The Little Swiss Ski Chalet

by Julie Caplin

  Mina whirled around. ‘Would you employ me?’

  Johannes looked taken aback at first and then a slow, cunning smile lit up his face. ‘Now that would create a lot of solutions, wouldn’t it?’ He nodded before looking out of the window over her shoulder at the ski chalet. ‘And I think I know just the place. Let’s go and discuss it over a coffee with Amelie.’

  They walked across the crisp expanse of snow over to Amelie’s house, their breath rising in plumes of steam in the cold, sharp air, both of them lost in thought. Palpable excitement hummed between them. All of her ideas from the previous day coalesced in Mina’s head. She could already envisage the perfect tasting room and if, as she got the impression, Johannes had a local site in mind, she might be able to run a coffee and cake shop, operating at lunchtimes. During all her walks and trips throughout the valley, she’d realised that there was nowhere to go for a quick coffee or a snack and that Amelie had to provide packed lunches for walkers, hikers, and skiers.

  ‘Have you seen the barn downstairs?’ asked Johannes as they skirted the big wooden chalet, and he pointed to the ground floor with its heavily shuttered windows.

  ‘No,’ replied Mina.

  ‘Hmm,’ said Johannes thougtfully as he led the way up the steps to the back door into the kitchen, pushing at the handle as he turned back to Mina. ‘I hope there’s fresh coffee.’

  Mina looked at her watch. ‘We might even scrounge some baguettes and cheese from the fridge. I had no idea it was so late.’ Right on cue, her stomach rumbled, reiterating that it was twenty-to-three.

  Johannes pushed at the door but it didn’t open. Instead it stopped, blocked by something just in front of the door.

  ‘Amelie?’ he called and pushed harder. The door moved another inch to reveal a bolster of bright blue blocking the doorway. It took both of them a moment to recognise the pretty fabric of Amelie’s dress.

  ‘Amelie!’ Johannes tried to insert himself into the gap but her body was a dead weight against the door.

  ‘Don’t, you might hurt her.’ Mina was already backing down the steps. ‘I’ll go round to the front.’ Slipping and sliding on the frozen surface of the snow, she floundered around the building, realising that Johannes followed right behind. Despite the difficult conditions, she didn’t think she’d ever run so fast or been so scared in her life.

  They thundered up the front steps, almost ploughing Dave down as they burst through the door.

  ‘Hey guys,’ he said, backing up.

  Johannes pushed past, almost barging the other man into the cloakroom pegs.

  ‘How long ago did you see Amelie?’ panted Mina, slowing briefly.

  ‘I left her in the kitchen ten minutes ago.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she gasped and shot after him.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Dave called after her, but she was too anxious to get to the kitchen to reply.

  ‘Amelie. Amelie.’ Johannes clumsily crashed into one of the kitchen chairs as he skirted the table to fall on his knees by her side. She lay limp and pale on the floor in front of the back door, surrounded by spilled peas.

  Mina dropped to her knees beside him as he patted her face, calling her name. She reached for her godmother’s wrist to try and find a pulse. ‘Is she breathing?’ Years of being designated first-aider finally paid off, but no one had warned her that her own heart rate would skyrocket so high that she thought her pulse might explode out of her ears.

  ‘I can’t tell.’

  ‘Hold a hand in front of her nose and mouth.’

  She was still trying to find a pulse and was starting to panic. Amelie’s skin was clammy and her slack face looked grey.

  ‘We need to call an ambulance!’ Johannes turned to face her, looking vague. Did they even have ambulances out here? Where was the nearest hospital? ‘Johannes. Now!’ Her sharp snap penetrated and he jumped to his feet, crossing to the telephone handset on the counter.

  She moved into his place and put her hand on Amelie’s chest. Her breaths were very shallow and her pulse, now Mina had finally located it, was thready and feeble.

  ‘Amelie, can you hear me?’ She tapped her godmother’s face gently, as she’d been taught on one course. ‘Amelie?’ There was no response and Mina felt her chest constrict with fear. Johannes was talking in rapid German down the phone and she had no idea what he was saying.

  Then Dave appeared in the doorway, his eyes widening as he took in the scene, but he stayed put, clearly aware that unless he could do something he would be in the way.

  ‘Can you go and grab a blanket and a cushion?’

  Suddenly she remembered the recovery position and squeezed her eyes shut trying to picture exactly what that entailed. She’d done training with a life-size dummy called Herbert on the floor of the staff room in training. Now all the giggling and silliness didn’t seem quite so funny, but the process popped into her head. She leaned over Amelie and pushed one leg up, bent at the knee, pulled out her right arm and gently rolled her body onto her side. That looked about right, although the bluish tinge around Amelie’s face worried her. Did that mean lack of oxygen or something? God, she wished she knew more. She hated being so useless. Sitting back on her haunches, she stared down at her lifeless body, praying that the ambulance could get here quickly.

  Johannes hung up the phone. ‘They’re on their way.’

  ‘How long will it be?’

  ‘Not long, there’s a paramedic station not so far away.’ He patted her shoulder, looking worriedly at Amelie.

  ‘Not so far away’ could mean anything round here. Mina blinked back a tear, grateful that he was there, and that he was his usual gruff self. Other people might have panicked and been ineffectual.

  He picked up Amelie’s hand stroking it. ‘She’s cold.’

  ‘Dave’s getting a blanket.’ And no sooner were the words out of her mouth than he appeared with one of the soft wool blankets that were normally piled in a corner of the lounge for guests to help themselves to.

  They draped the blanket around her, and even though Mina wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do they wedged the cushion under Amelie’s head. She hadn’t stirred at all, which was the most frightening thing of all. Mina had never seen anyone so pale and still before, and terror drove her to keep checking Amelie’s pulse, her fear ratcheting up each time it took her a while to find its feeble beat, scared that it might stop at any minute.

  Dave stood back, his hands clasped over his stomach in respectful silence.

  ‘How was she when you left?’ asked Mina.

  He frowned. ‘She was… actually she was quiet, and now I realise she’d slowed down in the last half-hour. Yesterday she was busy, busy. Here and there. Today, not so much, and when I left she sat down at the table. She looked tired.’ He winced and screwed up his mouth. ‘She kept rubbing her chest.’

  Johannes and Mina exchanged a grave look. They both knew Amelie worked too hard.

  ‘She never sits,’ said Johannes. ‘Always has to do everything.’ He stroked a loose, dark curl from Amelie’s face. ‘I kept telling her.’ He shook his head and Mina could see that his hand was shaking. She laid a hand on his shoulder, wanting the touch of another person as much as to comfort him. ‘She’s a stubborn one. Thinks she can run the world on her own.’

  There were so many platitudes to be mouthed in situations like this, thought Mina, and she couldn’t bring herself to say a single one.

  At last they heard the sound of a siren approaching, but it sounded a long way in the distance.

  ‘Shall I go out to the front?’ asked Dave.

  ‘Yes,’ said Mina and Johannes at the same moment. Clearly, like her, he didn’t want to leave Amelie’s side.

  With Dave’s departure they sat in silence as Mina once again took Amelie’s pulse, to give herself something to do as much as to reassure herself that she’d done everything she possibly could.

  Her fingers moved along the edge of Amelie’s wrist, inching across the skin. There was no pulse. Tr
ying to fight the rising panic, she pressed her fingers down harder. Still no pulse.

  ‘I think her heart’s stopped. The pulse. It’s gone.’ Her mouth dried. CPR. That’s what she needed to do. She remembered that annoying dummy and how hard you had to press. How many compressions? Was it two per second? Interlock the hands. In her head she pictured the rhythm of the trainer. One. Two. One. Two.

  She shoved Johannes out of the way and pushed Amelie onto her back, placing both hands in the centre of her breastbone. Pressing down with all her body weight, she began. One. Two. One. Two.

  ‘Pulse.’ One, two. ‘Check.’ One, two. ‘It.’

  One. Two. One. Two. The siren still sounded a long way off.

  She heard Luke’s voice come from somewhere behind her. One. Two. One. Two.

  He spoke to Johannes but quietly as not wanting to disturb her concentration. She focused everything on each compression.

  ‘One. Two. One. Two.’

  Luke came to kneel beside her.

  ‘Keep going, you doing a great job. They’ll be here soon.’ He counted with her. One. Two.

  Her arms were starting to tire but she forced herself to keep going.

  ‘Let me know when you need me to take over. I know it’s exhausting. You’re doing brilliantly.’

  There was a burning sensation in her shoulders and biceps, her own chest ached.

  She kept it up as long as she could, listening hard for the siren, which mercifully sounded much closer, but she wasn’t sure she could keep going.

  ‘Luke.’

  ‘Yes, it’s OK. Want me to take over?’

  ‘One. In a sec. Two.’ She was worried she wasn’t pressing hard enough but she was too scared to stop. Luke shuffled closer and closer, so that they were thigh-to-thigh. ‘On my count of three, move along and I’ll take over.’

  She nodded and she put her all in the final depressions as Luke counted down and without missing the beat, took over.

  She sat back on her heels, her arms aching and her knees throbbing, watching Luke’s curls dance as he steadily pumped his arms over Amelie’s chest. Thank God he was here, she couldn’t have kept that up for much longer – although who knew what you could achieve when you absolutely had to?

  The phrase heart-in-the-mouth had never meant as much as it did just then, as she watched Luke working over her godmother’s inert body. Please let her be alright, she prayed. Next to her, Johannes was rigid, his hand gripping one of the kitchen tables, the knuckles as white and proud as a mountain range and his mouth a straight, flat line that radiated tension.

  There was nothing as welcome as the sound of heavy, determined boots filling the air, and automatically Mina and Johannes stepped back out of the way, leaving Luke still working hard. The paramedics in navy blue uniforms came in and went straight to Amelie’s side with brisk efficiency, one of them taking over from Luke with professional ease, the other immediately trying to find a pulse. They asked lots of questions in German which Johannes answered. Mina managed to pick up that they were asking her age and how long she’d been there.

  ‘How long had you been doing the CPR before I came in?’ asked Luke, forwarding the paramedic’s question.

  ‘Two minutes,’ she said, grateful for the digital clock on the cooker. It had been the longest two minutes of her life.

  While the main paramedic continued to pump Amelie’s chest with professional vigour, the other with calm speed unpacked a defibrillator and within seconds the paramedic had attached the pads to Amelie’s chest. The punch of power lifted her body with a jolt that looked every inch as painful and dramatic as the images Mina had seen before. She winced and caught her lip between her teeth.

  There was a sudden flurry, a nod as the second paramedic found a pulse. A thumbs up, although the first paramedic continued with the CPR while the second knelt and took out a blood pressure cuff and began calling Amelie’s name. They asked Johannes more questions to which he could only answer, ‘Nein.’

  Mina was aware of a slight relaxation between the two paramedics, their movements were smoother and slower as if the immediate crisis was over, although they were still completely focused on their patient, talking to each other in low undertones.

  Luke came to stand next to her and she found herself leaning against him. His fingers interlocked with hers and he gave her a hand a gentle squeeze. No one, it seemed, dare speak in case they broke the spell of dedicated treatment. At last the paramedic completed his last compression and gave his colleague a nod of satisfaction that signalled to the whole room that things were under control.

  There was a brief conversation and Luke translated as one of them disappeared to bring in a stretcher.

  ‘They’re going to take her to hospital in Brig. They think she might have had a heart attack.’

  Mina swallowed and felt tears gathering in her eyes. She was not going to fall apart now. Amelie needed her.

  ‘Do you want to go to the hospital with her?’ he asked. ‘One person can go in the ambulance.’

  She nodded and turned to the older man. It was obvious to anyone that he was in love with her, even if perhaps he’d only just realised quite how deeply in the last half-hour. ‘Johannes?’

  ‘I can drive,’ he said gruffly. ‘I’ll follow the ambulance. You’ll need to get home somehow.’

  Luke’s eyes met Mina’s; they were shadowed and full of concern but also something else. ‘Do you want me to come with you?’ The words were slightly stiff as if it cost him dear to say them.

  It was rare for her to rely on anyone else or to let her lean on anyone else but in that moment, she really wanted to be with him. She needed his perpetual positivity, that sunny outlook, and that calm, unflustered demeanour. ‘Yes, please,’ she said.

  He swallowed. ‘OK. I’ll go with Johannes. I’ll see you at the hospital.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  Inside the ambulance the siren wasn’t as loud as she’d feared, and Mina perched on a side-seat watching with fearful eyes every move the paramedic made as he kept up the careful monitoring of his patient. Regular pulse checks. Another blood pressure check. And reassuring smiles to Mina.

  Amelie didn’t so much as flicker her eyes.

  ‘She is stable,’ said Torsten, as per his name badge.

  ‘Is she going to be OK?’

  ‘The hospital will look after her. Her heartbeat is good.’ He nodded as his fingers sought out Amelie’s pulse, and again there was that sense of satisfaction of a job well done – but he hadn’t answered her question.

  Mina hated feeling so bloody helpless and useless. Being a paramedic was a proper job. This man seemed so calm and utterly competent. He knew exactly what he was doing and it made Mina’s panic start to recede. All she was able to do was hold Amelie’s free hand and stroke the pale skin, saying the same prayer over and over in her head. Please let her be alright. Please let her be alright.

  Now she had time to think, she realised that she’d completely abandoned the hotel to poor Dave, who had stood in the doorway watching the proceedings with quiet, stolid patience. Just as she was about to follow the stretcher out, she’d stopped in sudden alarm, realising that there was still a hotel to be run, and he’d stepped up to her, patted her arm and said, ‘Don’t worry, Mina. I’ll sort dinner out.’

  All she’d been able to say was, ‘Thank you,’ because there was no other option.

  Johannes had had a little more presence of mind. ‘I’ll phone Franzi and Giselle, see if they can come and help. They know what they’re doing.’

  Grateful for that, Mina had scooped up her bag and grabbed her coat, and scrambled into the ambulance.

  Once they reached the hospital things started to blur as Amelie was whisked away, surrounded by doctors and nurses, leaving Mina alone in a corridor. For a little while she paced, trying to get rid of that edgy, itchy feeling of being surplus to requirements, until Torsten came back down the corridor about fifteen minutes later.

  She looked hopefully at him
. ‘Any news?’

  ‘She is with the doctor. They will come to you.’ He smiled at her, kind and reassuring. ‘When they have news.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Mina, realising that he probably didn’t know any more at that moment.

  Feeling lost and in limbo, she slumped into her seat, for once her natural positivity subdued by the enormity of things. What if Amelie died? There were so many things she’d never asked her. If she was honest with herself, she’d shied away from asking questions about her mother. There was that deep-buried nugget of resentment that her parents had been unable to give up their reckless lifestyle for the sake of their small daughters. And she hadn’t spent enough time with Amelie. Not nearly enough. She’d been a constant in the background of Mina’s life, but always there like some exotic fairy godmother who was on her side no matter what, and Mina had taken that for granted.

  She dropped her head into her hands and focused on her breathing. Amelie was young. She was fit. They’d walked a couple of kilometres the other day and she’d been fine. She looked healthy, if a little tired, and she wasn’t overweight. Too much rushing about in the chalet for that. What caused heart attacks? Furred arteries. Mina’s mind raced down different corridors, coming to dead ends constantly, wishing she was more knowledgeable about such things.

  She spotted the heavy boots first, and looked up. Torsten stood in front of her with a take-out cup of coffee.

  ‘For you.’

  For a stupid second, tears swam into her eyes at his kindness. ‘That’s… very kind. Danke schön.’

  His quick smile – with a touch of male appreciation – and her first tentative sip of coffee made her feel a lot better and she smiled back at him.