Page 103 of A Season in the Snow
‘Once you’ve managed to sled down the hill with a child on your lap because they don’t want to do it any more, dragging their sled behind you, plus carrying the backpack full of everyone’s snacks for the day on your back, this seems a breeze.’
‘You can fit two on one sled?’
‘Well, youshouldn’t.’
Alice thought about this for a moment, and then Bahira asked, ‘Why? What are you thinking?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Are you hurt?’
‘No, no, absolutely fine.’ She extracted herself from the snow but visibly winced when she put weight onto her leg.
Bahira got off her sled and jabbed it into the snow, then walked over to Alice. ‘It’s your bad leg, isn’t it? Does it still hurt you?’
‘Not much, it aches a little when I exercise or snowboard.’
‘Right then, come on,’ Bahira said, and picked up Alice’s sled and tied it to the back of her own.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking charge, being the mum, like you’ve been with Bear over the last few months.’ Bahira sat down on her sled, legs akimbo, and patted the small, slatted space in the middle.
Alice laughed. ‘I don’t think I’ll fit in there,’ she said. ‘You’re very kind but I’ll be fine on my own sled.’
‘Come on, let’s give the others a laugh.’
Alicewasenjoying a laugh these days. ‘Bugger it, let’s give it a go.’
She climbed on the sled, squidged in between Bahira’s thighs and bent her knees so that her feet were up off the snow and on the wood as well. It wasn’t much comfier, but it was quite funny. Bahira shunted the two of them forward, and the two of them clung, screeching, to the rope as the two sleds cascaded down the slope like white water rafts. They stayed on, though, almost all the way to the bottom, where they found Theresa and Kemi already clasping three steaming cups of Glühwein, plus a hot apple juice for Theresa.
‘That was so much fun,’ said Kemi, gulping her drink. ‘But surprisingly hard work.’
‘Does anyone want to go again?’ asked Theresa, and was met with murmurs of ‘maybe not’s. ‘Oh good, I’m shattered!’
Alice said, ‘How about we pop back to the chalet? I’ll walk Bear, and then we go somewhere to soothe our muscles for an hour or so?’
‘That sounds perfect. What did you have in mind?’ asked Bahira.
‘A simmer in the outdoor hot tub at the Alpine Sports Centre while the sun goes down.’
This revived them, and as they stamped through the snow back to Vanessa’s chalet, Theresa said, ‘I don’t know why you’re ever planning to come home, Ali, the “wild” life is really working for you.’
Her friends from home left Mürren late the following morning, happy and exhausted, bruised but so glad they came, and Alice felt exactly the same. They’d all had a great day on the slopes yesterday, followed by a laughter- and memory-filled soak in the hot tub in the evening. And now she waved goodbye to them, under the soft fall of snowflakes, until the train had pulled away and curled around the mountain.
Before she went back to the chalet, where her Marco was waiting with her Bear, Alice took a moment to be by herself. She walked, her hands in her pockets but her heart open, with the slow amble of somebody enjoying nature and not rushing to avoid life. She was proud of herself.
Then she went up the slope, beside the village she’d become so familiar with, and towards the two chalets that permanently had their doors open to each other.
Alice opened the door to her own, and there were her two favourite boys, all hers for the evening.
