Youth With You

सोलह

During Songkran Festival that year, there were fewer patients in the hospital. I asked my cousin to watch the little one for the weekend and invited Irene to go to Ski365 with me. Irene agreed for the first time ever.

We carpooled with a few people in a friend's car. I was quite close with the other three people in the car, but it was the first time they met Irene, so it was a bit quiet in the beginning. Half an hour later, we were chatting up a storm as usual. People in the skiing circle worked in all kinds of fields and came from various backgrounds, but because of our love for skiing and from eating and hanging out together, it was easy to become acquainted with each other.

No matter what we talked about, Irene mostly stared out the window without speaking. I knew that it was just how she was but the others didn't. Later when we arrived at the resort and a few of us were sitting in the ski lift, Nichkhun said, "Irene is really quiet."

"Have you ever seen a talkative goddess?" I countered.

"I think you and your goddess don't suit each other!" he joked.

"How do we not suit each other?"

"Doctors are all very meticulous; how did someone careless like you chase after a goddess?"

"I'm careless?" I turned my head to look at Irene. "Ask her yourself, if I don't prepare moisturizer for her, she could just go out without putting anything on."

Irene looked up at me. I could imagine her curved eyes hidden behind her ski goggles.

The ski lift ascended for a while, and I stood up, facing the mountain, and told Irene about the place that had accompanied me for three winters.

"Over there is Golden Dragon Trail. The snow is thick and there are woods on one side, and it's the best track in terms of snow conditions on windy days. Underneath us right now is Silver Dragon Trail. There's a section in the middle that's easy and wide, so it's very comfortable to ski on. Those two are where I ski the most. That's the west end. There are many forest paths, and the trees are quite dense. I almost peed myself the first time they took me in there."

"On sunny days, the trails are golden, and you can see the mountains in the distance. You can't see as much when it snows, but the snow is like fog when it's blown around, so skiing feels like flying in the clouds!"

"Don't listen to her," Nichkhun said beside me. "When the wind is blowing, it's like flying in a wave of knives."

Although she was encouraged for a while beforehand, once we got up the mountain, Irene was still terrified, and when we got to the final slope, she wouldn't ski it no matter what. When I took off my skis later, I placed Irene's on the mountain and put mine upright. I pointed at the head of the ski.

"Let's sit and slide down."

We sat down, one in front and one behind. I held tightly onto Irene.

As we went faster, it became windier and windier on both sides. I needed to sway left and right to maintain our balance. Irene was screaming in terror, and I was also yelling in excitement.

I withdrew my feet in front of a snow bump by the entrance to the hall. We fell in softly, as if plunging into a steamed bun.

"Exciting? Haha."

"You lied to me! Sliding down was even faster!" Irene took off her helmet and shouted at me.

"Weren't you scared? I just wanted to get you down the mountain faster." I patted the snow off her body.

"You're terrible!" Irene came over and hit me angrily. "That scared me to death."

"With guts like yours, how can you perform surgery on people!"

We fought in the snow for a while and were worn out. Irene clamored about going back to the hall to rest. "Just one more time, let's go to Cud s̄ūngs̄ud. It's very beautiful over there, and the slope is gentle." I pulled her arm.

"Not lying to me?" Irene stared and asked. Her cheeks were flushed, and her two rows of straight, white teeth chattered as she spoke, releasing white mist that quickly dispersed.

"I am absolutely not lying to you," I said.

Cud s̄ūngs̄ud was a ski lift up the mountain that was built a few years ago. It was very simple and required you to manually pull down the front railing. When we sat down, there was no cover, and it would often creak beneath our bottoms.

It was a clear day, and the ski lift moved very slowly. The humid wind on the snow blew in our faces.

"It's too slow. They should renovate this ski lift," I said.

The sun shone on one side of the trail, and each snow bump created a pattern of light and shade. There weren't many people on the trail, and we could even hear the voices of a few kids skiing.

Irene and I sat in the slow, horizontally-moving ski lift. The pine tree branches were clear and distinct, reaching upward all the way to our feet. It was very still around us.

"So beautiful," Irene said, "So quiet."

That afternoon, Irene was tired from skiing and waited for me in the hall. At five o'clock in the evening, I collected my skis and went down the mountain. She asked me if I had skied six rounds in the afternoon and said that although it was her first time seeing me in snow gear, she could recognize me at a glance sitting in front of the second story window.

That evening, she said she had a great time, although she couldn't chime in when we were eating with friends.

I knew that this was just Irene. She looked out of place with the people around her and was unwilling to feel wronged and try to change, but she had a gentle heart.

One weekend later on, I took the girls to go skiing, and the little one had a great time. Irene was very happy with this and said that she hoped the little one would be like me and not follow her lead. But I told the little one,

"It's best to be like your mom."

- 16 -

FIN.-

Anticlimax, right?

Sorry to disappoint you.