The Last Fix [En liten gyllen ring no]

Theleather seat creaked as she leaned back and peered up at the blue-black skywhere the stars sparkled, like the gleam from a lamp covered with a blacksieve. She said aloud 'Like the gleam from a lamp covered with a damn greatblack sieve.'

Theylooked into each other's eyes again, so long that she almost felt part of herwas drowning in his dark eyes. She wondered whether it would always be likethis for her, whether the boundary between friendship and love would always beconfused.

Hesaid: 'If we can move away, step back far enough, here on earth, we see a kindof system in what is only fiery chaos. We can see two stars, one may have diedyears ago, and been extinguished, and the other may be in the process ofexploding right now. We consider it a system, but everything is in constantflux. The earth falls, the sun falls, stars explode in the beyond and createtime!'

Thecigarette bobbed up and down in the corner of his mouth and his eyes shone withenthusiasm. He is a little boy, she thought, taking the cigarette from his drylips. She held it between her long fingers and kissed him tentatively. Hetasted of smoke and lozenges. The stubble of his beard rasped against her chin.He said something she didn't catch; the words caressed her face like silentbreaths of wind between fine beach grass. She opened her mouth as he went on,parted her lips to blow at the whispering voice.

'Imaginea woman,' he whispered. 'A beautiful woman a long time ago, one who is a bitwild…'

'Wild?'

'It'sa long time ago anyway, and one day she is walking along a path and comes to ariver. There's a bridge over the river, one of those old-fashioned ones madewith tree trunks, with no railing…'

'Isit spring or autumn?' she asked.

'It'sspring, and the river is running high and she stops to look down, into thefoaming torrent. She stands there playing with her ring, but drops it in thewater…'

'Whatsort of ring is it?'

'I'mcoming to that. The ring has been passed down through generations. And the ringfalls in the water and is lost. Many years later she meets a man. He's fromCanada…'

'Whereis she from?'

'Hm?'

Shesmiled at the bewildered expression on his face. 'You said he was from Canada.Where is she from?'

Hethrust out his hands. 'She's from… from… Namsos.'

'Yousee. It takes so little for you to lose your composure.' 'But you ask so manyquestions. You're ruining my story.'

Shesmiled. 'That's because you get so excited. Don't be annoyed. Go on.'

'Thetwo of them marry. But all his life he walks around with an amulet around hisneck. It's a small Indian box carved out of wood; inside he has a secret,something he found in the stomach of a salmon he gutted as a young man…'

'Thering!' she exulted.

Despairingintake of breath from Henning.

Shegrinned. 'Are you denying that the ring is in the amulet?'

He,also with a grin: 'The ring is indeed in the amulet. But that's not the point.'

'OK,get to the point.'

'Thepoint is that he dies.'

'Dies?Hey, you're evil.'

'…And when he's dead, the widow opens the amulet he wore around his neck all hislife… what are you grinning at?'

'You'resuch a hopeless romantic.'

Withanother grin: 'I'm never going to the cinema with you.'

'Yes,you will. Let's go to the cinema. Let's go tomorrow.'

'Butyou don't let anyone finish what they're saying.'

'Idon't go to the cinema to talk!'

'No,tut I'm sure you'll sit there commenting on the film. I hate it when peopletalk in the cinema.'

'Ipromise to be quiet if you come with me to the cinema tomorrow.'

'Whatwill Ole say if you and I go to the cinema?'

'Don'tbring Ole into this. I'm talking about you and me.'

'AndI'm talking about the system,' he insisted, remaining objective. 'My wholepoint is that it is not chance that made this man live his life with her ringround his neck. No two rings are identical; it's the same ring she lost beforethey met. He caught a fish with the ring in its stomach. However, the ring andthe man, plus her and the salmon, along with the ring, are all part of thesystem, a pattern which becomes logical if it is put in the right perspective.If you step back far enough.'

'Andyou're floating on a pink cloud,' she said, taking a last drag of hiscigarette. She held it out to him with a quizzical expression, then crushed itin the ashtray in the car door when, with a wave of his hand, he refused. Shesaid: 'The strange thing about this story is that she didn't know about thering the man had around his neck all his life. After all, they were married.'

Hesighed again. 'You're the one who's hopeless,' he whispered, and after a littlereflection went on: 'OK, but I think this guy had the ring in the amulet aroundhis neck because he dreamed about the woman who owned it, and I think he didn'twant to reveal the dream to his wife because he loved her so much. He didn'twant her to know about this dream he had about another woman.'

'Andin fact it was his wife who owned the ring. It was her he was dreaming aboutall the time.' She nodded deep in thought. 'In a way, that's beautiful.'

Henningleaned forwards, groped around the dashboard and pressed a button. A buzz camefrom the roof of the car as it closed above them.

'Wouldn'tyou like to see the stars?' she asked with sham surprise.

'I'ma bit cold,' he answered – as though quoting a line from a book.

Withthe roof over their heads and the windows closed it was like sitting in frontof a warm hearth. The car bonnet reflected the glow of the starry sky. An insectbrushed against her forehead, leaving her with a mild itch which she rubbedwith her index finger.

'WhatI am trying to point out is the pattern,' he continued. 'Imagine the hand thatgathers strength to cast the bait, a second in an ocean of seconds, but stillthis second is part of a system. It is at this second that the salmon takes thebait – so that the man can land the fish and find the ring in its stomach. Forone moment, imagine that moment – the sun reflecting on the drops of water andthe metal hook – a hundredth of a second that fulfils the fish's feeling ofhunger and its drive to swim up the river. This hundredth is one link in asystem. Everything is connected: fate, man, woman, salmon, time and the ringshe fidgets with on the bridge. Together they are points in a greater unity.Take us two. Or imagine two people, any two young people, two people who loveeach other without being aware that they do.'

'Butis that possible?'

Heshrank back, stole a glance and said: 'Of course it's possible. These twopeople see each other every day, they may meet every day at work – or not eventhat – for that matter they might see each other every day at a bus stop – oron a bus in the morning rush hour. She may run past a window where he isstanding and waiting every morning. Think about it: every morning she rims pasta particular office window to see him, and he rushes to the window to see her;this is a moment of contact neither of them can analyze or understand to anymeaningful extent until a lot of time has passed. Later, with more experience,with the passage of more time, they think back and know in their hearts thatwhat they had felt at that moment was a kind of love. They know that theyalready loved each other then.'

'But,Henning,' she said, stroking his beard with her lips. She placed a light kisson Henning's mouth and whispered: 'You can let them meet again because you'rein charge, you're telling the story.'

Hewhispered back: 'You have to remember that these two met in the way they didwithout knowing they were meeting. It was just something that happened. Pastmeetings of this kind are a source of the loss or the warmth they carry inside- for the rest of their lives.'

'Butyou can let them meet once more,' she insisted.