Karl Knausgaard - A Time for Everything

The last thing she thought about was the baby in Rachel’s womb. That it was with them, too.

Then she fell asleep.

She was awoken by Javan going out of the room. The others were still asleep. She got up, dressed as quietly as she could, and stood in front of the window. Javan was crossing the waterlogged fields. He was almost running but constantly having to stretch out his arms to keep his balance, as the water was so muddy that he couldn’t see how deep it was in front of him. She smiled. She knew he was on his way to the embankment. There he would find that the water had risen considerably overnight, hurry back, get hold of the first person he met, and say that conditions had altered drastically, they hadn’t any choice now, he’d hoped against hope, but now. . well, they’d just have to leave today.

Or something similar.

The thick cloud cover lay so low over the valley that it seemed to form part of the landscape, as immovable as the ground or the mountains. Everything out there was gray. The trees were gray, the grass in front of the house was gray, the fields were gray.

Over by the wall Lamech began his tongue clicking. Soon after Jerak and Rachel stirred.

“Good morning,” she said.

Jerak gave her a barely perceptible nod. Rachel turned onto her side and closed her eyes again.

“I’m going to get Omak and Ophir,” said Anna. “Look after Lamech in the meantime, will you? We’ll be leaving as soon as I get back.”

The twins lay sleeping in the barn when she arrived. While she waited for them to dress and gather their things, she stood on the barn bridge peering up at the side valley that opened up on the other side of the river. She’d have to look for Noah once they’d got organized at the summer farm. They didn’t have contact with anyone up there, and even if they knew that the rivers were swelling and the fields down here were covered with water, they had no inkling that the sea was rising and was coming up the valley.

Leaving Rachel now, just before the birth, was the last thing she wanted to do, but if she must, she must.

The twins came out and stood next to her.

“Wow, it’s raining again today!” said Omak.

“We’ll have to hurry,” said Anna.

Half an hour later they gathered in front of the house. The farmyard was full of people, and the twins had to beat a path through them so that they could go up and fetch Lamech. As Anna stood there waiting for them, Lud came over to her. He wanted them to go on together. Anna explained that they’d have to call in at their farm first to gather clothing and food and other necessities.

“But have a word with him,” she said, nodding toward Lotan. “He’ll be able to take you with him.”

Lamech turned his head from side to side in confusion as he was carried through the crowd. His eyes were scared as he looked up at the strangers. Following the stretcher came Rachel and Jerak, each carrying a pack. They all crossed the field and went up to the embankment, followed it a good way, entered the forest, crossed the ridge, and so arrived at the back of what remained of their buildings. There they repacked, had something to eat, and pushed on toward the mountains. The going was tough, the water that covered the fields they crossed came to their knees, and in some places to their waists, and everyone was well loaded. The twins probably had the heaviest loads of all, as they had Lamech to carry as well.

When they reached the foot of the mountain at the end of the field, they followed the forest brow across it, beyond the pass, which was impossible to climb with all their encumbrances, and on down into the valley, until the slope of the mountain had become gentle enough for them to climb without too much difficulty. From there they followed the evenly ascending ridge back again, until late in the afternoon they reached the broad plateau at the top of the mountain above their farm.

They halted and took off their packs, put Lamech’s stretcher down, took out a little food, which they ate standing up. The rain pelted the ground all around them. One or two logs from the beacon, which they’d lit so optimistically a few weeks earlier, lay scattered about.

Lamech, like the others, was soaked to the skin. But Anna saw that at least he was sleeping now. She’d already begun to accustom herself to the idea that he wouldn’t see this through.

Viewed from this altitude, there was no difference between the water inside the embankment and outside it. The whole valley resembled a lake.

And for all the latter part of the journey, they’d seen the sea. No one had ever been able to do that from this part of the valley. It was only a couple of miles farther down. For a while they had paused down there, the sight was completely incredible, sea reaching into the pine forest and rising before their very eyes. The valley sloped so that the pine trees were at different heights. They looked like bathers paddling into the sea. The water lay across the full width of the valley, swelling between the mountainsides, but it didn’t form small waves, as might have been expected. The water fell back as one, then washed across the forest floor in one single, concerted breaker.

Even from the height they’d been at, they could hear the hiss and boom of the water below. The crack of the splintering trees.

Anna had picked out a tree, which she regularly checked by sight. When they halted it had stood on the water’s edge, when they pressed on it was deep in the water. In that short space of time the water had risen at least fifteen feet.

How many feet higher was the valley itself? Three hundred? Four hundred and fifty? It was only a matter of days at most, perhaps only hours, before the water reached that height and washed over the country there.

She’d considered going down to Noah that evening to warn him. Now she wasn’t so sure. Lamech was seriously depleted, and Rachel seemed exhausted. Walking so far and carrying such a weight just before childbirth made the chances of an early start to labor very high.

She’d have to make the decision when they got there.

After the rest, which everyone wanted to get over as quickly as possible — it was depressing to stand in the rain and look over the flooding fields — they entered the forest on the far side of the plateau, through the wood and up onto the rocky ground on the other side. Here, too, the water had risen: what had previously been a small tarn was now a great lake, and all the surrounding ground was waterlogged and marshy. As a result they had to make lengthy detours and didn’t reach the summer farm until long after darkness had fallen.

The first thing they did was to undress Lamech, dry him thoroughly, put fresh clothes on him, and lay him in the bed in the room downstairs. Throughout the whole operation he slept soundly.

But what a relief to get under cover!

The twins took off their packs downstairs, where they were to sleep, the others carried theirs up to the half-loft. Anna and Javan’s eyes met as they stood up there, and they laughed.

“What are you two laughing at?” asked Rachel.

“This was where we met,” Anna said.

“Here?”

“Yes. Your father came clambering up that ladder one night. And I watched him from that bed, completely petrified.”

“Did you?” Rachel looked at Javan.

Javan smiled.

“I’ll tell you what happened another time.”

Then he turned to Jerak.

“We’d better go down,” he said. “We can change there.”

“How are you feeling?” Anna asked Rachel when they were alone.

“Fine,” said Rachel. “It hurts a bit, but. . There’s probably nothing wrong.”

“No, I’m sure there isn’t,” said Anna. “Lie down and rest awhile. It’s the best thing for you.”