‘This is Bear, his name is Bear,’ Alice explained.
For the next hour or so, Alice walked Bear around the sports hall letting him meet everybody and chatting with people about how old he was, how much he weighed, etc. She could see the worry and disappointment on some people’s faces and she hoped that in some small, fleeting way, her big happy dog was providing a little bit of comfort for them, like he did for her, daily, even when she didn’t notice.
Alice kept one eye on the door, hoping Marco would walk in at any moment. She just wanted to know he was okay – physically and emotionally. She knew he gave a hundred per cent to his job and did everything possible, but if there were people he couldn’t save, or find, it would weigh heavily on him for a while. To distract herself and make time pass, she drew sketches of the kids with Bear and gave them to them, much to their delight.
The rumour started to circulate around the hall that the last of the helicopters had stopped for the evening, so Alice got up from where she was sitting and took Bear back out to the lobby area of the Alpine Sports Centre.
And there he was, her Marco. He stood talking to two men dressed in similar uniforms to his, his brow sweaty and his hair a wonderful, sandy mess. His hands were on his hips and he rolled his shoulders, and she watched him from afar, not wanting to interrupt him if he was still working.
Bear had other ideas though. On seeing Marco he pulled and stretched and dragged Alice to him, where he muscled right into the middle of the group of men and leapt his paws up to Marco’s shoulders to lick his face. Marco laughed, and his whole face went from exhausted to happy on seeing Alice.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Alice said, apologising for interrupting them, but also for her breakdown earlier.
‘Are you okay?’ Marco answered, pulling her towards him and burying her deep in his arms.
‘Areyouokay?’ replied Alice. ‘How did it go? Did you get everybody down?’
Marco and his colleagues nodded at each other. ‘We think so. The cable car is cleared, and we couldn’t see anyone left on the mountain. Nobody has been reported missing who isn’t now back, so we have to have hope that everybody is safe.’
‘Let me get you a drink. Let me get all of you a drink.’
‘Thank you,’ breathed Marco, and she left Bear sitting on his feet while she grabbed three Styrofoam cups from the café filled with hot apple juice. The men drank them quickly and then Marco said: ‘Listen, I’m not going to be finished for a while yet. We have quite a few patients set up in theKinderparadieschildren’s room and we need to take a while with them to make sure they’re okay and don’t need to go to hospital tonight.’
‘All right,’ she said, falling in love with him.
‘Noah and David are outside, though. They’ve been helping bring the devil over so it can be burnt.’
‘The procession’s going ahead?’ she asked in surprise.
‘No, just the burning. They’ll gather everybody outside soon. You should stay and watch.’
‘I don’t know if people are going to be in the mood for this at the moment, I think they just want to go home.’
He grinned. ‘You wait and see. These people know that if the burning doesn’t happen the race will surely be cancelled. That bloody devil.’
‘So is the race going ahead tomorrow?’
‘We will keep the fingers crossed!’
Sure enough, word of the devil effigy burning going ahead had trickled into the sports hall and people were starting to pour out, the chatter volume rising and faces filling with hope. Alice grabbed Marco’s hand before he disappeared.
‘When you’re done, will you come back and sleep at mine?’ she asked.
‘Are you sure?’ He looked down at her and moved an inch closer. ‘It might be really late.’
‘I’m sure. I’ll leave the door unlocked. Come home whenever you can.’
