The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2008, Side 34

32
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 62 #1
ened the whole world. Ancient traditions
perished and ancient prides were ground
into the dust. Cities were laid waste. Old
men and women and little children died
senselessly, horribly. Refugees crowded the
country roads and crumbled under machine
gun hail. The world knew total war.
Gunnar’s cousin, Olaf in distant
Canada, joined the air force and went over-
seas. News came that he had gone to his
death like a modern Viking in a flaming
plane.
Time passed; Gunnar listened and
grew restless. Always in time of war the
young grow restless. Helga wated and said
little. She talked of small things while a
nameless fear hung heavy in her breast.
“Not Gunnar,” she prayed “Please God,
not Gunnar!”
The Marines came to Iceland and their
enemies too. Treacherous man made fish
lurked in the waters. Crippled ships limped
into harbour and bits of strange wreckage
drifted up on the beaches;, pitiful remnants
of ships and people. That was how
Gretchen came into the lives of Helga and
Gunnar on the morning after a great storm.
She was unconscious when Gunnar
found her. Her long golden hair was
rimmed with salt and ends flowed free
from the braids. White salt streaks were
stiff in her full dark skirt and her feet were
blue and bare. She was only a little thing
but she lay like a dead weight in Gunnar’s
arms as he carried her up the path to the
cottage.
Helga put her to bed and cared for her.
Gunnar did not leave the house that day.
The sun was red in the western windows
before she stirred. She awakened later to
quiet moonlight lying like a silver arm
across the window sill. Her blue eyes were
clouded with remembered suffering, dark
with unforgotten fear and dread. She spoke
but the words were alien. Some of the
shadows left her eyes as she glanced around
at the quiet room; at the snowy curtains,
the singing kettle, the pictures on the wall
and the friendly faces of the man and
woman. She smiled faintly and slept.
For days she rested, gathering strength,
relaxing in the peace that was around her.
Day by day she grew more beautiful with a
delicate pink and white loveliness. The two
women talked sometimes, each asking
questions in their own language and the
laughing merrily at their inability to under-
stand each other.
The day Gretchen got up for the first
time was one of pleasure to all of them.
Later she spent long hours in the blessed
healing sunshine. She was standing there
one day where the path wound down over
the cliff when she saw her first plane.
Instinctively, she threw herself flat on the
grass, shaking, remembering. Gunnar
found her there when came up from the
sea. He helped her gently to her feet and
put his arms about her and held her close to
still her trembling. The fragrance of her
shining hair was pressed against his breast.
She drew away after a moment and laughed
shakily up at him, then they walked slowly
to the house.
In the mornings the women worked at
daily tasks that women do and gradually
their words came to have meaning to each
other. They became friends, Helga, and the
Pharmacists:
ERNEST STEFANSON
CARRY FEDORCHUK
CLAIRE GILLIS
642-5504
[p^PHARMASAVE
We care
about your health
Centre and Fourth / Gimli, MB / ROC 1 BO