Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 22:26:04 -0500 Reply-To: "Candice G. Cardasis" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Candice G. Cardasis" Subject: Learning To Fly (Part 3 of 5 -yeah that seems right) X-To: gielskcl@bigvax.alfred.edu X-cc: The Poet Well Folks, here's the next. _______________________________________ Learning To Fly part 3 by Candice G. Cardasis 1995 _______________________________________ The gridlock had started to find it's way back into normal commuting traffic and Candice snapped back into reality behind the wheel of the Jeep. The inceasant honking of horns was wearing on her already thinning nerves. "Ah shit Ethel, I can't dance.." she said aloud, hearing the annoyance in her voice. She hadn't even gotten past the outer bridge crossing, but Peter Cetera started singing "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and immediately the tension building up in her neck and shoulders over the past hour began to loosen a little. Had she been sitting in this mess for merely an hour? It seemed like she'd spent half the day in this one spot. "I guess flashbacks have that wierd lack of space/time continuity to them, huh.." she thought and raised her eyebrows as she peered out across the seemingly endless sea of automobiles. She wondered if there was any way to control those memory surges. Eventually the spaces in between the cars got wider and the rate at which they all traveled increased. Just outside of Philadelphia, Candice decided to pull over just fir the sake of getting out and stretching. Much as she loved her Jeep with it's camel-colored interior and oddly placed radio (infront of the arm rest), one could only spend so much time in a car. She pulled onto the exit ramp and downshifted into fourth then third gear, feeling the engine rumble and purr beneath her, and parked in the lot adjacent to the tourist information area. Candi bought some coffee, picked up a few brochures on antiquing in the area, and found a table all to herself. As she started flipping through them, another flashback caught her unawares.... .*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+ Her breaths were coming out as if she'd just run a marathon. That had been a good run down the Resurrection trail -just enough moguls to keep her happy, but not demolish her knees. She silently cursed herself for not grabbing a cup of coffee before she headed out for the day, or at least *something* to warm her. The sun was shining on the North Face, and since she was sick of being half frostbitten at 9:30 in the morning, Candi took the East River lift, and old, slow two seater over to the Paradise Lift. Skiing alone was not the safest thing to do, but since Colleen had fallen for the newbie instructor -a tall, powerful, and most imposing figure by the name of Sean, she didn't have much of a choice. She got on the Paradise Lift with yet another stranger, and wiped the close-to-freezing sweat from her brow. Of course there were always the "chairlift-seatmates" she could ski with, but most them were guys who were preoccupied with telling her "awe-inspiring" tales of previous skiing exploits. Or they were busy looking for ski-bunnies to follow down to Rafters bar & grill to convince one to go for a "mid-morning break." "Uh huh -sure thing bucko." she thought sarcastically. Candice furrowed her brow, closed her eyes and feigned napping on the long ride up just to keep her current seatmate from going any further with his uninteresting story. The boom of the ski-patrol's avalanching on the other side of the mountain shook Candi out of her "sleep" and her seatmate sat up straight, just as startled as Candice. "Don't worry," Candi said in a manner more light-hearted than she actually felt. "the sign at the base of the mountain said they'd be done blasting around 10. That should be it for today. And besides, they're shooting into the other side of the mountain." The guy sittinig next to her just grunted a response and shifted in his seat. So here it was 9:45 and already Candi was on her third run of what looked like a promising day out. She skied off to the left and took the North Face Lift. The poma lift, an odd variation on the T-Bar, carried Candi and four other early morning adventurers to the peak. As she rounded a bend, leaving the frosty pole of the poma lift, she caught sight of an untouched field of fresh powder. "Oh yes, that trail is *mine*" she thought aloud, and felt her pulse quicken with excited anticipation. There was nothing quite like breaking her own track through the trees. Her excitement kept building -she knew the incline of that trail and guessed that there was at *least* two whole feet of the light, unpacked snow. Candice didn't see any markers that said the area was closed. She checked her trail map just in case. Candi tore her glove from her hand with her mouth and glanced at her map. She traced the the way up to the spot she was at -directly above Spellbound Bowl, and put her glove back on. Candice was headed east and south towards that field she had spotted, speeding along, trying to stay "ontop" of the powder instead of in it when a thunderous boom echoed closer to her than she liked. Candice bore to the right, thinking she'd wind up at the plateau but bounded through a small group of trees instead. She slowed to a stop at the edge of the trees. She looked down and saw that the snow she'd sprayed down the path wasn't stopping. Her heart skipped a beat, and her throat closed up. "Avalanche.." she whispered, hew jaw dropping well past it's normal resting place. Candice, although more scared than she could say, looked up the mountain and saw her nightmare manifesting in what seemed like billowing white clouds. But she knew better, that was acres and acres of snow moving at full speed towards *her*, and if she didn't start moving NOW, she would surely get caught. Candice started moving south at the fastest rate she had ever gone, and then the hammer hit -she skidded across bare rock and went head first into deep powder. The cords she used to keep her ski's attached to her boots incase of a bad spill such as this one pulled tightly around her boots and snapped under the strain. Her poles went flying off in different directions, and Candice started tumbling forward down the mountain, the avalanche fully upon her now. The snow started to crowd into all the spaces around her, making it impossible for her to breath. Candice fought against the flow of the falling snow but couldn't find her way to the topside. She knew she was going to die, but she wasn't seeing her life pass her by. Wasn't that how it always was in the movies? Where were the memories that should be flashing before her eyes? Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of bright light? And then everything went black. .*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+.*+. Hope you liked it, but if you didn't, flames are always welcome among the contract offers, petitions as to why I should talk to you, whips, chains, leather, handcuffs, and the money from Publishers Clearing House at: winter@jbx.com All other gifties go to: cardascg@bigvax.alfred.edu Yours, Candice -still .sig file-less winter@jbx.com =========================================================================