Girl in Ice(63)

Wyatt strummed an unplugged electric guitar with a tuneless dud-dud-dud-dud as he belted out “Margaritaville” along with the CD player. Under his down vest, he wore a Hawaiian shirt that strained over long underwear, skullcap cockeyed on his head. A cigar consumed itself in a petri dish, smoke fading skyward. He sat on one of several blankets spread out over the metal roof, heels of his orange boots dug into the joinery to keep from sliding down. Palm trees fashioned out of paper towel rolls tufted with cleverly cut green paper for leaves had been taped haphazardly around the roof. Nearby, Jeanne struggled to balance a few glasses on a tray next to a bowl that contained exactly one orange, one lime, and a fake banana. A ladder led the way to the party.

Wyatt gestured magnanimously at the spread. “Join us, won’t you? The water’s fine.”

Balancing my tray, I started up the ladder. Nora and Raj, arms slung around each other, made their way toward us across the pale expanse. I set the cheese next to the drinks tray. A bottle of tequila—Where has that been hiding?—cozied up to a pitcher of Kool-Aid. I made myself a strong one.

“Jeanne and I here were just discussing what we missed the most about, I don’t know, real life, whatever that is. Jeanne?”

“Cheese. Fresh milk. Cream,” Jeanne said. “And French bread. Fresh crusty bread with real salted butter and jam in the morning. It would almost be worth going home for. Almost.”

Wyatt plucked at the strings of his guitar, gazing off through his glacier glasses at the bergs, majestic as they floated in their ice kingdom. “For me,” he said, “it’s the smell of fresh-cut grass. And actual trees. The color green. That organic smell. Farm smell. Dirt, tomatoes hot on the vine.”

Nora was chasing after Raj now, who had sprinted off to try to catch an errant fly ball. She tackled him, and they rolled a bit on the icy ground, laughing.

“Ah, young love,” Wyatt said, flipping his glasses up on his head. “I remember the day. Sort of.” He turned to Jeanne, who handed him a “margarita” and a chipped ceramic bowl of peanuts. He took the snacks and said, “Why, thank you, Jeanne, for arranging this lovely party. I’m sure Nora will remember it forever.”

She said, “You’re very welcome,” as she arranged ham sandwiches and cups of tomato soup on a tray.

The football came crashing down between us, flipping the cheese tray. Hot Velveeta coagulated in the air and showered down in hard yellow droplets; tomato soup sprayed all around us, landing in gelatinous piles of gore.

“Whoa, sorry guys!” Nora came clambering up the ladder. “Sorry, Jeanne! Are you okay? Raj can’t throw to save his life. Anyway, I think I won the game.”

“Of course you did, it’s your birthday!” Wyatt shoved some couch cushions in Nora’s direction as she helped Jeanne clean up the mess. “Come on, have a seat.”

Leaving Jeanne to it, Nora plopped down on the cushions, letting herself fall onto her back, releasing her arms out behind her with a rapturous sigh. “What a brilliant way to spend a birthday,” she said as Raj scooted up next to her. “Sunbathing in the Arctic.”

“I don’t know about that,” Raj said. “Sanjit got married this morning, remember?” He scrambled a beer from the six-pack.

“Oh, that’s right!” Nora said, reaching out to stroke his back. “That must have been so beautiful. So sorry we couldn’t be there.”

Raj took a swig. “My brother married his longtime love today,” he explained. “Couple hundred people dancing and eating for days. Incredible live music and singing. Lavish gifts. Thousands of flowers everywhere. You’ve been to one yourself, I think.” He winked at Nora.

“You miss a lot on these assignments,” Wyatt said. “Weddings, funerals, birthdays. Just the name of the game out here. Missing big family moments is something you have to live with.”

Nora mixed herself a Kool-Aid margarita. “But you have to make sacrifices to get anywhere, especially for what we do. And we’ve collected a lot of great data, haven’t we, Raj?” She sat up, tucking her knees tight to her body. “And now, this amazing thing is happening inside our kitchen, this miraculous moment is coming….”

Raj put his arm around her, squeezed her shoulders. “Nora, take it easy.”

She smiled, but shrank a bit from his touch. “Come on, Raj, think about it! Maybe it’s not just my birthday today, you know?”

He shook his head and gazed out at the desolate horizon, his glasses reflecting the golden light like two more suns.

Nora said, “What good does it do to be negative? I’ve been praying for him. I’ve been praying for him since the second I saw him.”

“So have I, love.”

Jeanne appeared below us with a new tray of soup. Peanut butter sandwiches this time.

“Jeanne, you are incredible, and I’m a klutz,” Nora said. “Thank you for this beautiful spread.”

“No worries,” she said.

Raj and I jumped up to grab the tray out of Jeanne’s hands so she could climb the ladder.

Wyatt watched the proceedings with a kingly air. “I see no reason why we shouldn’t all be hopeful. It happened once. It can happen again. I’ve got some new data, from blood work, from Sigrid and Odin, too, that’s taking me in a new direction with my research. I feel like I’m this close to the answer, you know?” He took another swig from his jelly jar. “Like”—he swept his hand across the boundless vista—“all this was meant to be. Fate. Us. All of us. Sitting on this roof, just like this, in the middle of nowhere, on the cusp of something so remarkable, so life changing. World changing. Friggin’ teamwork, man, that’s what it’s all about, right, Jeanne?”