11/22/2008
We come here to discover our origins. Outside, snow glitters to
the end of the world. We join Xavier and Lucien in the concrete pod perched on
the South Pole. Two years to melt and analyze ice, breathe recycled air, eat
dried fish and tinned vegetables. Never going outside. I am not sure I can do this.
But our grant ran out. And I love you.
2/14/2009
Years of study in musty stacks bound us together, years of long
nights in the laboratory posing hypotheses that disintegrated to dust. Love for
truth turned into love for each other.
Today you sketched me a rose.
5/4/2009
We perfect the mechanical thaw.
6/5/2009
We analyze the first melted ice core. One litre of potential life.
We scan the water millimeter by millimeter, seeking life invisible at 10,000X.
10/9/2009
You sight it first, the fragile twisting helix. Xavier takes
over, you withdraw in a sulk. We melt ice, faster.
11/11/2009
The fever melts Xavier’s eyes. We slide him out the door and
onto the ice.
11/23/2009
Lucien succumbs. We keep melting ice, catalogueing nothing. The
air hangs heavy.
12/5/2009
Tonight you shake me awake. “Amalie, come,” you say, your
eyes like embers. You pull me to the microscope. “See?”
The field glares white.
“Yes,” and I cry.
12/13/2009
I find you slumped over your papers, laptop humming. I remove
your watch, the amber bead hanging around your neck. I pocket your wedding band.
12/20/2009
I can see the white mound of you.
12/25/2009
Without you, without the others, there is more room to
breathe. I power down the microscope, the freezer, remove my jacket and boots. Later,
I will open the chute. The air will liven me: ice crystals will embroider my
eyelashes. I will walk into the desert, breathing at last.
My contribution to FLASHMOB2013, the international flash fiction blog carnival and contest extraordinaire. A non-competing entry, as I am one of the organizers, along with the brilliant Michelle Elvy and equally genius Christopher Allen. Over 100 authors from around the world. Check it out. Winners announced June 22. Peace...
Posts
Wow. Powerful and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteJust the same it reinforces my belief we should leave Antarctica alone. In its own power and beauty.
This is brilliant! Marking it on my list of ones to read again later.
ReplyDeleteGosh, Linda, you've done it again! Such powerful writing, and such an imaginative piece. I will remember this line: "ice crystals will embroider my eyelashes." Gorgeous. Big mob love!
ReplyDeleteLove this. "Mob love" as Michelle says. Excellent piece, clever and moving.
ReplyDeleteOh Linda, I've missed you. I haven't been around much but I've missed the way you write, so deft and vivid.
ReplyDeleteThe sense of isolation, and discovery, and beauty, and futility really hit me with this one. I could feel the chill and at the same time the acceptance.
Jai
Coming from the north, the expression you used to describe ice crystals on eyelashes is exactly what they look like when it is really, really cold out. This is a wonderful piece and I enjoyed it immensely.
ReplyDelete