W H I T E

Before reaching the destination, we have to cross three long tunnels.

We’ve been driving in the snowstorm for an hour, almost holding our breath. Even the music is simply turned off, giving way to the symphony of the wind that howling over and over monotonously.

The arctic dusk is closing its stage curtains. The snowfall, endless and massif, blown away violently, is moving into a trance. There is nothing else in our fields of vision. No way to distinguish the surroundings. We both know that the situation is not optimistic.

A few days later, we’ll go back along the same road: a small moutain road literally suspended on the cliffs, the ocean being only steps away. While progressively the clear sunny morning reveals to us the truly spectacular scenary, my back will get drenched in a cold sweat. How reckless!

But back to this evening, all I can do is to convince myself, in the manner of a disbeliever-prayer. Well, soon,.. after three tunnels, the destination.

Finally come the tunnels: such a warm and peaceful shelter! Even a claustrophobic being, I’m sure, will feel the same way at that time, cheering up as the car enters the first tunnel, just as I do. I’m sincerely grateful to the builders of these weird places, without whom, how could people living at the end of the fjord face the harsh and long winters?

In reality the three tunnels are almost happily connected. I can easily imagine a lovely little town welcoming us at the final exit. There’s no other car. We’re the only survivors! I proclaime, and start to wave my arms : The music is back on.

Mike takes a look at me from time to time , with a smile in recognition of my sense of great luck. He’s been a bit nervous. I should say that I always loved his smile. It’s shy and true. it’s comforting.

Mike and I have been traveling together since days, to figure our at some point if we should continue our ten-year relationship. It means that at the conclusion of this journey, I may lose his smile once and for all.

Well, anyway, now I’m celebrating the joyful moment. Mike is smiling. We’re arriving. I feel lucky.

However as it turns out, my joy and my excitement are so naive and rash that it’s doomed to fail. A short distance after we bravely drive out of the last tunnel, the car gets deadly stuck in the snow.

The town must be only miles away because I can tell there are some faint lights from the darkness. In our car, the music is still playing :

I showed my heart to the doctor
He said I’d just have to quit
Then he wrote himself a prescription
And your name was mentioned in it

Then he locked himself in a library shelf
With the details of our honeymoon
And I hear from the nurse that he’s gotten much worse
And his practice is all in a ruin

An Eskimo showed me a movie
He’d recently taken of you
The poor man could hardly stop shivering
His lips and his fingers were blue

I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
And I guess he just never got warm
But you stand there so nice in your blizzard of ice
Oh please, let me come into the storm

– One of us can not be wrong, Leonard Cohen