She scooped her arms around his waist and tried to lift him, letting out a guttural moan. ‘Jesus Christ, you’re a heavy thing now.’ She managed to raise his front paws up to the seat but he dabbed at her cheeks with his nose, sniffing and snuffling and blocking her vision. The moment she let go, he put his paws back down.
‘Come on, just a couple more hours, then we’ll be there. I know it’s boring and uncomfortable – it is for me too.’ She rolled her shoulders. ‘Do you feel sick again?’
They stared at each other for a moment until Bear whined and tried to back away from the vehicle.
‘Oh Bear, please, please get in the car. I’m sorry.’
Alice was so focused on trying to nudge her increasingly anxious dog back into the car that she didn’t even notice the old woman from the shop appear until she’d flung open the opposite door and stuck her round face through.
‘BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO!’ She made delighted, chirping sounds towards Bear until he turned and peered into the car, stepping forward for a better look. On seeing the shopkeeper he took a flying leap straight into the back seat, tail wagging, and nestling his face against hers again.
Alice rolled her eyes. Honestly, one minute he can’t bear to leave her side, the next minute he’s having a holiday romance with a stranger.
She closed the door on her side, placed her shopping in the passenger footwell and returned to the driver’s seat, thanking the lady.
The shopkeeper gestured for Alice to open the back window, and once Alice had leant over and clipped Bear in, she did so. The two had a final snog through the open window, and Alice hit the road again with a grateful wave.
She closed the window and looked at Bear in the rear-view mirror. ‘Sorry to pull you away from your new girlfriend.’
He sighed and lay down on the back seat in a huff.
‘Half an hour in Switzerland and you’re already doing some kissing. I think you’re going to be okay here.’
They wove through the roads of Switzerland, skirting the edges of the city of Bern, and on towards the mountains. The sun sank lower, making the clouds before it turn from white to steel blue. The air grew colder, and Alice had a decision to make. Stop now and find a hotel that would accept her and her dog, or face the night sky and the mountain roads for the final thirty kilometres.
I know you’ve been through tougher things than this. Vanessa’s words rang in her ears. It was true. And although she’d driven home from the dog school lessons in the dark over the past couple of months, there was far less light pollution in the Swiss Alps than there was in London. It was time to learn to face the dark again.
It was far beyond dusk now, the roads, landscape and sky all paling into shades of indigo. The mountain passes were hard to see and the roads twisty. Flakes of snow kissed the windscreen, seeming to head straight for her, sending her windscreen wipers into overdrive.
‘Shit,’ Alice whispered, the anxious feeling gnawing against her stomach. ‘It’s okay, Bear, nearly there.’ She stretched an arm back between the seats and ruffled her fingers through his soft fur, her stress levels immediately reducing a little. He responded by giving her hand a lick. He was okay. He was doing better than her.
Why oh why hadn’t she planned this out better? She should have left England a day earlier. She should have made two overnight stops after all so she was driving up the mountain pass during bright morning light. Granted, she hadn’t known she’d hit the delays but still, she felt stupid for putting herself and Bear in this situation.
There is no ‘situation’ yet, she reminded herself, trying to pull herself back from thinking the worst-case scenario. Soon they’d reach Lauterbrunnen, the village at the foot of the mountain where they had to leave the car and board a cable car with their belongings to travel the last stretch to Mürren. Really soon, according to the satnav.
‘We’re just fifteen minutes away,’ she said into the car. ‘Fifteen minutes, please wait for us, cable car. Please don’t do your last run until we get there.’
She leant forward in the seat. It was okay. If the cable car was gone, they could stay the night somewhere in Lauterbrunnen, it wouldn’t be a problem. But the dark felt heavy and unfamiliar, when she’d been making an effort only to exist in the light for the past few months.
She sucked in the air as the road took another barely visible left, and slowed down further, the destination drifting that much further from her grasp.
