کوه غیر ضروری

Chapter ten

An unnecessary mountain

We were a fairly quiet group the next morning when we set off for the day’s walk. Astrid didn’t seem to want to talk to anyone. I saw that she was making sure she stayed as far away from Grant as possible.

I still wanted to explain to her what had really happened. But it seemed a good idea to leave it for a while.

‘What was all that noise about last night?’ Ellen spoke quietly so the others couldn’t hear. But I didn’t want to talk to her before I’d had the chance to speak to Astrid.

‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘It was all a mistake.’

‘What sort of mistake?’ Ellen asked.

I smiled at her. ‘I think we should forget about it,’ I said. ‘Tell me about your job.’

Ellen looked at me. ‘No, thank you. I came on holiday to forget about my job. You’re no fun anymore, Tess. You’re getting as bad as “Mr Clock” up there.’ And she walked away.

Oh dear. Still, I’d been a tour leader for long enough to know it was impossible to please everybody all of the time. However, it would be good to please some people some of the time. And at that moment everybody seemed unhappy. But at least it wasn’t raining.

But because we’d all expected rain, we were all wearing our raincoats and lots of clothes. There were no trees on this part of the day’s walk, and soon we were very hot under the burning sun. The mountains were very beautiful, but we were all too hot to enjoy them.

I caught up with Sarah and James. ‘This weather’s a bit of a change, isn’t it?’ I said, and Sarah smiled at me weakly.

‘I think I liked the rain better,’ she said.

‘Sarah’s feeling a bit tired,’ James told me. ‘It’s tiring, walking up a mountain every day. We’re beginning to think this type of holiday was a mistake for our honeymoon.’

‘We met on a Wild Country holiday,’ Sarah explained. ‘That’s why we came; we thought it would be nice. But actually we just want to be alone.’

‘And not to have to get up early,’ James added.

‘Everybody’s very nice,’ Sarah said quickly. ‘It’s not that. But nobody seems very happy.’

I knew just what she meant. I wasn’t feeling very happy myself after last night.

‘Well,’ I said to James and Sarah. ‘Couldn’t you stay in a hotel somewhere for a few nights and meet up with us later?’

‘We thought of that,’ James told me, ‘but we can’t afford it. We’re buying a house soon, and we need all our money for that. Although we’d still like you to paint us a picture, Tess.

‘Yes,’ said Sarah. ‘Of the mountains.’

I smiled at them. ‘I’d love to,’ I said. ‘You’ll have to give me your address. I’ll send it to you when I’ve done it.’

‘That would be great,’ said James.

‘But in the meantime,’ I said, ‘I’m sorry you’re not enjoying your holiday.’

Sarah smiled. ‘Oh, we’ll be OK. Don’t worry about us. We can always have a second honeymoon later on.’

‘When we’re old and grey!’ James smiled, and Sarah laughed.

‘Sitting in our armchairs and looking at the mountains out of the window!’

When James kissed her, I dropped back to leave them alone. They were a really nice couple. I liked them a lot. I wished I could do something for them.

Up ahead, I saw Ellen was talking to ‘Mr Clock’. Grant hadn’t said more than two words to me today. Was Ellen having more luck with him? Probably. But then she hadn’t made him jump into a river, had she?

I thought back to the evening in the cooking tent, before everything had gone so badly wrong. It had been fun, drawing Grant, with him saying nice things about my work. He’d meant it too, I knew. He really did think I was a good artist. And it meant a lot because he had said it.

This morning at breakfast, although I’d sat quite a long way away from Grant, I’d seen every little thing he’d done. The way he held his spoon, the way he put sugar in his coffee - everything. Things were different today.

I didn’t know what to say to Grant any more. I couldn’t just be me anymore. I felt like a schoolgirl who likes a boy in the same class as her. And the sad thing was, I knew Grant would just laugh if he knew how I felt.

Up ahead, I heard Ellen and Grant laughing. As I looked up at them, I saw Ellen touch Grant’s arm. When Grant looked down at her with a smile, I knew Astrid was right. Grant liked looking at women. Just one girlfriend wasn’t enough for him. I’d better forget all about Grant Cooper.

By the middle of the afternoon, I saw the village we were going to stay in that night down below us at the bottom of the mountain. But to my surprise Grant didn’t begin to walk down towards it. He started to lead the way up another - very high - mountain.

‘Stop, Grant!’ the old Tess said in my head. But the new Tess said nothing. She felt almost afraid to speak to Grant. It was stupid, I knew, but I didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it.

I was feeling quite fed up actually. I was very hot, my legs hurt again, and I was tired of watching Ellen and Grant together. She was still touching his arm when she spoke to him, and they were still laughing together all the time.

I was so busy with my dark thoughts that I didn’t see that the sky had grown dark too. Before we’d reached the top of the mountain it had started to rain heavily. Within moments we were wet through.

‘Oh no!’ said Sarah as we all hurried to put on our raincoats. ‘This is a terrible holiday!’

Grant and Ellen had waited for us. ‘It’s not far to the top,’ Grant said. ‘Then we can go back down to the village and put the tents up.’

Everybody looked at him. David was the one who finally spoke. ‘Are you saying we didn’t have to climb this mountain?’ he asked.

‘No,’ said Grant, ‘we didn’t really have to come up here. But we were early, and you can see a long way from the top.’

We all looked over the side of the mountain. All we could see was clouds and rain.

‘On a good day, anyway,’ Grant added. ‘Come on,’ he said, and continued walking up the mountain.

I wasn’t sure everybody would follow him, but they did. Nobody looked very happy when we got to the top. And when we began the walk down, I saw that David’s leg was hurting him.

After we’d put the tents up in the rain, everybody stayed in their own tent for a while to rest and change their clothes. I lay down and listened to the sound of the rain. I was very tired and I think I went to sleep for a while, because the next moment I heard somebody - a woman - shouting, and it woke me up.

I sat up to listen. It was Ellen. She was shouting at Grant. ‘Oh, yes you did!’ It had stopped raining now, and I could hear her very well. ‘Don’t try to get out of it. You’ve showed me that you like me as a woman.

You were laughing in that special way and looking at me like that all day. What’s the matter? Aren’t I pretty enough for you? Do you only like women with long blonde hair or something?’

Grant said something, but his voice was quieter than Ellen’s, and I couldn’t hear him.

But I could certainly hear what Ellen said in reply. ‘That is not true, Grant Cooper! Everybody knows you tried to get into Astrid’s tent last night! Well, good luck to her, that’s what I say! She’s welcome to you!’

And with that, I heard Ellen leave Grant’s tent and run to her own. Then everything was quiet. At least it was quiet for a few minutes, and then I heard someone else leave their tent. When he gave a small cough, I realised it was David.

‘Excuse me, Grant,’ he said. ‘Can I have a quick word with you?’

This time I could hear what Grant said in reply, because he didn’t try to speak quietly. ‘Why not? Everybody else seems to want to. I’ll come out.’ I heard the sound of Grant’s tent opening. ‘What is it, David?’ he asked.

‘It’s about this afternoon’s walk. I didn’t want to go up a mountain that we didn’t need to go up. Why didn’t you tell us? We want to choose. I don’t think it’s your job to choose for us. As leader you should.’

‘I tell you what,’ said Grant, sounding angry. ‘I won’t be the leader any more, OK? Tess can be the leader. I can see you all like her much more than you like me.’

I put my head out of my tent in time to see Grant walking away. He gave me a quick look. ‘Did you hear that, Tess? Over to you.’ And off he went.