Falling Snow Read online

  “That was awesome! Holy shit!” Amy said running over to her. “I guess I’m settling for another silver at X.” She teased. “You’re just too damn good girl!” She hugged Adler.

  “I’m so damn stoked right now.” Adler was smiling widely from ear to ear showing off perfect white teeth. “I’m going to leave here on a good night.”

  “Not going to try it again?” Amy asked.

  “Hell no,” Adler laughed. “My ass hurts. I need to tweak it so I stick the landing a little better and I plan to work on all that in Aspen. The pipe is almost done. I was up there this morning checking it out. I’ll have three or four days to put a run together and nail that landing.”

  “Awesome. Man, I can’t wait. I hear one of the Swiss guys has been trying to lay down the double mctwist. I can kiss my second gold goodbye if he lands that shit.” Gordy said. He tried the same move two years ago and broke a vertebra in his back when he crashed. He wasn’t interested in trying it again anytime soon.

  “We should all go out tonight and celebrate.” Amy said. “And pre-party for X Games.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “I’m down.” Gordy said and high-fived her.

  Adler shrugged and then raised her hand up to meet theirs. She hadn’t planned on going back until the next day anyway. Why not party a little bit. “I’m in.” What the hell, she’d just landed one of the hardest tricks and only one other female had ever attempted it that she knew of.

  ***

  Cason sat on the couch in her condo, her grilled chicken Caesar wrap long forgotten. She poured a glass of bourbon over ice and drank it in two long swallows. The blinds were open on the balcony overlooking the mountain. She could see the snow silently falling in the moonlight. It was one of the prettiest sights she’d ever seen. She walked over to the glass and watched nature produce something so beautiful, all the while wondering why human life worked the way it did. Do people know when their number is up? Can they control it or is it really something managed and decided by a higher power? She watched the peaceful scene a little longer wondering what it would be like to fly down that mountain with her hair on fire. That made her think of Adler Troy, if that was even the girl that ran into her two weeks ago. She would probably never know.

  Seven

  Cason drove past Buttermilk Mountain on her way home from her shift at the hospital. From the street she could see the giant Super Pipe and the Ski Moguls glistening in the bright sunlight. The blue definition lines were being painted. It wouldn’t be long before the Winter X Games competitors took to the snow to begin practicing. The games were set to start in less than a week. That meant more tourists and traffic for the small town which could easily result in more traumatic injuries. She hoped it would go smoothly. She really enjoyed watching the games on the sidelines as a spectator.

  She stopped at the small Mom and Pop type store halfway up the next mountain that was the size of a postage stamp. It was the local grocery store and pharmacy. She smiled. This small town living was so much nicer than the hustle and bustle of the big city. She grabbed one of the tiny carts that reminded her of one you would find in a Walgreens or CVS. She perused what appeared to be the fresh fruit and vegetables section and passed on the limited selection. Instead, she filled her cart of with frozen dinners, orange juice, and macaroni and cheese, not exactly the healthiest choices but in her defense the frozen meals were Lean Choice which she figured was their version of a Lean Cuisine. She shrugged and pushed on. A few kindling logs to try and get the damn stubborn fireplace in the condo going, a dilemma she found herself in every year, and a miniature bottle of dish soap since the last guy obviously forgot to replace it, but she’d forgive him since he was probably a new father by now.

  “Dr. Macauley.” A sickly sweet voice called to her across the two-for-one bin by the registers.

  “Shit.” She said under her breath and turned around. “Serena, how are you?”

  The brunette flipped her hair and flashed a huge smile. “I’m good. I missed you today. I hate that our schedules are so far off.” She pouted and the wrinkled her nose when she saw Cason’s assortment of frozen boxes. “Maybe you should let me cook dinner for you, that shit is unhealthy.”

  Cason forced a grin. The reason their schedules were opposite was because she finally put her foot down and asked for the touchy feely nurse to be put on a different shift. “I can cook, I just don’t care to.” She lied. She was a hell of a cook, but cooking for one sucked. Why go through all of that when you could throw something in the microwave or order a pizza? She wasn’t going to tell Serena that, hell no, the woman would probably follow her home and demand she cook for her. Cason wondered if her husband Larry or Lance or something like that was home. Hopefully, he was and she wouldn’t take a chance on following Cason. She was pretty sure it had already happened once before last year, but she wasn’t certain and she damn sure didn’t need some big burly bearded truck driver spit tobacco at her as he kicked her ass for screwing his wife. “I need to get going. I’m sure I’ll see you at work sometime.” Cason said and cut a woman off with her cart to get into the fastest checkout line. That woman made her nervous and it wasn’t the good kind. She really was a very good nurse and had worked next to Cason on numerous occasions, if she could only keep her paws and sexual comments to herself.

  ***

  Alder watched Clyde walk along the back of the crème colored soft leather couch. She petted his head and ran her hand down his back and up his tail. She had been back from Breckenridge for two days and was itching like a junkie to get on the Super Pipe sitting on the face of the mountain next door. She hated the fact that the Aspen Pipe was closed from the second week of January until X Games so that they could get it groomed for extreme level competition and paint the definition lines. She was told the competitors would be given four hour sessions for the next three days to practice before the start of Winter X Games Thursday afternoon. From that Thursday to Sunday extreme sports would take over the four mountains of Aspen, Colorado and leave nothing but snow tracks in its wake. Some of the world’s best athletes would compete in Skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling events. The X Games were radical, crazy, and most of all exciting. Adler always felt the pressure of being a hometown girl, but she never let that stop her from throwing down. Since she landed that new trick in Breck she was full of energy and bouncing off the walls like a kid full of sugar. She needed to find something to calm her down.

  “If you were a dog I’d take you for a walk.” She said to the cat. He stopped his couch walking and turned his head as if he understood her. He threw his nose up and jumped down. Apparently, being compared to a dog was below him and he no longer wanted to appease her by letting her pet him. She laughed and flopped down on the couch.

  When her cell phone rang she snatched it up. She left Kevin a couple messages trying to find out if he was coming to town for the competition. Gordy’s name was displayed on the caller ID. She was use to going days without talking to Kevin, that wasn’t the problem. She just wanted to know whether or not to expect him.

  “I’m so keyed up I don’t think I’ll sleep for the next week.” He laughed.

  “Lay off the energy drinks man.” She laughed. She understood the excitement of competition. “What time does your flight get in tomorrow?”

  “Around ten I think.”

  “The pipe opens at eleven and closes at three.” She said.

  “Yeah I saw the email. I like that better than two all day sessions and then a day off. That always messed with my head. I like going right into it the next day. It keeps it fresh.” He added.

  “True. I hadn’t really thought about it that way.” She watched Clyde bat a toy around on the floor. “Those twenty-two foot walls in the pipe are sick. I was up there today talking to a friend that’s helping with the construction crew. He said it was pretty icy compared to last year so it should be pretty fast.”

  “Awesome. I can’t wait to see the air we are going to get coming off those giant fucki
ng walls. It’s going to be crazy.” His voice was full of excitement.

  “Yeah I know it. Talk about literally flying.” She lived for the adrenaline rush and thrill of flying up out of the pipe into some crazy acrobatic trick. “I’m going to try to get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Eight

  Adler was about to pull out of the driveway to her small townhouse complex when she tried Kevin’s phone one more time for the hell of it.

  “Hello, Kevin’s phone.” A bubbly female voice answered.

  “Excuse me, who is this?” Adler asked.

  “Jeanette. Who is this?”

  “Where’s Kevin?” Adler gritted her teeth together.

  “He’s in the shower. Is it important?” She asked.

  “Very.” Adler sneered. The phone got quiet and then she heard the girl’s voice again.

  “Baby it’s for you. I think it’s your work or something.” She heard her say. Then she heard his voice. “Just hang it up and get your sexy ass back in here. I’ll call them later, my dick’s hard again and I want your lips on it this time.”

  Adler threw her phone out the window when she pulled out on the main road. She watched in the side mirror as it busted into a bunch of little pieces.

  ***

  Cason stretched her back and walked into hospital for the start of her next twenty-four shift. The regular ski tourists were already in full swing and the X Games spectators would be pouring into town in a few days. At least she would be off for most of the weekend so she could go over and watch all the action. That thought added a little pep to her step. She enjoyed all of the events and it gave her something to look forward to. She almost closed her locker with her cell phone still inside, but it rang, making her realize it wasn’t attached to her pants at her hip.

  “Cason, how’s it hanging?” Warren said when she answered.

  She laughed. “Uh, a little to the left?” She said with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

  “Sounds good,” He laughed. “So, when are you going to invite me up to party with you?”

  “Are you bored without me already?” She asked.

  “It’s not the same when you’re gone. These people are so sterile.”

  “Yeah well it’s not that glamorous here either. I did lose a patient last week. I thought the ER attending was going to stroke out on me. I don’t think he’s ever seen a TBI that was basically a DOA.”

  “I had two of those yesterday.” He said. “Maybe he should get out of Podunk and practice real medicine.”

  “Oh come on, it’s not that bad around here. Death just doesn’t walk the halls like it does in big cities. On a lighter note the Winter X Games are this weekend. So, I have some excitement to look forward to.”

  “Meet any ski bunnies yet?”

  “Nope. Not my thing.”

  “Uh huh, that don’t ask-don’t tell shit doesn’t work on me this isn’t the Army.”

  She laughed. “You asked and I told. What more do you want? I have this nurse chasing me, hell she chases anyone and everyone, but I finally had to get our schedules switched.”

  “Is she hot?” He asked.

  “She’s okay, not really my type and I’m sure her Billy-badass trucker husband wouldn’t be too happy.”

  Warren chuckled like a little kid. “That’s hilarious.”

  “Yeah, so anyway, I’m about to start my twenty-four. I’ll call you in a week or two and try to put a weekend together to paint the town. Don’t get your hopes up though. Unless you ski or snowboard these people won’t look at you twice.”

  ***

  Adler had washed away the tears she shed in the small bathroom of the ski chalet next to the X Games competitor parking lot. It was actually on the next mountain, she had to take a small bus over the pipe like all of the other competitors with events on Buttermilk Mountain, that was the only problem with that mountain it had no parking.

  Amy and Gordy hadn’t noticed any change in her which was fine. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about. She didn’t need to air her dirty laundry. She had already done two warm up runs and her blood was still boiling from the overheard conversation. She was beyond sad, she was just plain pissed.

  She pushed the button to start the loud rock song on her I-Pod and tucked it in the inside pocket in her jacket and pushed off when she got the all clear signal. She dropped in and carved across the pipe with more speed than she intended and the icy bottom was slippery. She held her line and flew up into a backside seven two, then carved across again and up into a double nine-twenty. She landed perfectly, still carrying a lot of speed she shot up the wall and into her new trick but she pushed out over the deck and was at risk of getting seriously hurt. She quickly opened her body to stall the spin and her board hit the edge of the deck on the way down. She tried to ride it out but it threw her down and she tumbled twice before sliding to a stop in the middle of the pipe.

  When she didn’t move the ski-patrol rushed to her side. Adler tried to open her eyes but everything was black. Her head was fuzzy and throbbing. She tried to move but someone pushed her back down.

  “Do you have any pain?” The male voice asked. She tried so hard to see him.

  “My head is pounding. I can’t get up.”

  “That’s because we are holding you still. You need to go get checked out.” He waved for the ski-basket to be brought into the pipe. It looked like an orange half cage shaped like a person. She stayed still while they rolled her onto a backboard then set the backboard into the basket to ski the rest of the way down the middle of the pipe.

  ***

  Cason was walking through the ER, which was connected to the little area she used for trauma, when she heard the radio say an ambulance was coming in with a downed snowboarder with a possible head injury. She figured she better hang around to see how serious it was. Dr. Smith was wrapped up with two minor MVA’s and a couple minor slip and falls and the other doctor working the ER was wrapped up with a rash of food poisoning coming from some fly by night taco joint.

  Two EMT’s pushed a yellow stretcher with an orange backboard strapped securely to it through the double doors. She met them inside ER room one. The snowboarder was obviously female and she could see a few blond strands of hair, but she was still in her ski cap and helmet.

  “She crashed hard, hit the deck from about fifteen feet in the air and sort of somersaulted down the wall of the half-pipe.” One of the EMT’s said as they unstrapped the backboard and set it on the hospital gurney. “BP’s stable, she never lost consciousness that we know of. She’s complaining of a headache.”

  “Let’s go ahead and send her for a CT scan.” Cason said to Katie, the nurse that had been working most of her shifts since the switch of schedules.

  Cason watched the gurney being rolled down the hall. The young woman looked vaguely familiar, but then again she’d seen over a hundred people in ski clothes since she arrived in town three weeks ago. She shrugged and went back to the nurse’s desk to get the new patients chart. She subconsciously dropped the metal clipboard when she read the name across the top. Adler Troy. She quickly bent and picked it up and laughed when the nurse made a comment about her lack of coffee causing the shakes. No, coffee wasn’t the reason she dropped the chart. She tried to think back to the woman in the ski village that mowed her down. She remembered long curly blond hair, thin pink lips, a bright smile and the smell of citrus and flowers on a warm summer day. Was this the same girl? The window attendant at the walk-up restaurant seemed to think it was.

  “Dr. Macauley, the CT results are back.” The nurse sitting at the desk pulled her out of the memory she was sifting through. Cason read the report on the computer and printed it for the chart.

  “She’s pissed. She wants off that backboard.” The nurse said to Cason when she walked out of ER one. She had just wheeled Adler back into her room. “There are a few people here to see her too.”

  Cason bit the inside of her lip. “Go ahead and get her off the board, but make
her lay down. She can elevate the bed if she wants. No visitors until I talk to her. I’ll be back in a minute.” She said.

  ***

  Adler was fuming. She told them she didn’t need to go to the damn hospital and all strapped down like she was broken in half was just ridiculous over kill. She had a headache that was common when she bumped her head, not to mention she was already extremely pissed off at her lying, cheating, bastard husband. She really didn’t need this right now. She knew she probably shouldn’t have gone for that trick. Hell, she shouldn’t have been riding the pipe when her mind wasn’t in it, that’s how people got hurt and here she was sitting there on the damn spongy bed sweating her ass off as living proof. The curtain moved and she looked up to see someone in scrubs with short messy dark hair enter the room. She raised an eyebrow at the sexy compact body walking with a confident swagger towards her. She realized the person was female just as deep blue eyes stared down at her.

  “Adler Troy,” She said as she shined a pen light into Adler’s eyes checking her pupil size. “So that’s your name.” She shut the light off and slid it into her breast pocket. “I’m Dr. Macauley.” Cason watched the thought process spread across the face of the blond as she tried to place her. Adler Troy was beautiful, long curly blond hair, flawless tanned complexion, and the most amazing bluish-green eyes she had ever seen. They were the color of the water in Tahiti or Belize. At least that’s the color of the water on the brochures she kept on her desk in her condo in Denver. They were two places she teased herself with every year as vacation destinations. Maybe one day she wouldn’t be single when her vacation days rolled around. She continued. “You have a nasty bump on your head my friend.”