by Adele Huxley
“She didn’t say anything about you two going up to the mountain for a girl’s day?”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea now, with everything that’s happened…” Liz protested.
“It’s not like you can stop the snow from coming. Might as well enjoy it while you can,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, how’s the hangover, Marsh? Feeling rough around the edges?” he asked me.
“Better than some, worse than others. I’m never drinking vodka again, I can tell you that,” I replied with a groan.
“Never say never,” he chuckled.
To be honest, my head was starting to really pound and I felt like I needed a good couple more hours of sleep. Liz worriedly scanned through her phone as I finished my coffee. I thought about what he’d said the night before and wanted to show I was capable of at least trying.
“It sounds like fun.” Liz’s gaze snapped up to mine. I nearly smiled at the sheer amount of shock in her eyes, but I remained stoic. “Be good to take our mind off things, right?”
Much to my surprise, an hour later we were staring up at Powder Mountain. Bryan had driven and dropped us at the front, along with Jack and a pile of gear. After a swift kiss on the cheek, Bryan rushed away to pick up Walt and get to the council meeting. With my skis strapped to my back, my boots slung over one shoulder, and a fussy baby on my hip, I led the way to the daycare center.
I hadn’t spent much time apart from Jack yet. Apparently, dramatic lives can be quite lucrative. Between royalty checks and a few hefty settlements, we were lucky to not have many financial worries. At least all the bullshit we’d been through had earned us money along the way. I had been living the stay at home mom life for a long time.
Sure, Bryan and I had shared a few date nights, but mostly when his mom was visiting and happy to babysit. I thought I’d be nervous leaving Jack in daycare, but I’ve known Diane since the first winter I lived in Tellure Hollow. The woman was a child whisperer. She could get kids to do pretty much anything, without resorting to bribery.
I pushed my way through the double doors, with Dani behind. The sudden rush of heat flushed my cheeks and fogged my sunglasses. The walls of the brightly colored daycare were decorated with primary colors, shapes, and a variety of animals in various ski and snowboard gear. Powder Mountain was proud of our award-winning nursery center.
I spotted Diane in her office, talking to the young assistants. She was a shorter woman, ten years older than me, with a round motherly face. She was also one of the best drinkers I had ever met. The woman’s circulatory system was part tequila, I swear. When she spotted me through the window, her expression lit up.
“Well, look who’s here,” she said as she rushed out. “Is my little Jacky finally coming to visit me?”
I dropped my boots to the floor, slipped the bag from my shoulders, and placed Jack on the counter top. Diane scooped him up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He immediately giggled and flashed a flirtatious smile at her. Every kid loved her. I don’t know how, but they did. Even the ones that came in kicking and screaming would beg not to leave at the end of the day.
“Mommy’s finally getting some time out on the slopes,” I said with a broad grin. “I know it’s a little late notice, but do you have any space for him?”
“Of course I do! A tiny blizzard during a big blizzard,” she said in a sing-songy voice.
Dani scoffed from behind me. Like with most of the things she did, I chose to ignore it.
“I heard what happened. Are you guys okay?” Diane asked with a glimmer of concern in her eye.
It took me a second to catch on. The speed news and gossip traveled in this town still surprised me. “Oh yeah. Bryan’s already getting everything in order. Poor Walt had to run out of two burning buildings last night. They’re at a meeting right now. The promise of powder brought in the city folk at the last minute and now they’re all stuck.”
“Ah, I’m sure they’re happy about that, too. It’s a good thing the festival was last night, then. At least we didn’t have a bunch of outsiders there,” she gushed as she tickled Jack on the ribs. “It was beautiful, by the way. You did a fantastic job.”
“Thank you,” I replied, remembering Dani heaving her lunch over the edge of the platform. I placed Jack’s backpack on the counter, rifling through to make sure I remembered everything. Dani was growing impatient behind me, and I couldn’t blame her. The freshly powdered slopes were calling to me, too.
“I think I packed enough formula,” I said as I searched through the bag.
“Wait, you don’t breast-feed?” Dani asked with a chuckle. “How did I not know this?”
If there’s one thing I’m sensitive about, it’s anyone critiquing my mothering skills. With a thousand different techniques, and a billion different opinions, I rarely reacted well when somebody criticized my choices.
“Formula is just as good as breast milk,” I said with a tempered tone.
Dani leaned back on one leg and crossed her arms, a smirk spreading across her face. “No absolutely, I understand completely. I mean, you don’t want him overdosing on silicone or anything do you?”
I’m pretty sure my mouth fell open. The amount of attitude that came out in a single comment stunned me into a rare moment of silence. I turned slowly, without responding, and met Diane’s wide eyes.
“Diane. I don’t think I’ve introduced you to Bryan’s cousin, Dani.” I made sure to obscure the face I made by keeping my back to her. Judging by Diane’s reaction, she read my expression like a neon sign.
After a moment’s hesitation, Diane gave Dani a broad smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said brightly.
“Uh-huh,” Dani replied.
“Why don’t you wait for me outside? I’ll be a minute. I wouldn’t want to bore you,” I said through clenched teeth.
I watched as she thought about throwing another cutting dagger at my throat, but she ended up just shrugging. “Whatever,” she said, and walked back out to the courtyard.
A small girl with red pigtails squealed as she ran from the child-sized bathroom with her pants half-undone. One of the young assistants jogged after her trying not to lose control.
“Are you sure you can take him? You absolutely can say no. In fact, I’ll pay you to say no right now so I don’t have to go out with that little… witch,” I finished, glancing at Jack.
“We always have space for the Marshes,” she said. “Well, most of the Marshes. You can keep the cousin,” she said, glancing up. “She’s a little piece of work, isn’t she?”
I rolled my eyes, and leaned against the counter as if overcome with exhaustion. Jack laughed and reached for a chunk of my hair. “You have no idea. Remind me to give this one away the minute he turns thirteen.”
Diane laughed. “Boys are different. They go quiet and hide in the room a lot. Skulk around but keep to themselves. You find lots of stiff socks and washcloths,” she said with a weary acceptance.
“Gross.”
“Girls almost become feral. They should give you special gloves to wear just to be near them. Every little word or look could set off an apocalyptic fight. They get so scary. I swear, there are moments you worry about them eating your face in the middle of the night. You wonder where your sweet baby girl went.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Now there’s an image. I don’t remember many face eating urges when I was her age. I thought maybe I could relate, but it ain’t happening.”
Diane had brought out two brightly colored feathers from under the desk and was waving them in front of Jack’s face as we spoke. “Look, if you can remember back to that age, then you probably remember not wanting to listen to anybody about anything. Even if they agree, they fight with you out of principle.”
I tried to think back to being that age, but I was a different kind of girl. I’d had to grow up so quickly. Between my dad’s deployments, our constant moving, and then my mom’s cancer, I had little leeway for a rebellious adolescence. Dan
i was old enough to have been raised with a sense of entitlement, making her think the bad things in life were punishments only for her.
“I heard about what happened at the festival,” Diane added, looking up at me through her brows as she stifled a chuckle. “I didn’t see it, mind, but I heard all about it.”
“I’m sure that rumor is spreading as quickly as all the others. If something happens to me or Bryan, our names suddenly become the trending freakin’ hashtag for the town.”
“It’s always nice to be wanted,” she replied. Having seen behind the curtain of fame, she knew exactly what I was talking about.
“So,” I said with a dramatic pause, “I’ll come pick him up at three?”
Diane consulted her roster. One thing that made Powder Mountain’s daycare so great was how attentive the employees were to the children. At no point did Diane allow the ratio to go above three to one.
“That works perfectly. I have a shift change coming up and… yeah, we’re definitely fine. Stop worrying.”
“Then I guess it’s time to say goodbye to my Jacky,” I said with a lump in my throat.
I scooped the little guy up into my arms and gave him a kiss on each cheek, smoothed his hair back, and handed him over to Diane.
“You be good for the ladies, and don’t go falling in love,” I said. Looking into Diane’s understanding face, I continued, “If you have any trouble with him, or need me at all, I have my phone on me.”
“Don’t you worry at all, Mama Blizzard. We’ll take good care of him here.”
Tears formed in my eyes, threatening to fall before I even left the daycare room. I bent and scooped up all my gear. The rush of cold air helped calm my nerves, and I tried to reassure myself that it was good for me to do things on my own, too.
“So are you ready to head up to the top?” I asked Dani, still feeling delicate.
“I’ve been ready for an hour,” she said, blowing past me towards the lifts.
I gritted my teeth, the tears turning into a mixture of sadness and rage. “Maybe I should try to eat her face first.”
After taking Dani to the ticket office to get her a season pass, I checked the conditions. Even with the surprise dump, the base was alarmingly shallow. We were running at almost full service with two trails still yet to open, so a couple feet of free snow was a godsend but not enough. Judging by the new forecast, we’d be choking on the stuff before long.
It was early morning on a Tuesday, which meant the lift lines were as short as you’d ever find them on Powder Mountain.
I clicked into my skis and adjusted the goggles on my helmet. We stood in front of the big trail map at the center of base camp. “So, where do you want to go?” I asked her. “We could get a few runs in on Devil’s Gulch or head straight up to the top. Your mom didn’t mention how long it’d been since you…”
“Let’s just go to the top,” she replied, skating off on her board before I could respond.
I gritted my teeth as I watched her glide away toward the wrong lift. A part of me wanted to correct Miss High and Mighty, point out she’d actually made a mistake, but the adult in me kicked in. You need to rise above, Liz, I thought with all the calming energy I could muster.
I pushed myself along and swiftly caught up with her as she approached the lift. She tried to grab a chair on her own, but I deftly slipped in beside her. I reached out as the chair swung around and plunked my ass down, ensuring a wonderfully private and awkward ride up the mountain together.
“Well, here we go,” I said with fake cheerfulness.
She looked at me as if I’d appeared out of nowhere before snapping her gaze straight ahead. As we rose above the ground, I lowered the safety bar across our laps, settling the bottom of my skis on the narrow footpad.
“So! When was the last time you were out on the slopes?” I asked.
She replied with a half shrug, her eyes anywhere but on me. I’m not sure what I’d done to earn such ire, but I’ll be damned if it didn’t make me try harder.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. My helmet kind of muffles things,” I said, leaning forward.
“I don’t know,” she finally muttered. It was the eloquent response I’d been waiting for.
I nodded to myself and decided to fill the silence with enough inane chatter she’d have no choice but to listen. She didn’t have to take part, but maybe if I kept it up, a conversation would magically materialize.
“I haven’t actually been skiing since the accident,” I said. It just came out, but even as I said it, I was shocked by the truth. “It didn’t intentionally work out that way, but everything happened in New Zealand, and it was the middle of summer when we got back here. Bryan and I got married pretty quickly, and by then, I was already pregnant.”
“Your mom must be so proud,” I heard Dani mutter under her breath.
My patience can only run so thin. Since she was so fond of shocking people, I thought I might try to shock her myself. “My mom is dead, actually.”
When Dani looked at me, I didn’t see an ounce of surprise. I saw a glint of dark humor in her hazel eyes. “Funny that. We have so much in common. My dad is dead.”
“Your dad isn’t dead,” I replied slowly.
“Might as well be,” she said as she looked away.
Again, choosing to ignore the anger dripping from her tone, I thought I might embrace the shift in conversation.
“Actually, you and I have a lot more in common than you think,” I smirked.
“God, I hope not.”
“Oh, I’m not all that bad.”
I tried to lighten the situation by rocking the lift. Maybe if I startled her, it might bring out a little more personality. I swung my legs back and forth, the chair bouncing along on the thick cable above us until I got a good rhythm going. I expected she might squeal or maybe even get pissed off, but I was greeted with neither of those reactions.
Instead, a deep sadness filled her eyes. “Please stop,” she asked quietly.
I stilled my legs, feeling like I’d done something horribly wrong without understanding. As we ascended the mountain the last five minutes, I kept my mouth shut. Maybe it was a little too much, too soon having a day by ourselves. By the time the top of the lift came into view and I moved the safety bar in its upright position, I reassured myself that she was just a hurt girl lashing out at the world. Of all people, I knew what that was like.
“Sometimes it can be a little tricky getting off with a skier, so I’ll push off first and you can follow after.”
The steep drop of the lift came quickly. I instinctively rose from the seat and glided down, ski poles in one hand. I turned in time to see Dani place half her foot on the stomp pad between the bindings on her snowboard. The heel of her boot grabbed the snow as she tried to slide down. She wobbled, throwing her arms out for balance as she ungracefully stuttered down the slope to my side. I knew any comment would just make her more upset.
“Since I know you don’t care, I figured we could go down this route,” I said, pushing away before she responded. I checked over my shoulder twice to ensure she was clicking into her bindings, going slow enough she’d be able to catch up.
I’d loved skiing since the moment I tried it, in no small part because my mother had, too. As silly as it might sound, I felt connected to her on the mountain, like she was with me somehow. I tried snowboarding once or twice, but there was something about the awkward sideways movements I could never get the hang of. As much as I would rather have soft snowboarder boots, the ability to just slide off the lift and ski was enough to make me never want to switch.
I took long, sweeping turns down the intermediate slope. With no one around, I didn’t have to worry about impeding any other skiers. One last look over my shoulder, I was glad to see Dani slowly gaining momentum over the top of the ridge. I thought she might try to ditch me.
I gained momentum as I took tighter turns, feeling the edges of my skis cut through the powder. Ever since the first snowfall, I
’d been having dreams about getting back on the mountain. The attacks from a year and a half prior actually hadn’t been detrimental to my love of skiing at all. No matter what happened in our lives, the snow and the slopes would always be my therapy.
Trees encroached from both sides, narrowing the trail into a thin chute. With skis being inherently faster than snowboards, I didn’t tuck and dive into the run as much as I could have, not wanting to leave Dani behind. Apparently, I didn’t need to concern myself with that.
Just as I was coming out of a sharp turn to the right, a blur in a purple jacket flew past, spraying snow all over my skis. I gave a shout to Dani, telling her to slow down, but she was too far ahead.
“Oh, that’s it,” I muttered. This girl can try to challenge me all she wants, but out here, I’m the boss. I tucked into a tight crouch, keeping my knees together, and pinned my eyes on Dani’s back.
I caught up with her as she navigated a sweeping turn to the left. The snow on this part of the course had become a bit icy and she was forced to slow down. My skis, however, ate ice for dinner. I threw myself into the turn, the edges grabbing the ice and flinging me around the corner. My leg muscles screamed with sweet exertion.
Almost as a last thought, I passed her from behind and gave her a slight whack on the ass with the end of my pole. I heard her squeal, and I chuckled to myself. After putting a little of distance between us, I slowed to give her a chance to catch up. No amount of aggression could beat physics. I thought maybe the competitiveness might give us something to bond over finally.
Unfortunately, I underestimated her mean streak. I tried to keep an eye on her with quick glances over my shoulder, but I still had to concentrate on the trail ahead. Our trail had been empty at the start, but the further down the mountain we went, the more trails joined in. We were no longer the only ones on the slope. As my attention behind waned, Dani flew up from behind and zagged in front of me. The edge of her board cut straight across the top of my skis. Without looking, I knew she’d left horrible gouges. Not only was it incredibly dangerous, she just ruined a couple hundred dollars’ worth of gear.