Ski Lodge

1// Book Club

December 23rd, Thursday
First week of Winter Break

It's winter break, and I am home from college. It's dry and musty outside with a dull, grey sky and harsh desert air. My dad is out with his friends at a bar, and my mom's two best friends are downstairs.

Rumor has it, my mom busted the code on the lock my dad had installed on the wine cellar. Now, my mom isn't an alcoholic, but she does have a tendency to reach for the expensive brands during her book club meetings with her two best friends, Dr Greene and Dr Becker. I believe the rumor, which I heard via a screenshot my dad texted me of slurred words my mom had texted him just minutes ago.

Apparently, all three ladies are inebriated. I believe this because they are laughing so loudly that I can hear them from upstairs where I am babysitting Laura and Weston. No book I've ever read is laugh out loud funny and certainly not The Emperor of Maladies, which is supposedly the book for this month.

 Weston, sleepy eyed and watching Cars for the third time tonight on his iPad, yawns dramatically, reaching his little hands high into the air. "Can I have a glass of water?" he asks me. 

"Of course. Stay here while I go get it," I respond while moving from the comfortable thick cream couch where I am scrolling on my phone, jealous at all of the adventures my friends are posting about having.

I creep downstairs just in time to hear my own mother loudly proclaim how much she'd like to see her husband in 'those' tight pants, and I groan from embarrassment. She's sitting in front of a computer giggling with Dr Greene and Dr Becker, and I try to not to laugh at the three women holding their long stemmed glasses and tilting their heads to the side like teenagers.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, not really sure if I wanted to hear the answer.

"Nude men!" Dr Greene calls out, which sent my mom and Dr Becker into a fit of laughter.

Dr Becker, ever so polite, has the decency to blush. Or perhaps that's just redness from the wine.

"Don't scar my daughter!" My mom laughed, "honey, honey." She leans over to me, almost tripping over her chair. "Sorry," she apologizes to the chair. "We're watching... no, wait," she laughs again, "we're looking at a website for ski lodges! There's no men. Or at least no nude men." She looks back at Dr Greene, and they both grin and scrunch their faces.

"Why ski lodges?" I question.

My mom awkwardly pulls me over to the computer by my arm, "yes, ski resorts with lodges. They are places where it snows, and you can ski. And you stay there while it snows, and while you ski."

Dr Becker calls out, "they're in Colorado! I've never been to Colorado!"

"I believe weed is legal there, yes?" Dr Greene adds on, "not that I'd ever partake having two young children. But I heard it is."

"The lodges might have nude men in them!" Dr Becker adds with a grin and a wink.

"And alcohol," Dr Greene cheers while raising her sloshing glass of red wine.

"I think you've had enough of that," my mom hiccups, "but I might get another glass for myself. Excuse me, honey."

My mom gets up out of her chair slowly and makes her way to the kitchen. I take her seat and stare at the computer screen.

The webpage is jammed packed with photos showing off a beautiful cliff-side ski resort with a huge snowy courtyard bounded by cobblestone streets with fairytale-esque, townhouse lodges. 

"Look, look," Dr Becker smudges her fore-finger on the screen, "the lodges are skinny little itty bitty townhouses, but five stories tall! And we'd all fit into one lodge- one family on each of three floors."

I scroll to a graphic that has a section cut through one of the lodges. It's a 3D model that can be rotated on the screen.

"There's a pullout couch in this tiny living space outside the bedrooms on each floor for you, and Weston and Laura, and Emmett. And the bedrooms will be for the adults, of course. And the bottom floor is a living space and kitchens and washers and dryers and stuff. And then all the bathrooms are on the third floor which is a little strange but totally doable. And we just booked it!" Dr Becker continues.

"Wait! You what?" I lean closer to the screen. On the top right, a little pop-up reads, 'thank you for your purchase.'

"Yeah, why not?" Dr Greene throws her arms in the air, "you kids are all on break right now, and I've got vacation days saved up."

"But Christmas!" I yelp. My mom walks back into the room.

"We won't miss Christmas, honey," my mom hugs me while taking a sip of her fresh glass of wine, "we leave the day after."

"We will get to go on a plane! I haven't been on a plane since Laura was born!" Dr Greene exclaims.

"Oh lord, we are old! Emmett's in med school, and Trisha, you're in college! I still remember when you were in diapers!" my mom cries.

"Hey, I'm still in my 40s, you old bats!" Dr Greene yells, sending all three mothers into another fit of laughter. They seem to be struggling to control the screen as they click wildly on the webpage, looking at all of the amenities the ski lodge has to offer.

I slowly back away from the computer and leave the office. Maybe it would be nice to go on a vacation. I would stop getting FOMO from missing out on my friend's vacations. 

 I wander into the kitchen and grab a plastic cup from the one shelf that hold all of the plastic everything. 

Maybe it won't be bad having to spend that much time with Emmett Becker. I pull out my phone to debate texting him about this trip, but instead I text my dad to inform him. 

"Your mom mentioned that," he responds almost immediately, "whatever she wants she gets <3."

I squirm at my dad's utter devotion to my mom; sometimes its nauseating. But sweet, I guess.

On my way back up the stairs, I wondered why we even needed to go on this trip. Other than the unusually high consumption of alcohol my mom and her friends seem to have. Perhaps, I soothed myself, they would forget about the whole trip tomorrow... or maybe I could get dad to cancel the trip... or perhaps there would be a snowstorm and we'd be stuck. I really didn't want to go on a trip with Emmett Becker; I was determined to enjoy my holiday break, not spend time near him.