NOVEL
Our Secret Love
The Love We Had, Part 3, Chapter 18
A writing challenge
Write and publish a book review of the novel The Love We Had, based on freely chosen chapters published on medium.com.
The book review can be a comment of 100 to 200 words, or a longer article, and should be published on medium.com.
Everyone who publishes a book review will receive a link with free access to the e-book when the e-book is published on KDP. Please tag me Øivind H. Solheim at the end of the review to get free access to the e-book.
Part 3
18 Our Secret Love
I wasn’t evil-minded. I was just unhappy
I’m Eira.
I just need to tell my story.
I hope that when you’ve read my story, you will believe what I say: I wasn’t evil-minded. I was just unhappy.
Whatever happens, I will stand for us and our love. I will escape from this boredom, from this trap — the marriage I’ve been in for too many years.
Actually, I don’t know why people come together. The real reason why they seek together and make love, make children. Not just one. Often two, three, four. Why’s that?
In the end, there is nothing but misery. In the relationship, they feel uneasy, uncomfortable. Sometimes one of them. Often both. They are unhappy. And then, when they feel this way, when they discover the impact and the triviality of life — their life, it’s too late.
I was there, in the middle of the triviality, the exhausting, breath taking crisis — already several years ago. We much too fast had passed through the friendly landscape of love, where we were diving in a sunny warm and hospitable countryside.
He and I — we were there for a moment. We lived and enjoyed life; we had this experience that life is good. On the way we could indulge us to love, we could let us be loved, we could play and laugh, and watch children growing up.
This is how we were thinking. On the road we would discover together the beauty in the other one, we would be able to discover the beauty around us, the beauty inside ourselves.
Doesn’t it sound good? Even beautiful?
I wrote a poem during this period:
On the road, we will get involved in the big joint project to lift the world small steps forward.
Together with others we lift others and when we lift, we know that we ourselves are lifted by others who lift together with us
The story that the novel tells takes place in a small industrial town at the end of a fjord in western Norway. The story being told and the characters are fictional.
The photos included in the chapters are taken on location in the Odda Smelter (Odda Smelteverk, 1906–2003), the carbide factory that is mentioned in the story.
The Love We Had
Part 1 The Longest Night -chapters 1–3, told by Lars Part 2 The Light Inside -chapters 4–17, told by Aslak Part 3 Save Our Secret Love -chapters 18 — XX, told by Eira
Links:
Part 1
Chapter 1 I Love It When Things Are Normal Chapter 2 I Came Home as Usual Chapter 3 I Believe in What I See
Part 2
Chapter 4 I Am Going to Write Chapter 5 All we have is — ourselves! Chapter 6 Coming together — escaping loneliness Chapter 7 When I first met her Chapter 8 An unskilled factory worker Chapter 9 That Sunday morning we met at the parking lot Chapter 10 At some point they gradually stopped listening to one another Chapter 11 Going into the furnace hall to dig out shit from the smelter furnace Chapter 12 In a small boat far out on the high seas Chapter 13 The ugliest city can be the happiest city in the world Chapter 14 A Man from the North Chapter 15 The Old Factory on the River Plain Chapter 16 You Give Me Warmth and I Love It Chapter 17 How It Is to Lose Love
Part 3
Chapter 19 Where Have You Been?
For free access to 43 of 49 chapters, click here.
Øivind H. Solheim writes fiction, essays and articles aiming to help others understanding life, other humans and themselves. He has published five novels, two non-fiction books and a poetry book.
Visit Øivind H. Solheim’s profile
Become a Medium member, read thousands of writers and support my writing.