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My life changed that wonderful year—the year that I stopped being Anthony and started my life as Ann.

Cross-Country: Skiing, by Karin Bishop

Part 4

Chapter 9: Back At The Cabin

We hailed a cab from Harrah’s, and talked about the day, the club, the guys. I found that I liked Shelly immensely, and was getting depressed thinking that we’d only have a little time together before returning home. I knew she lived in Sacramento, so it wasn’t like she was on the dark side of the moon—or Elko—but those 80 or so miles between us would seriously cut down on hanging out.

We got back to my cabin and I brought Shelly in; she told the cab to wait and followed me. I discovered she actually was shy in this kind of setting. It certainly wasn’t the razzle-dazzle that she was used to, I guess; Kevin was sprawled in front of a portable TV playing Playstation with headphones. My mom and Donna were sitting on the couch watching TV, but my mom was dozing; she was on the side by a crackling fire. Donna smiled when she saw us.

“Hey, Annie, who’s your friend?”

“Donna, I’d like you to meet Shelly Davenport; Shelly, this is Donna Maxwell. She’s like my second mom.”

Shelly was courteous; she said hello and mentioned having met Jeff.

Donna obviously had been expecting Jeff right behind us. “Isn’t he with you?”

“No, he stayed behind at a teen club when we went to Shelly’s hotel. I actually thought he’d be home by now; he said he was leaving right after us.”

Donna said, “Humph ... probably out tom-catting. Or trying to. So what have you girls been up to?”

I looked at Shelly; she was too shy to speak and looked at me. I said, “Shelly and I hung out with her parents for awhile at Harrah’s, then went dancing at that club for a little bit, but we wanted to leave before it got too late.”

I saw Shelly’s mouth twitch at my line about the parents, since we’d spent maybe thirty seconds together, but it grounded the story.

Donna’s eyes twinkled. “Dancing, huh? Ah, that sounds wonderful ...” Then she shook herself from her reverie. “In your jeans and boots?”

I laughed. “No, Shelly loaned me some things. That’s why we left when we did; I had to go back to her hotel and change into my own things.”

Donna nudged me playfully. “She loaned you some things? Cool dance things?” She indicated to Shelly, who was still wearing the tight white hip huggers and sparkly top under her half-zipped parka.

I blushed. “Yeah, some ‘things’, you know …”

“Dress, skirt, what?” Seeing the look on my face, she pretended to beg. “Come on, I really want to know. I’ve been cooped up here all night with Kevin zapping aliens, lousy TV reception, and your mom snoring away. I could use some excitement, even vicariously.”

“Who’s snoring away?” Mom said, joking. I didn’t know if she’d been asleep or how much she’d heard.

Donna turned to her. “You were snoring away, right after that Frasier rerun. Meanwhile, Ann’s been making friends and going dancing.”

My mom looked at me with a concerned expression. “Are you ... did you have a good time?”

I relaxed. “Yeah, Mom, a great time. This is Shelly Davenport; Shelly, this is my Mom, Elizabeth Mason.” I waved hands between them. “Mom, Shelly’s great and we had a really good time. But, Shell, you’ve got to get back.” I’d noticed it was nearly 1:30 by the clock on the far wall.

She seemed reluctant, but nodded. “Oh, yeah, um ... sure, Ann. Well, nice meeting everybody.”

They all said their goodbyes and I walked with her back to the cab. She was definitely reluctant to leave.

“What is it, Shelly?”

She stared at the snow, standing in the open cab door with the heat and the driver’s radio flowing out. “It’s just ...I had a really good time, too, Ann. I never even asked all night—are you skiing tomorrow?”

“Sure. Want to meet somewhere?”

She perked up.“Yeah, that’d be cool! Only it’ll have to be in the morning; in the afternoon we have to do something—I mean, my folks and I have to do something.” She looked at our cabin.

I looked back at the cabin; I didn’t know what she was seeing. I turned back to her. Something bothered her.

“Are you okay, Shell?” I leaned toward her and touched her upper arm.

She looked like she was going to cry. “Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just ... you all seem so normal and everything ...”

“Normal!? Whatever gave you that idea? My father walked out, Donna’s divorced with two oddball sons, stalker jock Jeff and space cadet Kevin. What makes us normal?” I said with a laugh, but inside my head a voice was crying, Oh, if you only knew how un-normal I was!

“I mean, you guys do things together, like come up here every year ... and seeing your mom and Donna on the couch like friends—” She really was close to tears.

“But your folks were sitting on the couch at the hotel, what’s the difference?”

Now the tears came. “My parents are divorced, too; they only met here because they’ve got to sign some papers. They fought like cats and dogs before the divorce; now I wish they’d say something, anything, but they sit like zombies. It was only a coincidence that they were both there when we got there; Dad’s got his own room with his own girl in it.” Her mouth tightened as if she’d tasted something sour.

I stared for a moment, trying to grasp that. “Yeah, but, Shelly,” I squeezed her arm gently. “At least you have a dad.” I gulped, thinking briefly about my father and wondering what he’d think about me becoming Ann.

“I suppose ... Look, Ann, I lied earlier. I hate living with my Mom; she treats me like I’m an accessory. Or like I was something she bought from a catalog and doesn’t like, but she can’t send me back so she’s stuck with me. All she really cares about is how many times she gets written up in the society columns.”

“Wow ... gee, Shelly, I’m sorry. But your dad ...”

“Well, he’s never been around much—working, I guess—so he doesn’t feel much like a dad to me, so I don’t mind hitting his Amex card. I talked about Dad’s business meetings and Mom and I having to be there. They’re not for Dad’s boss; he’s his own boss. We’re just shareholders, and I think Mom wants to take him down in a proxy fight for control of the company. Not that she’d know what to do with it—but she’d know how to spend it all away,” she said bitterly.

She stared in the distance for awhile; I thought it best to not say anything and just let her think. When she started talking, she said quietly, “But I’m not really being fair to him. And Dad’s really okay, I guess; at least I think he really loves me, but he’s always so busy. I’m just so mad at both of them right now.”

I didn’t know what to say other than, “That’s okay, Shelly. I don’t care about them; you’re my friend.”

Her face crumbled in tears and I impulsively hugged her. We heard an obviously drunken voice behind us.

“Now isn’t that romantic! Only thing is, when you dance, who leads?”

It was Jeff, of course, who’d somehow gotten bombed. I knew what he was talking about, but Shelly must’ve thought he was saying we were lesbians.

I turned to Jeff and was ready to fire something back at him, but I got a quick idea and said sweetly, “Jeff, your mom’s up—” I looked up and saw her through the window. “In fact, she’s more than up; she’s at the door, and she’s coming out now.”

I’d timed it perfectly; Donna came out, angry and visibly fuming at Jeff’s condition, but holding it in while Shelly was present. I gently nudged Shelly into the cab, although I think she wanted to stay and see the fireworks. Just as the cab door closed behind her, she pushed it open again.

“Annie! Tomorrow, nine sharp, front of the tram,” she whispered.

“You bet. See you, Shell!”

The cab pulled off and the roar of the motor was matched by the roar of Donna. She lit into Jeff; he was resentful and moody and a bad drunk. He wasn’t drunk enough to be throwing up, but he was in the belligerent phase.

Donna turned to me. “Ann, you’d better go inside.”

I nodded and headed up the stairs, only to hear Jeff yell.

“It’s his goddamn fault, the faggot!”

Donna spun around and put her hand on his chest. “You will not use words like that, young man!”

He leaned against the hand. “Which words? ‘Goddamn’ or ‘faggot’?”

She slapped him. It startled me as much as it did him. It was louder than a tree branch cracking. She spoke very low and menacing. “You will not use those words about any individual, is that understood? They are the mark of a bigoted, unintelligent brute. And you will apologize to Ann.”

“Buh—”

I think he was starting to say ‘bullshit’ but thought better of it at the last moment.

“Ma, she’s—he’s ... you don’t understand—he was dancing with another guy! And the other guy didn’t know it. About him, I mean,” he said, pointing to me. “Man, when he found out, he was pissed!”

I was in shock. He told Rick I’d been a male—or rather, he told Rick I was male now? Oh, God, if Rick told anybody ... what if Shelly found out? We’d just gotten to be friends and might become great friends; I didn’t want to lose her so soon. I started to come back down the stairs to where Donna and Jeff stood, still with her hand on his chest.

Donna stopped me by holding her hand up. “I’ll handle this for a moment, Ann. Jeffrey Maxwell, I am deeply, deeply ashamed of you right now.” She spoke quietly and firmly and her words had all the more impact. “I can only hope that your actions tonight are not the real you. I’ve been holding the hope that deep down you are a decent person who occasionally does cruel things. I don’t want to think that you are, truly, a cruel person. But what you did tonight to Ann was cruel, vindictive, mean, and just plain evil.”

Her words had some effect on him; I could see him sag a little as some of the belligerence left him. “But Ma, you didn’t see him—”

“I’m sure he was a nice boy who was dancing with a pretty girl. Until you spewed out your meanness. Now, how do you think he feels? Did you ever stop to think of him, or anybody else besides yourself?”

“No, Mom, not him, not the guy—him,” he pointed at me again. “You didn’t see what he looked like!”

Donna turned and looked at me. “Ann, is there something I should know about? Did you do anything ... anything you should be ashamed to tell me?”

Great, now I was on the hot seat. “No, Donna. Shelly and I went to the club because it’s for minors. Some of the girls at her hotel had told her about the place.”

“You said something about changing. What were you wearing?”

“Shelly loaned me a skirt and blouse and tights—well, actually, she bought the tights in the hotel and gave them to me. And some sandals to dance in.” Donna had a question on her face, which I took to mean more detail. “Oh, a black skirt, white blouse like a man’s business shirt, white tights?” That seemed to be what she’d wanted. I didn’t want to mention the fact that the skirt was leather—or that I was wearing a Wonderbra. “So after we were changed, we took a cab to the club. Oh; and we had parkas. We went in and two guys asked us to dance.”

“Yeah, see?” Jeff pointed at me again.

Donna looked at me calmly. I couldn’t read her expression. “And ...?”

“And Shelly danced with the guy she met, Roland, while I watched the purses. That’s when Rick came up to chat; Shelly came off the floor and we danced the last half of a fast dance—I mean Rick and I—and he kept me on the dance floor when they started a slow dance, and I asked him if we could sit down. Rick got drinks—just papaya juice things—for Shelly and me, and then I noticed the time and we left.”

“And that was all?”

“I think so. I mean, we went to the rest room to freshen up ... oh, and Jeff showed up and began bragging to Rick.” I probably shouldn’t have said that, but it was the truth.

“I did not!” Jeff bellowed. I think only his mother’s hand restrained him from attacking me, so maybe I felt braver than I should.

“You were bragging about shooting Gunbarrel,” I said, half to him and half to Donna.

“So?”

“So you weren’t anywhere near Gunbarrel today. You spent the whole day following Shelly and me.”

“I did not!”

But I could tell by the look in his eyes that he realized he’d been found out. Donna’s eyes narrowed slightly at him, and I continued, as calmly as I could.

“Yes, you did, Jeff; Shelly’s the one who spotted you. In fact, I’ve got you to thank for my making a new friend.” I turned to Donna. “Shelly came over to me to warn me about some guy stalking me on the slopes; it turned out to be Jeff.”

“Bullshit!” he exploded. The noise brought my mother to the window.

Donna spun on him and merely held up one finger. As long as I’d known the Maxwells, I didn’t know what the code was because I’d never seen it before, but it was effective and he stifled himself immediately. Donna turned back to me with her lips pursed, thinking about something. When she spoke it was rather halting, not at all like her regular rate of speech.

“I ... think ... I know what may be happening. Jeffrey, you will stay out here for a few minutes, until I tell you to come in. Breathe deeply; it’ll help get rid of the alcohol fumes and the cold will help sober you up. Ann, come with me. I’m going to tell your mother there’s nothing to worry about, and you can get to bed. Then, I’ll deal with my son.”

Jeff stood there, leaning slightly like a punch-drunk fighter, his cheek still red from his mother’s slap, as Donna and I went indoors. My mom started to ask what was going on but Donna just motioned her to come with us into my bedroom. Once inside, she closed the door and leaned against it, her hands behind her, looking at the ceiling. I sat on the edge of the bed; Mom stood by the bureau and looked at me with a question. I gave her a confused shrug of the shoulders; I really had no idea what Donna was going to say.

Donna took a deep breath and looked at us. “First and foremost, I want to apologize for my son. He’s behaved very, very badly.” She looked at me. “Ann ... I don’t think there was any problem at all what you and Shelly did.”

That was too much for Mom. “Excuse me, Donna, I really need to be brought up to speed here. What has Ann done?”

Donna smiled ruefully. “That’s just it. She hasn’t done anything that wasn’t perfectly natural and harmless for a teenaged girl and her friend. They got dressed up—and from what I understand it wasn’t too provocative—” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow; I shook my head ‘no’ as I shrugged a ‘no’. She nodded. “It was just normal clothes for dancing. I saw Shelly’s slacks and top and they were perfectly acceptable. Ann had jeans and boots so Shelly loaned her a skirt because of the club’s dress code. So two pretty girls walked in and guess what? Two guys asked them to dance. Then my son appeared and things went downhill.”

I don’t know why, but I felt obliged to speak up on Jeff’s behalf. “Well, not really downhill. I mean, Jeff wasn’t drunk or anything. Then, I mean. He just walked up to our table but the guy Shelly danced with had left and Jeff sat down after I introduced him, but there was no weirdness or anything. At first.”

Donna chuckled sadly. “That’s where you’re wrong, Ann. You don’t understand. My son’s obsessed with you.”

“Well, maybe he wants to knock my block off—”

“No, you don’t get it. And I can …I can sort of see why you don’t. This is all new territory for you. Ann …dear Annie …” She smiled sadly and shook her head. “Jeff’s got a crush on you and it’s driving him crazy. A huge crush.” I just stared at her in shock as she went on. “I noticed it at the Christmas dinner. What he knows and what he sees are two different things and it’s making him crazy. That’s why he acted this way tonight.”

My mom said, “You’ve got to be kidding. He’s known Ann all of her life.”

Donna chuckled again, with sadness in it. “No, that’s just it. He knew Tony all of his life, but he just met Ann a couple of days ago, and he sees a really attractive girl.”

I blushed and started to mutter something.

“No, be honest, you know it, Ann, you’re really very pretty. That was part of Tony’s problem all along, remember? You’ve always been a pretty girl trapped inside that scrawny boy.” She said this affectionately, and I loved her all the more for her understanding. She turned to my mom. “Jeff sees the pretty girl, and the close proximity in the car and in the cabin is driving him crazy. But what’s really pushing him over the edge is knowing that underneath the pretty girl, was Tony that he knew all those years. He’s probably even questioning his own sexuality right now, wondering if it makes him gay to feel attraction to Ann ...”

She’d run out of steam; we all thought to ourselves. I know I was reeling; Shelly was right, he was stalking me today! And not really understanding my transition—and caught in his own rigid macho mindset—he was eating himself up with jealousy and hatred and self-loathing. Poor guy! I mean, he is a complete jerk, but still …the poor guy. No wonder he found a way to get drunk! I realized that Donna knew all that, too; she wanted to fill us in, get us squared away before she tackled him.

I looked up at her. “Is there anything I can do? To help him, you know? I mean, poor guy, I just thought he hated me ...”

My mom gave me a loving look; Donna nodded gratefully.

“Thank you, Ann, that’s sweet of you, but no, I’ll have to talk with him now and maybe we all will talk later, but I’ve got my work cut out for me. You two head off to bed; I’ll probably be up all night. But I’ve got to get Kevin—”

“I already put Kevin to bed, just before Jeff got here,” Mom said.

“Thank you! Juggling both of them is probably beyond me tonight; Jeff’s going to be more than enough. Look, this may affect the way we’ve always done things; we might have deluded ourselves that this trip would be like all of our others, and of course, it’s not. I don’t know what will happen.”

My mom spoke up. “I think the main thing is to help Jeff. We’ll do anything we can, Donna; you know that. If we have to move out and go home separately, we can do that.”

Donna’s natural hostess nature came to the front. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. It won’t come to that. We’ll finish our stay and return as normal.” She started to the door and turned back. “At least, as normal as we’ll ever be again,” she added softly.

I looked at Mom. “Mom, I ... I didn’t know ...”

She smiled and sat next to me. “I know you didn’t, honey. Sometimes a girl is the last to find out a boy’s got a crush on her; sometimes it all works out ...” She turned and looked directly at me. “You don’t have any feeling for Jeff, do you? I mean, beyond knowing him all these years?”

“Not at all, Mom. I mean, you know, I’ve said it before; he’s usually a …well, a macho jerk—I’m sorry to say, but that’s what the kids at his school tell me. I wouldn’t have spent any time with him at all except for these family trips and holidays and things.”

“I know, honey; but I had to ask. Well, let’s follow Donna’s advice and go to bed. I understand you’ll want to meet your new friend early tomorrow.”

“Yeah, Mom. Shelly’s so cool! We just hit it off right away. The only drag is, she lives in Sacramento and I don’t know when we can get together.”

“Well, Sacramento’s not that far away.” She started out the door and turned back as I was pulling my sweater off. “You danced, huh?”

I blushed. “Yeah,” I said in a small voice, studying the embroidery on my sweater.

“And?”

“And what?”

“Did you like it?”

“Yes, I did. I never really got into dancing before, but this was ...”

“Different,” she said.

I nodded. “Different. Definitely different.” We both laughed.

“Did you slow dance?”

“I ...I headed back to the table when I heard the music slow down, but he pulled me back on the dance floor ...”

“And?”

I laughed, partly out of nervousness. “Is that your new word, ‘and’?”

She chuckled. “It will be until I hear the whole juicy story.” She came back and sat down on the edge of the bed next to me. I didn’t say anything for a while, thinking about the night. She reached up and twirled a strand of hair over my ear. “I like your hair like this.”

I’d forgotten that I still had the braid that Shelly had done. “Oh, Shelly did it for me.” I paused. “Mom, I don’t know how to say this—I mean, I haven’t really had the time to put my feelings into words, or even know exactly what I feel.”

“That’s alright, honey; why not just say whatever comes?”

“When Shelly and I got to the club, and even later, I never thought about looking for guys. I mean, I know that’s what Shelly was thinking about, but I just was having a good time hanging with her, you know?”

Mom nodded. “Kind of like me and Donna.”

I’d never thought of that; but of course they’d hung out together when they were younger. “Yeah, I guess; but it’s kind of weird to think of you two as teenagers.”

Mom chuckled. “I know; sometimes it’s hard to remember that we ever were teenagers.” She paused, then said, “But we were teenaged girls at one time, and I remember what it felt like and what she meant to me.”

I hadn’t really thought that she might be helping me with her own memories as a girl; I’d always thought she was coming from a ‘Mom’ agenda. Now we were getting into some serious girl-to-girl talking, and I felt so much closer to her.

“Mom, I just want to be a normal, regular, every-day kind of girl. But I didn’t really put it all together—what being a girl meant. I mean, guys. I mean—I’m getting this all mixed up!” I looked at the ceiling in frustration.

“I think I know what you mean. This was the first time you were truly faced with boys seeing a pretty girl. And being a pretty girl being hit on by guys.”

“Yes, although I don’t know about the pretty part—” I saw her stern face and stopped. “What?”

“Ann Mason, I don’t know how much of this is false modesty or just plain innocence, but you are a very pretty girl. That’s not just a loving mother talking; even if you didn’t look in a mirror, surely you’ve had enough empirical evidence now to convince yourself of that? So when you say ‘I don’t know about being pretty,’ if it’s innocence, consider yourself updated. If it’s false modesty, knock it off. You’re very, very pretty and the boys will flock to you; as delightful as it can be, it can also cause problems and tonight was just your first experience with it. There are …” She softened. “There are so many difficulties in relating between boys and girls, but very pretty girls can have a tougher time of it than their …less beautiful girlfriends. Boys and men …well, a truly pretty girl just does something to them, short-circuits their tiny brains. The inner caveman surfaces and problems follow. You’ve experienced your first taste of it; unfortunately, since you are so pretty there will be others and you’ll have to learn how to deal with it.”

I was so gratified to hear my mom call me pretty; just being allowed to live as a girl had been a dream of mine for so many years that I thought it would never come to pass. Plus, the realization—that not only was I now a full-time girl, but I was also pretty—was hard to say with conviction because I couldn’t quite comprehend the whole thing. I secretly thought my chin was too big and still made me look like a boy—when I looked in mirrors that’s where I still saw Tony peeking out—but it was true; everything else looked normally feminine, which was amazing. But at this point, the best thing to do was agree with her. I leaned over and gave her a big hug.

“Thank you, Mom. It’s all so new to me ... Anyway, when Rick pulled me back and slow danced with me ... I didn’t know how I should feel.”

“Forget for a moment how you ‘should’ feel. How did you feel?”

I blushed and grinned and laughed all at the same time. “Great! I felt great! It just felt ... so right. Oh, Mom, I don’t care about this Rick guy at all, but the way it felt to be a girl dancing in the arms of a cute guy—” I couldn’t go on; I didn’t know how to go on, and shut down in embarrassment.

“I think my little girl’s just taken her first step towards womanhood,” Mom said, lovingly. Then, pragmatically, she said, “Or second step or step and a half or something. But dancing in the arms of a cute guy—oh, my darling daughter; I know what you mean; I even dimly remember how you feel!”

We hugged and giggled and cried a little. Then she wiped my tears away, stood, handed me my nightgown from the hook by the door, smiled again and left. I rolled my tights off and couldn’t help but think that they really did make my legs look great. I hung them over a chair; now I was in my panties and the Wonderbra. I looked in the mirror at my small new breasts made more impressive by the bra, and all I could think was, “Wow, what a day!”

Chapter 10: Skiing With Shelly

I didn’t know what happened with Donna and Jeff; I only knew that things were quiet the next day. We all got up early to hit the slopes, and padded sleepily to breakfast without saying much. I didn’t wear my nightgown and robe to breakfast—although the boys were still in pajamas—because I didn’t want to stir things up again, so I’d already dressed. I was wearing my jeans with powder pants unzipped, a dark green turtleneck and the raspberry sweater. As much as I wanted to wear the Wonderbra, I knew a sports bra was more practical.

Other than the brief ‘pass the butter’ kinds of things, we really didn’t talk at all. I know we were all tired, but I didn’t know how things stood with Jeff and me and I wasn’t going to volunteer anything until I knew what was going on. We piled into the car; Donna and my mom acted like it was any regular morning. As we drove to the mountain, Donna asked us where we were going to ski. Jeff said ‘Gunbarrel’ and looked at me, almost challenging me. Kevin wanted to spend the day at the moguls on another run; I said I was meeting Shelly and didn’t know. We all agreed to meet The Moms at the lodge halfway up the mountain at eleven, to try to get a jump on the lunch crowds.

It was ten to nine; I stood around the base of the tram, looking for Shelly. Finally I saw her; she was in a full-length yellow powder suit with a yellow parka. Yellow gloves and goggles, too. She was showing her money today, whereas yesterday she’d looked like any other girl in a mixture of clothing.

“Hi, Ann!” she called out, half running and using her skis and poles like walking sticks.

“Hey, Shelly. Wow—you look great!” I said, truthfully.

“Enh,” she made a funny sound. “I was going to wear the same stuff as yesterday, but my mom wanted me to wear this thing; she said since Dad paid for it, the least I could do is wear it. I feel like a damn daisy.”

“Don’t look it. It really does look like ... like ...”

“Like money, right?”

I nodded, amazed again at how we seemed to be on the same wavelength. We began walking toward the tram entrance.

She grumbled, “Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of; I might as well staple thousand dollar bills on me. Would you have been your real self around me yesterday if you knew we had bucks?”

“I would hope I’d be the same to anybody, but ... yeah, I think you’re right. I’d have been weird about it.”

“See? That’s what I thought, too. Oh, well. Oh, how did last night go?”

I grinned, took a breath and began. “Donna and Jeff and I talked outside the cabin, then she came in with me—she actually told him to stay outside in the snow until he sobered up!—and then they talked some more.”

“And?”

“God, that’s what my mother kept doing—saying ‘and?’”

“Okay, I apologize, but you can sure take your own sweet time getting to the juicy parts!”

“How do you know there are juicy parts? Well, anyway, Donna came in and told my mother and me—”

“That Jeff is crushing on you!”

“Well, since you knew that already, why did you need to have me tell it?”

She grinned wickedly. “I just wanted to see if you’d found out yourself!”

I reached down, scooped a handful of snow and she took off, giggling. I tried to throw it at her, but it was loosely packed and just went a few feet. She walked back to me when she saw there was no repeat snow throwing.

We took the tram up and had some great runs. I think we did more laughing than skiing. Just when it was getting better and better, she announced that the next run would be her last. I told her I’d have to meet The Moms at eleven anyway, but she couldn’t stay because of the thing she had to do with her parents.

“Hey, can I meet your mom?” Shelly asked. “I mean, she was kind of sleepy last night, and the whole Jeff thing …”

“If they’re there, ‘cause I know you got to get going. Come on,” I said, and we skied to the lodge and quickly got our skis off. Shelly had a lock so we locked the equipment and went in.

I saw them on my second swing of the room; they’d gotten a window table and were working on some coffee.

“Mom? This is Shelly, my friend from Sacramento that you met briefly last night? Shell, Mom, and you already met Mrs. Maxwell.”

Donna nodded, smiling, as Mom studied Shelly with a smile. “It’s a pleasure, Shelly. And, yes, I was rather sleepy, so it’s nice to meet you awake!” She grinned and smiled at me. “Ann seems to have liked you right from the start.”

“Me, too!” Shelly grinned. “I mean, me liking her.” She frowned slightly and I misread it.

“We can only stay for a moment,” I said quickly. “Shelly’s got to meet her folks at the bottom and I’ll come back up on the tram.”

Shelly smiled weakly and nodded and faced Donna. “Mrs. Maxwell, I’m sorry your son got …got loaded. He, um, seems like a nice guy.”

“Thank you, Shelly. And for what it’s worth, maybe he’s not such a nice guy. But it was sweet of you to say that.”

Mom and I glanced at each other, thinking about how it must pain Donna to say that about her own son.

Shelly said, “Well, he’s just crushing on Annie, and why not?” She turned to me with a wicked grin. “She’s a babe!”

“Come on, Shell,” I said, blushing.

“Yes, she is,” Donna said, as Mom nodded, smiling proudly.

“You guys!” I said to the three of them. “Look, we gotta go …”

Shelly nodded and turned to Mom. “I hope that somehow Ann and I can get together—I mean, when we’re back home and everything …”

“I don’t see why not,” Mom smiled. “You two seem like wonderful friends already.”

Shelly turned back to me with a warm, embarrassed smile. “Yeah …”

“Yeah,” I grinned at her. “Gotta go, though! See ya!” I turned and Shelly did the final ‘nice to meet you’ thing and followed me out.

“Nice ladies,” was her only comment to me. After she got her bindings on and just before taking off, I heard her mumble, “Nice mom.”

We skied down to the very bottom. At the edge of the parking lot, I watched from my skis as she took hers off. A white limo pulled right up to where she was and the window went down. Her mom looked out; she looked like a pale Joan Rivers today.

“Is this your little friend, Michelle?”

“Hi, Mrs. Davenport,” I said as nicely as I could. I could tell Shelly was fuming; she banged her skis together furiously to get the snow off.

“Did you have a good time, girls?” Somehow I could tell she didn’t really care, because she just went right on ahead. “Come along, Michelle, say goodbye to ... to her.”

Shelly’s voice was low and tight as she said to her mom, “Her name is Ann, Mother; Ann.”

Her mother waved her hand. “Whatever. Just hurry up about it.” She withdrew into the limo and the window went up.

Shelly looked at me; she looked mad enough to cry. Or maybe sad enough to cry. “Ann, I ...”

Even though it hurt having to say goodbye so soon, I wanted to make it easier on her. “Shelly, I know you gotta go. Take care.”

She reached up to hug me, and the window slide down a few inches and from inside the limo her mother’s voice called, “Michelle, hurry.”

She spun around to her mother and said, very angrily and deliberately, “Just—a—minute!”

I was surprised to hear her father’s voice come from the darkness of the limo. “Oh, for Christ’s sakes, let her say goodbye to Ann properly.”

Her mother said nothing, but the window went up. Shelly was on the verge of tears of embarrassment. Again, I tried to ease it for her.

“Bye, Shell; I’m really glad we met.”

“Me, too, Ann. Oh, God, this sucks! Just when I start to make a friend, they get involved.”

“Well, we can always be friends. And Sacramento’s not that far from San Francisco. Maybe, you know, we can get together ...”

“No shit, girl!” She got a bit of her spirit back. “We’re going to get together. Give me your phone number.”

“You need a pen? I don’t have one.”

“That’s okay; I’ll remember.”

I told her and then asked for hers. She shook her head.

“Won’t do any good. It’s going to be changed after all this anyway. I’ll call you.” Some of her excitement dimmed, and she spoke quietly. “Goodbye, Ann. I’m really glad you’re my friend.” She paused, embarrassed as we held hands and squeezed. “Friends for life?”

I smiled hugely, tears forming. “You know it! Friends for life!”

She leaned over and we hugged. Now we were both crying. The door opened and she jumped in, her mother said something and the limo began moving away even before she got the door closed.

End of Part 4

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