“That was a controlled blast,” Rod said finally, shooting a glance at me, maybe wanting to see if I was still alive since I hadn’t peppered him with questions. “You know what that is?”
I shook my head.
“I told you this is avalanche country,” he said.
Remember that terrific memory of mine? It hadn’t failed me. “I know,” I said.
“One of the ways we lower the risk of avalanches is by triggering them where we know they’re most likely to occur. Or where they happen just about every year.”
I couldn’t help myself. “What do you use? Dynamite?” It would be so cool be to be the guy who did the blasting.
“There are a lot of different ways to do it. You can throw explosives or lower them onto the site. You can detonate them on the snow surface or above it. You can use a helicopter, or you can use a howitzer or an air gun.”
“You have a howitzer? Up here? Who shoots it? You?”
He laughed again. Okay, he didn’t have a howitzer.
“I contract with a company that uses a helicopter and explosives to trigger slides.”
“So that’s what that was?”
He nodded.
We were both quiet after that until we got to the hospital, where Rod took charge. He strode through the main doors ahead of me, straight to the information desk, and asked for Grandma. He led the way to the emergency room, where we found her on a stretcher in a small curtained cubicle. She smiled wanly at us. A guy in a white coat stood beside her. He’d been telling her something when we walked in but stopped and looked at Rod.
“Ah, is this your husband, Mrs. Cole?” He seemed relieved to see Rod.
“It’s Ms. Cole,” Grandma informed him curtly. That let me know that whatever else was wrong with her, there was no brain damage. She was as feisty as ever. I wanted to run to her and hug her. I would have, too, if Rod and that doctor hadn’t been in the room. “So if you have something to say about my condition, I suggest you say it directly to me.”
The doctor sighed.
“We would like to keep you here at least overnight for observation, Ms. Cole.”
“I’m fine,” Grandma insisted. But when she tried to sit up, which she did immediately to prove her point to the doctor, she let out a moan and sank back against the thin pillow on the narrow emergency-room gurney.
“You should stay, Grandma.” I squeezed her hand. “If it were me, you’d make me stay until you were sure I was okay. I’ll stay with you.”
Grandma’s eyes were closed, and she was breathing a little faster than usual. But she hung tough. “You’ll do no such thing, Rennie.”
“But Grandma—”
“You’re going back with Rod.” She opened her eyes and searched the cubicle for him. “You’ll take him back with you, won’t you, Rod? I’ll take a taxi back tomorrow.”
“No, you won’t,” Rod said. “I’m coming to pick you up.”
“I want to stay with you, Grandma.”
She took my hand in both of hers and smiled. “Go back to the resort with Rod. Have a good time. You deserve it, Rennie. You really do. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Do you want me to call the airline, Grandma? Do you want me to see if we can get tickets home?” I had no idea how to do that, but it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
“Home?” Grandma said the word as if she had never heard it before. “Who said anything about going home? We’re staying right here.”
“But you broke your ankle. You can’t ski.”
“Then you’ll have to do the skiing for both of us. I’ll relax in the lounge and drink tea and read a good book—and catch up with Rod.” Her eyes twinkled when she looked at him. I guess old people don’t look so old to other old people.
“But this is supposed to be a ski vacation,” I said.
She fixed me with the same look Mom used to give me when she wanted me to pay close attention. It was a look that said, Mind what I say now, Rennie.
“Go back with Rod. Have some fun. If you get bored, there’s a book in my suitcase. I brought it for you to read. And I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”
I had no choice.
“Okay, Grandma.” I managed to smile even though all I could think was, This vacation is ruined. I felt bad for her.
Rod and I stayed a few more minutes, mostly, it seemed, because Rod wanted to ask Grandma over and over again if there was anything at all that she wanted, anything he could do for her. It was pathetic. We drove back to the resort in silence.
“Tell you what,” Rod said when we pulled up behind the chalet. “Annie’s off for a few hours after the lunch cleanup. How about I ask her to take you out?”
“Annie who works in the kitchen?”
Rod grinned. “You already met her, huh? I’ll talk to her. Your grandma wanted you to have a great ski vacation, and I intend to make sure that’s what happens.”
Skiing with Annie. Yeah, that would make it great. I could hardly wait.
SIX
Annie swung out of the kitchen a few minutes after Rod went to fetch her.
“Sorry about your gran,” she said. “I hope she’s going to be okay.”
We parted to get our gear and then met outside. Annie chatted happily all the way up on the lift.
“I just love it here. I think when I graduate that I’d like to find a job somewhere around here. It would be cool to live in a small community and to be in the mountains all year round.”
“What are you studying?” I asked.
“What will I be studying, you mean. I got accepted into premed at Harvard.”
I whistled softly. Even I knew how big a deal that was. So not only was she a couple of years older than me, but she was also supersmart. You have to be to get into Harvard.
“What kind of doctor do you want to be?”
“I’m interested in pediatrics. I want to help kids.” Her dark eyes sparkled.
“I guess your parents are pretty happy about that, huh?” I said. The Major would probably have a coronary if I managed to do anything even half as good as getting into Harvard.
“My mom died when I was three years old,” Annie said. “Cancer.”
I didn’t know what to do except mumble, “I’m sorry.”
“My dad’s family wanted him to go back to India and find another wife, but he never did. He died in an accident a few years back. That was really rough. My dad only has one sister. My dad’s will made her husband my guardian. You wouldn’t believe how hard I had to fight with him to be allowed to stay over here. I was born here, Rennie. But my uncle wanted me to go back to India. He probably still does. I think he wants to marry me off.” She laughed.
“Marry you off?”
“You’ve heard of arranged marriages, haven’t you?”
“Yeah.” Sort of. I couldn’t remember anything specific about them, just that it was what people did in some countries. No way would I ever go along with something like that, with the Major deciding who I was supposed to spend my life with. He’d probably hitch me to someone in the military so I could keep having orders barked at me, or, as the Major liked to put it, so I wouldn’t screw up. If he could find a female drill sergeant my age, he’d have us in front of a priest in two seconds, and anyone who objected would have to face down the Major.
“Most of my cousins have had arranged marriages. My parents had an arranged marriage.” She looked straight ahead. We were halfway to the top. “I remember my mother as being happy. At least, I think I do. Whenever I think about her, I get a warm feeling. I wouldn’t get that if she hadn’t been happy, would I?”
“I guess it depends on what she was happy about,” I said. Maybe Annie remembered her mom being happy because her mom was happy when the two of them were together, like my mom was happy with me. But that didn’t mean she had the best marriage in the world.
“Some things we never know because they’re unknowable, Rennie.” The way she said it, the rhythm, made it sound like something she’d said before, doz
ens of times, so that now when she said it, it sounded like a chant. She smiled. “And some things are totally knowable, like this. I plan to pick my own husband, thank you very much. I was raised here. I’m not Indian. I mean, I am. But I’m American too. I’m going to Harvard. I’m going to be a doctor here. So there. What about you?”
“What about me what?”
“What do you want to do with your life?”
Geez, what a question. I didn’t know what to say. All I wanted was for this part of my life, the part where I lived with the Major, to be over. I wished he’d get shipped out for longer than a month. I wished he had to leave for four years. I could live with Grandma, and by the time he got back I’d be eighteen, old enough to be on my own. That’s what I wanted to do with my life. But I couldn’t tell her that. It wasn’t what she meant.
“I dunno.”
“Come on.” She elbowed me playfully. “Everyone has an idea of something they’d like to be. It changes sometimes. Like, I wanted to be a nurse when I was a little girl. And then my guidance counselor said, Why be a nurse when you can be a doctor? So now I’m going to be a doctor.” She turned those enormous brown eyes on me again. That smile, too, and all those perfectly straight teeth.
“I used to want to be a cop,” I said. Plainclothes. Undercover would be best. A completely different me.
“Used to? Not anymore?”
“I haven’t thought about it lately. Maybe. I dunno.”
Lucky for me, the end of the ride was in sight. We both got ready, and I followed her to the slopes.
“My grandma and I went down there.” I pointed.
Annie frowned. “That’s a tough run for someone…well, no offense, but she is your gran.”
“Yeah, but she’s not like everyone’s gran.” I liked the way she said the word gran instead of grandma. “She’s athletic. She does yoga every day.”
“That ski run and daily yoga are so different from each other that they might as well be on different planets.” Annie looked me over critically. “Come on.”
She led me to a medium-sized slope that flattened out for a short stretch before falling again.
“I’m going to ski down there.” She pointed to the flat part. “You wait here. When I give you the signal, ski to me.”
“What for?”
“So I can see how you handle yourself.”
“I handle myself great.”
“So you say.” When I opened my mouth to protest, she said, “Save your breath, Rennie. If I had a dollar for every guy who stretched the truth to try to impress me, I’d be a bazillionnaire. And don’t give me that look. Guys do it all the time. I can’t explain why. It just is. So do what I tell you, because there’s no way the boss asks me to take you skiing and I come back with you broken into tiny pieces because you lied to me about how experienced you are. Okay?”
The okay wasn’t really a question. Or if it was, she didn’t wait for an answer. She skied down the slope and turned to face me. She raised a hand. When she dropped it, signaling me, I pulled down my goggles and pushed off. I was beside her a minute later, still on my feet, nothing broken and, if you ask me, having exhibited some pretty serious skiing skills.
“Not bad,” she said solemnly. Then, like the clouds parting and the sun appearing, she grinned. “Pretty good, actually. Let’s go.”
It’s possible I’ve had a better afternoon at some point in my life and have forgotten about it. It’s also possible that I’ve been King Tut in a previous lifetime and have forgotten about that too.
Annie was a competitive skier. So am I. Not in school maybe, but outside of it. And I don’t like to lose. But losing to Annie didn’t feel like losing. The fact was, she was a better skier than me. And when she beat me again, she laughed and upped the end point—first with three wins was champ, then first with five wins, then seven.
“First to get to ten wins is the all-time forever champion,” Annie said when we’d finished another run. She was leaning on her ski poles, looking completely refreshed, when I reached her at the bottom of the slope. I was sweating and panting.
“I’d have to win the next ten runs in a row to beat you, Annie.” I pulled off my tuque and shook my head. Drops of sweat spiraled out from my wet hair and fell to the snow all around me. “I surrender. You’re the champ.”
“The all-time forever champion,” she said.
“The all-time forever champion.” I said.
She raised her hands over her head in victory.
“You want to go get some hot chocolate or something?” I asked.
“Sure.” She kicked off her skis and ducked into the snack bar. I followed her, and a few minutes later we were drinking pretty good hot chocolate at a table for two. It was perfect.
Until Derek showed up.
He strolled into the café, paused to scan faces and zeroed in right away on Annie, as if he knew she was going to be here. Maybe she’d told him. When he got to our table, he bent and kissed her on the cheek. Then, without even asking, he hooked a chair from the next table, where a man was sitting alone. For all Derek knew, the guy’s wife could be about to show up, expecting a place to sit. But the guy didn’t complain, so maybe not. Derek positioned his chair between Annie’s and mine, closer to hers, and dropped down.
“So, kid,” he said. “Did she teach you a thing or two?” He winked at me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. There was something about Derek that made me want to punch him in the face. He reminded me of Walter, a guy at the school I was in now, which was not the same school I was in last year, but that’s what you get when your dad is the Major. You move a lot. Walter was tall and blond like Derek, and he had the same stupid smirk on his face all the time, as if he couldn’t believe the lesser beings he had to interact with. I can’t stand guys like that.
“He didn’t need me to teach him anything,” Annie said. She reached across the table to touch my hand. Her skin was so soft, and her fingers felt hot, like they were on fire. “He’s good. We spent the whole afternoon racing.”
“Is that right?” Derek turned to me. “How many did you win, kid?”
What a jerk. I told myself there was nothing I could do about Derek, so there was no point in trying. Just ignore him.
Derek laughed. “Yeah, I’ve seen that look before. Annie’s like a pool shark. You look at her and you figure she wouldn’t know the first thing about skiing. Good thing you were smart enough not to put any money on it. You were that smart, right, kid?”
“Rennie,” I said through gritted teeth. “My name is Rennie, not kid.”
“Whatever.” He turned to Annie. “I’m taking a party out first thing in the morning. Two days. You think Herr Chef will let you come?”
“What do you think?” Annie said.
“Charm him. Bat those gorgeous eyes of yours. Promise him anything.”
I couldn’t stand the way he looked at her, like he was eating her up with his eyes.
I stood up to leave. I can’t prove Derek did anything on purpose, but his foot somehow got tangled up with mine and I tripped. I grabbed an edge of the table to steady myself and ended up tipping the whole table and knocking over my hot chocolate. It fell with a splat onto the floor, just missing Derek’s boots.
Annie jumped up and ran to the counter. She returned with a wad of napkins and was about to start mopping up the mess when Derek grabbed the napkins from her and shoved them at me.
“You made the mess. You clean it up,” he said.
I’d been planning to help Annie. I’d been about to take the napkins from her myself before he got in the way and grabbed them. He was trying to make me look bad, acting like I was expecting someone else to clean up my mess. But now that he’d shoved the napkins at me? My hands curled into fists automatically. I was itching to hit him.
Annie reached out and took half of the napkins from me. We cleaned up the hot chocolate together, and I carried the sopping mess of napkins to the garbage. I thanked Annie for skiing
with me and walked away without a word to Derek. I just wanted to get away from him. I didn’t like the way he made me feel, like I was a pesky little kid.
I ate by myself in the dining room. That was okay with me. I took the book Grandma had left for me. Grandma was big on reading, but she never read the stuff that regular people do. She favored big books that were hard to read, which meant mostly books that were written a couple hundred years ago or were Russian. This was no exception. It was a gigantic book of sagas from Iceland. The one I was reading was about a feud that went on for fifty years! At one point, one guy slides by another guy on a bridge made of ice and lops off his head with a sword as he whizzes past. All in all, it wasn’t bad, except for all those crazy names I had no idea how to pronounce. After that I went up to my room and watched TV. When I finally decided to go to bed, I looked out the window. It was quiet outside, all black shadows on snow made grayish white from the stars and the moon overhead. It was deserted too, except for two people standing face-to-face beside the equipment-rental hut. A girl and a guy. Annie and Derek. They were kissing. It seemed to go on forever, and when they finally parted, Annie looked up. Maybe I’m crazy, I thought, but I swear she saw me in my window.
SEVEN
Rod was the only person in the dining room when I got up the next morning. Even though I chose a table in the corner, behind a planter, he still managed to scope me out. He came over with his cup of coffee. It turned out he wasn’t planning to stay though. He just wanted to tell me he was heading into town later to pick up Grandma and another guest and ask me if I wanted to go with him. It was a tough decision. On the one hand, it was a chance to see how Grandma was. On the other hand, it meant another ride with Rod. And he was bringing Grandma back anyway.
“I think I’ll hang out here,” I said. “Maybe get a few runs in.” Despite what Grandma had said the day before, she might not feel like staying, especially if she was in pain. She might want to go back home to her nice cozy penthouse condo in downtown Toronto. Who could blame her?
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