Blues Before Sunrise
2. Suite: Blue Jewel of Jökulsárlón
D.
"With this ring I thee wed," said Ingunn, "and thereby banish you forever from the underworld."
The ring was silver set with topaz. It slid onto her finger so easily it might have been swallowing it.
"But you already gave me a ring," protested Vladis. "The one of bone. Have you forgotten?"
"That was before I heard your masterpiece," said Ingun.
"My what?"
"Your Suite: Blue Jewel of Jökulsárlón."
"But you can't have heard that yet. I only just recorded it."
"I know. You don't remember. You were on the floor, delirious. But you were still holding the cello, and you were frantic about the recorder. So I brought it along."
"Along where?"
"Here, to the church, silly, where we just got married."
"Church? What are we doing in a church? Since when does Valhalla have churches?"
At that moment the pastor leaned forward, cleared her throat and said in a low voice not meant to be heard by the congregation packing the pews, "Excuse me. If you two have issues, I beg you to sort them out later. Right now we should finish the ceremony. Or people will riot. They've come a long way, both from here and abroad. And you've been keeping them waiting for hours."
"It's a big deal," said Ingunn. "Our conversion. So let's get on with it. Unless you'd rather I destroy your recording. I could do that, you know. I could set it on fire just by thinking about it."
Vladis panicked. "No! No!" she shouted. "No, this can't be happening. I said I would do anything for you. But not renounce our heritage! Not that!"
She grabbed wildly at Ingunn, trying to snatch the recording from her beloved's outstretched hand. All she managed to do though, was to grab Ingunn's wrist, and when Ingunn tried to wrench her arm free, to leave deep scratches all the way back to her shoulder, scratches that bled freely down into her gown and spread instantly all over, so that instead of being clothed in white she was all in red, red blossoming outward even into the air, like a rose whose malevolence defied comprehension.
And then she was enveloped in Ingunn's embrace, held so tightly she could scarcely breathe. And they were not in a church but a hospital and she in a hospital gown, and Ingunn not in red but in yellow, a yellow dress that mirrored not only her hair but the sunshine of her smile as she looked down at Vladis.
"It's all right," Ingunn said, "It's all right. The fever has broken. And I'm here. And I have something for you."
"The recording?"
"Honey, there is no recording. You don't own a cello. You don't even play. But I heard your suite anyway. All your babbling, it was all about love. About how much you loved me. How the ice in your heart was like crystal, and your heart itself a precious jewel, but only precious if it loved, and only loving if I was the one.
"You have much to learn," said Ingunn, loosening her hold, "but loving me will do for a beginning."
The finger was pallid and bruised that Ingunn decorated, but the silver and topaz negated all that. It was the ring that Vladis had imagined. It was the fourth and last movement come into existence. Her beloved was right. It was all about love after all.
4 December 2022
Texas Jim
Jökulsárlón, Iceland
www.granitecoast.ca