He stands over me, naked chest, eyes sunken, face gaunt. Tent’s gone, he says. Rifle too. When the ice broke it made a landslide and everything went in. No more pistol either. Lost when I fell in the water after it jammed. The thermometer too. Gone. But he saves the worst for last. The fuel for the stove is lost. Down with everything else. What about the stove itself? I ask. He tells me that he saved it, but it’s got hardly anything left in it. And then, I ask about seal. He tells me he hasn’t seen it again since the attack. Voley walks off to investigate the edges of the new, tiny floe we’re trapped on now. I hear his feet hit slush as he walks, like everything is turning to liquid now, and we’re losing the last remnants of any firm surface. At last, when Russell helps me test my leg, raising me up on his arm, he says there’s one good bit of news. What’s that? I ask, hardly able to believe anything good could have come from this.
What do You think about The Blue (The Complete Novel)?
