DUALITY /#Wattys 2021

Chapter 32

Two mornings later, Ridley bolted up in bed. Her mother lay snoring next to her. Ridley must have been tired last night; she hadn't even heard her mother come to bed. Even Sannah slumbered still, under her pink blanket in her crib. Careful not to wake her mother, Ridley slid from bed and crept to the window to peer out, half afraid it hadn't snowed, and half afraid it had.

Snow blanketed the ground and frosted the forest in white. A few stray flakes still floated down.

So, this is really happening after all. The ground glass sky obscured the sun; who knew what time it was. As much forethought as the King, the Mannazian government, or whoever had prepared their room had employed, they had forgotten one thing: a clock. Ridley peered into the mirror and smoothed her hair, then slipped out into the hall, hoping to make it to the bathroom and back and get dressed before meeting the King anywhere in the hallway or the living room.

When she got back, Alana was sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"I'm making breakfast this morning," Ridley announced. "I want pancakes! Pancakes and some kind of protein. Do we have any ham?"

Alana smiled. "That's not an athlete's healthy breakfast, Ridley."

"I don't care. I'm dying for pancakes. What fruit do we have? Do we have any whipped cream? I don't want to get hungry out there today."

***

Two hours later, she followed the King as he climbed uphill through the snow. Reb followed along behind, armed with a communicator in case of some mishap on the track. Ridley and the King each carried a helmet, and the King had his luge shoes slung over his shoulder by the laces. Ridley had found tall waterproof boots in her size in her closet for the occasion, and a luger's bodysuit with handles on the backs of the arms, which she wore under her coat.

The King had insisted on ski masks for everyone. They all wore light cream ones; Reb's mask, and his coat, could be reversed to red. "In case something happens and rescue needs to find us," he'd explained. Everyone's snow boots were white, and lined with cozy shearling. They looked like three snowmen trudging uphill, Ridley thought.

The King veered a sharp right, glanced backward, and waved an arm at them. "What happened, did you two eat too many pancakes?" His beard filled out his face mask, making him look moon-faced, and his blue eyes staring above it made him look something like a frog. Ridley smiled under her mask.

"Some of us don't have legs a mile long, Chi," grumbled Reb.

The King didn't answer. He craned his neck skyward again.

"What are you looking at?" said Ridley.

"The luge track," said the King. He pointed. Above their heads, next to a steep hillside studded with dark rock, a nut brown, metal track blended in with the trees.

"Oh." Ridley hadn't even noticed it.

"Looks to be in good repair." The King scanned left and right.

"Of course it is." Reb had received satellite closeups of the track overnight from the Mannazian Secret Service, and he and the King had pored over them while downing coffee, pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, and ham.

The King gave Reb a glare, but even despite his mask, Ridley could still sense his smile. "They can't take pictures of the underside," he said.

Reb gave him a headshake, a snort, and a flap of one arm, implying with some humor that he thought the King was a worrywart. The King made an arm-flap back, playfully exasperated.

Sometimes Ridley found it hard to believe that the King was royalty, even though something in his bearing never let her forget it. After the times she had watched the Queen on television, she felt quite sure that no one would dare to tease her.