word - image - story
TERN Once a young wife took for her lover a polar bear. The bear said: You must never tell your husband or he will kill me. But she did, and the bear heard her and hid. When the men left with their sleds and harpoons he came to her house, he raised up his paws to smash it in. He stopped. He turned and set off on a long journey.
A man dressed in arctic gear setting out across the ice.
WALKER Here
On the white edge of the world
Only the horizon
The ice meeting the sky
Here
Alone between heaven and earth
Not a bird not a beast
Not a tree not a sign of life
Just one man on the ice
No binds no ties no needs
Out on the edge
Brave pioneer
Walking north
To the north pole
Alone on his own into the unknown
To the point where all is down
Stops.
WALKER This pack's too heavy. Too much junk in the pack. Too many things. Never get there in a thousand years carrying all these things. Travelling light.
Takes off the pack.
Clothes. Leave them for a start. Not going to any parties. No one to object to the smell. Stove. I'll make a fire. Food. I can find that. Plenty of fish in the sea. Travelling light. Travel lighter. Rope. Could be useful. Maps. Who wants to go the way someone went before. I'm finding my own way. Only what's useful. Only what's needed. Photos. My father. My wife. My son. Remember them. Only what's needed. Only what's essential. Ice pick. Hook. Harpoon. These I can carry. Travelling light.
A flock of birds. They fly all around him. He is surrounded by their calls.
WALKER White birds. Arctic terns. They nest in the tundra, winter at the south pole. Now come north to nest again. Year in year travel the world. Never losing the path. Tracking earth's magnetic field or some ancestral map. They see more light than any other creature. And more snow.
A white feather on the ice. He picks it up.
Follow them north.
He fishes at a hole in the ice. A SEAL appears. Barks at him. Barks again.
WALKER Go away.
SEAL barks twice
WALKER Go away.
SEAL barks twice.
WALKER Shut up.
Silence.
WALKER No thank you. I'm not hungry. What makes you think I'm hungry. And I know how to fish. Leave me alone. I don't need your help.
WALKER barks at the SEAL.
Pause.
The SEAL produces a fish out of the air. WALKER ignores him. The SEAL produces another. A third out of WALKER's ear. WALKER looks at the SEAL. Starts to chase it. The SEAL stops suddenly.
SEAL Stop! Stop! Don't move.
WALKER What is it?
SEAL Bear.
WALKER Where?
SEAL Out there.
WALKER I can't see.
SEAL There on the ridge.
WALKER Wandering bear.
SEAL If we don't move he'll leave us alone.
The BEAR lumbers off. They unfreeze.
WALKER Are you following me?
SEAL I thought you were following me.
WALKER I'm walking to the North Pole alone.
SEAL So why are you walking south?
WALKER Follow the birds.
SEAL It's autumn. They're leaving home.
WALKER I thought it was spring.
They go on together.
Time runs strange. Fast or slow I can't tell. Heavier somehow. Heavy light. Nights that last a whole winter.
SEAL Summer sun circles the horizon. Never setting, never dipping into the sea. Red eye hung in the sky. Circling, circling.
TOGETHER Seasons of twilight, wolflight, luminous skies. Spring that creeps towards daybreak: autumn that fades towards night.
Arctic night. They pitch camp.
SEAL What are you thinking of?
WALKER My son. Nine next birthday.
SEAL Does he miss you?
WALKER He doesn't know what missing is.
SEAL Do you?
WALKER The roundness of his head.
The smallness of his legs against mine.
The weight of his arms on my neck.
His smile.
The strangeness of his elbows.
His laugh.
His open eyes.
He looks at the SEAL looking at him; he raises his ice-pick to club it.
SEAL You wanted food I brought it.
I saved you from the bear.
You were lost and I showed you the way.
We walked together across the snow.
So why do you want to kill me?
WALKER I am walking to the North Pole alone.
SEAL Will you ever find the way alone?
A snow flurry. The SEAL is gone.
WALKER throws away the ice-pick.
Looks up.
WALKER Polaris, pole star. The hip and tail of the Great Bear. The Greeks gave the place its name: Arktikos, the country of the Great Bear. Where the skies were blue and the soil was fertile. Where it snowed white feathers and violence was unknown.
Laughs. The laughter echoes emptily.
WALKER Now how to find a way? Not a bird, not a beast, not a creature. Only the featureless plain and the stars. The pole star. Follow the tail to the hip of the bear, follow the hip to the shoulder, follow the shoulder to the pole star. To the pole.
Goes on.
Walking
The white edge of the world
Only the horizon
Only the rim where the sun never shows
Only the ice and the sky
Only one man under the stars
Alone, on his own, into the unknown
Stops to look at the ice.
Bear tracks. Bear again. Wandering bear.
Are you following me?
Echoes.
You can't follow me. This is my journey see? I don't need your company.
Cracking sound. He steps. The ice cracks again.
WALKER Suddenly thin. Thin ice. Stretched to a skin ice.
Step: crack.
Where to walk? How to know the ice will hold?
Step: no crack.
Under the ice: dark water.
Step: no crack.
Under the ice: cold sea.
Step: crack.
Only white skin between me and the sea.
Crack
These boots are too heavy.
He takes off his boots.
Fall in the ocean in arctic waters
Fall in the ocean the choices are few:
Stay in the water and freeze in a minute
Crawl back on land and freeze in two.
Go back.
Takes a step back the way he's come: crack.
Can't go back.
Steps forward: crack.
Thin ice. Thinning ice. Darkening over the water below. No going back. Must go forward. Which way to go?
Step: no crack.
Under the ice: dark water.
Step: no crack.
Under the ice: cold sea.
Step: no crack.
Only white skin between you and the sea.
Fall in the ocean in arctic waters
Fall in the ocean the choices are few
Stay in the water and freeze in a minute
Crawl back on land and freeze in two
Or walk boldly over the thin ice
risking your life with every footfall
till you come to the point where the ice is thickening, whitening, firm under foot, knowing that you have survived.
Looks down.
WALKER Blood. Scuffed snow. Red smeared on the white. A fight. A kill. Who's dead?
He picks up a blood stained ice-pick from the ice.
Bear tracks. Bear heading away. Bear with its prey. Tail, hip, shoulder, jaw. Follow the bear. Hunt the bear. Hunt the hunter.
Here
On the white edge of the world
Only the horizon
Only the rim where the sun never shows
One man on the track of a bear
Over the ice
Under the stars
On the scent of the killer
Into the unknown
To the point where all is down.
"Down" echoes into the crevasse before him. The sound sucked away into the ground.
WALKER White into grey into blue into blackness. Gashed into ice like an axe into skin. Crevasse. Oneside land: the farside land and inbetween nothing. White into grey into blue into blackness.
How easy to fall. Step. Over the edge and end the journey here. White into grey into blue into blackness. Bear tracks this side. Bear tracks farside. Just one bearbound over the darkness. Spring of the hip of the tail of the shoulder. Cross.
He throws a rope over. Slowly starts to work his way across. His voice echoes more and more wildly.
One. My son tottering his first steps. Two. My wife's eyes. Three. The hands of my mother. Four. The shape of a tree. Don't look down. Five. Waking in a warm bed. Six. A stretch of shore.
He slips. Takes hold again.
Seven. Crossing a playground. Eight. Her eyes. Her hair. Her mouth. Nine. My son on his birthday. Ten. My son at birth. Eleven. My father's laugh. Twelve -
Slips. Falls. Hanging on the rope.
Don't look down. Blue into grey into. Twelve. Don't look down. Into grey into bla -. Twelve. Don't. Can't. Into blackness.
He's hauled up by a polar bear and deposited on the ice. He looks up: sees the BEAR. Backs off, holding the ice-pick.
BEAR Where could you run to? Frozen ocean in every direction. Four hundred miles to the nearest land. Below us snow, windblown ice, sea ice, and then deep water.
WALKER I'm walking to the North Pole.
BEAR Why are you walking east?
WALKER I was following the pole star.
The BEAR laughs broadly.
BEAR Poor Walker. Clutching at stars. At feathers of birds. Drifting man under a shifting sky. His only goal is a pole which is never where he expects. No way is ever correct. No way is the way forward. No time is ever the right time. Never any light.
Sees a bear on a ridge. Wandering bear. Pilgrim on the edge of a floe. Walker would follow. Walker would hunt. Walker would not be alone.
WALKER I wanted to kill you. I'm walking to the north pole alone.
BEAR You'll need some boots.
The BEAR gives him boots.
WALKER Smooth, soft, they feel like -
TOGETHER Sealskin.
BEAR Slaphappy, skiphappy seal. Smooth skin. Seal with the face of a child. With the eyes of a child that adored you. Loved you. Like a son.
WALKER No.
BEAR Slipseal child. Whiptailed in the ocean. Clumsy on land. Wanting only to understand. To learn. To walk with you.
WALKER No!
No echo.
A snow flurry. The BEAR is gone.
Dead sound.
The wind forms itself into the voice of the SEAL:
SEAL Summer sun circles. Never setting. Never dipping into the sea. Red eye hung in the sky. Circling, circling.
WALKER Walking, walking. On the white edge of the world. Alone. Not a bird, not a bind, not a beast, not a need. No ties. Only the.
BEAR No goal is ever the pole.
SEAL Seasons of twilight, wolflight, luminous skies.
WALKER Brave. On the ice. On the snow. On the scent.
BEAR Nothing direct. Nothing correct. Nothing is ever what you'd expect.
WALKER One. On his own.
SEAL Spring that creeps towards daybreak:
WALKER One. On the unknown.
BEAR No way is right.
WALKER One. Out of the light.
SEAL autumn that fades towards night
WALKER Under the sky. One.
BEAR Never any light
WALKER To the point where all is
ALL Down
WALKER Alone
Not a need, not a tie, not a bind. Not a life.
BEAR No wife
SEAL No father
WALKER Only
WALKER/SEAL the pole
BEAR Only the point
WALKER/SEAL Only the end
WALKER/BEAR The place
WALKER/SEAL The heart
The storm subsides.
The BEAR again.
BEAR Don't be afraid.
WALKER I'm not afraid.
BEAR You're shaking.
WALKER Cold. My bones ache with it.
BEAR Come into my arms and rest.
The BEAR embraces him.
The sky fills with light. Sheets of fragile colour that twist and turn. Huge sails of light blown in the wind.
TERN Guovssahasat vihket, lip, lip, lip
buodi njálmmis, lip, lip, lip
veahcir gállus, lip, lip, lip
ákšu sealggis, lip, lip, lip
Guovssahas, guovssahas
Ruoná gákti badjelis
fiskes liidni ceabehis
Buoidebihttá njálmmis
Veahcir gállus
ákšu sealggis
ja nu civká, ja nu civká
BEAR Nowhere east. Nowhere south or west or north. Poor Walker. What have you learned? Where have you journeyed? What have you found? Unbound, untied, untimed. Under the light. Have you come to the point? Why are you heavy in light?
The BEAR has disappeared, leaving his fur.
WALKER collects fur, boots, feather and ice-pick and lays them on the ice.
The sky is blue.
WALKER Here
On the white edge of the world
No bird no bear no seal no star
Only the light
Only alone in the light
How many miles? How many more miles?
White feathers are falling.
TERN To where?
WALKER The north pole.
TERN You've passed it.
WALKER When?
TERN Way back.
WALKER Where?
How could I miss it?
TERN laughs.
TERN What did you expect? A sign in the ice. A pole. A place to write your name?