Mara sits beside me, her feet shoved up on my knees. We try to sleep and by the time we get to the trans-Canada highway intersect the chances of slumber is high. By the time the truck turns around the intersection and heads west, my mind is murky. Until we reach the parking lot of Lake Louise ski resort, I have very little to say let alone realize that there is a herd of elk outside of Banff as my family passes by. Truthfully I don’t even think my dad noticed them, and he was driving.
Had I been awake my nerves would have been worn thin with the worry of the day ahead. Last night the idea of having four six year olds in my care had put me on edge but what kept me awake for the majority of the past night was the fact that I was their ski instructor. Don’t get me wrong, I loved kids in that age group excluding the reality that a bulk of those kids have been spoiled and/or are extremely impatient. The Nancy Greene program caters to all children ages 6-10, and I had no idea if I was being dragged into a ploy that will have me buying over priced hot chocolate every hour for six year olds of catastrophe.
Going through the haze of being half asleep I suddenly realized that I was sitting in the ski lodge adjacent to my boss filling out paper work on my new employment. Ellen, my employer and friend of my father, should not be taken lightly. That I knew from the moment I met her.
Let’s get this straight. When I was in Nancy Greene it was a babysitting program that would group you with kids the same age as you, regardless of ski levels, and let you roam the mountain in a storm of disaster and body parts. Under Ellen’s eyes the program was becoming disciplined and focuses on improving a young skier with drills, race training and lots of practice. In the long and the short of it, she was a dragon and I was an uneducated, unequipped, tired, peasant with only a stick in hand to defend myself.
Paper work done and ski boots strapped to my feet, I stepped outside with Ellen and the other ski coaches (all of which were older then I) to await the arrival of red-vested children. As I pulled my skis off the rack Ellen walks up to my side and over shadows my 5,10 height with her 5,4 stocky body.
“You’ll have three of your four children today. Gracie is at a birthday party so you’ll have Duncan, Sophie and Louisa.” Ellen points to two puffy creatures with their heads taking up a third of their height. I assume the one in green is Duncan since he is the only boy mentioned on Dragon Lady’s verbal list, which is unless Sophie’s parents have a bad sense of humor.
I approached the two creatures awkwardly, sleep ebbing away at my wits, but when the parenting units that birthed one of the two offspring smiled I took his hand happily.
As I stood there in the raising heat that I stupidly admit I was over dressed for, I learned that the man’s name was Peter and he was Duncan’s male parenting unit. Further more, Sophie was the girl in pink next to him which as it turns out is Duncan’s life long friend of six years. I know what you are thinking; their moms gave birth next to each other, creepy.
The ebbing need to crimple up and fall asleep suddenly overtook me, but in a few seconds I over through the coup welling up inside me. In that time a twin of Sophie’s had appeared from God knows where. She was wearing the same snow suit as Sophie and I had the sudden image in my head of Sophie’s mother giving birth to twins beside Duncan’s mother. The girl introduced herself as Louisa and the missing member of my crusade to make it through today alive.
I had no clued what to do, so I looked around a saw the other coaches warming up. The thought of extreme movements so early in the morning made me more tired so I settled with basic stretches rather then running and jumping in heavy ski boots. Reluctantly they stood up and followed the same movements I was doing. Several quiet minutes passed. Looking around I noted that a few of the groups were in the lift line, getting ready to go up the hill.
“Alright, get your skis on and follow me.” I yawned.
In the lift line this early in the morning there are very few people, but I still have to ask the lifties to slow down the chair so that my minors can get on safely. Sophie cannot get on herself and as a result I have to bend in two to pull her on.
Chair lifts can be really quiet, conversation wise so I had to start a conversation in order not to fall asleep. I asked how many times they’ve skied, where they have skied, their school life and if they can do tree runs.
Sophie, oblivious little Sophie, exclaims to Louisa “Your wearing the same ski jacket as me!” If I hadn’t been so tired or scared of these kids I would have laughed.
Getting off the chair was easy, I told the munchkins to go to the big sign and out of the way of everyone else. Getting them to go down the easiest run possible took some time. Although Duncan could parallel ski, Sophie and Louisa could not. Making my way down Wiwaxy (said easy run) I made a huge mistake. I yawned a great yawn, you know, the ones that leave you more tired then you really are. Yawning tears gathered in my eyes, and I had to stop in order to remove my goggles and mitts.
I guess I stopped to abruptly because Duncan stopped with me or at least on me. While Duncan might be small, light and wearing a puffy jacket; his helmet was not. My lower back hurt when I turned around to ask if he was okay. That kid is a tank! By the time I had pivoted around to help him up, he was already standing up and yelling at Sophie about how slow she was.
The sun rises in the ski and before I knew it, it was lunch. By returning the munchkins to their parental units I get a full hour to eat. I went upstairs to the quiet of the lounge and found a snug little chair. There I ate my lunch in 5 minutes flat leaving 55 minutes to sleep. I set the alarm on my phone so that I wouldn’t over sleep, I didn’t need to be on Ellen’s bad side. Just then the other coaches walked in a disrupted my silence with conversations as to what they did this morning and what they will do this afternoon.
Turns out I was pulled into said conversation thus I lost my precious minutes of sleep. Secretly at this time I loathed the other coaches because not only did they keep me from sleeping but also they dangled valuable information as to how to deal with the munchkins of mine to lure me from my slumber. Then lunch was over so I pulled on my jacket and I walked outside into the afternoon sun.
Getting back on the chair would have been easy but bending in two with a sore back isn’t that much fun. To save my back the trouble I decided the gondola would be nicer, and the backside was easy to get to from the top destination of the gondola. Sleep still ebbed at my mind but I was ignoring it so that I could make it through the afternoon.
Going down the backside was extremely easy. Since the munchkins were beginner skiers nothing we skied required a lot of energy on my part, therefore the afternoon was actually nice. Sophie forgot to pee after lunch; hence I gathered my kids and we headed down to the backside lodge. Upon arriving we all pulled off our skis and sat in a snow bank to rest and snack, while Sophie took her time in the bathroom.  I laid back and let the cold snow numb the pain in my back and cool my body.
The sun beated down on my face and utter silence erupted. It was so nice that my tired body didn’t care that it was lying unprotected to the elements. The ebbing sleep washed over me and I finally fell asleep.
It was so… nice.
Until snow covered my face. Wrenching out of my lovely sleep I sat up to see my entire body was one with the snow bank. Sophie was giggling, Duncan was tying to make a snow ball to throw at her, and Louisa was smiling while informing me that it was her idea to make a snow man out of the sleeping ski instructor.
I guess takes a snow covered body to make me realized that this ski season will be fun and that I shouldn’t worry to much about how to handle three kids who can barley handle themselves. Laughing I pulled them to their feet while brushing my self off. We continued the day slowly but by the time I was back in the truck I was able to finally fall asleep without a worry in the world.