رنگ‌ها و گفتگوها

Chapter five

Colours and conversation

We began our six-hour walk from St-Andre-les-Alpes at about eleven o’clock. Soon we were beginning to climb up a very big hill. Grant was at the front with Ellen, and they looked deep in conversation. The honeymoon couple were behind them, holding hands, and then came Astrid, David and myself.

As I walked I could hear the sound of Ellen laughing, and I thought she was probably already letting Grant know how wonderful he was. Grant’s head would be very big by the end of the holiday.

Though come to think of it, it was already quite big. Women always seemed to be throwing themselves at him. I had no idea why. Appearance wasn’t everything. You only had to spend a few minutes with the man to know that.

I decided to talk to David, and get to know him better.

‘Going uphill is hard work, isn’t it?’ I started, but actually David seemed to be doing OK. Better than me, in fact.

‘I find it more difficult going downhill with my leg,’ he told me.

‘Do you?’ I said. ‘What did you do to your leg, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘I crashed my motorbike when I was twenty,’ he told me.

‘Oh,’ I said, ‘how awful!’

David smiled at me. ‘It was my own fault. I was riding badly,’ he said. ‘And anyway it was a long time ago. I can’t really remember what it’s like not to have a bad leg any more. It certainly doesn’t stop me doing what I want to do.’

‘I can see that,’ I said. David was walking quickly, much more quickly than me.

‘Actually,’ he said, looking back at me, ‘do you mind if I go on ahead? My leg hurts in the afternoons, but it’s fine in the morning.’

‘Of course not,’ I said, feeling stupid. As one of the tour leaders I should be able to climb these hills with no problem. But actually I was feeling a bit tired. Well, it was a very big hill. As I’d told Grant, I’d been here before on holiday.

But it hadn’t been a holiday like this. I’d come with a friend, and we’d driven everywhere in her car.

After about half an hour my legs really hurt and I was very hot. I stopped for a moment to rest, and looked down the hill towards St-Andre-les-Alpes. The town looked very small, and the light was beautiful. There was sunshine on the buildings, and the roofs were an orange-red colour. The hills around the town were dark though, and I saw that the sky was full of large, black clouds.

‘Tess!’ A voice shouted to me from further up the hill.

I looked up to see Grant - and the rest of the group - looking down at me.

‘What are you doing?’ Grant’s voice was angry.

‘Er. just looking at the colours,’ I shouted back, and began to walk again.

When I reached the group, Grant’s face looked like one of the black clouds I’d just seen in the sky. ‘When she’s not a tour leader, Tess is an artist,’ Grant told everyone. He thought people would laugh, but they didn’t.

‘Really?’ said Ellen and David together. Even the honeymoon couple - James and Sarah - looked interested.

‘We’re looking for some pictures for our new home,’ they told me. ‘A picture of this area would be really good.’

‘Well,’ I said, pleased, ‘if I have time, I’ll do one for you.’

Grant’s face looked even more like a black cloud than ever. ‘Can we continue walking, please?’ he said, ‘if you’ve seen enough colours for now, Tess.’

Sarah laughed behind her hand, and I smiled at her. ‘I’ll talk to you and James about it this evening, Sarah,’ I told her.

We began walking again. Ten minutes later it began to rain. Very heavily. Within seconds, those people in the group who hadn’t brought their raincoats with them - which was Sarah and James, Astrid and of course me - were wet through.

I caught up with Astrid. ‘We’ll soon dry out when the sun comes out again,’ I told her with a smile. ‘It gets so hot in the south of France.’

‘I don’t like the heat,’ Astrid said unhappily.

‘Oh,’ I said. So why had she decided to come on holiday to a hot part of the world when she didn’t like the heat? Astrid’s hair was very blonde. Her skin was very fair too. I hoped she had a sun hat with her. ‘Well, we’ll be walking through the forest very soon,’ I said.

The rain stopped when we reached the forest. Unfortunately, the trees shut out the sunshine, so those of us with wet clothes walked along very uncomfortably. Even my walking shoes had rain in them. I could feel the water between my toes every time I put my foot down. It was horrible.

Ahead of me, Sarah and James were laughing together. They didn’t seem to mind about being wet, and it was easy to think of them in thirty years’ time telling their grandchildren about it.

‘When we went on our honeymoon, it rained and rained and rained.’ I thought about trying to talk to them about the painting they wanted. Then they looked at each other and kissed - again - and I decided to leave it for a while.

So I turned to Astrid. ‘They look very happy, don’t they?’ I said with a smile, but Astrid didn’t smile back.

‘Yes, they do,’ she said in her sad voice. ‘Though I cannot understand why they are on this holiday. I would want to be alone if I was just married.’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I think I would too.’ I smiled at her again. ‘What made you choose this holiday, Astrid?’ I asked. ‘Do you like walking?’

‘Yes,’ she said, her voice sounding tired. ‘I do like walking, but I did not.’

I didn’t understand. ‘Sorry?’ I said. ‘You did not what?’

‘I did not choose this holiday,’ she explained. ‘My boyfriend chose it.’

‘Oh, I see,’ I said, interested. ‘And why couldn’t he come with you?’

‘Well,’ Astrid said, her voice sounding strange. ‘He decided to go to Australia. With . with his new girlfriend.’

When I saw that Astrid was crying, I wished I hadn’t asked her about the holiday. I’d only wanted to make conversation, but now I seemed to have made things worse. ‘I’m sorry, Astrid,’ I said, and she looked at me.

‘So am I!’ she said. ‘Australia. Australia is a country I dreamed of going to with my boyfriend Christian. But he wanted to come here.

And I wanted only to be with him. So I said yes. And then one week ago he told me it was all over between us. He had met a new woman and he did not love me anymore. It is not fair.’

Ahead of us, Sarah and James were still laughing, their arms around each other as they walked. Astrid stopped walking and put her hands to her face. She was crying really loudly now, and everyone, including Grant, turned round to see what was wrong.

‘Oh, very good work, Tess,’ I told myself angrily, putting my hand on Astrid’s shoulder. ‘Very good work indeed!’