Midnight Sun's Magic

‘Oh, I see… I suppose I’m not supposed to be too curious?’

‘The boss relies on your discretion, but unless you happened to be an electronics expert with a very inquisitive nose, I don’t think you would be any the wiser.’

‘Well, I’m not particularly interested,’ she said loftily, and he laughed. ‘You’re not bored?’

‘Bored? Heavens, no—how could I possibly be that? I don’t have much time for a start, do I? And there’s such a lot to cram into each day.’

‘And there’s a treat in store for you in a couple of days. Fetching the stores from Ny Aalesund. There’s one shop there and it stocks everything, although not all of it is on sale to the tourists from the cruising trips coming from Norway during the summer. The men will give you a list as long as your arm and you’d better make one for yourself. We only go once a month.’

‘Don’t you go on the Coastal Express?’

‘Sometimes, but the jetty isn’t any good and we have to go out to her by boat, and transferring the stuff from her on the return journey is quite a lengthy business.’

‘Then how do we go?’ Annis gazed round her. ‘There’s no road…’

‘We fly.’

‘Oh—does the plane come from Tromso?’

‘No—there’s one here, it’s in a boathouse on the other side of the radio station. I don’t suppose you’ve been as far.’

She shook her head. ‘No. It’ll be fun to go to Ny Aalesund.’

They went back presently and she went to the hut and joined Freddy, writing one of his rare, sketchy letters. He looked up when she went in. ‘Hullo—enjoy the seals?’

‘Enormously.’

‘Jake’s a good fellow to be with, never gets worked up about anything. I’m told that he’s much sought after by the birds.’

‘Don’t be vulgar, Freddy.’ She added carelessly: ‘He’s not so young, though, is he?’

Freddy grinned. ‘Thirty-five, very up-and-coming in his profession, too. A worthy target for your charms, love.’

She turned a wintry eye on him. ‘Freddy, I’ve already begged you not be vulgar. I’m sure Doctor van Germert is a very pleasant man, that’s all.’

He sighed loudly. ‘Don’t tell me that you’re pining for that dreary Arthur?’

Annis giggled. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! That’s why I came here—we weren’t getting anywhere and I’d discovered that I couldn’t possibly marry him.’

‘Bully for you, ducky. I found him a drip, not your sort.’

‘What’s my sort?’ She had sat down on a folding chair and had picked up the map she had been studying each day in the hope that she would know exactly where she was.

‘Jake.’

She put the map down carefully. Her voice was light and a little amused. ‘I’m waiting for a real charmer, Freddy—I’d like to be swept off my feet.’

Freddy turned back to his writing. ‘As long as you find them again,’ he warned her.

It was at breakfast the next day that someone asked: ‘Who’s going with you, Jake?’

‘Annis.’ The doctor didn’t even look at her as he spoke. ‘Have your lists ready by this evening, will you? We’ll leave early.’

‘And what is early?’ asked Annis sweetly. ‘I don’t seem to have been told much about this…’

He refused to be ruffled. ‘After the night shift’s breakfast,’ he told her blandly. ‘The second breakfast men can manage for themselves—we’ll be back in time for you to cook supper.’

She eyed him frostily. So she was to cook supper, was she, after a hectic day shopping in a strange language among strange people, not to mention the trip there and back. She only hoped whoever was to fly the plane was a nice levelheaded man who didn’t expect her to get thrilled every time they hit a pocket of air and dropped like a stone…

‘Will you have time to show Annis the hospital, Jake?’ asked someone.

‘I thought it might be an idea; I’ve a job or two to do there, anyway.’

Annis’s interest quickened. It would be fun to see a hospital so far from the rest of the world, and she began to wonder about it, not listening to the talk around her.

She would have liked to have worn something more feminine than slacks and a shirt on this, the highlight of her stay, but common sense warned her that the weather might change with a speed she hadn’t quite got used to, and probably the ground was rock. She wore sensible shoes, her new pale blue slacks and a white cotton blouse with a blue and white striped sweater to pull over it, and covered it with a pinny while she saw to breakfast.

She studied the lists she had been given while she ate her breakfast through a chorus of items which had been forgotten. She already had a list of food and necessities and how she was going to get the lot in a day was beyond her, although with only one shop it might be easier. She finished her meal and only then noticed that the doctor wasn’t there. Perhaps she was late—she got to her feet in a panic, gathering her plates and cup and saucer together. ‘I should go,’ she cried to those around her. ‘Who’s flying the plane?’

‘I am,’ said Jake, coming in through the door with maddening slowness. ‘And I haven’t had my breakfast yet, so don’t panic.’

‘I am not panicking,’ declared Annis crossly. She added: ‘Can you fly a plane, then?’

There was a chorus of kindly laughter. ‘It’s his plane, Annis,’ she was told. ‘He’s really very good at it, too, you don’t have to be nervous.’

‘I’m not in the least nervous.’ She shot a glance at the doctor, calmly eating his breakfast, taking so little notice of anyone that he might have been at his own table, quite alone. Not alone, she decided, her thoughts taking off as usual; he’d have a dog—perhaps two…

‘Have you a dog?’ she asked suddenly, and everyone looked bewildered. All except the doctor, who looked up, studied her face carefully and answered, just as though he had read her thoughts: ‘Yes. He sits with me while I eat my breakfast. If you’d like to collect your purse or whatever, I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes.’

The plane was moored to the jetty, a small seaplane, very spick and span, bouncing up and down in what Annis considered to be a quite unnecessarily boisterous manner.

‘It’s the wind catching her,’ explained the doctor, just as though Annis had spoken out loud. ‘Jump in.’

‘Isn’t there anyone else coming?’

He shook his head. ‘No.’ And because he obviously wasn’t going to say more than that, she climbed aboard and settled herself down.

She hadn’t expected to enjoy the trip because she had to confess to a secret fear that the small craft might drop like a stone on to the white wastes below them, or lose a wing or a vital bit of its engine, but presently her fears left her, probably because her companion exhibited much the same sort of calm as a bus driver going along a well-remembered country lane.

After a little while he began to point out various landmarks. ‘There’s Magdalena Bay straight ahead, and Konigsfjord is round the corner. The cruisers all go there and then on up to the ice barrier.’

They had been following the coastline for a good deal of the time, now he banked and pointed downwards. ‘There’s Ny Aalesund; we’ll come down by the pier—it’s quite a walk to the shop and the road’s a mixture of coal and lava. We’ll take a taxi if you would rather.’

‘A taxi? Here? Surely they can’t earn their living? Where are the roads?’

‘There are two, and they don’t go far, but all the same a car can be useful to get about. In the winter everyone has snow scooters.’

He came down some way from the shore and taxied slowly up to the pier, where several men appeared to make the plane fast. ‘Out you get,’ said the doctor. ‘We’ll go straight to the shop, though I suggest that we stop at the post office and have coffee.’