Chapter 16
Alice scuttled back to her laptop to email Vanessa and ask about visiting before her mum caught her listening.
Hi Vanessa, how are you? Sorry to contact you again out of nowhere, and thanks for your kind message about Jill. I miss her a lot, and I know she would have loved to have visited you in Switzerland.
If the offer is still open, I wondered if I could still come after all, with the dog, who I’ve adopted? We’re thinking of getting out of London for a week or two, and climbing up a mountain might be just what we need.
A reply came back almost instantly.
Yes yes yes!the email said.Only I have an idea to share with you. Can you give me a phone this evening?
‘Hi, Vanessa?’
‘Alice! How are you doing?’ cried the voice on the end of the line, a voice Alice hadn’t heard for close to ten years, but which still had the bounce she was familiar with, the melodic accent when Vanessa spoke in English. ‘I am so sorry to hear about what happened, I can’t believe you were involved in such a horrible thing, and Jill . . . oh Jill . . . I want to hug you.’
‘Thanks,’ Alice said. ‘Hopefully we can do that soon. How are you?’
‘I’m okay, but listen, I really think you need to come to Switzerland because we will look after you and your doggie. I think you should come longer than a couple of weeks. Your email sounded so sad.’
‘Sorry . . . ’
‘Don’t apologise, you’re so British, lovely Alice. You are allowed to be sad. But if you’re sad in Switzerland we can make you better. Mountain air, lots of cheese, sexy snowboarders . . . eh? Come on!’
Alice laughed. ‘It does sound good, but we can’t impose on you more than a couple of weeks. This dog is getting bigger by the day.’
‘I love him already! But here’s the thing, I actually have a . . . what would you call it . . . an ulterior motive. See, I really want to see you and spend loads of time with you and your hunky dog, but I’m like, two weeks away from starting a new job – I’m going to be travelling around the country leading chocolate and cheese tours for tourists. I’ll be on the road really the whole of the winter season.’
Alice’s heart sunk a little. ‘Oh that’s okay, maybe another time?’
‘No, you don’t understand. I still think you should come. You could have my house while I’m away. Stay for the whole winter – your Bear will love it, there will be so much snow for him. I’d be popping back every couple of weeks for a few days, so we can have lots of mini get-togethers instead. What do you think?’
What did she think? A million things, to be honest, all at once. She couldn’t just move abroad for a whole season. Certainly not to Switzerland; she didn’t even speak the language. What language did they even speak where Vanessa lived now? She remembered that Vanessa spoke Swiss German, but did everyone else in her . . . village? No, no, she couldn’t leave her parents, or her friends, or her work.
But throughout all these thoughts there was a ripple of excitement building in her, because actually, shecouldleave, that’s what she wanted, she’d even said so out loud to her mum. And shecouldmove abroad – plenty of people did – and she would have done it in a heartbeat before all of this happened.
Could she do this now?
‘Helloooooo, are you still there Alice?’ Vanessa sang out.
Alice laughed. ‘Sorry, I was lost in thought. I don’t know . . . my job . . . ’
‘You are not freelance any more?’
‘Yes, sort of, I mean yes . . . I just don’t think I can.’
‘You can escape how you feel at the moment. Youcanescape.’
Those three words. They shifted something in Alice and she looked over at Bear, snoozing, squished into the space between her sofa and her coffee table. He needed more than this. He needed fresh air, space, something different to look at.
‘You’re sure you wouldn’t mind us living in your house? You don’t mind dog fur everywhere?’
‘Why would I call you up and offer this if I minded, you silly Brit?’ Vanessa laughed. ‘You would be doing me a favour. And you two will love my house and my neighbours and you will make a lot of friends and eat a lot of food and have a lot of adventures, okay? Okay. Settled, yes?’
Alice had two options. She stayed put, hiding from the world, or she escaped into it. She chose safe but sad, or she chose happy. She knew what Jill would have wanted her to do, and before she let herself consider it any further she said, ‘Yes.’
The next two weeks were a blur. Alice poured all her energies into preparing for their big trip. Visits to the vet, pet passport application, packing lists, calls to Vanessa, numerous online shopping orders for snow wear, and giving notice on her flat seemed only the tip of the iceberg. It was during her first attempt at boxing up her belongings that she intended to store at her parents, and tidying parts of her apartment, that Alice noticed just how slack she’d become with cleaning.
Great furballs hunkered into corners, surfaces were dusty, mirrors and windows were grimy and the smell of dog hung in the air. The only parts of the house that seemed well maintained were those that directly affected the dog, as if her own living space hadn’t mattered to her.
