The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Chapter 97

Where now?

A place not nearly as impressive on reaching as getting there.

The train through the Alps takes you as far as Biasca, hugging the bottom of a dark forest, the tops of the mountains lost in the clouds. Cold, getting colder, window steaming up.

At Biasca it’s a drive through winding roads, tiny villages, a phone on the side of the road in a yellow box, call if you see an avalanche. Mountains above, sun setting behind, my face in the window of the taxi as we curl through the mountains.

A village, clinging to a narrow road. The road itself is barely holding onto the edge of the mountain. Mushy snow falls. The taxi leaves me outside the one hotel. The hotel has seven rooms, all empty. The matron speaks perfect English; I’ll give you the bridal suite, she says, you should have a hot bath.

The bridal suite is two rooms, a bedroom and a bathroom. The bath sits in the middle of the floor of the bathroom, a terrible waste of space, but I am fascinated by it; where do the pipes go?

You know, said the matron, I genuinely don’t know.