High Country Christmas

Chapter Ten- Sascha Needs Help (Ali's POV)

Ahh, cold beer, chilling out in the apartment the family kept in Queenstown. This is something that I enjoyed, peace and quiet, great views. I found my self thinking back over the last few hours.

Avoiding Sascha had been hard, but worth it. I couldn't have anything more to do with her. With all the baggage I had and her trying to play 'Oprah' or 'Dr. Phil' didn't help,  everything, life, just made me so angry.

This was a nice apartment. Figures. Hardly used but my Grandfather had bought it in Queenstown before the big property boom, and it was now kept for those occasions when Leah and Daniel were in town, or friends were visiting and waiting for the boat out to the station.

Yesterday had been a hard day, on so many fronts. I sunk into a low comfortable chair and kicked my feet up on the table.

After we made the dash back to the station in the boat, we had  grabbed some gear, then Sascha had recruited two of the Earnslaw passengers, visiting Tall Peaks, who had climbing and search experience, and we were off.

Going up that track then using harnesses along thin crevice hand holds across sheer cliffs, although exhilarating, was also hard. Hard to concentrate on the here and now, especially as we went right past where Sean had fallen, to say nothing of the physical demands of bringing the injured climber out.

'Hell,' I muttered rubbing my hand through my hair.

The day had started well enough, telling Sascha some of my past, she had seemed understanding enough. Then that whole, "We're on the beach having family time' thing. It seemed ok at the time, but after at the pool I was about to tell her to ease up on the whole "I've been there and know your pain' crap, when she dived into the water.

By the time I got to the other side of the water hole, I was angry and determined to tell her to mind her own business. Seeing her laid out on the rock like that though had made me respond to her.

Why that had made me more angry, who knew? I had  started to touch her, and with every renewed effort I made to offend her,  and get a reaction, she only responded to me like nobody else ever had. By the end, and even in the water, I had to bottle the feeling of wanting to get her in a choke hold. She had irritated me so much, but in spite of all that, she had made me laugh and I let my guard down for a short time.

When we found it was the pilot of the light  aircraft that had been injured on the mountain, we radioed Leah, back at the station. She met us at the waters edge by the water plane with over night bags for both of us, she knew I could fly the patient over to Queenstown, having had my pilots license since I left school.

I had left the plane with the police for the pilot to claim when he was discharged from hospital. The advantages of having parents who feel guilty and will pay whatever it takes, things like pilot licenses, trips around the country and various environmental reserves, came easy. I grunted to myself and leant my head back.

My muscles ached a little today, but felt all the better for the workout that yesterdays almost four hour trek gave me. Helping to carry the patient on a stretcher was real grunt work, but nothing that I'm not used to.

Lifting my head I looked at the clock by the old stone mantel, almost three in the afternoon. I was curious to know who Sascha was catching up with but not enough to ring her. I was quite happy continuing to avoid her and would order in some food later. We had met with the police last night on the docks with the ambulance, and after hitting the shower I was out like a light.

I hadn't spoken with Sascha this morning very much at all, but we had gone to the police station to give a full report on what had happened, and the precautions that Tall Peaks had in place to support climbers, should they need it. Afterwards she had decided to stay in town and do some errands before coming back to the apartment.