Page 36 of Light Up
“Sorry,” Claire said. “Are you going to do the sculpture competition?”
“Yes.”
“The boot room is down the corridor, second door on the left. I’m so glad the two of you are joining in all the activities.”
All? Bloody Corey.
“Well, all but the Bingo and line dancing.” She beamed at him.
“Sign us up for those as well.”
As he walked away, he wondered what had come over him. Why was he even wondering? He knew the answer. Corey.
Nine
When they stepped outside in the warm gear provided by the hotel, which included thick socks, lined waterproof gloves, jackets and wellington boots, they both sighed at the scene in front of them. For a long moment, they just stood and looked.
“This is amazing,” Corey eventually whispered. “You hear the phrasewinter wonderlandbut this really is.”
Tal looked up. The sky was now a brilliant blue. A swift change from the grey of earlier. There didn’t appear to be any wind, so where had all the cloud gone?
“Everything’s sparkling,” Corey said. “It’s as if glittery icing sugar has been sprinkled from the sky.”
Tal took a deep breath. The air was cold, crisp and dry and scorched his lungs.
“Don’t you think it’s beautiful?” Corey said.
“At the moment, but not when it melts and turns to dirty slush.”
Corey turned to look at him. “Dude! Live inthismoment, not one that might never come. Torrential rain might melt everything in one fell swoop. And don’t tell me there’d be massive floods.”
Tal didn’t say it. He just thought it. At least the hotel was at the top of a hill.
A path had been cut to where they’d be working, a smooth machine-made trench, which revealed the true depth of the snow. At least a metre.
“I’ve never seen snow as deep as this,” Corey murmured. “How about you, ancient one?”
“Not in the UK. The deepest snowfall ever recorded here was1.65 meters in North Wales during the winter of 1946-47.Some drifts reached six meters. That year snow fellsomewhere in the UK every day between January 22nd and March 17th.”
Corey shot him a glance. “Is weather one of your things?”
Tal nodded.
“I like it too. I love clouds.”
“I do as well.”
Corey grinned at him. “Arbus, pannus, noctilucent, castellanus, undulatus… The names are so…sexy, don’t you think?”
Tal hadn’t thought of them as sexy, but he was thrilled that Corey knew about them.
Corey sighed. “I’d like to go all over the world cloud spotting.”
Me too.Oh fuck, his heart… Dorian had called him a dork when he’d commented on the clouds.
There was already a snowman under construction in one section of the marked-off area. A couple who looked to be in their seventies were working on it. Corey shouted a greeting which they returned.
“Is it the right sort of snow or the wrong sort?” Corey called.
