Page 18 of Adrift in Iceland
‘Shall we carry this conversation on at the bar?’ Siggi asked, even though none of them had finished their coffees.
‘We’ll catch you up,’ Jonas said. ‘If you want to come, Leifur?’
‘Sure, that’d be great.’ He answered quickly, not givinghimself a chance to think too hard about it being out of his comfort zone. None of this was in his comfort zone, so he might as well embrace it.
Siggi swigged the last of his coffee and left.
‘We don’t always knock off this early,’ said Jonas. ‘The forecast for tonight is awful, so there’s no northern lights tour. It gives us chance to get together, which doesn’t happen that often once the summer comes and we’re taking advantage of the longer days.’
‘That was the same with the fishing. We used to socialise more in the winter months, knowing we’d be busy once the season started.’
‘And what did you make of the tour you went on? Any tips you picked up?’
‘They ran a slick operation, but I think they have been doing it a long time. They’re going to tried and tested sites where they know they will see a couple of humpbacks. Everyone was happy with that, but I think we could offer something better.’
‘A couple of humpbacks is better than nothing though,’ Jonas said with a frown. ‘If you know you’re onto a sure thing, isn’t that good enough?’
‘But if you could pay to see a couple of humpbacks for sure or you could pay to have a small chance of seeing a more unusual whale, what would you pick?’
‘I might like the humpbacks,’ said Jonas with a grin.
Leifur grinned back, seeing that Jonas was challenging him. ‘You might like the thrill of the hunt. Feeling like you’re part of tracking down something hardly anyone else gets to see. And with a marine biologist on hand and an experienced Icelandic fisherman, anything is possible.’
‘I might pay good money to be part of that,’ Jonas conceded. ‘But there are people who like a sure thing. If I knew we could get a glimpse of the northern lights from aparticular place every day of the week, I’d take that over the hunt we have to do sometimes. And so would our clients.’
Leifur shrugged. ‘Can we do a little of each?’
‘We can. And if we’re going to do that, we should do it while we have Astrid because we don’t know how long that will be for.’
Having spent less than a day with Astrid, Leifur already knew that he was going to miss her when that time came. As well as feeling that they’d found a connection, despite his blundering start to the day, he knew what it was like working on a boat with someone. They became like family. Closer than family, because sometimes you spent more time with them than with anyone else in your life. You got to know people in the hours spent searching and waiting for the right time to fish. And a fishing boat could be a treacherous environment, and you needed to know you had each other’s backs.
‘So we should start planning where we’re going to go,’ said Leifur. Spending time with Astrid, planning out, as far as they could, where they’d operate their excursion, was something he was already looking forward to. Her perspective on marine life was so different from his; hers informed by science and a desire to study what was in the sea rather than take from the sea with perhaps not enough regard for the consequences.
‘Come on,’ Jonas said, standing up and taking his coat from a hook on the wall at the back of the office. ‘Let’s head to the bar.’
‘The boat will be ready to collect on Friday.’ He watched while Jonas locked the door.
‘That’s great news. Have you seen her at all during the work?’
Leifur shook his head. ‘I went there to begin with, but I decided it was better to let her transform and come back to me new.’ Rather than mourn what was being lost. Hecouldn’t say that, even to Jonas. It felt too raw to admit how hard it had been to see the fishing rigs being removed from the deck. She might still beBrimfaxi, but he was frightened that she’d be so unrecognisable she wouldn’t feel like home anymore.
‘Good decision,’ Jonas said, clapping him on the back. ‘You ever come here?’ They had reached the corner of the street and were standing outside a bar called Islenski Barinn.
‘Not for a long time.’
‘I doubt it will have changed.’ Jonas made his way up the steps and held the door open at the top for Leifur to go in ahead of him.
The bar was not all that busy, but then it was relatively early on a Wednesday. Leifur spotted Siggi at a table next to a window that overlooked the street. There were another two men with him who Leifur hadn’t met before.
‘What would you like?’ Leifur asked Jonas.
‘No, this one’s on me.’
Leifur opened his mouth to object, and Jonas held a hand up.
‘Really. Call it team building. Everyone’s drinks are on the business today. Beer?’
With their beers in hand, they went to join the others.
