Iceland

I think I remembered everything. Dagmar from next door will look after the cats, and Kassandra should be able to keep the orchids alive. Just.

It's exciting. The thought of joining Breki. At first I hadn't planned to. Too much to do. But then I thought: Why not? Women join their husbands all the time. On business trips. Modern Icelandic women.

'You're not one of them, Mum,' said Kassandra, but she knows nothing. Young people today think we were born boring, but I still know what makes blood rush to my head. Climbing the Inca Trail was harder before mobile phones summoned altitude sickness tablets, but Breki and I managed. I still blush when I remember the night we spent in the red tent, surrounded by nothing except thin air.

Here we are at 70. Breki is 72, but who counts when adventure beckons?

Driving east from Hella to Ásólfsskáli I see horses huddle in the snow, yearning for spring. I read that the Japanese love their taste, but it is the one thing I have never craved. They are too sweet when they look at me with their large, dark eyes. Do they have souls just like us? Why shouldn't they? Steam drifts from their flared nostrils. Can they smell sulphur from Eyjafjallajökull, or fumes from my old Skoda? I scrape ice from inside my windscreen, and now I see the thick plume of smoke rising from the volcano. The last time, in 2010, it closed down European airspace for five days. The news tells us that it will blow again today, and stronger than before. I hope I'll be in time. Madame Flora gave strict instructions on the phone on what to do, but I still don't see why Breki couldn't have contacted me directly? It all sounds easy enough. I giggle when I remember googling the word psychic medium.

'You mustn't trust people, Mum,' Kassandra always says. I wish my daughter could be like Breki. Nice. Liking people. It must be her work as a grief councilor. God knows grief likes Iceland. Everyone you meet is depressed, and who can blame them? Long, dark days and salted horsemeat.

The car is parked. The key left where Kassandra will find it. She'll be lucky to get 3000 Krona for it.

'Eneka!' I thought I heard my name through the mist, but it was probably the mountain rumbling. Dark smoke has turned day to night. Breathing is difficult, but I can make it. Yes. I'm certain that I'm making the right choice.

'Breki says that there is much to live for,' Madame Flora said on the phone, willing me to change my mind. I won't. The aching lymph nodes under my arm remind me to forge on, just as the volcano erupts. Only twenty more meters and I see the opening. The heat is unbearable, but I don't care. As I jump I see Breki in the light. He opens his arms, and I begin my quest.