Read Online Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson - Free Book Online Page A

looking at her husband. At that very moment, in the midst of his pleasure in the power of verses, Pétur looks up. The power, the magic, the lust subside unexpectedly, turn to nothing, are sucked out of him and disappear when the fear of losing her seeks him out and fills every cell. Lose her where, he doesn’t know, has never gone to the heart of that question, but what does he have, and what is life? Yes, it is this boat, the Earth with its houses and creatures, and then Andrea. Thirty years with her. He knows no other life. If she were to disappear, he would lose his balance, he realizes that now, completely unexpectedly this conclusion stands before him, the verse dies on his lips and Pétur seems to collapse.
    Einar curses softly. He knows the set of verses that ebbed out and had been waiting eagerly for the last stanzas. The unexpected silence brings the world back to them. Brings the frost, the wind, the rising waves, and the snowflakes, because the swirling snowfall has drawn closer. Bárður rubs his arms furiously, the boy turns so he can rub his friend’s chest and back simultaneously, Einar and Gvendur fight the waves, Árni avoids looking at Pétur, who is so unlike himself, sits there and appears to be waiting for someone to throw him overboard like something useless. The boat rises and falls. The seasickness that has plagued the boy so little on the voyage, he having blessed the Chinese Vital Elixir so often in his mind, now returns, yet is still mild, a qualm he should be able to work off when they start to haul in the lines, that is if they start sometime, if time has not abandoned them, left them behind on the Polar Sea. Pétur shakes himself, he shakes himself like an animal, tears himself away from the numbness, the surrender, the fear, and says: let’s row to the buoy.
    Árni, Bárður, and the boy straighten up, but Einar and Gvendur turn the boat around and row hard the short distance to the buoy, because now they shall haul in fish, now they shall haul it up from the depths that keep life in us, improve homes, and amplify dreams. Bárður fastens the spool onto the rowlock, his job is to haul in the line, needed for this work are strength and stamina, of which he has a considerable amount. Pétur leans slightly over the side, looks down into the sea, waits with the gaff in his right hand, they start with his line, the skipper’s line. They quiver with expectation. Bárður pulls, down in the deep the line moves, the cod rise to the surface and receive a rude reception. Pétur gaffs the fish on board, shortly afterward Árni bleeds them with one swift movement and they never swim again through the dark blue depths with wide-open mouths, swallowing everything smaller than themselves, those moments of delight are behind them and death takes over, but we do not know where death takes them, should the eternal sea exist somewhere behind time, full of deceased fish, some long extinct here on Earth? The fish has cold blood and is perhaps not particularly sensitive concerning life and death, thinks the boy, takes the line just as soon as Bárður hauls it in, very heavy with fish, lays it down, carefully, makes sure it does not get tangled, cuts off the bait remaining on the hooks, it’s not always easy and he needs to be quick, sometimes the only way is to use his teeth, pull off the bait and then spit it out ice-cold and extremely salty. There are a lot of fish. Bárður starts to haul in Árni’s line, Pétur aims the gaff, he smiles, this is a beautiful moment. Einar and Gvendur fight the waves, they both smile, Gvendur resembles a huge, gentle dog and morning has arrived. But when Bárður has come a long way in pulling in the fourth line, the boy’s line, it’s as if the sky darkens again, as if night has returned, forgive me, I forgot something. But this is not the night that has returned for its cap, because Pétur looks up and glances around, the world is gone and a dense black cloud where the