,’ he said with another sigh she could feel. ‘Or, rather, if we ever had each other.’
‘What do you mean?’ Chloe asked gently.
‘Well, like you say, it would be good if working towards the same goals allowed for the unexpected. Because life can throw in challenges and challenges should be faced together, no?’
Chloe thought about her and Michael. They had come up against a challenge, one of the biggest challenges, but instead of tackling that together, discussing, facing up to the reality of the issue of her infertility, they had both retreated. Then, before she had had time to process, to accept, Michael had run away.
‘Maybe,’ Chloe began. ‘If two people cannot be completely honest with each other, about their thoughts and their innermost feelings, no matter how bad or sad that might get, they should not be together at all.’
As she contemplated on the sheer depth of what she had just said and wondered what Gunnar would make of it, he already had his answer.
‘I think I agree.’
‘You only think you agree?’ She tipped her head back, wanting to find his eyes.
‘I think,’ he began again, ‘that what holds people back from sharing that is pure and simple fear.’
