“THIS IS THE BEAST?” KATE Cranston gazed down the slope. “I’d call this, like, early intermediate.”
Eve stopped. She kept her skis pointed along the beginner trail, which crossed the Beast and wound gently through a wide wooded path.
Eve was a much better skier than Kate. Even though she was only in eighth grade, not quite fourteen yet, she practiced with the high school team and could beat some of the ninth- and tenth-graders.
The Beast wasn’t a super-hard trail. But on a day like this, when the trail disappeared into the whiteness of a gathering snowstorm, and the lodge was visible only as a faint cluster of lights below, slower was better.
“Uh, Kate? I need both my legs,” Eve said. “I’m hoping for another ski trip or two this winter.”
Kate didn’t take the hint. “Race you.”
“Kate, stop it—?
“Afraid you’ll lose?”
“No way, but—”
“I’ll go by myself.”
Eve hated these conversations. But Kate was Kate. She would go down alone. And if anything happened to her, Eve would feel responsible.
Eve began turning downhill. “You know, this is a dumb idea.”
“On your mark…” Kate replied. “Get set…”
She shoved off. “Byyyyyyyye!”
“Hey!” Eve protested.
She jigged her skis into place. Crouched.
Knees together. Body forward, over the skis. PUSH—left…right…left…
Eve gained ground fast. Kate’s movements were wild, jerky.
“WOOOOOOO!” Eve screamed.
Kate screamed back.
The whipping snow felt like sand against Eve’s face. Below her, the lodge was materializing out of the whiteness. Looming up fast.
She didn’t see the other girl coming.
Just a flash of red and yellow.
Then a crash.
Eve’s shoulders lurched sideways. Her knees twisted. She hit the slope, sending up a spray of white. Her cheeks scraped the icy surface as her skis flew off.
She stopped sliding a few yards east of the lift line.
The other girl was lying toe to toe with Eve, on her back.
Eve scrambled to her feet. No broken bones. That was a relief.
Kate skied to a stop beside them. “What was that?”
Eve was standing over the stranger. The girl wasn’t moving. Her skin was flushed, her eyes fluttering.
“Are you okay?” Eve asked.
“Uh-huh,” the girl replied.
“She doesn’t look okay,” Kate murmured. “I’ll get some help.”
As Kate skied back toward the lodge, Eve knelt over the girl and felt her forehead. Red-hot.
The girl grimaced and tried to sit up.
“You have a fever,” Eve said. “Just stay still and wait for the ski patrol.”
“I can’t breathe.” The girl was pulling at her down coat now, trying to yank it open.
Eve cradled the girl’s head in her lap. She helped her with the zipper. “I’m Eve.”
“Tanya,” the girl said. “Where’s my mom?”
“I’m sure she’s coming. Sit tight. You’ll be okay.”
Eve looked over her shoulder. Three ski patrollers were speeding toward them, pulling a sled.
“I’m—I can’t—? Tanya’s eyes flickered shut. Her breaths were shallow and erratic. The redness was purpling.
She’s passing out.
“Breathe!” Eve urged. “Hang on, they’re coming!”
Tanya nodded vaguely. Her eyes opened, frightened and pleading. “Help me.”
Arms. Pushing.
Eve lost her balance. She scrambled to her feet.
Three burly ski patrollers were kneeling around Tanya.
They asked her a few questions, then gently eased her onto the sled. One of them began to shout into a walkie-talkie.
As they pulled her away, a crowd formed around Eve. A bright sea of Gore-Tex and nylon. In the distance, she spotted an ambulance swerving into the parking lot to meet the sled.
She tried to elbow her way forward.
“Eve, are you all right?” Mom’s voice.
“Yes!” Eve shouted. Tanya was vanishing, swallowed up by the gawkers.
“What did you do to her?” That was Kate.
“It wasn’t me!” Eve said.
She could hear mutterings: “food poisoning”…“broken leg”…“hotdogging.”
No. Something worse.
As the ambulance sped away, siren blaring, Eve began to shiver uncontrollably. The wind seared through her coat.
Mom and Dad were on either side of her now.
“Sh-she skied r-right into me,” Eve explained. “S-s-something’s wrong with her.”
“Let’s go inside, honey,” Dad said, putting his arm around her.
There. Tanya’s family.
A mom, dad, son. The resemblance was unmistakable. They were being escorted by a ski official toward a station wagon.
“Excuse me?” she called out, jogging after them. “Wait!”
The man helped the family into the backseat and shut the door. He shot Eve an impatient look.
“I was the girl Tanya collided with,” Eve said. “Where did they take her?”
“Keene Mountain Hospital,” the man replied, climbing into the driver’s side.
“Is she going to be okay?” Eve pressed on.
The window rolled open. “Too early to tell,” the man said.
“What happened to her?”
The car’s engine roared to life, but not enough to obscure the answer.
“Heart attack.”