The Aurora Borealis Keeps Its Lament novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Ask Me Properly

Iker's POV

I had spent the evening on the telephone with my mother.

She cried, and I cried, and my father took the receiver and made the longest speech of his life.

"Come home when you like. Or don't. Either way, we are glad."

I hung up and sat for a long time in the radio hut with my hands between my knees.

Then I heard Alba's boots on the ice.

I knew her walk now, quick and short, the left foot a little harder.

She came in without knocking.

"Mama's asleep in my bed," she said. "She's snoring. I wanted to come and ask you something."

"Ask."

"Do you want me to take the post?"

My stomach turned over.

I had been bracing for this since the director's face went out on the screen.

I had told myself I would be glad for her, and I had rehearsed it.

"It's what you should do," I said. "You were the best person on this ice before I ever saw a graph. They owe you a hundred posts."

"That is not what I asked."

"I know."

"I asked whether you want me to take it."

I turned my face toward the sound of her voice.

"I'm afraid you'll take it for the wrong reason," I said.

"Which one?"

"Because you think you owe me something. Because you've been at my side for eight years, and you'd rather work beside a man who is going dark than leave him to it." My throat closed. "I can't stand it, Alba. I won't have you pity me into a life."

She was silent.

Then I heard the stool scrape and felt her sit down, close, with her knees against my shins.

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