Page 39 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 18
‘Is that Santa calling?’ my dad chuckled down the phone when he picked up, all the way over in the Isle of Wight. I couldn’t help but smile, sitting down heavily on the ground, thankful for the super-thick padding of my snowsuit. It was my day off, and despite my exhausted body, I’d grabbed some snowshoes and taken myself up to the top of a fell the other side of the forest, so that I could call my dad for a check-in without risking being overheard.
Now, sitting here, with the white-duveted world stretched far before me, the sky violet and the air – some of the cleanest air in the whole world – lightly scented with pine, I’d actually forgotten some of the grumbles I’d been planning to offload. The world was so silent, all I could hear was my own breath, and the soft crunch of the snow beneath me when I pushed out my legs. I couldn’t even hear many of my thoughts, which was nice, it was like they’d drifted away, snowflakes picked up by the breeze.
‘Hey, Dad, how’s home?’
‘Home is home,’ he replied. ‘How are you? How’s my coat?’
‘Your coat is wonderful,’ I said. It was around me now, actually, over my snowsuit, as the temperature had dropped again and was now at a late-November minus eleven degrees. ‘Thank you for letting me bring it.’
‘You can take it on all your future adventures. How are you coping?’
‘I’m OK … well, actually, I’m not very good at all this,’ I confessed. ‘I still haven’t led a snowmobile trip, and I don’t feel like I have the natural gung-ho that the other guides, thateverybody, else has here. But!’ I added, chirping up. ‘It’s now only four weeks until Christmas, so not long to go!’
Dad was quiet for a minute. ‘Please don’t wish your life away,’ he said. ‘Enjoy yourself out there.’
‘I am,’ I said quickly, feeling bad. ‘I love Lapland. It’s just … you know I don’t cope well with the Christmas stuff—’
‘Any more,’ he interrupted.
‘—Any more. So I’m just trying to make it to that point, that’s all.’
‘All right. Shay told me that if you rang, I had to tell you you’re not allowed to quit.’
‘I’m not going to quit. I know I’ve said that before, and I know I don’t have a good track record, but I’m going to stick this out, you don’t need to worry.’
‘I’m not worried,’ Dad said. ‘I know you’re going to be just fine, and once you get on that snowmobile they’ll be wishing they’d put you on one sooner.’
‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said.
‘What do you actually think of the job itself, and the people? You know, all the non-Christmas things?’
I sat up straighter and breathed in the fresh air, feeling my heart instantly lift. ‘I like being outside, it makes a nice change from office jobs, actually. And the people are great. I have a lovely room-mate and there are some other staff members I get on well with. There’s someone I met on the plane on the way over who’s friendly, but his job is as an elf and he’s almost always in character, so I’m avoiding hanging out with him, hahahahaaaaaaa.’
Dad paused. ‘Well that all sounds very positive.’
We chatted for a while more, before I thought I’d better get moving again so I hung up the phone.
Sticking my poles in the ground I heaved myself up to standing, catching the branch of a tree to steady me when I wobbled and causing a rain of snow to thud its way down onto my head and into the powder below. Hmph. I’d still meant what I said, though. Working outdoors all day every day wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be back when I first went to Shay, asking for seasonal work – I wasn’t getting very sun-kissed, for a start – but I did feel like the endless sights and smells and sounds were keeping me in the moment, and that could only be a good thing.
