Chapter Thirty-Eight
Being down first in the morning meant all was quiet. Lisa padded across the stone floor, welcoming the warmth from the under floor heating. She opened the curtains and inhaled at the sight of the mountains silhouetted against the pink-streaked sky. Small patches of grey cloud were interspersed with smaller cotton-wool tufts illuminated by the sun as itbegan its climb above the mountain to cast warmth into the valley below. Lisa recalled her mum telling her it was a view you could never tire of – and she could see why; it was constantly changing and yet always stunning. The village at the foot of the mountains looked sleepy, covered in its blanket of snow. Lisa watched as lights were gradually turned on in the houses; their distance from her vantagepoint making them look like fairy lights. Across the valley, Lisa could see snowploughs grooming the pistes ready for the day ahead. She opened the door onto the balcony and welcomed the cold, crisp air as she stepped outside. It was enlivening. Only the sound of the birds broke the snow-muffled silence.
‘Quite a view, isn’t it?’
Lisa jumped at the sound of Luke’s voice behindher. ‘It’s—’
‘But if you don’t come in and shut that bloody door, I’m locking you out there.’
‘You know you could put some more clothes on.’ Lisa glared at her brother in his low-slung lounge pants. She walked back inside, sliding the door behind her causing a final burst of cold air to surge into the room.
Luke threw a cushion at her. ‘I will before Mum gets up.’
Lisa threw the cushion back. ‘What?’ As Luke turned to pick up the cushion Lisa gasped. ‘You got a tattoo?’
‘Keep it down!’
Lisa squealed. ‘Oh my God, Mum doesn’t know, does she? You wait until she sees that!’ The silhouette of a surfer riding a wave across Luke’s right shoulder blade, the words ‘surf’s up’ below it, was actually quite good. The colours in the wave were sharpand the image well drawn. He had obviously paid for a quality job. But there was no way Lisa was going to say that before she had finished having fun. ‘You know surf is spelt ‘ur’ not ‘ir’, right?’
Luke swung his head as if trying to see his back.
‘Got ya!’
‘I know it’s spelt right!’ Luke protested, attempting to recover from his automatic reaction as he slumped off, leavingLisa giggling.
By the time Luke returned wearing a sweatshirt, he was carrying a mug of coffee for each of them. The sun had risen higher into the sky, almost breaking over the tallest mountain peak and changing the tapestry of the view once more.
Lisa leaned forward, taking her coffee and thanking Luke. ‘Mum and Dad seem really happy here, don’t they?’
‘Yeah, they do.Mum’s much more relaxed.’
‘Not enough for you to tell her you’ve got a tattoo though,’ Lisa scoffed.
‘Sod off.’
Lisa giggled. ‘It is really lovely though, isn’t it?’
‘My tat?’
‘No, you fool, here,’ Lisa gestured out the window, ‘this place.’
‘Yeah, it’s odd seeing so much snow after months of sun, but it’s all good.’
Lisa sat up and staredout of the window.
Luke paused with his coffee to his lips watching her, intrigued.
‘Do you know what though… it’s funny… there’s all this snow and yet—’
‘What?’
‘Well, at home, if it snowed, what’s the first thing we’d do?’
‘I don’t know… Facebook it… put a picture on Instagram?’
‘After that.’
‘Phone in sick?’
