Chapter 19

Friday 7th August

Jim, ever punctual, arrived at eleven fifty, beaming as he saw Lauren through the doors of the bus in her pale yellow dress and white shoes. Even before the hissing of the hydraulics had stopped, he had his arms around her and was hugging her such that her feet hardly touched the pavement.

“Oh, I’m so pleased to see you!” he exclaimed

“Me too! Are you sure you don’t mind meeting my Mum?”

“Of course not. Anyway, I want to be able to imagine where you are when we talk on the phone”. He wore jeans and a buttoned blue shirt, obviously ironed that morning, and looked even more handsome than she remembered from the last time.

They walked hand in hand from the bus stop towards her house while Lauren pointed out the few places of interest on the way. As they approached her house, a car passed them and pulled up outside their new neighbours. Two people got out. The first was a pretty oriental woman wearing jeans and a T-Shirt, the second a man who was about thirty years old, in Lauren’s estimation. They both walked up the path to the front door, and after a short wait, disappeared inside.

“I thought after lunch we could go for a walk up the mountains” suggested Lauren.

“Yeah, why not. I’ve only seen these mountains from my side, not from round here.”

They entered the kitchen to find her mother checking lunch for the one hundredth time that day.

“Hi, you must be Jim!”

“Yes, pleased to meet you. That smells great!”

“Are you hungry?”

“He’s always hungry!” said Lauren, watching her mother intently for any sign of displeasure.

“Good, well it’ll be ready in about ten minutes. It’s only ham, potatoes with onions and vegetables.”

Lauren and Jim sat at the kitchen table, Lauren giggling as her mother turned her back.

“Where do you go to school, Jim?” asked her mother.

“In Thun. There’s a boys school there. I’ve been there since I was about fourteen”

“That’s nice. Do you enjoy it?”

“It’s fine. Before that, we were in India where my father had to work.”

“Really? What does he do?” asked Lauren

“He’s a banker. They opened an office in New Delhi and he headed one of their departments.”

Lauren watched her mother, now sure that Jim had gained her approval. His stories about Delhi, the poverty, the history of the city as it had moved around over the years and the rebuilding of the ancient buildings gave a sense of a worldly-wise young man who understood more than many of his age. Lauren found herself on the periphery of the conversation, unable to contribute, or compete, against the tide. But she had the sense to allow them to continue, knowing that the more they talked, the more her mother would be likely to give a favourable report to her father. Increased freedom would be the result.

They enjoyed their lunch in the informal setting of the breakfast table, her mother even allowing Lauren to have a glass of wine with her lunch. They helped clear the dishes only to be shooed away into the lounge as Jim offered to do the drying up. Lauren sat in the armchair, as Jim sat near her but on the sofa, the regulation 1 meter distance between them. Over coffee, the conversation again turned to travel, the tourists in Switzerland and the benefit that they brought to the economy.

“Let’s go for a walk” said Lauren during a pause in the conversation.

“OK, where to?”

“Why don’t you go for a walk and have tea up in the mountains?” suggested her mother, again.

“Come on, let’s just go!” said Lauren.

They left, walking separately out onto the road, but Lauren’s mother was pleased to see through upstairs window that they held hands once they thought they were out of sight of the house. They passed the neighbours house slowly, Lauren anxious that as many people should see as possible. Within minutes, however, they had reached the track and started the long, slow climb up through the trees. Still holding hands, Jim pulled Lauren over rocks, steadied her when she wobbled, and generally looked after her - even though she had negotiated worse terrain in the dark with Nikki, a secret even her brother didn’t know and counter to all the teaching she had ever received in school about mountain safety.

They walked for almost fifteen minutes while the pine trees thinned to give way to the tough, weather-beaten grass of the mountainside. Jim sat down on the thick grass in a clearing, staring down into the valley below while Lauren looked for a soft spot and sat down to his right.

“Look, there’s your station” she said, pointing to the town.

“Oh yes. What a great day!” He paused, looking at Lauren, and took her hand in his. “I like your Mum, she seems really nice. You’re lucky”

“She’s OK most of the time. Worries a lot.”

“Yeah, so does mine.” he said, leaning back on his elbows.

“Why does she worry about you? Do you do naughty things, young man?”

“Sometimes, when it feels right”

Lauren leaned over him, pushing him to the ground slowly as she closed her eyes and kissed his lips. Her head rested on his arm as he pulled her to him, his left hand pushing the hair from her face and following it down her back. They kissed for several minutes, exploring mouths with their tongues, registering new emotions inside themselves as their embrace grew more passionate. Jim bent his leg, allowing Lauren to push her own between his, immediately feeling the hardness of his cock on her thigh. She knew there was no chance of making love to him there on the mountain and even less back at her house. There was a possibility of playing with him and making him come, but that would be messy and might make tea in a restaurant difficult. As she felt herself growing wet, she wondered if it would be possible in a cable car, but she concluded that the majority of the cars were attended in the summer, the drag lifts not working until the ski season started in late November.

Deciding that they were out of luck until they could find some privacy, she lay against his chest for a minute, listening to the rapid thump of his heart, wondering if hers was beating in time.

“Let’s walk down the cable car station, it’s easy from here. Then we can get up to the base station and take another to the restaurant.”

Jim seemed to understand her need to move on and watched her smooth the fabric of her yellow dress down against her bare legs. He brushed off the grass that had stuck to his jeans, and walked just behind her as they headed towards the kiosk, the short queue of people already visible in the distance. Lauren was in a playful mood, jumping over the little rocks on her way down to the cable car. With gay abandon, she turned to smile at Jim but caught her right foot in a hole no doubt made by a passing cow. With the grace of that same cow, she fell hard onto her shoulder, bracing her fall with her hands and narrowly missing a rock.

“Ow, shit!” she exclaimed, bouncing on the grass.

“Are you OK?”

“Great, oh, and I’ve cut my damn finger.” She held it up to him for sympathy, and then saw the trickle of blood as it reached the palm of her hand. Her eyes glazed over slightly as she supported herself with her left hand, her breathing increasing in rate as the colour drained from her face. “Oh no” she said quietly.

Jim sat down beside her and pulled out a handkerchief, wrapped it round her finger and held her against him.

“I need to lie down, I’m sorry” she said, not waiting for him to help her. She stared up at the sky as she floated, the world spinning slowly as she tasted nothingness in her mouth. He squeezed her left hand, reassuring her that he was still there. Ten minutes passed before she felt it was safe to sit up, and another five until she felt that she could continue her journey. Jim supported her like an old woman, gently nursing her down the slope, guiding her over the grass lest she might fall again with the strain of the walk. As they tottered round the corner and joined the queue, she was delighted to see that not only did the kiosk sell drinks and film, it also sold plasters, a choice of three sizes being available, hanging up on the wall between the cigarettes and Swiss Army knives.

They took their seats in the cable car, the attendant slamming the door and banging the pin through the safety lock. He thrust the car forward until it caught on the overhead cable, lurching backwards and forwards until it passed over the first pylon, then settled silently as they slowly made their way up. The colour of Lauren’s cheeks had changed from looking like the tops of the mountains to almost her normal tan, giving her confidence that she was unlikely to die and had lost no more than a few pints of blood. She settled down on the seat, gazing out at the world as it slowly passed by, listening to the whirring of the pylon wheels as the cable car passed over.

Lauren pressed him for more information about Delhi and his experiences, learning of his school days and the legacy of the British educational system that was still with the Indian education authorities, hangovers from the days of the Raj, Eton and Harrow. It was clear that he had been bullied, partly because of his poor English, but had survived and achieved some success before returning to Switzerland.

She sat close to him, watching him speak about his past, her hand resting on his leg. She was flattered by the bulge in his jeans and wondered if it had gone away even for the few minutes when they waited their turn for the cable car. She assumed that there was some sort of damp spot in his jeans, just as she knew there was in her knickers, (requiring a secret rinse in the bathroom when she got home, lest her mother might infer anything dirty had happened). Occasionally, she would lean forward to kiss him, causing him to stop mid-sentence and smile. There was little that she could tell him to match his stories or experience, and she realised that she had a shallow pool of observations to exchange for his. A brief shower engulfed the car for almost a minute, sufficient to steam up the windows and make it difficult to see into the distance. As the clouds parted and hugged the mountain, the terminus came into sight. They both stood, waiting for the attendant to open the door and hold the car as they alighted on the ground.