Jørn Hansen – Skagen, Denmark – 3:05pm
A cutting wind blew across the planes of northern Denmark, rustling the marram grass that covered most of the land. Jørn looked out over the sea, watching the waves as they rolled over one another. His hands were tucked away deep inside the pockets of his coat. It was a chilly, bleak day in the beginning of April, which was not unusual for this time of the year. Although the temperature here didn’t differ much from what he was used to, the rough sea climate made it all feel much colder.
Jørn had come to Skagen to map out the migrating birds, which were traveling from the most northern tip of Denmark to Sweden. He and the rest of the crew had arrived the day before; It was at least five hours driving from Copenhagen and they all wanted to make sure everything was prepared well. At sunrise this morning, everyone was already up, not wanting to miss a glimpse of any of the traveling species. The early rise had paid off: Jørn had managed to get some excellent shots of several breeds of geese and some great predatory birds.
A cold breeze blew through the man’s ruffled, dark hair and made its way down, slipping down his scarf. The sensation of the cold air touching his bare skin caused shivers down his entire body, awakening him from his trance of staring into the great grey-blue before him. Jørn tried to shake off the cold, making small jumps on his spot, stamping around, trying to get his blood flowing.
Having enough material, the crew had finished photographing for today but Jørn had wanted to enjoy the scene for a bit longer. However, standing still like this didn’t make viewing exactly enjoyable. He wondered whether he should move further out, walking along the shore, or whether he should call it a day and head back to the cabin they had rented.
Before he could make a decision he then noticed a figure from the corner of his eye. Turning around, a person stood before him he could not remember to have seen before, yet seemed strangely familiar to him. Moreover, they were anything but dressed for this weather.
In a sort of reflex, Jørn took a step forward, but stopped himself from taking another. Maybe this was just some hallucination, like he had been having for the past few weeks. Now hallucinations were not new to Jørn -- he sometimes had longer periods of time when he had trouble falling asleep, and right before he would fall asleep he would often see vague images of floating objects or lights -- but these recent ones were different. Not only were they more vivid and did they occur when Jørn was wide awake, but they also didn’t restrict to visions, instead expanding to his other senses.
The Danish man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, almost hoping that if he would open his eyes again, the other person would have vanished into thin air. But they didn’t; when he opened his eyes once more they were still there. Jørn didn’t know whether to conclude it meant the person was really there, or that he was going insane. Either way he could only ask the most sensible question that came to mind.
“Hey,” he said hesitating, and paused for a moment.
“Aren’t you cold?”