WHIRLPOOL

FIRE AND ICE By Tessa Harvey     All   was confusion and fear. Who could or would help her now? Finally, Helga thought: "I have a choice. Save me, God, if you even exist," was her inner whisper, then she fell into darkness for what seemed the longest time.           She awoke again in a hospital bed. This one was wider. She could feel that straight away - she could feel!     "Yes, I can feel!" - and she laughed aloud for joy. A nurse came running, followed by a doctor. The nurse had heard her, the monitors called the doctor.     "Well, the little princess is awake," he boomed in a huge voice. It was the sort of voice she had (when she was little, of course) imagined Santa as having - jolly and fat. But this man was tall and stringy. He soared above her like one of the village boys playing King on the Mountain when they had rolled and then flattened a huge snowball. He spoke again, his voice reverberating around the privat...

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey       Helga was hovering between life and death and, because she felt herself paralyzed forever, she was even fighting for life. Also, her parents had not come.     Hot and feverish, she grew colder so that her body was tested to the limit. The fire and ice cycles were rapidly, and fatally weakening the child.     "Where are her parents? Relative, carer?" demanded a senior physician.           The young woman from the village was called in. "We have to move her to a better equipped hospital."     Laneke passed over a letter from Helga's parents, giving consent. Soon she was lifted once again into a helicopter. She looked close to death. Dimly she was aware of Laneke crying, and felt herself soaring.     She saw the flickering fire of the lights in the icy cold. She dreamed then of her parents, seeing them spiraling like an airpool to a restless sea. Faraway, to the l...

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     Stefan spoke from his own lonely, unloved childhood, but he was also selfish. Inside he was thinking, "I thought she had got over that fairy tale nonsense about God years ago." He was annoyed. A professional needed personal emotion to take a back seat - a very distant back seat. To him this was essential.     Olga saw the plans for the New Zealand dig. It was a place where the Maori (native people) had once lived. The whanau of extended family had developed the hill sides into visible shelved sections like wide steps for crops to grow. She remembered the amazing rice terraces she had seen in rural China.     There were pegs on detailed sketches where the interesting finds had been carefully unearthed and pegged - Obsidian cutting tools, a buried waka or canoe!     Excitement rose as they boarded a light plane. Olga already saw the darker skinned people climbing an extinct volcano to find the wonder of obsid...

FIRE AND ICE By Tessa Harvey        Olga woke from a dream that was beautiful and did not drift away as dreams mostly did like tattered skeins of morning mist. In the dream a man with incredible long white, light bright clothes was walking along a grass-bordered path towards her. He had shoulder-length brown hair and a wonderful smile.     As he neared, she knew somehow it was Jesus. His eyes were full of perfect unconditional love , but stern.     He pointed and she saw as though from far, far away, yet very clear, a little girl lying very still in a hospital bed. Her eyes were open, full of tears and Olga knew it was Helga crying for them.     She reached out for her daughter and woke up. Quickly she went to see Stefan. He listened while packing their few essentials, but he was frowning. "Look, call the hospital and if she's ok, we will take a quick look at this new excavation in New Zealand. All kids cry easily."

FIRE AND ICE    By Tessa Harvey     Olga drove as fast as she dared, hurling the old ATV to mobile reception and hopefully a doctor. When Stefan is better, she thought, choosing to think of recovery, we must go to Helga.     The doctor at the small hospital, though well-equipped, quickly assessed the patient's condition. Within minutes, a trained team of two doctors and well qualified nursing staff had hooked Stefan up to a drip of intravenous fluids to rehydrate the stricken man, along with an injection of anti-nausea medication. "We think you are suffering from food poisoning. Did you eat anything your wife did not?"     It was hard for Stefan to think. He still felt very ill and asked for a bedpan.     A short time later, the doctor came back for his answer. Stefan had realised he had swallowed some tepid water, but Helga always drank lemonade or a similar beverage. In two days they were headed for the airport and answering a wonderf...

FIRE AND ICE    By Tessa Harvey     Stefan was   sweating   and in great pain, writhing on his narrow camp bed in the sweltering heat of their tent. He knew he had to get to the small tent which gave privacy to the latrine...     Then he tried to get back to his couch but could only crawl. Suddenly he collapsed in the seemingly molten heat. He lay on the burning burnished sand, hearing hurrying footsteps. "Stefan, I'm coming," Olga cried, trying to haul him upright. Oh, Stefan, please, what is happening?" She sounded anguished, and in some small corner of his mind the thought flickered that perhaps his marriage was not dead after all - though I soon will be, he thought.      Never had he felt so ill, though he had had food poisoning once before. Summoning help from the other workers, Olga quickly gathered their things. Most was already packed tightly in a small rucksack she wore most of the time. They headed for town. It was a lon...

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey       Olga saw movement, two men slowly approaching on camels. Her heart beat strangely. Shielding her face from the harsh blaze of burning sun, she stiffened, waiting. Stefan, sensing something amiss, turned also to watch.     Surely the "missing" artifacts were not still a problem after all this time?     The men plodded nearer, around them the unmistakable aura of officialdom. They did not dismount, but motioned the two whilte people nearer. The hired helpers also watched, curious. An event to break the monotony of their day was more than welcome.     They clustered round, murmuring, but the men sternly ordered them back to work. Sullenly they did as ordered.     Helga was in hospital, ill. They were not sure of other details, except that she had fallen on the ice. The parents were puzzled. The men swung around, waved and departed, camels grunting, job done. A drink beckoned in the cool shade....

FIRE AND ICE    By Tessa Harvey     Laneke cried, even as the tears froze on her face. Helga had bravely watched the awesome flickering fire of the Northern Lights at their most beautiful - but the cold was winning.      Had the Innuit been able to move her, she would have been wrapped in rugs and taken home. The ice now crept up her legs, her arms, her inner core. The child was fading. The medevac helicopter strobed overhead seeking the marked landing place. The men had moved swiftly, lighting flares, always on hand for an emergency. The people were often injured or ill for various reasons. The climate was brutal, life short.     The two paramedics, one male, one female, were with Helga before the rotors stopped.          Working swiftly, the girl was foil-wrapped with immense care and stretchered to the waiting aircraft. They were airborne and gone in a great flash and then the noise fading as silence and dark cre...

FIRE AND ICE  By Tessa Harvey     Terror shivered through Helga. She tried uselessly to reach for her ice-saw. Suddenly she heard men calling, strong lights flashing bright, crouching night pushed back with its mates, fear and despair. Then she heard swift Laneke. The child cried in relief. She was the fastest skier in the village, fleet as a deer. A flurry of snow! Helga laughed. Laneke was the swiftest on skis, much to the chagrin of the  boys.     The young woman slipped out of her skis and touched Helga's head softly, whispering words of love and comfort - words of healing.     The men came, crowding around. "Please don't move me," whispered Helga.     There was a shocked silence as the implications sank in, and then Kurt turned and called the emergency medivac helicopter. Soon its welcome lights and engine sound and rotor blades cutting the air thundered near, splitting the sky in noise and light.

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     Thinking Helga was safe, their child did not even enter their thoughts. Their work was not just obsessive, but all consuming.     Helga did not want to think about what had just happened. She had not been very careful away from adult supervision. It was so dark and she was so cold and the pain in her head was terrible. The sun, such as it was at this time of year had gone.     Trying to concentrate, the little girl wondered if she had slipped on one of her fish. She hoped not. It took a long time to catch slow fish in an icy sea.     Now she was icy, aware suddenly no-one knew where she was. She tried to move several times, but her limbs refused.     Despite the pain in her neck and head, Helga tried again. A terrible suspicion was growing and she screamed really really loud - and was heard. A wolf howled, and was answered, echoing by others. 

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     Stefan and Olga Jager felt deliriously happy starting a new dig in Egypt. The sun poured down on them as they settled into a steady rhythm. They loved the slow, careful digging, sifting endless sand, excavating ancient ruins excitedly and enthusiastically.     The Egyptian gods fascinated them. They were deeply knowledgeable about them. Someone had once mooted the idea of a real Christian God. As they always considered new facts carefully, Stefan and Olga thought about this for a while - a day or two at least.     Secretly they were both intelligent enough to realise that a real God may require a level of commitment they were not prepared to give. It was not socially acceptable in their world. Also they had taken refuge for a while far away as their ethics over "lost' artifacts had been questioned. Had they even thought their child was in serious danger, they perhaps would have returned home.

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     The next morning, early, Helga marched from her home, chin held high, step firm. The newly emergent sun slanted light across the ice and snow glittering in the icicles and the myriad crystals scattered across the land. Everyone was happy. It had been dark for so long. Even though the sun was low and stayed that way like a golden ball drifting along the horizon, everyone rejoiced. They stirred, shaking off sleep.     Kurt next door watched Helga leave, curious. She didn't like to stay overnight anymore. Perhaps she was just growing up. He noticed the girl carried fishing tackle and an ice-saw. Still, her parents had taught her basic survival skills. He turned away, shrugged and headed out to join some of the other men. They hunted only what they needed and used every part of the animal they killed.     Helga was having a good day, catching several fish. She felt happy, confident - until she fell.

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     It was deeply, achingly, bone-chillingly cold. Darkness ruled over the Arctic. The small lights of the airport and the taxiing plane were mere specks in the endless night, soon vanquished. The tears froze on the child's cheeks. The Smith and Johnson families gathered her close, a child of another race, blond, blue-eyed, wrapped in the love of the people, the Innuit.     They took her home, warmed her, fed her and left her staring at the darkness and the beautiful shimmering colours of the Northern Lights, twining and moving in a great ballet of beauty.     Not for the first time Helga wondered why her archaeological parents had chosen to live so far from their chosen work profession.     She went to school, still a little dazed. They had said they would return in a week or two, just as they always returned. But she felt already bereft.

FIRE AND ICE   By Tessa Harvey     All her senses felt on high alert. She felt her eyes widen, imagined her ears pricking like those of an arctic fox. Even her skin prickled.     "You can't leave," she said. "It's my birthday!"     "We are  going tomorrow," answered her mother in her 'cool, don't be silly' voice. Helga felt like stamping her foot or yelling. She glanced at her father, hoping for support. He just looked a little puzzled, bewildered almost, his default position. Her parents often went away. It was their job. But this time, something felt wrong. Helga felt it right down to her toes. Trying hard to quell her panic, the little girl said quietly, "you aren't coming back, are you?" And silenced echoed in the air between them.