There is an entire obscure half to life, one we avoid, forget, overlook. You can’t overlook it in the northern realms, not during winter, when the nights are long, and where people sought refuge underground to escape the harshness of the weather for centuries. The dark half of the year, finding refuge in the earth, embracing stillness, these custom…

Night falls quickly in Orkney at the end of October, and we drove quietly past the lochs and the stones to reach the Storytelling Centre, braving a bone chilling rain that promised to turn into ice soon. We advanced through the darkness in silence, lulled by the rhythmic motion of the windshield wipers, like the last two people on earth, who reache…

The sunshine was warm and hazy at the equinox, brushing the grassy knolls and the tops of the stones and sparkling on the lochs. I know you’ve been here so many times, Fiona, that’s probably why I can’t keep away from this place, and here I am again, at the Stones of Stenness, waiting for the equinox like I’m expecting something to happen. Spend en…

The clashing of swords was overwhelming, the sky filled with dirt and thunderheads. There I saw them in the lightning, riding their winged horses with their hair in the wind. In the middle of the battle I saw you too, Fiona, and couldn’t recognize you, as you rode across the field looking very much their equal, cutting a wide path through the enemy…

I spent some time on the pier after our parents left, watching the cruise ship get smaller and smaller into the horizon until I could barely make out its contours. Denise sat by my side with uncharacteristic patience and said nothing. I didn’t realize how different I was here until my old life visited, and brought all of its patterns and details wi…

Orkney takes great care to protect her ancient treasures and history: they are revealed, not discovered, and usually only when she allows it. Violent storms have uncovered many of the old sites, stripping away the topsoil and vegetation to expose millennium-old constructions that had been sleeping beneath the ground. I wanted to show mom and dad th…

As the ferry approached Kirkwall, I saw them from afar, waiting on the dock with bright smiles on their faces. “Guess who’s here?” I nudged Denise. “No!” “Oh, yes.” “They don’t trust either of us, I take it. At least we’re dining in style tonight.” “Do you ever think of anything other than food?” “Not right now, no.” “My beautiful daughters,” dad e…

We celebrated the white nights in the streets of Kirkwall, so filled with music and laughter, and I played my ballad, as promised, encouraged by an accommodating and enthusiastic audience. Denise was bursting with pride and kept urging me to put on another show in Eau Claire when we arrived back home, and wouldn't let up until I said yes. I felt gu…

I was lucky to have Denise with me, otherwise my Maeshowe experience would have held me back, Fiona, because the cairn of Cuween was much smaller, much darker, much more ominous, as it is fitting for a fairy knowe inhabited by spirits from a non-human realm. The experience of entering the earth is only romantic in theory. In practice it involves a …

We are social creatures, and we don't want to stand out, so we will give up almost anything just to be accepted and partake of the huge game that is society and master its many levels. We’re not all that different, my sister and I: while she pretends not to experience things she can’t explain, I keep mine to myself, neatly placed in their appropria…

I didn’t want to wake Denise the next morning, between the beer and the late night I knew she’d be in a rotten mood if she didn’t get her beauty sleep, so I snuck out as quietly as I could, to get a cup of coffee. The streets were already filled with music and dancing and the rhythms of the drums, the festival atmosphere rushed me in the middle of …

The green meadow was quiet. There was a large crowd present, but no one made a sound, standing on the grass in a circle, in the light of the torches, waiting. You are standing in the middle, wearing the white dress with green ribbons, and you have fragrant white flowers and green ribbons in your hair, very thin ribbons which make it look like that …

I had promised Denise I’d come to all the rehearsals, not knowing how many they were going to have. Three hours in, watching the same performance fragments over and over, I was on the verge of losing my mind, and my bum was numb from sitting on stone. “How much practice could you possibly need for an improv performance?” “That shows how much you kn…

I couldn’t sleep, and neither could Denise. The sun woke us up when I had barely slept three hours. As for Denise, she had made up her sleep deficit during the day and now was sharp as a tack. We drove to the stones of Stenness with the rosy glow of dawn behind us. The midnight sun bathed our shoulders and put haloes around our hair, and when we go…

I wondered if there was any sort of protocol when talking to ghosts. Is one allowed to call on them? Or is that considered too forward and one should wait to be acknowledged first? It seems rather rude to disturb the peace of an entity without the consent of the latter, especially when their home base is always overrun with people. Denise adamantly…

Upon returning from Birsay the following morning, I found Denise sleeping across the doorway. “You forgot to leave a key,” she looked at me cross, but relieved I returned before it started raining. “The landlady could have let you in. Why didn’t you ask her?” “She’s out of town. How was your trip?” “Uneventful,” I didn’t elaborate. How was I to tel…

It wouldn’t have been Denise if she didn’t change our plans at the last minute, based on the schedules of her new friends. Two days she’d been in a foreign country where she didn’t know a soul and she already made friends, promised to help them set up the stage for their Avant-Garde play and left me flopping in the wind. Strange how one can still g…

My sister surprised me and came to Kirkwall two weeks early, loaded with goodies from home like a female Santa Claus, to help me get in the spirit of the festival, she said, although it’s more likely mom sent her to check up on me and provide her with the precious details she thinks I don’t want to share. “Where is my instrument, Denise?” “Oh,” she…

You get mixed up in stories and legends and soon you can’t distinguish them from facts anymore, because history and legend are uninterrupted threads twining through the fabric of time, and the events’ meanings connect across centuries, as if they are all a part of a greater whole we could see if we lived long enough. How long is long enough, Fiona?…

I stopped by the church yesterday and the mystery of the black tombstones was explained: the graveyard experienced a massive fire, yet the church was unharmed, not even a speck of smoke or soot. I bet you’d be asking yourself right now, Fiona, how does one set stone on fire, and you’d be right. The priest couldn’t explain it either, hence the mirac…

It feels like everything in Orkney is made of stone, meant to last forever, and that includes the old stonework of Saint Magnus’ Cathedral. The structure is Romanesque, and austere, with heavy, sturdy pillars built of red sandstone masonry, the kind it takes four people to surround, a strange stone forest again, built by the hands of men. I returne…

You sent me a dream when I was a child, Fiona, one of those weird dreams you don’t share, especially at that age, when nothing matters to you in the world, other than pleasing your parents. I couldn’t forget it, though, like I can’t forget any of my other dreams about you. Those dreams, they feel so real! So real! Like a second life unfolding, inde…

The four-day festival was approaching the end, and after my friend’s departure I figured I’d better head back to Kirkwall and see if I can find more puzzle pieces for my study, but I just couldn’t face the stones again. Not yet. I headed north instead, not really sure about the destination, and followed the road until it reached the shore. Living o…

”You shouldn’t leave Stromness before you visit Hoy,” the lady at the front desk suggested with a motherly demeanor which tried to restore my sunny outlook on life, now sunk by the sudden circumstance through which I found myself alone again. She smiled encouragingly, and pointed towards the pier, to the approaching ferry. “Hurry up, now. If you ru…

Life looked a lot cruder in the harsh light of the morning, even though the festival performances continued through the day, and the city was bathed in the unmistakable humid scent of spring. I met my new friend in the lobby and we walked through the narrow streets, sometimes so narrow a person could barely pass through, braving the rain and listen…

The entire city was caught up in the preparations for the Folk Festival, so I had to postpone my visit to the heritage society, whose normal hours were restricted for the duration. I gave myself the excuse there is nothing for me to do anyway, so I might as well drive back to Stromness and enjoy the performances. I stopped at the Stones of Stenness…

I ended up back at Saint Magnus’ Cathedral, with my nose buried in the old records, strangely comforted by the smell of old ink. It is amazing, really, the church’s archives go back centuries! After a few hours of being fully immersed in the lives and the trades of the people of old, you forget what century you’re in; you lose track of time altoget…

The car trip to the Brough of Birsay led me through treeless landscapes, shy and soft in the sunshine, and filled with the bright smiles of wildflowers, a poem in white, rose, purple and green, laid down as scenery by a benevolent god. I stood beside them, with the wind in my face, trying to remember an older time, as if I’d been there before. But …

I used to see this sea wall in my dreams. You can’t imagine how weird it feels to look at it in real life! I’m not really sure I’m awake right now, Fiona. There is an elusive threshold of weirdness and serendipity past which we stop believing anything is real, a madness of sorts, a sweet, addictive madness. Ever since I was awarded this research gr…

There are things we don’t talk about, and they weigh heavily on our souls. Who decided they don’t matter? Life is like virgin land. It only surrenders its bounty after we drench it in our sweat, tears, and blood. People squander their lives, energy, and purpose as if they don’t value themselves enough to live for real, instead choosing to take a ba…

The authorities of Yavapai County had been looking into by a series of disappearances, going all the way back to 1965, when the leader of an archaeological team, Jack Mattingly, vanished without a trace from the excavation site. His disappearance was followed by several others, seven people in total, all males in their fifties, sharing an academic …

Gwen dragged her feet through the desert, walking behind No. 5 to the tequila barrel, when she noticed what looked like the corner of a trap door barely covered by dirt. She stopped to get a closer look and by the time No. 5 noticed her absence; he was too far to stop her from sweeping off the dust to uncover it. “Hey,” she waved at him. “Hey! Over…

‘That’s pretty,’ she thought when she picked up the little transparent pebble. Its deep red gleam looked spirited in the bright light of the sun; it felt warm to the touch, and despite its heaviness, reminded her of amber. She sat down on one of the flat rocks at the end of the white pebble path to study it at length, turning it on all sides, tryin…

“Would you say she passed?” No. 4 asked No. 5. They both evaluated Gwen with critical looks, like project managers running through a punch list at the end of a project. “I don’t know. What other tests do you think we could run?” No. 5 replied. “Call No. 1, he might have some logical routines to run her through we didn’t think about.” Gwen smiled, i…

During her morning walk, Gwen was surprised to notice one of the large boulders behind the house, in the place where she usually gathered the eggs every evening, was missing. Its empty spot looked unnaturally hard and flat, and upon closer observation, Gwen noticed, to her great bewilderment, that it was a poured concrete foundation. “Oh,” No. 7 sp…

“What do you mean, I don’t understand,” Gwen mumbled. “Well,” No. 6 responded, “we know you went to Sunday school at some point, and have been taught this. Rejoice, you were chosen.” “Chosen for what?” Gwen jumped to her feet. “Just chosen. How lucky are you?” No. 1 joined the conversation. “Why aren’t you happy?” “Is this improv? Is it?” She looke…

“Ok, class, remember what we talked about, everybody must stay together now, we’re going to visit the archeological dig, you can take pictures for your scrapbook but always stay on the path,” Mr. Deerfield raised his voice above the unruly group who moved around him, agitated, like a tiny Lilliputian army. ‘Breathe, man,’ he told himself, already b…

“What was that?” Gwen lost her footing, surprised as she was by the unexpected appearance. “Just keep walking, you’ll be fine,” No. 7’s usual rotten mood soured further, if that were even possible. Gwen didn’t want to get him started and have to listen to hours and hours of ranting about idiocy generously seasoned with phrases in languages she didn…

The smoke was so thick Gwen couldn’t gather herself enough to understand where she was at first. She could feel the gentle touch of her guide’s hands on her shoulders, but she was still deep inside an inner world she couldn’t bear to leave. The contours of the house, so familiar to her by now, began to dissolve, putting her into a deep panic, no do…

“Do you believe her?” Jen whispered to Ted, eyeing the young woman with the gaze of a skeptic. She’d been a ranger for fifteen years, and during this time she’d heard her share of tall tales, although, she had to admit, not one that could hold a candle to this gals’. Really? That was the best lie the woman could come up with? That she got lost in t…

“Where are we on Act II?” “We’re still considering options.” “Do I need to remind you it’s two months to curtain? What options? We need Act II!” “And do I have splendid news for you! We opened it to the public and sponsored a contest, which was very well received. We have thousands of scenarios! I’m telling you we should do this more often.” “You o…

“Whatever possessed you to do that?” No. 6 asked Gwen, with an appalled look on his face. The storm clouds had started gathering on the horizon, darkening the sky in the middle of the day to a dusky, stark intensity. Here and there thick ropes of lighting put out a spectacular display, made even more impactful by the contrast with the gloomy backgr…

“What’s up?” No. 1 climbed on top of the flat boulder where Gwen had retired in search of solitude. To anybody else, she would have looked like she was meditating, but not to him. They were sitting cross-legged, a good height above the desert, and from their elevated viewpoint, they enjoyed the beautiful panorama of it at dusk. Gwen put a long preg…

The next morning the room was an appalling mess: every object in it had been moved from its place. There were empty cups and glasses everywhere and above it all, the chickens roamed, agitated and making a racket. ‘It’s not even Tuesday,’ was the first thought that popped in Gwen’s head, and she examined it with detachment, surprised at how differen…

Life doesn’t give you time to actually look at it except during extraordinary circumstances. It’s in those gaps, those experiences that don’t fit, that you see its inherent strangeness. You notice then that things are never clean cut: the laws of physics have exceptions, moral imperatives have exceptions, even life and death have exceptions. One do…

“How did you end up here?” she asked No. 5, in a daze, realizing the inappropriate nature of the question before she had the time to call it back. It was no business of hers how these men ended up in the middle of the desert, enacting classic tragedies in the original Greek, and she would have been offended if they questioned her choices. In fact, …

“Sit down,” No. 5 ordered, “you’re late for class.” ‘What class?’ Gwen looked around and saw everybody was sitting in a semicircle around the speaker, ostensibly to attend class. “Just sit!” No. 5 rolled his eyes, displeased by the time wasting. No. 4 and No. 1 scooted over to make room for her. By means unknown, someone had produced a notepad and …

The crickets were loud in the night air, Gwen never realized there were so many insects in the desert, and their combined noise was loud enough to pierce through the gasps of the fire and the monotonous rhythm of the conversation, slowed down by the smokes and the tequila. No. 4 wielded a stick with which he kept poking at the fire, absentminded, a…

The purpose of the serenity path finally made itself clear a couple of mornings later when Gwen woke up very early to find No. 1 meditating at its end, perfectly at peace. One would have assumed he was watching the sunrise, but a closer look revealed he was gazing way farther than that, through the sunrise into another reality, shielded from percep…

The next morning Gwen awoke to a sustained but orderly shuffling of boots, bags and paraphernalia and watched in bewilderment how the seven were quietly preparing for what looked like a military campaign. They looked serious and none of them was speaking, which rose Gwen’s anxiety to panic levels. She didn’t dare ask what they were doing. No. 5 spo…