Page 77 of Ignited in Iceland
‘I don’t know. We still haven’t talked properly, and he doesn’t know I’ve decided about the job yet. But I want to be with him.’
‘Good for you.’
‘Anyway, how is the data looking?’
‘Oh, Iris. The data is beautiful. Wait until you see what those seismometers told us.’
The monitoring room at the IMO was buzzing with more people than Iris had ever seen there before. As she and Bjarkey moved through, Bjarkey introduced her to a few people as a new colleague. It felt strange but in the best way. It was just hard to believe that her life had changed so much in the space of two weeks.
Kári was sitting at a desk with extreme bed-head hair and a smile on his face. ‘Iris! I have been transposing this data like we did yesterday.’
Iris sat down with him, marvelling at the evidence she’d been hoping for, right on the screen in front of her. ‘This is amazing. We can see the activity heighten just after midnight on the fissure outside of the town, and at the same time the activity on the seismometer in town drops. And how did the regular data look then?’
She and Kári spent the next few hours poring over the data, building up a picture of what had happened, with the focus nowon the progress of the eruption. She had more than enough information to finish her report, something she was determined to do as soon as possible to put an end to any involvement she needed to have with Jay.
When they came up for air, Iris realised that she had completely lost track of time and had probably missed the first-thing-in-the-morning slot she’d promised Siggi. She pulled out her phone and texted him but there was no response and she could see the message hadn’t been read. Why hadn’t she got Gudrun’s number?
‘Bjarkey, could you do me a favour? Would you mind calling the hospital and seeing whether Siggi has been discharged?’
Iris gave Bjarkey all the details she could. It turned out that Siggi had been discharged. Iris felt guilty, but then it wasn’t as if she could have picked him up herself. He had good friends, and she wasn’t part of his support network. She had to remember that. As much as she hoped he might want her to be, she was in a kind of limbo situation until they’d talked, and that didn’t mean she had anything to feel guilty about.
She thanked Bjarkey and called the Icelandic Adventures office. Rachel answered the phone and Iris explained what had happened.
‘We thought it would have been the eruption that kept you away,’ she said, which made Iris feel better. ‘He’s fine. Jonas dropped him off at Anna and Ned’s.’
‘Do you think it would be alright if I went round?’
‘I think he’d love that.’ Rachel explained where the house was. ‘It used to be mine and Jonas’s place,’ she said wistfully.
The directions didn’t fill Iris with confidence that she’d find the house, but she’d noted them down diligently; take the road off Laugevegur as if you are heading to the church, then opposite a particular shop — she’d written the name of that phonetically— go up the cobbled path and it’s the red house with the trolls in the garden.
‘I’m leaving now if you want a lift,’ Bjarkey said.
’That’d be great, thank you. I’ll be in tomorrow morning to see how things are going.’
‘Hey, Iris.’ Bjarkey put a hand on her arm. ‘Why don’t you take some time out now that the eruption has started? Slow down, get your report finished. All of this is a big change and you need to give yourself time to adjust. Let things settle.’
‘There’s still data to analyse,’ she said, unsure of how she felt about what Bjarkey had suggested.
‘There is always data to analyse, but now it is not going to save anyone’s life. You have already done that.’
The thought of having some down time was suddenly appealing. She could get stuck into writing the report because she wanted to do the best possible job of that so that she could leave her old employer with dignity and to show Jay the level of professionalism he could never show her. Perhaps she would go home. Maybe finish the last of her days at British Geology Labs actually in the lab itself. Deliver the report in person and say a proper goodbye, because not all of her colleagues were people she’d be happy to leave behind. She wanted to leave with her head held high, not disappear into the night as if she’d done something wrong.
‘You’re right. I should concentrate on finishing off the job I have before I start my new one.’ Iris said as she climbed into the car.
Bjarkey grinned. ‘And maybe spend some time with that man of yours.’
‘We don’t know he’s my man.’
‘I have my fingers crossed for you.’
‘It just isn’t possible to be in love with someone so quickly.’ Iris didn’t phrase it as a question, but she looked at Bjarkey.She valued her opinion and she needed someone who could see things more clearly.
‘People fall in love all the time. For some people it is an instant, for others it grows over years. It is different for everyone. If you are in love with him, it’s not wrong to feel like that. You are a scientist, Iris. In your professional life you do not jump to conclusions without evidence to back them up. I expect your personal life is no different. You make calculated projections. Is being in love any different?’
‘I feel as if I’m listening too hard to my heart instead of my head. It’s as if my feelings are drowning out any reason that tries to make itself heard in my head.’
‘Oh, Iris. If this man doesn’t already know you are in love with him, he is an idiot and he is an even bigger idiot if he is not in love with you too.’
