Page 102 of A Season in the Snow
‘Can I stay here with you for the next few months?’ asked Bahira. ‘My family will be fine at home. I want to eat every bit of cheese in all those pretty restaurants I can see below us.’
‘Yes of course, stay as long as you want,’ Alice said, and although she knew Bahira was joking, she actually meant it. Fancy that.
At the top, they followed the skiers and snowboarders out onto the mountain and Kemi and Theresa’s jaws fell into the snow and rolled away.
‘Look at this view,’ Kemi gasped. ‘Jesus Christ!’
‘Look at the hot snowboarders,’ Theresa added as a sturdy chap in sunglasses and an open ski jacket carved past them and off down the ski slope.
‘So according to the map, to make sure we’re sticking to the bob run we need to look out for the purple sledding symbols, like that.’ Alice pointed at a sign sticking out of the snow next to the entrance to one of the piste bashercleared runs.
They shuffled their way over there, their boots creaking in the snow and their sleds bashing against their ankles.
‘Do we go in a line?’ Theresa asked, and they looked at the run before them.
‘It doesn’t look wide enough for us all to go next to each other,’ said Kemi.
‘Not with all the cheese I’ve been eating since I got here.’ Alice stepped forward. ‘We could probably go two by two, and stop and switch over?’
Kemi put her sled down and it began to slide, so she grabbed the rope handle. ‘How do you stop on these?’
‘You have to just dig your heels into the snow,’ answered Bahira. ‘Or plough into the snow bank at the side. Be careful you’re not going to career off piste if you take that option.’
Theresa gulped. ‘I vote Alice and Bahira go first.’ Then she whispered to Kemi, ‘Then we can just crash intothem.’
‘Why do I need to go first?’ Alice protested. ‘I’m just as much as a beginner as you.’
‘But your boyfriend is a mountain rescue paramedic,’ Theresa shot back.
‘Fine,’ said Alice. ‘Let’s go.’
They sat in a two by two formation on their sleds, pausing to make some pictures.
‘Hold onto the reins, lean back, keep your legs up but your heels just a little into the snow,’ Bahira instructed.
‘Let’s do this!’ Theresa yelled, and Kemi shushed her.
‘Shhh, you might start an avalanche.’
They sat there, rocking on their sleds, until Theresa asked, ‘How do we make it go?’
Bahira, who’d been tucking her hair into her ski jacket, started waddling her feet forwards, pulling the sled with her, like a dog dragging its bottom on the ground. ‘Like this. Here we go!’
The four of them swayed from the flat onto the start of the slope.
‘Whoooooa!’ Alice was the first to fall, the blade of her sled sinking into the softest snow in the centre of the slope and tipping her over. Behind her, Kemi made a leap for freedom so that only the sled bumped into Alice’s back. Theresa expertly swerved past them both but then was laughing so much she forget to dig her heels in, and zoomed down a sudden incline and out of sight.
‘I’m okay!’ She called back from where she was lying in the snow beside Bahira, who had come to a graceful pause.
Panting and chuckling, with snow lodged into their bum cracks, the women attempted round two. The bob run ebbed and flowed from exhilarating inclines to gentle curves to flat plains that they had to waddle themselves along on, causing their hip flexors to ache.
They passed lonely wooden chalets, half buried, and the mountains that encased them became gold-tipped as the afternoon sun began to sink beyond. It was so quiet aside from the slicing of the sled blades through the snow that it almost became relaxing. The four of them were feeling rather smug with themselves for getting the hang of gliding the wide curves, their heels spraying soft dustings of cold snow into the air, which usually landed back on their faces.
It was making Alice’s bad leg pang something rotten though, even though on the outside all that remained was her scar. She didn’t want to admit it because . . . well, for starters she was half way up a mountain and she didn’t have much choice other than to keep going. But also she was having fun with her friends, her wonderful, familiar friends who were back in her life. So she ignored for as long as possible the burning ache that was worsened by being pressed up against the wood. Eventually she needed a rest, and ploughed into the snow at the edge, which was much thicker than she anticipated. She disappeared up to her knees.
Bahira was bringing up the lead so came to a stop. ‘Everything okay, Ali?’
‘Yep, just having a little rest.’ Alice twisted around on the sled. ‘You’re very good at this.’
