Josh and Amanda Head to Iceland

They had both graduated from the University of British Columbia that same year.  The idea was to become marine biologists, and although they didn’t talk much during school, they were to end up together studying Narwhals.  Josh was a bit taken aback by it, saying that Narwhals were the clumsiest animals in the ocean and that they were like half patented unicorns turning into a fat, swimming blob.  Where its evolutionary road led Josh best guessed nowhere but a fat, gluttonous heaven where some creatures might adore its unicorn like tusk protruding from its face.  And to sit and stare at these goliath false unicorns made his stomach turn.

Amanda however thought the idea great and with a flashy smile chattered her excitement to Josh.  “Can you believe this?  Greenland to study Narwahls.  I mean, this is ridiculous, what an amazing job!”

“Did you know I was going too?”

“Yes, that is so exciting.  We’re going to be friends!”

“I don’t share the enthusiasm.  In fact I’m kind of mortified.”

“Everything is going to be great, Josh.  Trust the divine presence above.”

“Yeah, the divine presence above.  You aren’t just trying to get me, are you?”

“No.  Don’t worry.  Everything is going to be fine.  Trust me.”

The exams were brutal, but Josh managed to get mostly straight B’s.  Amanda never reported what her grades were but she told Josh she had dreamt of becoming a marine biologist since she was a little girl.  She kept a poster of a whale for the entirety of her sixth waking years to her twenty-second year where she graduated from university.  A giant whale lurking in the deep, thousands of metres below the surface of the ocean-what an amazing concept.  To her it posed an interesting relationship with life, to eat the little stuff and go lurk low and deep, dancing gracefully with family and friends on the deepest of ocean floors.

Josh took that as if she meant she was meant to be a marine biologist, with or without scoring high marks.  He was proud of his B and A average those five years.

They flew to the East coast in a plane and travelled to Greenland by a small ship that was built for the Pacific waves.  They talked to each other frequently and planned a working relationship for the time they’d spend in Greenland.

Narwhars were ancient whales related to the Beluga whale.  For many years these ocean beasts were hunted for their blubber and their helical unicorn like tusk.  He could only anticipate the times in Greenland as these mostly globby sort of creatures messing around and hiding deep wherever, then dramatically coming up to the surface for air.  He hoped there’d be at least one decent person there he could talk to and maybe drink with.  Maybe an Indian, he didn’t know, but the Narwhals really bothered him.



In her ship quarters she put up a new poster of three narwhals under sea.  Josh looked at it miserably one time when he was in her room.  “That’s the magic of Narwhals, eh?”

“Well, I think they are like a present left unwrapped.  I think they are very special.”

Once again Josh shuddered.  He took her up to the bow of the ship and they stood there with the ocean wind blowing through their hair.  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Josh said.

“Very beautiful, Josh.  This is great.”

Some rain blew into their faces and Josh imagined himself the Narwhal crying through his tusk.  Amongst other possibly beautiful moments, this was not one.

On another night Amanda asked Josh to go with her to the bar that was on the third floor.  With nothing else to do he assented and sat beside her for four hours as she drank, and cried, then drank some more and cried, for the last two hours of her drunken mission.  Her parting words were : I’m not the kind of gal who would just bare herself naked at some guy you know.  I know what I know.  I do what I need to do.”

“That’s good,” Josh said.  “That’s good.”

On the fifth day of that week Greenland was in sight before the clouds and mist.  It was stonier than it was green, Josh thought, as he expected it all to be verdant green, but he found little trouble admitting to himself that it looked rather beautiful and portentous.  However Josh had no real affection for Amanda and her dreams.  It was like listening to a record twice or three times a day and wondering where the beginnings were.  And he had to admit she sounded a bit pretty, but he would blame himself all his life if he took her up for a while.  This was a lose-lose situation.  She had no respect for him as a character and he had no admiration for her at all.  She would cry at her foolishness and he would regret her even misinterpreting a maybe kiss situation.

But they both smiled, looking from the bow at Nuuk as the shore approached.  “Can you smell that air?”

“That’s the freshest air I’ve ever smelled,” Amanda said.

“You’ve ever breathed!”

“Breathed.  Right!”

The captain smiled at the two from the deck as they descended the ramp with their baggage and they both waved the old man goodbye.  A week had passed while on the long cruise and both Josh and Amanda were happy to get their feet back on solid ground.

They stopped at a small pub not far from shore and asked the bartender for a taxi.  Apparently there were sixteen thousand people that lived in Nuuk and was the capitol of Greenland.  The taxi came in about thirty minutes and they told him the directions for their future home and base for Narwahl research.  The back of the taxi was very small and fit them both tightly.  In another twenty minutes they were carrying the baggage to the door of this small, red shack, with a porch and a grey wooden door.

There was a window on the front of the building that was very dull in the cloudy sunlight.  The door was locked and Amanda searched for the key in the last opened bag.  Finally she found it and unlocked the door, leading them inside on the old 2*8 planking.  The walls were plastered and the white was various in the rooms and the halls.  “I was expecting a lot worse,” Josh said.

“It’s not too bad.  Liveable, anyway.”

“Did the doctor say anything specific about the cabin?”

She withdrew a manila envelope and rifled through the pages.  “I don’t remember exactly what he said.  I’m pretty sure he said that furniture and equipment would come in a week and that when the phone was set up to call him sometime in Canada but not to forget about the different time zones.  Is that right?  Do we just bunk here for now before they bring the furniture?”

“I guess.  We’ve both got sleeping bags.  Shouldn’t be a big deal.”

There was a propane powered stove in the kitchen that would not ignite.  There was nothing in the cupboards but a box of tea, plates, bowls and cups and a steel kettle.  “Look,” Josh smiled.  “This week was made for us.”

Amanda smiled too, approving of his deer-like wisdom and tinkling both eyes.

“Amanda,” Josh said.  Ï’ve got to tell you I don’t really like the idea of studying Narwhals.  When they’re fine and plump and happy it is like watching the most clumsy opera on earth.  They make me sad.  They have got no real guts.”

“Oh, Josh.  You don’t have any spirit in you at all.  It is God’s magic.  It is divine, that’s why we’re here.”

“You’re telling me you wouldn’t rather be swimming with right whales on Vancouver Island?””

“Oh, no.  I’d much rather be swimming with any kind of whale, but Narwhals are amazing too.”

“That just shows the inconsistency of optimism.”

“What?”

“Nothing matters when you’re happy.”

“Oh, yes.  Well, I not overly happy at studying Narwhals, but I can forget Vancouver and grow to love Nuuk.  It’s called anticipatory attitude.”

“Wow.  That sounds smart.”

“That is smart,” Amanda said, defensively.

“Just teasing you,” Josh said.

“Hey, speaking of tea, why don’t you brew some?”

“There’s no gas for the stove.”

“Bring the kettle outside and start a fire.”

“What are we going to without water?”

“Just ask a neighbour.”

“Ok.  That’s smart too.”

So Josh brought the kettle and a teabag to a neighbours and he introduced himself with a smile and asked the favor.  Lonely in Greenland they smiled at his Canadian accent and made him a full kettle of piping hot tea.  He returned without spilling any.  He poured each a cup and handed one to Amanda.

“You know, even if that tea is a year old, it still tastes delicious.”

“Yeah.  Another surprise.  You know if this were a movie the tea would taste putrid.”

“Speaking about a movie, how do you think our expedition will turn out?”

“I don’t know.  I expect to be bored half the time.”

“I think it will be fascinating.”

“All we have to do is take numbers of them marked or unmarked in their pod-a-pod.”

“Apparently.”

“Yeah, this could be a neat job.”

They sipped tea and talked.  When there was nothing left to say Josh walked outside and looked around him.  Their cabin was on top of some kind of green hill and he could see the red and white houses around him and a few of the storefronts on the main street.  Indeed, he thought, this could be a great summer in Greenland.

Much boredom and silent acting transpired before the furniture and equipment came.  They must have drank ten full pots of tea before the tea was gone.  Their sleeping bags on the hard floors caused them to sleep furtively, often waking up in the night to go pee in the outhouse outside.  The weather was one or two degrees above zero and the air was nice and crisp.  Most of Nuuk was Indian.  Tasiilaq is the Kalaallisut word for ‘cape.’  The paint on the houses was uniform, with white walls and red roofs.  Traffic strolled by at an ant’s pace and the people were generally friendly.

A large cube van brought all the furniture in and later the propane was turned on and the telephone installed.  There were four crates of food that they put away in drawers. Amanda made a call to Dr. Dirk and he told her more about the project they would be working on that summer.

It seems the Narwhals migratory patterns were changing and he needed Amanda and Josh to count the marked and unmarked Narwhals on the East Coast of Greenland.  The ship from which they would be leaving shore was to pick them up every work day for two summer months.  They would count the narwhals that came to the surface and jot down its basic characteristics, notably whether they were tagged or not.

With two bedrooms in the cabin they slept comfortably on pillows in their sleeping bags.  Sometimes, when it was quiet and they knew they could hear each other, they talked well into the night and ending with wishes of sweet dreams and nice sleeps.

When May came around the taxi took them to the docks at Nuuk where there was another captain who was similarly friendly and jovial as well.  Josh admitted that he was really excited and that this was a first for him.  Amanda with mouth agape smiled and faced the oncoming wind before they reached the snow covered ice where a familiar pod-a-pod of narwhals were surfacing, one tusk emanating from one tooth, like an awful bucktoothed kid.  They seemed happy though, and played with each other and both Josh and Amanda watched and spoke and wrote down as quickly as they could the details of each Narwhal in the pod-a-pod.  There were those with tags, even the small ones, and they expelled air through a blowhole which appeared like geysers, exhibiting quite a show.

The captain watched them close and tried to maneuver the ship closer to the Narwhals.

By lunchtime they were both smiling and describing what they saw.  They ate sandwiches and drank from juice boxes and were eager to go watch the Narwhal family as they came up to the surface for air.

When they arrived back at the cabin their excitement had been spent but fondly remembered.  This, Amanda said to Josh, was amazing.  With a nod and a big smile he agreed.  “Even if they aren’t unicorn they sure appear magical.  That was like an amazing carnival,” he said.

“Do you ever really think about them though?  Like their family, the mother and father, and the baby following them around for life, at least until they die.”

“Yeah, it’s neat.  You know, when I was a little kid, I watched a show called Barba Papa, and these things that were just different colored blobs would talk and say, Barba Papa, Barba Trick.  I would watch that half hour show and I suddenly realized how stupid that show was, and why was I watching it.  This reminds me of that but this is somehow better.  This is different and real.  I can see now, the reason they’re so stupid.  It was just kid stuff but then I realized I wasn’t breathing, wasn’t thinking, it really scared me,” Josh said.

“Yeah.  They do appear a lot like a fat uncle.  I didn’t dream of them as a girl, but I remember loving whales so much I would cry with a smile on my face, just let the tears roll by as I imagined the beautiful whales and they made clicking noises to remind me I was actually with whales.  I never stopped loving them, and Narwhals are just a bit more easy to love than the other whales.  They look big and stupid but they have a heart of sheer gold.”

“Aw…  Thank you for painting that picture for me.  I can see you and your blue eyes, all dreaming and thinking of those big old uncle bastards.  That’s beautiful, Amanda.”

She thanked him quietly and then looked into his eyes as if to kiss him.  He showed her the lightning in his eyes and she came closer and he held her face with his left hand and said, “No.  Amanda.  I don’t think of you that way.  I’m sorry.”

“Oh, I know.  I should have known.”

“This is just what you said that night on the ship, that you were going to do this and then you’d cry.”

A tear fell down the right side of her face.  “I know.  I wasn’t thinking.”

He stared at her with care and she nodded showing that she realized this.

“Well, otherwise, that was a perfect day,” Josh said.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Did I spoil it for you?”

“Naw, that’s fine.  I understand it would be convenient since we’re both here and spending time in a cabin, but I don’t feel that link between us.  Let’s just spend a good summer here.”

“Ok, Josh.  I do really like you though.”

“I like you too, Amanda.  Have a nice sleep.”

So they slept peacefully under the starry sky and dreamt quietly to themselves.

The next day they got up and pretended as if nothing happened.  They got on the ship and watched the Narwhals rise to the surface and fall back down.  They kept the same avid smile and scribbled notes into their individual notebooks, writing down their characteristics.

Amanda called Dr. Dirk and asked him about naming the family.  “Anyone that doesn’t have a tag on it can be named.”  So Amanda and Josh talked about the seven or twelve various Narwhals they spotted so far in that area.  They argued over a few names but finally agreed on them all.

The following day there was a new family of Narwhals and excitedly they talked and scribbled down notes in numbers and verbal description of the new pod-a-pod.  This time they came up with ample names for the Narwhal families and over the course of the summer they had described them all.

With the information they collected that summer a new set of marine biologists were to come in and catch the Narwhals and tag them and release them.  The Indians of Greenland still hunted the Narwhal for its blubber and its ivory horn.  Some of the Narwhal breed were endangered and some were near extinction.  There were times during the day and in the month Josh thought they appeared like a Scottish bag pipe with all their cavorting and noise.  It nearly brought tears to his eyes.

By the end of the summer, the doctor spoke to them both and congratulated them for their good work.  A ship was leaving Greenland that week and was to bring them home.  Amanda suggested they buy a bottle of champagne from the liquor store but Josh was at ease with going to the bar for any number of beer.  Amanda was so excited she jumped in the air at the thought.  “Perfect.  I’ll buy the first round.”

So they walked to the bar in town and drank beer and played songs on the jukebox.  She was constantly remarking about the fullness and perfection of the summer.  “It’s the sun,” Josh said.  “If you live by the sun you’ll see the perfection in it.”

“That was a full summer,” she said.  “And to imagine, in Greenland.  What a great place to start a career.”

“I was thinking, Amanda.  What are you going to do when I’m gone.  How will you get by?”

“Do you mean to say am I going to throw my arms around any guy I see?”

“Well, yeah.  Are you going to be alright?”

“I think so, Josh.  People grow up in time.  I just need to learn my direction, you know?  Open a few unmarked doors.”

“But now you learned something right?”

“I learned that people like you don’t want to be annoyed or disturbed by people like me.  But lots of people like me, Josh.  A lot of people think the world of me.  What I am is a ripe fruit.  It doesn’t matter how you see me,” she said.

Josh smiled.

“At least I’m not a vegetable.”

John laughed, “Vegetables are buried under ground.”

“What kind of fruit would you be?”

“One that’s high up in the tree, so that it couldn’t be plucked.”

“Any colour, shape, smell?”

“Just a very high fruit.”

“I think I can see what kind of fruit you are.”

“Think vegetables then, honey.  I’m a turnip without a home.”

She hesitated and thought about that.  “Why not a grapefruit?”

“Because that’s a fruit, stupid.”

They drank beer and talked and by the next day they were on a ship heading back to the East Coast.  As they were leaving a pod-a-pod of Narwhals escorted them to the deeper ocean.  In the wind and pouring rain Josh looked deeply into the group that seemed to be saying goodbye to them.  There’s nothing divine about that, he thought.

Amanda saw him and said, “Wave goodbye.  This is the last you’ll ever see of Narwhals.”

“Oh,” Josh said.  I’m pretty sure I’ll see them again and again, these magical Barba Papas with one tooth and a tusk the size of a metre stick.  Every Tom, Dick, and Harry, I will now have seen them all.”

The Narwhals disappeared and Greenland was out of sight as the ship chugged on towards home.