“What?” I yelled back.
“You have to fall down!”
I shook my head. No way. Panic and fear threatened to overwhelm me. I had never been this scared.
“Fall backward, on your side!” he instructed me. “You have to. Now!”
What choice did I have? If I tried to stop on my own, I would fall. If I ran into something, I’d be dead. I needed this to be over. I needed to get to a hospital. I had to do what he said. Before I could talk myself out of it, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, falling back toward the mountain on my right side. I hit the ground hard. I had my breath knocked out of me as I began tumbling over and over through the snow. I felt something twist in my left ankle, but I couldn’t cry out as I rolled and rolled until I finally stopped and everything went black.
Shouts and voices crept into my consciousness, and I became aware of the fact that I was dizzy and flat on my back, in the snow, looking up at the sun. Nico leaned over me, blocking the sun in a way that made him look like he had a halo. Maybe he was an angel and I was dead.
“Stay still, don’t move,” he told me. I noticed that his forehead was bleeding. I wanted to ask if I was alive, but I couldn’t catch my breath. And every single part of me throbbed in pain.
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but Nico kept talking to me, telling me I had to stay awake. I didn’t want to stay awake because the pain was excruciating. I tried pushing him away but could barely lift my arm. I saw my sunglasses in the snow, broken into tiny black shards.
Someone put a neck brace on me, and the men moved me to what felt like a long board. They buckled me in, and I was aware of being pulled down the mountain, surrounded by people in bright orange outfits.
The whole time Nico skied next to me, talking to me. I didn’t know what he was saying. I hoped he was speaking Monterran or something and that I hadn’t lost my ability to understand English. I closed my eyes just for a minute. I so wanted to rest. But mostly I wanted the pain to stop.
The farther we went down the mountain, the more I heard voices and yelling. One pierced my haze.
“Kat? Kat? Are you okay? What happened? Let me through, I’m her friend. Kat!” Lemon looked totally freaked out as she reached for me. I tried to answer her, but my voice was so weak. They stopped her, and one of Nico’s friends was hugging her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
I heard the helicopter before I saw it, and I felt the strong rush of wind from the blades as they loaded me into the waiting chopper. The paramedics started checking me, and I yelped when they touched my wrist. Lemon was on my right, holding my hand and crying. “You’re going to be okay!” she yelled at me. I squeezed her hand back. Strong breezes swirled around us as the helicopter lifted up. I felt a poke in my arm as someone inserted an IV. I realized that Nico was sitting on my left side. He gave me a sad smile while a paramedic cleaned Nico’s forehead.
“I’m sorry,” I said. He shook his head, to indicate that he couldn’t hear me. He handed the gauze back to the paramedic and shooed the man away. He leaned in, putting his ear close to my mouth. “Sorry,” I repeated.
“For what?” he asked as he pulled back to look at me.
I turned my head and puked all over him.
I awoke to the sound of a little girl singing “Let It Go.” I opened my eyes slowly, taking in my surroundings. I was in a massive bed, covered by a thick, white comforter. There was a sheer white canopy hanging across the top of the bed and down the sides. I sat up and pushed it aside to look at the room. The ceilings were easily twenty feet high, and the room was full of antique-looking furniture and expensive rugs. A small fire snapped and crackled in a fireplace nearby.
I didn’t recognize any of this. Definitely not our room at the resort. My heart started to race. Where was I?
The singing stopped. “Buonasera. Come stai?”
A girl lay on her stomach at the foot of my bed where she had been coloring in a book but was now staring at me. She had black hair and light brown eyes and seemed familiar, somehow.
“What?” My head felt thick, like I couldn’t focus or process what was happening.
She gave me a jack-o’-lantern grin. “I forgot you were an American. Hello.”
“Hi. You, uh, speak English really well.”
She shrugged. “I work on it every day with my tutor. And I watch a lot of Disney movies.”
“Yeah, I heard you singing.” I held my head in both of my hands. What had happened to me?
“Frozen is my favorite movie.”
I let go of my aching head and pulled the comforter up to my chest, holding on to it tightly. “Mine too.”