by Karen Rispin
"What's so bad about wanting Tianna to learn some responsibility?" Uncle Kurt yelled. "Why do you always cross me?"
Aunt Doreen wouldn't even look at him as she walked out the door after Tianna.
Uncle Kurt glared at Mom and Daddy and came striding into the kitchen. I pressed myself back against the wall, but he went straight out the door without even looking at me.
"I don't think he heard a word you said," Mom said to Daddy sadly.
The next morning Tianna came into our room, carrying Jake, who was squirming and mewing. "You aren't coming to school here, are you?" she asked.
"Why?" I demanded. "Don't you want us to?"
She shrugged and said, "I guess," in a flat voice. It was obvious that she didn't. I frowned.
"Mom!" Sandy yelled.
When Mom answered from the kitchen, Sandy yelled, "Do we have to go to school?"
Mom walked into the room and said, "Daddy and I decided we wouldn't send you until we get the results from his medical tests. There's no reason for you to have to adjust to a new school only to find out that we're going back right away. You'll both have to work to keep up with your class in Kenya, though. Tianna, don't hold the kitten so tightly. You'll hurt—"
"All right! No school!" Sandy yelled, interrupting.
"Ow!" Tianna said and dropped Jake. "He scratched me!"
Sandy rushed to pick up the kitten.
"Sandy," Mom said, "let him walk. Animals aren't toys. Jake is God's creature, too. Has anybody fed him this morning?"
"You can feed him," Tianna said to Sandy. "I've got to go."
I was still mad about Tianna not wanting me in her class. I plopped onto the bed, frowning furiously. I didn't want to go to school, but I didn't want her to think I was a geek, either.
Sandy and I stayed in the house by ourselves that day because Daddy and Mom went to the hospital for some of Daddy's tests. I spent most of the day staring at the TV and was feeling crabby when Mom and Daddy came home in the middle of the afternoon.
"Did they come out all right?" Sandy asked as soon as they got into the house. "Did your tests come out all right?"
"They don't know right away, silly," I said.
"Anika's right," Daddy said. "We'll just have to wait."
He sat in a chair in the living room, and Mom made me help her get supper. Sandy was tearing up and down the hall dragging a string for Jake and screaming and giggling when he chased it.
How come I always have to work? I thought. Next time Sandy tore into the kitchen, I yelled, "Hush! You'll bother Daddy!"
Sandy stopped and looked worried, but Daddy had heard. "No," he said, "I'm fine. Anika, will you come here a minute?"
I looked at Mom, and she nodded. "I can finish this. Thanks for helping, Anika. I appreciate it." She smiled at me and I felt a little better.
Daddy was holding a book when I walked into the living room. "I want you to do a social studies report on the Rocky Mountains for me," he said. "This is a great book."
I groaned. Even in Canada, I couldn't get away from schoolwork.
I really missed Kenya that week. There was nowhere to go outside, just streets and houses. I spent a lot of time reading the book Dad had found on the Rocky Mountains. It was about trout fishing, rock climbing, hunting on horseback, skiing, glaciers, and grizzly bears. I could see the mountains out the living room window, and I would stare at them and wish I was somewhere else. Kenya would be best, but those mountains stirred me up inside, too. I wondered if I'd ever see them close-up.
That night at supper, Mom glanced at Tianna. "Tianna, we missed you after school," she said. "Did you have to stay for a project?"
Tianna gave Mom a scared look, then ducked her head.
"Tianna, were you at the mall again?" Uncle Kurt demanded. "I've told you a hundred times I want you home, in this house, immediately after school!"
"Kurt, don't be such a lout," Aunt Doreen said, sounding angry.
"You stay out of this," he yelled. "This week is the first week we've had home-cooked meals and eaten together as a family for years, and that's no thanks to you."
"So why is it my responsibility?" Aunt Doreen demanded. "You can cook as well as I can, Kurt Malcome. I'm not your maid, and Tianna isn't your slave." She slammed down her fork and got up to leave. Then, just at the door, she whirled and said, "You stand up for yourself, Tianna."
"You will stop going to the mall, Tianna," Uncle Kurt thundered. "I don't like those kids you hang out with one little bit. I don't want any more reports of you swearing and fighting at school, or of you skipping school, either. Do you hear me?"
Tianna's head was down, but she nodded.
Uncle Kurt grunted and kept eating.
"I don't see what he's so uptight about," Tianna said in our room later. "He never usually even asks what I do. The only way he finds out I've skipped school is when the school calls him. I go to the mall most days after school and get home just before he and Mom do. Why should I come home when no one else is here? What am I supposed to do? Sit and watch TV by myself? As if he cared. Man, I wish I could go to boarding school like you guys do. No parents to hassle you."
"I like home better," I said. Then I paused and sighed. "We might have to stay here, you know, if Daddy's tests don't turn out right."
Tianna frowned and said, "You wouldn't like my school. It's the pits. Tell me about Africa."
I told her about the Mumbu tree, the ibises calling in the morning, the way giraffes looked against the sky when the sun was going down, how Mt. Longonot looked purple when storms came up the Great Rift Valley, and the sounds of lions in the night.
I missed it so much.
"You said I could come live with you if I wanted, right?" she asked. I nodded. I wasn't really sure if she could, but I'd said so and I couldn't back out now.
She didn't really say any more about it, though. I was glad.
Friday night at supper Uncle Kurt said, "You can't come to Calgary without going to the mountains."
I held my breath and thought, The Rocky Mountains! Oh boy!
"What do you say to a skiing trip tomorrow, up at Sunshine Village?" he asked.
"Isn't skiing with snow?" asked Sandy, puzzled. "There's no snow here."
Even Aunt Doreen laughed at that.
"Maybe not here, honey," Uncle Kurt said, "but spring skiing is great in the mountains."
At ten o'clock Saturday morning I was at the top of Strawberry run, the beginners' run, at Sunshine Village. There was deep snow everywhere, making it look like the world was covered with a shining white glaze. The ground dropped away in a smooth, wide trough, and people in bright clothes zipped and swayed down past me.
Standing there in borrowed clothes and rented skis, I felt like I was on another planet. I was trying to stand still. I hung on to my ski poles like grim death because my skis kept wanting to go downhill without my permission.
"Come on, Anika," Tianna called. "Just do like I do."
She shoved off with her poles, zipped on a diagonal across the run, turned, stopped, and looked back.
"That looks easy!" I yelled and shoved off. I whooshed down and across and up, straight at Tianna, then I slipped backwards and fell into the snow. It was fun!
Laughing, she hauled me out. "You've got to dig the edges in to turn," she explained. "Just kind of lean the way you want to go, like you do when you're on a bike."
I'd just finished getting straightened out and back on my skis when Sandy went by, right down the middle of the run. She skied on one ski, then the other, waved her poles wildly in the air, and once nearly turned in a circle before she finally fell down. Uncle Kurt helped her up.
"Stupid skis!" I heard her yell.
Tianna was giggling so hard she nearly choked. My next try wasn't much better. My skis crossed, and when I jerked them apart they headed off in different directions. I hit the snow with a thump. Cold snow sprayed into my face and down my neck. I ended up lying on my face, with my skis crossed behind my back.
>
Tianna had let me go first. She skied over to me and stopped with the snow flying up from her skis.
"It's not fair," I said, spitting out snow.
"What?" she asked.
"You do that so easily," I said as I tried to get a ski out from behind my back. All I managed to do was stick the end of it into the snow so that it stood up on end. I jerked it out and rolled onto my back. That was better, until I started to slide downhill.
Tianna tried to grab me, but she fell down, too. We lay there giggling. When I finally got straightened out and tried to stand up on one ski, it slid away. I fell again, giggling.
"Dig your edges in so you can stand still, silly," Tianna said.
I did and it worked. "How come your mom came with us?" I asked.
"She's a really good skier," Tianna said and made a face. "I guess she wanted to come skiing bad enough to put up with Dad and me."
She shoved off without looking back. I stood and watched her ski gracefully down to the bottom of the run and out of sight. I looked around again. Some people weren't on skis. They had brightly colored boards, kind of like skateboards. I watched one kid twist and turn like he was surfing. That looked fun. I grinned and shoved after him. That time I actually did two turns before I fell.
I didn't see Tianna again that morning, but I was too busy figuring out how to ski to mind. At first Uncle Kurt and Sandy were around, but then I didn't see them anymore, either. That was OK, though—skiing was getting to be more fun every time I made it down Strawberry run. The lift was just about the best part—after I figured out how to get on and off, that is. I loved the feeling of riding up in the air over the white snow, dark trees, and bright skiers. It was all wide-open space with mountains and snow shining in the sun. The sky was dark blue, and even the air tasted good.
"What's that mountain called?" I asked, pointing at a high peak that gleamed white against the sky.
"That's Brewster," said the lady next to me on the lift. "You can ski down right from the top."
"How do you get up there?" I asked.
She turned and pointed way down at a line of skiers waiting for a lift. Then we got dumped off at the top of Strawberry again.
I only fell once on the way down that time. I went further down the hill so I could be in the line to go up Brewster Mountain. I wasn't going to be that close to a mountain without going to the top.
At the top I followed the other skiers away from the lift to a wide, flat space. I stood and looked around. It was windy and bare. The back side of the mountain must have been a cliff because there was a sign that said, "No skiers beyond this point." The flat space stopped just beyond the sign—all you could see were the bottom of a valley and mountains rising up on the other side. That was miles and miles down, away from us.
A skier went past me, and I watched him go down… and gulped. The run looked like it went almost straight down. Another skier went past and into a whole steep field of big round snow bumps. His legs were working like pistons as he flew from one bump to the next.
How did I ever get myself into this? I thought and shivered. Bunches of people zipped past me. I looked around for an easier way down. There were posts with signs on them. One had a blue square and another had a black diamond. Further away I could see one with a green dot. I wondered what they meant. None of them seemed to point to an easy way down, not that I could see, anyway.
I looked around for help. Everyone zipped past without even looking at me.
I really had done something stupid this time.
Chapter Six
I shivered again, harder. Obviously I couldn't stay where I was. I had to get down off the top of Brewster Mountain.
"Please God, help me get down from here in one piece," I prayed. "I don't want to get hurt."
I swallowed and looked down at all the skiers bouncing and dodging down the mountain in their brightly colored outfits.
"Here goes nothing!" I said and headed at an angle down over the humps of snow.
Bump, bump. Whoosh!
A kid on a snow board almost hit me. He swore and yelled, "Get off the hill if you can't ski, ditz brain!"
"That's what I'm trying to do!" I yelled back, but he was miles away by then. I tried to turn and ended up going almost straight down. After the first two bumps I was in the air. Wow! I hit the ground with my skis under me and was in the air again. I landed hard and there were skis, poles, hard bumps of snow, and blue sky all over. When I finally came to a stop, I lay still for a minute, breathing hard. Then I shook myself and sat up.
Well, at least I was further down—and I was getting good at getting untangled and on my skis again.
I headed down slowly again. Before long, I'd lost track of how many times I'd fallen. Once my leg had gotten wrenched hard, and my left shoulder hurt, too. Skiers kept dodging past me, and twice I'd almost been hit. After another fall, I dug myself out of the snow and climbed onto my skis again, trying not to cry. I swallowed and shook my head. It wouldn't do any good to cry now. I had to get down. "Please help, God," I whispered.
There were two signs in front of where I was standing. One had a blue square on it. The other had a black diamond.
I decided that the part I could see of the run by the black diamond looked easier. I'd just started for it when someone said, "Anika! It is you. What on earth are you doing here?"
It was Aunt Doreen. I groaned. I asked for help, God, but I didn't want her, I thought desperately.
"Um…" I stammered, feeling stupid. "Um. I wanted to see the top of the mountain."
"But you're heading for a black diamond run," she said. "And you missed lunch."
I suddenly realized I was terribly hungry. My shoulder and leg ached, and I was so tired… Suddenly, the tears I'd been holding back started to spill out, and I couldn't stop them.
"Hey, it's not that bad," Aunt Doreen said and put her arm around me.
I cringed away from her and started forward. She grabbed the back of my jacket, and I fell.
"Leave me alone!" I yelled.
"But Anika, you can't go that way. It's a black diamond run, an expert run." She sounded almost desperate.
I looked at the top. "It looks easier than the other one to me!" I said angrily. "Besides, why should you help me? You don't want us goody-goody missionaries visiting you anyway!"
There was a dead silence. Then Aunt Doreen's face twisted ruefully. "I never could control my tongue," she said. Then she sighed. "Want you or not, I certainly don't want to have to take you to the hospital. That run is one of the most difficult runs at Sunshine. Come on, rest for a few minutes until you feel better, and I'll help you get down the intermediate run."
I looked at her for a second, then nodded.
I was pretty scared when we finally started down, but before long I realized that God really had sent me good help. Aunt Doreen planned one step at a time, and she seemed to know every single bump on the run.
"OK, see that big mogul over there," she said, pointing. It turned out that the humps of snow were called moguls. "You ski across and stop just uphill of it. I'll be right behind you." I did, and she did, and then she pointed out the next place for me to go.
A few stops later, she smiled at me. "You'd be a good skier if you stuck around here. I wish Tianna had half the jam you do."
I looked at her, uncertain. "Half the what?" I asked. She smiled again.
"Half the jam—you know, guts, courage. You don't seem to be afraid of trying anything." Then a frown crossed her face. "Too bad I can't say the same thing for Tianna." I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling uneasy. Why was she always down on Tianna?
"Head just downhill of that tree," she said. "Stop when you get to the other side of the run."
I pushed off. One edge of my skis stuck in the snow and I fell. Furiously I straightened my skis out and tried to stand. The uphill ski slipped and I was down again.
"Take it easy," Aunt Doreen said, catching my arm. "Just go slow and it's not so hard."
I looked up at her, puzzled, then blurted, "You can be really nice."
She laughed and said, "Don't sound so surprised."
"But you're always mad at Tianna and fighting with Uncle Kurt," I said, then gasped and put my hand over my mouth.
"Things don't always turn out the way you want," she said. Then she looked at me sharply. "Let me give you a piece of advice. Don't let that religion of yours pull the wool over your eyes. Don't ever marry a man who thinks women are less than human. Men in your religion tend to do that."
The way she said that made me mad. "You don't know anything about it!" I almost yelled. "Daddy does not think women are less than human, and neither does God!"
"So why did Jesus pick only men disciples, then?" she asked. But before I could answer, she gave an impatient sigh. "Sorry. I'm letting my mouth get away from me again. Come on, let's get off of this hill."
I was quiet the rest of the way down. Aunt Doreen's question bugged me. Why didn't Jesus pick any women disciples? I decided to ask Daddy as soon as I could. Until then, I'd just shove the question out of my head.
It felt really good to reach the bottom of the run. And I'd never tasted anything half as good as the hamburger Aunt Doreen bought me back at the lodge. She had a cup of coffee and sat with me while I ate. I watched her, munching slowly so I could enjoy every bit of my burger. She was kind of nice. If only she'd be nice to Tianna, I thought.
"You know, Tianna was sad and mad when you didn't come shopping with us." I said. "Don't you like her?"
She gave me a hard look, and I held my breath. I'd really put my foot in it this time. I could almost see her thinking, Who do you think you are?
Then she laughed.
"You really do have a lot of jam. I'll bet you have as much trouble with your mouth as I do," she said.
I squirmed, but said, "Well?"
Aunt Doreen shrugged and sighed, "I love Tianna, but it seems like she sets out to antagonize me. She's always either fighting with me, or running away from me, or trying to avoid me. She's been having trouble at school, too, skipping school and fighting. She won't talk to me. She'd probably be better off without me." She was looking down into her coffee cup, and she looked very sad. She shook her head and looked up. "Enough of true confessions for one day. I'm going skiing. You coming?"
