Page 40 of A Winter in Wonderland
Chapter 19
I wish I’d not been such a massive chicken, and taken the snowmobiles out earlier, back in November when there were fewer visitors to our little part of Lapland. Now, with December under way, we were working full hours outside and running several trips each per day. The company did a great job of making visitors feel like they had all the space and time in the world, and thankfully my muscles were beginning to adapt to hiking through these conditions, which was kind of cool. Also, hooray for saunas! They are just so bloomin’ lovely after a day on the snow. Esteri and I were regular end-of-day visitors to our secret sauna in the staff chalet.
Now, finally, I was on snowmobile safari duty. I was leading a group of six on an all-day adventure, and as they were getting kitted out, I was wandering back and forth along the line of skidoos I’d be in charge of and running through the emergency procedures in my head.
‘Good luck today, roomie!’ Esteri called, whizzing by me on her own snowmobile, on her way to help out with husky puppy meet-and-greets at the farm for the day. That job is the best.
‘Thank you,’ I called to the spray of snow she left in her wake.
Guests were milling around, getting ready for their various excursions, sitting beside one of the many small campfires that dotted the ground, taking photos, marvelling at just how snowy it was. I was using a large brush to sweep snow off the seats and handles of the snowmobiles when some jingle bells caught my attention.
‘Hello!’ said an enthusiastic voice.
Turning, I faced Josh, in full regalia again, waving at me like a panto performer.
‘Hey, Josh!’ I felt like I’d barely seen him since we started, and now he was right there I couldn’t help but smile.
‘ElfJosh, silly.’ He wagged his finger then laughed and leapfrogged over one of the snowmobiles. Ah yes,Elf Joshhad to stay in character at all times. How could I forget. I stifled a sigh.
‘I’m coming with you today,’ Josh said in his children’s performer voice, leaning beside me with his arm resting jauntily on my shoulder. He grinned widely but this close up, my face directly looking into his, I saw the twinkle in his eye, not of Elf Josh but of real Josh. Surgical nurse Josh. The Josh I’d met on the plane, and who’d picked me up an elf diploma.
I blinked and turned my gaze towards my group, happilywaddling through the snow like a gaggle of teddy bears. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, I’m coming on the snowmobile safari.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ he laughed, then waved a big hello to the group. ‘I’m joining in because I heard someone in this group is very excited about Christmas.’
‘That’s me!’ A bubbly Australian girl stepped forward. ‘It’s my birthday month and I love Christmas so much.’
‘Me too!’ shrieked Josh, taking her hands in his and spinning her in a circle while she laughed her head off.
Our snowmobile safaris can be really tailored to what the groups say they want when they book, so if they want quiet and wilderness, we’ll offer them a trip to unspoiled fells with magnificent views. If they want to try and spot the Northern Lights, we’ll suggest one of our evening tours, where we head to the best locations as predicted by our managers. If they want a romantic trip, we’ll take them to beauty spots with good photo ops. And if they want Christmassy, we’ll provide gingerbread and mulled wine and tell tales about yuletide. So in this case, I had the snacks and drinks sorted, and it looked like Josh was bringing a dash of extra festive joy.
Speaking of, he now had the whole group lying on the ground making snow angels.
‘All right, shall we get going?’ I said, and they all began to try and get up again in their padded onesies, meaning Josh had to run around and every time he’d pull one of them up he’d theatrically fall back onto the ground himself,then askthemto pullhimup. What a palaver. ‘Everybody gather around, I just need to tell you a few health and safety things before we start the tour today.’
As I was giving my talk, cold, wet dust hit my face with force and I gasped involuntarily, sucking some of it in as I did so, and coughing as it turned to water at the back of my throat.
There was a pause while I stood in shock, and then I heard a loud, jovial-though-minutely-less-than-usual, ‘Uhoh, I’m sorry Adventure Guide Myla!’
Wiping the snowball from my eyes I glared for a second at Josh who, with his back to the others mouthed ‘Sorry’ to me.
I slapped on a smile before the guests saw any break in service. ‘You cheeky elf,’ I laughed loudly.
I liked Josh, I really did, but yeah … he could be pretty annoying.
Nevertheless, the group, Josh, and I, set off on our snowmobile safari without incident. My hands were shaking inside my merino wool gloves, which were inside my mittens, and I concentrated as hard as I could on not cocking up. The snowmobile, which seemed loud, heavy and hard, carved through the snow without effort, spray pluming out beside my legs, and after a while, I let my breath out, a white cloud into the blue cold, and began to chat to the group via my microphone.
Josh, who had no clue how to drive a snowmobile, rode with me on mine, and the feeling of him against me – of somebody familiar quite literally having my back – allowedmy wobbly voice to settle, and my confidence to up. Just a notch. I was still weeing myself a little bit.
We drove in a line over hilltops and fells, around frozen lakes and then circled back to the reindeer farm for our warm drinks. All was, actually, going fine.
Until ten minutes after we’d left the reindeer farm to explore the other direction, and had pulled to a stop near the top of a fell which had a spectacular photo op.
‘Let me take some pictures with you in,’ I said to the group, and we spent a while with me swapping between different cameras and phones and them swapping between different poses.
