"This is where you want to get off." "Hello." "Who is it?" "What?" "Hello, it is Geiri." "Geiri who?" "Me, Geiri, your grandfather." "Thorgeir Kristmundsson." "Father, is it you?" "My God, I would have come and picked you up had I known you were coming." "Lilja did not quite realize what was going on." "Thorlakur, imagine the poor man having to carry all this luggage up the stairs." "This is hardly any luggage, just me and my stuff." "Welcome Thorgeir." "Good to see you father." "What a surprise." "It is so good to see all of you." "We better step inside." "You've become quite an adventurer, daddy!" "I mean leaving the old place like that." "Well, I have been here before." "The last time was in '36 for my stomach-operation, but I went back by sea then." "We have not been travelling much ourselves." "Hardly a holiday." "But daddy, you will stay here with us while you stay." "Goodbye dad." "I would like to know who took my picture down." "Why can't my things be left alone?" "There are so many pictures of this man." "I just thought.." "Who is he?" "Some friend of yours?" "I really don't care what you think, but my room is my room, no matter what you say and I don't want it filled with any old junk." "Lilja, this is no way to talk.." "And what old frump is this?" "Lilja!" "Enough is enough." "This is no way to talk about your grandmother." "Dad, are you asleep?" "Listen dad." "There is something I have to tell you." "I know this isn't easy for you or for us." "Me and Thorlakur have been thinking.." "There is a lot of thinking." "Oh, dad." "I don't mean it like that, you know how it is." "Things aren't too good between you and Lilja." "Children at her age are often difficult and" "And the two of us hardly know each other." "You haven't exactly been centrally located." "Centrally located?" "Well, isn't a central location really where one is oneself?" "But we have been thinking whether you wouldn't feel better somewhere in more suitable company." "And as you can hear we have rules bout the pocketmoney, rules which have to be adhered to in this establishment." "Our rules are not more strict than those of any apartment building." "We see ourselves as one big family." "Does he take milk or sugar?" "You have no right to decide things for me." "You are Thorgeir, I presume?" "Welcome." "Let me show you where you are going to stay." "Greetings to the eternally young." "Halldor is the name." "Thorgeir Kristmundsson Welcome." "As you can see, this is quite a place we have here." "Loads of things to do." "We play cards and even have the occasional ball." "And then you have visitors from time to time." "And there is no shortage of the fair sex." "They are pretty active as well, let me tell you." "The other day one of them decided to drag me up to the altar." "Damn nerve I thought." "But it shows there is still life in the old boy." "One of the guys has a sweetheart on every floor." "Somebody out there was pretty upset when I arrived." "These things are bound to happen from time to time." "I guess it must have been Stella." "She keeps running away." "They say the nurses wouldn't mind a fling every now and then." "I dare say." "You are the last person I ever expected to see in an old people's home in Reykjavik" "The world is smaller than you think." "And to think!" "While we are incarcerated here, people waiting for us to die, the place we grew up in is deserted." "The old place, well.." "Perhaps it doesn't matter to you that much, you were one of the first to leave anyway." "Suddenly I heard news about you staying in the north." "That's life." "And people from that area are becoming an extinct species." "That may well be, but I thought I recognized you, had seen you before, but I wasn't really sure." "But I was sure." "I said to myself;" "this is Thorgeir Kristmundsson and no one else." "I would have spoken to you if the attendants hadn't held me in their iron grip." "What was that all about?" "They followed me all the way to the central bus station." "Damn them!" "You aren't free to come and go as you please." "So, where were you going?" "Away." "Look what I got from my son." "God bless him." "He always remembers his old father." "Come here." "Smell." "There is no easy way out." "This dance is mine." "Song and dance." "Just like in the country in the old days." "I seem to remember us dancing a few times." "You were like a wooden horse, famous for stepping on the girls toes." "The assembly hall was such a small shack, hardly bigger than the room I share with Halldor." "But still people danced until dawn, some were inside, others outside and when everybody had left, my father sat with his accordion on the heath and played for the countryside." "I remember it so clearly." "God I wish I was there now." "Sometime I feel that everything is like it used to be." "That we just went away for a short while and will all meet again." "Just like the elves." "One day all of us will return." "It's quite a long way up there and it wouldn't surprise me if the church had collapsed and the land totally gone to seed." "But that is where I want to rest, in the graveyard where my parents lie." "I have discussed this with the authorities time and time again, but they keep harping on things like expenses and what not." "I can't see it matters that much where you lie." "One can only hope one doesn't come back to haunt the living." "Yes it does matter and I want it to be my decision." "I'm not going to let them bury me in these garbage dumps here in the south and if I'm not allowed to see the old place before" "I die, I most certainly will come back to haunt every living creature." "But one is just garbage, come to think of it." "I don't believe I'm hearing this!" "People's final wishes are no laughing matter!" "Come now, Stella dear, it's bedtime for us." "Go sleep yourself." "I am talking to an old friend," "Thorgeir Kristmundsson." "There's always another day and I am sure that you and Thorgeir will have enough time to discuss things." "No, I'm not leaving." "Come now, Stella dear." "I am not leaving." "No!" "What's the matter, Halldor?" "Do you want me to call the nurse?" "No, no, this will pass." "Do you want me to get you a glass of water." "Cold water." "Bless his soul." "We must notify his son." "If only he existed." "I am afraid that was just a fantasy of his." "The gospel of this holy night is the second chapter of" "St. Luke and reads thus in the name of the Lord." "101.382.- kronas and then we close the account." "I guess it will be of no use after this." "Damn!" "What a disgusting display of lust." "Get the hell out of here!" "Good day to you, old boy." "Any news?" "I've got a strange case for you." "Well?" "Nothing less than missing persons." "What do you mean by that?" "Exactly what I mean." "Two oldsters have disappeared without a trace, just woosh, gone with the wind." "Old people!" "Yeah, a man and a woman." "Where did they go?" "If I knew that you wouldn't be here and they would be" "Have you sent out their description yet?" "We will broadcast it through the radio around noon." "but I can't really say that I've got much faith in all this crap." "How come?" "Someone stole a car near the old people's home last night but that doesn't tell me a thing." "Somehow I don't believe in geriatrics running around and stealing cars." "If I were you I would start the search in the home itself." "How about checking out the boiler room?" "You are coming with us." "Who, me?" "What am I supposed to do with you?" "That should be perfectly clear to you." "We need to take you in for questioning." "What for?" "A witness identified you." "I'm not going anywhere." "Are you suggesting that we use force?" "Just try it." "Who's in charge here?" "I guess it's me." "With reference to the laws of the state and your civic duties, I ask you and your partners to assist us in making this arrest." "I don't do shitty jobs." "Would this be Stella?" "No, that's his late wife." "A real ladies man, is he?" "How much do you want?" "As much as you can get in there." "Tell me boy, do you know where Sessa lives?" "There are two of them around." "One of them has curly hair and works in the Co-op shop, but the other one is older" "Sessa it's just me." "My God." "I thought I was dreaming some nonsense." "No one answered when I knocked but I knew you wouldn't be far off." "This here is Thorgeir, you must remember him from the old days." "Welcome, both of you." "I hardly believe I'm awake." "Let's have some coffee." "I think it's real brave of you going west just like that." "It has been a dream of mine a long time and people should make their dreams come true, no matter how old they are." "You are like a pair of youngsters on a camping trip." "I wish I could join you." "No thank you." "That would make us look like some youth organization." "You old teaser." "Are you sure you don't want to stay the night?" "A search has been called on for Thorgeir Kristmundsson a 78 year old man and Stella Benonysdottir, a 79 year old woman." "Thorgeir is of average height and built, gray-haired, possibly dressed in a green coat and wearing a hat." "Stella is slender, gray-haired and possibly dressed in a blue coat." "They don't mention our sneakers." "They were last seen at the Old People's Home." "that their disappearance might be related to that of the Willys." "What on earth have you done?" "Nothing really." "We just borrowed a Jeep." "And they expect you to phone all the way to Reykjavik just because of that?" "Are you going to tell me that you don't have a single clue?" "Well, the summer replacement guys arrested two old people who were picking berries outside of town, but they weren't the ones we are looking for." "Could they prove their identity?" "Are you becoming crazy too?" "The jeep has been spotted all over the country and even vanished into thin air in one of the places." "I don't think the jeep will go any further." "Do you have any idea where we are?" "Not really, but we must be close to some farm or other." "Do you feel like walking or do you want to wait while I check things out" "I might as well come along." "This is good feed for the livestock." "Just the place to lie down and rest." "I wonder if it's the same moon that shone on us back in the old days?" "I don't know." "Why do you say that?" "I don't think it has ever recovered since they started taking strolls up there." "I sometimes get the feeling the entire radio is run by one colossal men's choir!" "But the two of you are going to the Hornstrandir area, that's one brave move." "I hope you aren't thinking of sleeping rough." "There is nothing there but cliffs and empty gun-nests from the world war." "It's mostly people from the capital who get these crazy romantic ideas." "I don't care what you call it." "Let me tell you, live on the land, shoot birds and catch fish." "He hadn't been there two weeks when he gave up, having shot nothing but a single raven." "You think your brother will ferry us over there?" "I don't think anything about things I know." "Have you heard about the German guy who'd been saving up for a trip to this area for five years." "On the first night he slept there, over him and his tent." "And do you think your brother will ferry us over there?" "I don't think about things I know." "This jeep has been the subject of a search since last Friday." "There have been reports of sightings from numerous places." "But now it has reappeared all of a sudden, no explanation at all." "All this time the police have believed the disappearance of the car to be connected with that of two old people from the" "Old People's Home here nearby." "But even if the jeep has suddenly turned up, there is no sign of the old folks." "This has to be considered extremely mysterious." "There is no need to be afraid of her." "She's just a ghost."