Sommarøy Pt.2

I flew from Glasgow to Oslo before transferring onto a cramped Cessna. After thirty minutes, I could see Sommarøy below in bleached sunlight. The pilot didn’t speak much English. He walked with me along the tarmac to a small outbuilding. Above the doorway a sign read-

Sommarøy Flypassen. 

He took off his hat then put on another before scanning my bag and passport. His English seemed to improve when he made enquiries regarding the purpose of my journey. 

Outside a polished car was plugged into a charge point. I was expecting Harsvold but there was no one aside from chirping birds and the Cessna taking off. After the plane was gone, a small, round man with a wide grin appeared from nearby bushes.

‘Hello. I am named Espen. Harsvold said I should meet you.’ He hugged me tightly and took my bags. I walked towards the car.

‘No it is a slow taxi I’m afraid.’ Espen said. ‘Also in fact, the road is long and diverges many times. Come with me through the meadows.’

We walked for two or three miles amongst powdery cornflowers. The sun was high and the sky airless. Espen was sweating but did not complain about my luggage and refused to let me share the load. He was singing a song called The Lad Who Went to the North Wind.

‘This is an antique song. Not specific to you. No not specific.’

‘Okay.’ I said. ‘Is it a happy song. I mean the words?’

Espen swung the bags over a gate. 

‘A poet once said if music be the food of love play on. Now I’m no poet but I think if we made music more about the love of food, we would be merrier by far.’

Following a weathered wall we came alongside a team of dappled horses grazing.

‘Ah. Perhaps they can be the taxi you desired.’ Espen had lowered his voice.

‘It’s alright. I’ve never ridden a horse.’ I said.

Espen left me by the bags and tip-toed across the meadow. Moving sideways he crouched near the horses who half watched whilst munching scented grass. When Espen leapt forward the horses reversed a pace or two and he fell heavily.

‘They must have seen me.’ He whispered.

‘Pretty much.’ I said.

‘More stealth. More guile yes?’

‘I don’t know. They seem pretty alert.’

He pounced again this time catching the rump of a smaller horse who bucked him. Espen flew into the air, legs extending above his head before crashing to earth again. His forehead grazed he began chasing the whole team.

‘Come here you brutes.’ 

They trotted forward then halted. As Espen ran panting they trotted on a little. This continued for at least a mile until we reached the road which led into town. Espen slumped in a lay-by. An electric car passed silently.

‘Welcome to Sommarøy.’ He said.

Below us bright coloured cottages wedded themselves to a glittering sea.

‘I see you’ve met our village idiot.’ Harsvold said as we watched Espen disappear between two barns. Looking at my bags he rubbed his thick, blonde beard.

‘On Sommarøy we don’t require many clothes because of the sun.’

‘Okay.’ I said even though I didn’t understand what he meant.

His timber house had no furniture. Instead the floors were filled with computers and science equipment. Lines of an equation were written back and forth across a large wall. On the bottom right hand side an equal sign was followed by 03 to 03

‘Is that thesolution?’ I said.

‘A solution to what?’ Harsvold laughed. He was converting the house into a Research Centre for Sommarøy. 

‘The effects of continual daylight must be studied. Time becomes timeless. So we need to ask ourselves, what reality is. Yes. What is reality without time?’

He stared as if waiting for an answer. I couldn’t think of anything.

‘You will make a good intern. You know little, you learn much.’

‘Thank you.’ I said. ‘Where will I sleep?’

Harsvold led me to the back of the house and pointed to a line of hydrangeas. 

‘You can sleep over there by the hydrangeas. That is if you can sleep. If sleep is what you need or want.’

‘Okay.’ I said.

He unrolled a tea cloth and offered me serinakaker. Harsvold found my pronunciation amusing. He demonstrated how to dip the biscuits in coffee. They tasted salty and sweet.

‘There is a public meeting.’ He said. ‘You can introduce yourself to the community and begin your contribution.’

‘What time?’ I said. ‘Sorry that probably was a stupid question.’

Harsvold nodded and offered me the last biscuit.

I wandered to the shadowless hydrangeas and lay beneath a vast sun. I sensed sounds of the town and sea, faraway and close. It was impossible to gauge how long I lay. Nothing moved, nothing changed. At some point I saw Harsvold with a leather briefcase so I rose and followed him. 

In the garden of a grass roofed cottage, we met Espen planting flowers. I asked if he was okay after his encounter with the horses. He thanked me for my concern. When I said where we where going he wished us well adding..

‘I’m no expert in human behaviour but public meetings make me feel we should spend more time apart.’

Harsvold grabbed my arm to walk on. Once out of earshot he said.

‘That man is considerably stupid.’

At a grand barn some people sat on hay bales others at benches or the floor. Harsvold opened his laptop and worked through the agenda. He updated the meeting on the Research centre. Furthermore he hoped to travel to Kavli Institute to study FRBs emitting from the sun.

A woman with no legs and only one arm shouted from atop her electric buggy.

‘And FRBs are?’

Harsvold sighed. ‘Fast Radio Bursts. That is to say, patterns of sounds which may come from the sun or indeed the outer galaxy.’

‘Demonry.’ The woman replied. 

Harsvold was looking at his screen as though no one had spoken. 

‘Next item. A Celebration of Sommarøy. I would be pleased to hear ideas which may underscore the uniqueness of our timeless town.’

People raised hands with suggestions which others talked down. A man at the back thought a statue would be appropriate but Harsvold said no.

‘Statues are cold stone. Frozen. We need something organic, evolving like our knowledge.’

The woman with no legs demanded a sun festival. Harsvold shook his head and muttered.

‘Druid nonsense.’

I glanced at the woman to see if she had heard and it was then I saw a girl by her side with tangled hair and large hazel eyes.

Eventually a man seated near Harsvold and I pointed in my direction.

‘What about ideas from the young Intern?’

The meeting turned, waiting. 

‘Trees.’ I surprised myself in suggesting it. Now not only the meeting but Harsvold too, concentrated on me. ‘Trees. I mean the tallest of trees can grow for hundreds-.’

‘Ah you mean like Sequoias?’ Harsvold said.

‘Yes. Something that is the tallest, the longest. That could outlast everything.’

‘Except the eternal sun.’ The legless woman added. The girl wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was bent over, studying her pale hands.

‘Actually I like this idea.’ Harsvold said. 

‘A ladder to the sun. A symbol.’ The legless woman said. ‘We should have a planting ceremony.’

‘Yes. Good.’ People shouted.

‘Oh very well. If you must.’ Harsvold said.

A table with bread and cloudy lemonade was brought forward when the meeting concluded. An old couple shook my hand and said. ‘Well done.’ Others came over and introduced themselves as I stuffed soft bread in my mouth. My body had forgotten the different times to eat.

The girl was next to me. The legless woman was her mother who spoke first.

‘I am Matis. This is Athene my daughter. You made a divine suggestion with the sequoia trees.’

‘Thank you.’ I said.

‘Walk with us to our cottage.’

I didn’t know what time it was and I didn’t think it was right to ask. Shouldn’t I be back for Harsvold in case he had work for me? But I wanted to speak to the girl. 

I followed the two women along a coastal path. Below us in a pretty dune a couple sunbathed. The sun lit the sand around their bodies. Two men were painting a beach house near a family in pyjamas who ate breakfast or lunch or supper. 

When we reached a grassy hillock, Matis told me not to push her buggy as it was solar powered. Her garden was hung with shells and driftwood arranged in patternless patterns. She rolled inside. Athene and I sat on the grass either side of a conch. 

‘Why do you have ideas? Like tall trees?’ Athene said and touched my hand as though she wasn’t sure what it was made of.

‘Everyone has ideas.’

‘How do you know what everyone has?’ She said. ‘I don’t have ideas.’

Matis came back out. No one spoke until I said.

‘It is so sunny here.’

‘Yes but often there is no light. Do you see my meaning?’ Matis said.

‘No I don’t.’

‘So you are working for the Scientist?’ She said.

‘Harsvold? Yes. We met at a Graduate Fair.’

‘I have no legs and one arm. It was a disease. Perhaps Harsvold told you this?’

‘No. What happened?’ I said.

‘We were married.’

‘Married? Do you mean that was the disease?’

I looked at Athene who was rolling her palms around the conch.

‘Yes.’ Matis said. ‘She is his daughter. But Harsvold made science his wicked mistress. When I became ill and lost my limbs I told him the sun would re-grow them. He threw me out and Athene also.’

As Matis spoke, Athene listened as though she’d heard it all before but understood it for the first time.

‘Harsvold thinks science will provide answers about Sommarøy. He will fail.’

‘Why?’ I said.

‘The sun star is unknowable.’ Matis nodded towards Athene who rose and stood beside her mother. ‘You and Athene should become friends.’

‘Yes.’ I said. ‘I would like that.’

Matis rolled back indoors. Athene walked with me to the garden gate.

‘Are we friends?’

‘Yes’ I said. ‘We are friends.’

Athene considered for a moment. ‘Okay.’