Ski Slope Saga By Sharky Cast

The Ski Slope Saga is how I was first introduced to Sharky Cast‘s writing and it is still one of my favorite of his stories. See more on his DA.

Chapter 1

Annie was enjoying her holiday. It was good to get away from her studies for a couple of weeks, and take the time to go skiing, which was one of her favourite pastimes. Annie was an attractive 19 year old student, with small, slight features. She had a slim body and slender athletic legs, with cute size 6 feet.

She was now on the third day of her holiday, and had just come off the ski slope, and was enjoying a warming mug of hot chocolate in the cafe at the ski resort. Her ski boots were resting on the floor next to her, as she felt they were making her feet too hot now she was indoors. In the heat of the cafe, the snow stuck on her boot was melting, and so without thinking she had moved her feet closer to the aisle, so as to avoid getting the thick thermal socks she was wearing damp.

She didn’t see him until it had happened. A man got up from his table, and walked past her straight out of the cafe. He was wearing heavy ski-boots, and obviously not paying attention to where he was walking. His boot came down heavily on the toes of her left foot, protected only by the single layer of the thermal sock. A wave of pain exploded up from her foot, causing her to half choke on a mouthful of hot chocolate as she gasped in agony. Her right foot arched in pain, and the noise of her mug falling to the floor accompanied the sickening crunch from her toes as her reflexes made her try to jerk her crushed toes from under the boot.

Then he was gone, her eyes already flooding with tears of pain. She lifted her left foot off the floor, holding her slender ankle. Without ever looking under her sock, she could feel her toes were bent far beyond their normal shape.

Annie looked round the cafe, expecting hordes of people to come rushing to her aid, but none of the patrons seemed to have even noticed the quick-walking man and the little scene he had just caused. She blinked the tears out of her eyes, still clutching her ankle. Her toes couldn’t really be broken, could they? No, surely that was just her over-reacting. Very slowly, she lowered her left foot to the wooden floor of the cafe. Taking great care not to move her toes at all, she picked her own ski-boots up and stood up, keeping her weight on her right foot.

She prepared to take a step forward. Gritting her teeth, she stepped forward with her left foot, making sure her weight was taken on her heal. Then she took another stride with her right foot. As her weight shifted on her injured foot, and her toes bent upwards, pain surged up her leg from her toes. She gasped, and staggered forwards, causing her squashed toes to bend even more. She had to grab the edge of a nearby table to steady herself. So that was it she thought. No, more skiing for her; at least some of her toes must be broken she thought, judging by the pain she was in.

Annie decided the best thing for her was to get back to her chalet. But to do so meant crossing the snow covered grounds of the ski complex. She slipped her right foot into its ski-boot, and then looked down at her throbbing left foot. There was no way she was going to be able to put her boot on without causing herself severe pain. She half hopped, half limped towards the door, carrying her left boot, her left foot still covered only by the thick grey thermal sock. As, she opened the door, a wave of cold air seemed to penetrate through her sock and made her toes hurt even more. She looked out at the snow-covered ground – there was two hundred yards of it to the door of her chalet.

There was no way she could hop the two hundred yards to her chalet, and to walk across with her left foot only in its sock she knew would be very painful for her poor toes, not to mention very wet! She would have to try to put her boot back on, but that would mean squashing her already swollen toes into it.

She hopped over to the railing by the door of the cafe, and put her boot down on the ground. She opened it to its fullest extent, and then, pointing her foot, slowly lowered it into the close confines of the ski-boot. She winced as her throbbing toes touched the sides of the boot, but carried on lowering her foot. Her toes were so swollen that they squashed together, causing Annie to grit her teeth against the pain. Nonetheless, she managed, gradually and painfully to fit her whole foot into the boot.

Chapter 2

Every step Annie took meant greater and greater agony in her poor swollen toes, all squashed up together at the narrow end of her boot. She was limping slowly, trying not to bend her aching toes at all. She found herself taking shorter and shorter steps, and limping more and more. By the time she had gone two-thirds of the way to her chalet, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She stopped, leaning heavily against a convenient tree. Reaching down, she undid her left boot and slid her foot out of it.

The relief on her poor toes was immense, and she stood there for a moment, holding onto the tree, with her socked left foot dangling six inches above the ground. Her chalet was only seventy yards away; seventy yards of cold snow-covered ground to go. She gently lowered her left foot to the ground. The feeling of intense cold as her foot rested on the ground actually brought some relief to her toes, but at the same time she could feel the cold wetness of the snow soaking into her thick sock. Walking mainly on her heal, carrying her boot, she managed to cover the remaining grounds and staggered, cold, wet and injured, through the front door of her chalet.

Annie felt cold and exhausted. She had hoped her friend, Bobbi, with whom she shared the chalet, would be in, but there was no sign of her. That was not strictly true of course, as Bobbi was a cheerful, careless, slightly scatty girl, who, although good fun to be with, was proving a bit of a trial to live with. Her clothes were scattered all over her half of the room, with a dirty bowl and two used mugs next to her bed.

A hot bath, Annie decided, would probably be the best thing for her and her aching frozen toes. She hopped over to the chalet’s tiny bathroom, and peeled off the dripping wet thermal sock from her left foot, gently easing it over her toes. Trying not to look at her toes, she ran the bath and carefully divested herself of the rest of her clothes. The warm bathwater was very relaxing, but as her frozen toes warmed up they once again started throbbing painfully. Soon they began to ache quite unbearably, and Annie knew she should really take a look at them.

Drying herself off (very carefully round her foot!), she put on her thick bath robe, and sat down on the edge of the bath with the first aid kit from the bathroom cabinet, and began to examine her toes. Her big toe was bruised; already it had turned an unpleasant shade of purple in the middle, and hurt if she tried to bend it. Her second toe was visibly much worse; and unnatural red colour with a sharp bend in it just above the first joint. She blinked back tears – that one was obviously broken she thought. The same was true of her forth toe, it had a noticeable bend in it that shouldn’t have been there. Her remaining toes looked sore and bruised – she couldn’t be sure if they were broken or not.

Annie opened the small first aid kit. It didn’t contain much; all that could possibly be of use to her were some ACE bandages and some rolls of sticking plaster, plus a roll of ‘finger bandage’, rather like a very narrow tube bandage. That might fit over her toes, she mused. She knew that broken toes were normally fixed by simply taping the toe to the one next to it – her sister had broken her middle toe a few years ago, and that was how the doctor had treated it. However, when possibly all five of them were broken, what was she to do?

Annie wasn’t a nurse or doctor, so she could only guess at what she should do to help her injured toes. She decided that padding her broken toes was probably the best thing for them. Using the small scissors from the first aid box, she cut a short length of ACE bandage, and used this to wrap her big toe with, biting her lip as she accidentally knocked her second toe slightly. The ACE bandage, she thought, would pad and protect her big toe, as well as prevent her from moving it as much, as she secured the end of the bandage with a length of sticking plaster.

The bandage was too wide for her other toes, so she’d have to use something different for these ones. She cut a little piece from the roll of ‘finger bandage’, and, with some difficulty, managed to work it over her obviously broken second toe, doing her best to ignore the bright red colour of her toe and the noticeable angular bend in it. The length of finger bandage on her toe was doubled over a few times, for protection, she thought, and the process repeated with a new length on her fourth toe. Then, she taped her second toe to her third one, using two lengths of sticking plaster; one round the top of her toe, another round the base. She was just resting her foot on the floor, trying to work out what she should tape her fourth toe to, since only one strip of sticking plaster could be used if she was going to tape it to her little toe, when she heard the front door of the chalet open and a clattering of skis falling over in the hallway that announced Bobbi’s arrival.

Bobbi was a medical student who went to the same university as Annie. She was taller than Annie, with shoulder length black hair and a great figure. But she was one of the clumsiest girls Annie knew. Bobbi would want to help her, she knew, but Annie wasn’t sure she wanted to let Bobbie loose on her toes…!

Chapter 3

Annie was about to call out to her friend to let her know she was in too, when Bobbi pushed the door open and strode into the bathroom. The wooden door came swinging back on its hinges, and, before she could even jerk her foot out of the way, it collided with Annie’s injured foot, crunching her newly bandaged toes back on themselves. Bobbi looked round the door, horrified, as Annie screamed and collapsed sideways off the edge of the bath where she had been sitting. Both Annie’s hands were clasped round the ankle of her smashed foot; her toes in agony. It seemed to her as it red hot knives and needles were piercing into toes from all directions. She could hardly breathe because of the amount of pain she was in.

“Oh my God…!”? shrieked Bobbi, dropping down to kneel beside her.

“My…toes….”? Annie manage to gasp between gritted teeth.

“Come on, let’s get you on a bed…”? coaxed Bobbi.

“Broken….already….”? mumbled Annie, now unable to even see though her tears.

Bobbi lifted Annie to her one good foot, and half supporting, half carrying her, led her into the main room where their beds were. As soon as she was on the bed, Annie collapsed back, groaning. Her bathrobe fell open slightly, but she was beyond caring, only able to concentrate on the almost unbearable pain coming from her shattered toes.

Bobbi stared down at Annie’s left foot, which she was supporting by the heel in her right hand. The toes certainly were a mess; the swinging bathroom door had broken all of them in at least one place. Annie’s little toe was jutting out from her foot almost at right-angles to her other toes (or how her other toes should have been), and was already turning a nasty shade of red. The toe next to it was bent up underneath itself, as if Annie was curling her toes, but Bobbi couldn’t see much more due to the bandage Annie had put on it only minutes before. The next two toes were clearly broken; the tape that Annie had applied had served to snap them both together. They were bent sharply upwards about halfway along. Annie’s big toe was obscured by the ACE bandage wrapped round it, so Bobbi couldn’t tell how badly hurt it was.

“Uh….this is going to have to come off hunny…”? Bobbi said gently.

The words slowly penetrated through to Annie’s pain-dimmed brain.

“Wha…??” she started to say, and half opened her eyes, when Bobbi pulled away the sticking plaster and began to unravel the ACE bandage. She jarred Annie’s broken second toe twice, each time sending jolts of agony shooting up Annie’s leg. The big toe had been painful before, but now, as the bandage came off, it seemed to throb even more. Bobbi sucked in her breath sharply as the last layer of bandage came away, revealing Annie’s toe was a dull purple colour, and slightly crooked, leaning over to the left.

* * *

Annie lay on her bed, reading. She was terribly bored. The last three days had been horrible. Her injured foot lay in front of her, propped up on pillows, encased from her knee downwards in white plaster. After her toes had been shattered by the swinging bathroom door, Bobbi had tried to help Annie as best as possible, but, in Annie’s opinion, caused her more harm than good! They had decided that Annie’s toes needed to be properly set by a doctor, and Bobbi had telephoned for a taxi to take them to the nearest one. The next problem was to get Annie into some clothes, as she was still only wearing a bathrobe.

Annie’s teeth were gritted against the pain that washed up in waves from her crushed toes, and she needed all of Bobbi’s coaxing and help to get dressed. Annie pulled on a pair of panties while Bobbi fished around in a drawer for a top and trousers. She helped Annie into a t-shirt and knitted jumper, not bothering with a bra. Annie then pulled on a pair of jeans. She got them over her right foot and leg, and then, pointing her left foot, slowly began to pull them over her poor foot. Every time the heavy material even slightly brushed against her bend and broken toes, stabs of pain shot into her foot and up her leg. As she was putting the jeans on, Bobbi slipped a striped sock over Annie’s right foot, and laced a trainer on it too. Once the jeans were on, they both looked at Annie’s left foot. She couldn’t bear to have even a sock on her swollen toes, she knew, but it would be bitterly cold outside without it.

Bobbi solved the problem partially by a lucky find of a roll of cotton wool in the bathroom. She wrapped Annie’s toes and the front part of her foot lightly in the cotton wool, and secured it with the remaining ACE bandage. With her foot like this, and leaning on Bobbi for support, Annie hopped out to the waiting taxi.

Chapter 4

At the hospital they waited for hours, so it seemed to Annie, although her watch told her was only twenty minutes, for a fat, jolly looking doctor came to see them. It didn’t take a medical degree to work out that there was something wrong with Annie’s foot, and she was quickly led (with Bobbi’s help) to a small room with a table for her to sit on while her crushed toes underwent examination. By this time her body appeared to have adjusted to the pain coming from the shattered digits of her left foot, which seemed to have toned down to a dull throb. She did, however, feel sick and exhausted. Her head was pounding, and she had a pain in her stomach as well. She leaned on Bobbi for support while the jovial doctor lifted her foot up by the heal and began to remove the bandage and cotton wool.

Neither Bobbi nor Annie spoke the local language very well, and the doctor did not speak English, but luckily a nurse with spiky blonde hair came to their assistance. She was very friendly, and slightly too cheerful, Annie thought, though that was probably because having one’s toes (and holiday) ruined doesn’t put one in the mood for merriment really, she reflected.

The room they were in was equipped to take X-rays, and this was quickly done, and the doctor peered at Annie’s toes through very thick round spectacles perched on the end of his nose while they waited for the X-rays to develop, and also gave Annie an injection of painkillers, something which she was very grateful for.

Once he had the X-rays in his hand, the doctor let out a small chuckle, which offended Annie – she couldn’t consider for the life of her what might possibly be funny. Working in hospitals must warp peoples’ minds, she decided. The doctor passed the X-rays over to Annie, Bobbi and the nurse to look at. Annie didn’t really want to look, and wasn’t sure what to look for anyway, but there did seem to be an awful lot of lines in her toes that perhaps shouldn’t be there. Bobbi and the nurse were able to understand them further – all of Annie’s toes were broken in several places.

The doctor said something neither of them understood, but the nurse translated.

“Your toes, zey are broken – yes?” she said in a high pitched voice. “You zee ‘ere, ze big wun ist broken ‘ere unt ‘ere. Zeese too…” she pointed at the second and fourth toes on the X-ray, “zey ‘ave vour break in each – zat is quite bad – yes? Unt zis wun…” she pointed at the smallest toe “..ist broken unt…” she struggled for the right word “… not in i’s joint – yes?” she finally opted for.

This commentary seemed more for Bobbi’s benefit than Annie’s, who had lost interest in this detailed analysis of her injuries, and just wanted to get out of the hospital. The doctor had meanwhile been collected medical paraphernalia from about the room while she nurse was talking to them, and now turned back to Annie with rolled of plaster and something that looked like a tube bandage in his hands. He began to explain what he was going to do, with the cheery nurse translating as he was speaking.

“Vor ze broken toe ve jus’ wrap it to the next” she chirped. “But you ‘ave broken all of zem…!” She giggled. Annie scowled. “Zo ve ‘ave to put you in ze cast – yes? Like for ze broken leg – yes?”

Annie looked shocked, but the nurse giggled again.

“Is not zo bad! I ‘ave had cast, is OK.” She indicated her right shin, which Annie and Bobbi noticed had a five inch scar running down it.

“I snap my…um…” she mumbled for a bit “tendin? It was playing my netball, unt I slipped – bang!” She giggled again, as if it had been a funny experience. “I ‘ad…’ow you say….operation, yes? Unt then cast” she pointed down at her toes, then held her hand at the mid-point of her thigh, as if to show how big the cast had been. “But I ‘ad, um…like sandal..? on the bottom, zo I can walk OK vit cast on – you vill ‘ave wun too, so it will be good, yes?”

Annie didn’t bother to offer a reply.

The doctor was ready to begin putting Annie’s leg in plaster, but first he was looking at Annie’s little toe – the one at ninety degrees from the rest of her toes, with his hand resting on her foot just under it. He muttered something, which apparently didn’t need translating, and before Annie knew what was happening he had taken hold of her little toe and pressed it back towards her other toes and down into her foot. There was a dull clicking sound, and, in spite of the painkillers, a lance of pure agony shot through Annie’s foot and up her leg. She yelped and bit her lip with the unexpectedness of it all, and let out a barely controlled moan as she tried to move her foot away from the doctor, but he had his hand tightly round it. He said something else, and the nurse was about to translate it, but then she caught the look in Annie’s eye and lapsed into silence.

Once the doctor has worked the tube-like bandage over her leg, Annie closed her eyes and kept them closed through the remainder of the casting process. She was aware of layers of damp plaster being wrapped round her lower leg, and of a warm sensation as it dried. She gasped in agony several times as her bend toes were gently can carefully straightened, and she even bit her lip again when she heard the snap of her big toe being realigned. Bobbi stood next to her with an arm around her all this time, and Annie would quite likely not have been able to support herself otherwise.

Only once it was all over did Annie open her eyes again, and inspect her leg. Gleaming, still slightly damp plaster extended from just below her knee down to the base of her toes. Under her toes themselves there was a ‘plate’ of plaster, which supported her toes, and also had a kind of ‘lip’ to it, which gave the impression of her five very sorry looking toes having a white border round them. Annie was surprised how high the cast went up her leg – after all, it was only her toes that were broken. She did consider asking the doctor about it, but the thought of holding a three-way conversation with the squeaky nurse, to whom she had taken quite a strong, though irrational, dislike to, was too much to bear. She was also surprised at the arrangements for protecting her toes – she expected them to be wrapped in plaster or something, rather than just supported from below by a plaster plate.

Chapter 5

She was still looking at her red and throbbing toes when the doctor took what looked like a large tan coloured sandal from a cupboard, and strapped it round her plastered foot. This surprised Annie still further – surely she wasn’t expected to walk on that foot, after all that had happened to it?! Still, she supposed the plaster would prevent any movement or further damage to her toes, and when she thought about it she would prefer walking to being stuck on crutches or in a wheelchair. The blonde nurse twittered on about looking after the cast, and walking on it, but Annie wasn’t paying attention. Bobbi could (and no doubt would) keep on reminding her about what to do and what not to do with her cast; she was a medical student after all. After being presented with a single aluminium forearm crutch to aid her with her balance, Annie was informed she was free to return to the ski resort.

Which was where she still was, with nothing to do for the past three days. She had wanted to go home of course, but their return flights were already booked, and to change would have cost them more. Also Bobbi, understandably, wanted to continue her skiing holiday, but Annie suspected this might not be because of the skiing so much, but because of the young bartender at the resort’s club, whom she suspected Bobbi had secret designs on. Thinking of Bobbi made her look at her watch. It was past lunchtime, and Bobbi had promised to come back from the slopes to help Annie make lunch, because she knew Annie still wasn’t happy about walking on her casted leg to much yet. She was nearly an hour late, Annie thought grumpily. Perhaps she had got the opportunity to go into one of the saunas with the attractive young bartender, Annie mused, bitterly.

Knowing that she would have to get lunch all on her own, Annie swung sideways off the bed and very gently lowered her casted foot to the ground. She was wearing a knee length denim skirt, as trousers were simply not a good idea with her lower leg in plaster, and a pale yellow blouse. Her toes still gave her a slight twinge of pain as she lowered her foot from the pillows on her bed to the floor. She tried not to look at them, as they were all swollen and bruised in various places, with her little toe still quite red around the joint from its dislocation.

The tan coloured sandal-like shoe she had been given for her cast was next to her bedside cabinet, and she strapped it round her plastered foot. Her hands recoiled slightly as they touched the cast. It was hard to think of this great white mass of plaster being a permanent part of her for the next few weeks. She had never been in plaster before, and the size of the cast for just a few broken toes surprised her. Just a few broken toes, she thought, well, that was being economical with the truth. All of them were broken in more than one place, with her second and fourth toes broken in four places each. Bobbi had told her she might not be able to bend those ones properly again, which seemed upset her more than she had thought it would.

Using the single crutch for support, she stepped forward onto her bare right foot, and hopped, rather than walked, into the small kitchen. She still couldn’t bear the idea of walking on her injured foot, with the thought of her shattered toes bending upwards as she stepped forwards firmly entrenched in her mind, even though she knew the cast she had would keep them from bending. She was just standing at the work surface, crutch in her left hand with her plastered foot held about eight inches off the ground and slightly in front of her, her bare right foot flat on the cool tiles, when she heard the front door open, and another clattering as her skis in the hallway were knocked over again. Above the noise of the falling skis, she could hear Bobbi’s voice.

“No no, I can manage….no…careful…ow!…right….no, I’m fine…just open the door….there….opps….”

The interior door swung open, and Annie saw it was being opened by the young bartender. Annie began to silently curse Bobbi, but then through the door, from the mass on entangled skis and ski-poles beyond, came Bobbi. Her hair was tangled, and she looked very irritated, and it was not difficult to see why. She was using wooden underarm crutches, and her right trouser leg had been cut open from her thigh downwards. Her right leg was in a gleaming white plaster cast, running from the base of her long slender toes up to her thigh, where it disappeared under what remained of her right trouser leg. She was moving very awkwardly on the crutches, holding her right leg out in front of her, and being very careful not to bump it against anything.

Annie looked on shocked, as the bartender seemed to try to offer to help in someway, but Bobbi interrupted him. “It’s OK thanks, no really it’s fine, you can go now. Thank you, no, I’m OK. Just close the door on your way out.” With this curt dismissal, the young man (Annie realised she didn’t even know his name) quietly withdrew from the room, as Bobbi, concentrating hard on her crutching, lurched towards her bed and collapsed onto it.

“Bobbi – what happened?!” shrieked Annie.

“What does it look like?!” snapped Bobbi, propping herself up on her elbows.

“Sorry…!” mumbled Annie. “But I mean, how did you do it?”

“Out on the slopes, of course!” said Bobbi, still irritably. She sat up on her bed, and turned to face Annie, so that while her left leg hung over the side of the bed, foot resting on the floor, her right leg jutted straight out in front of her.

“So…who was….?” Annie indicated the door.

“Oh, you mean Jan. You know, he works behind the bar here. I met him out on the slopes. He can’t half ski well! We tried….well, I mean I tried… well anyway, I slipped and fell…lucky he was there really!”

“So is it broken?” Annie inquired.

“Of course it’s broken!” Bobbi said sharply, reverting to her earlier bad temper. “I’ve snapped my tibia and fibula, and…” she went off into medical jargon, none of which Annie understood much at all, except for something about ‘severe muscle damage’. All in all, it didn’t sound good for Bobbi, so Annie let her prattle on.

“Oh” was all she could think of to say when Bobbi finished. Then; “I was just about to make lunch…” Annie realised quickly that perhaps this wasn’t the best thing to have said. Who should be helping who now? Annie thought she couldn’t be expected to wait on Bobbi, as she wasn’t sufficiently recovered from her own injury, she felt. Luckily, this didn’t seem to occur to Bobbi. She wasn’t the sort of person who could just lie there and be tended to anyway. She had to do things herself. And the mention on lunch appeared to have shocked Bobbi out of her bad mood. She blinked once or twice, before saying, “Oh, yes, of course.”

Bobbi picked up her wooden crutches, dropped one so that she had to swing her casted leg onto the bed in order to be able to lean over and recover the fallen crutch. Reaching under her plastered shin, and using both hands, with her crutches leaning again her, she lifted and then lowered her right leg to the floor. She drew in her breath sharply as she did so, presumably because of the extra blood rushing to her newly broken leg. She struggled to her one good foot, and then crutched with short, halting movements towards the kitchen.

Chapter 6

Preparing any sort of lunch turned out to be something of a joke, with both of them injured as they were. Bobbi turned out to be of more use in the kitchen that Annie, in spite of her more severe injury, because her pair of under arm crutches allowed her to use both of her hands while standing, while Annie still leant on her single forearm crutch, not yet daring to try putting any weight on her left foot, except for occasionally resting it gently on the tiled floor. When it came to carrying anything though, it had to be Annie’s job, as Bobbi required both of her hands just to move about on her crutches. They finally managed to make two sandwiches and two drinks, and Annie carried them one by one into the main room of their chalet, although this meant walking on her casted foot far more than she wanted – however, hopping whilst holding the food and drinks was not a good idea at all!

They had their Spartan lunch sitting at the small table in the main room, each with their casted legs poking out from the under the table; Bobbi’s right leg, and Annie’s left, both plastered limbs jutting out from the same side of the table, as they sat opposite each other. Annie carried the plates back into the kitchen, deciding to herself that as she had to do all the carrying, Bobbi could do the washing up. She could stand at the sink well enough, propped up on her crutches. Annie boiled the kettle and made herself a cup of tea. Luckily Bobbi said she didn’t want one when Annie shouted through to ask her, as that would have meant another trip back to the kitchen to take Bobbi’s cup to her. Annie finished stirring her tea, then limped back into the main room, using her crutch to keep the majority of her weight off her left foot. She was anxious not to spill any of the scalding hot tea in her hand due to her uneven steps, and so she was concentrating hard on the cup, and completely forgot all about Bobbi’s plastered leg which was sticking out from under the table.

As Annie limped nearer her chair, Bobbi saw Annie had not noticed her leg, and reflex tried to jerk it out of Annie’s path. However, as Bobbi very quickly discovered, it is impossible to ‘jerk’ ones leg out of the way when it is totally covered in toe to thigh plaster. She gasped as she tensed the muscles in her leg in her attempt to move it, causing a spasm of agony to shoot up from her shattered shin bones. She could not move her leg out of the way, and all she succeeded in doing was raising her leg about six inches off the ground. At the same time, Annie’s plastered foot made contact with Bobbi’s shin. Already off balance, Annie made to take a swift step forward with her good foot in order to save herself from falling, but instantly realised that doing so would mean she would step directly on Bobbi’s broken leg.

Without even thinking, she tried taking a greater stride, but this proved to be a mistake. Her weight was far too far forward, and she knew she was going to fall. As she stumbled, Bobbi’s tired and damaged muscles could not support her leg any longer, and the entire weight of her huge cast bumped down onto the exposed third, fourth and smallest toes of Annie’s casted foot. Annie let out a piercing yell as she continued to fall, her body twisting, with her left hand still clutching her crutch. Due to the design of the crutch, her wrist and forearm remained trapped as she tumbled to the ground. Before the shock of having her shattered toes dealt another blow has subsided, she felt her arm twist unnaturally behind her, leaving her elbow to take the weight of her plummeting body. The best part of the mug of tea tipped over the front of her thin blouse, and she felt, rather than heard, the horrifying crack as her left elbow hit the floor.

Chapter 7

For the second time on that fateful holiday, Annie lay on her bed, feeling very sorry for herself. After she had fallen, she had just remained on the floor, unable to move due to the pain both in her left arm which was twisted behind her, and in her newly squashed toes. When Bobbi saw Annie fall, with her arm caught awkwardly in the crutch, she knew it was going to be a bad fall. She heard the crack of Annie’s arm bones, and Annie’s accompanying scream. Bobbi’s own leg was throbbing with her sudden moving of it, and with the knock Annie’s own plastered leg had given it. Nevertheless, she managed to gather her crutches, and slowly and painfully crutch her way over to the chalet’s ’phone, and eventually communicate to the operator that they needed an ambulance. Annie carried on sobbing with the pain, in spite of Bobbi‘s attempts to comfort her, until the ambulance arrived twenty minutes later.

Upon arrival at the hospital, they were required to wait even longer, until a doctor could see them. It was not the same doctor that Annie had seen before, but an altogether more businesslike man, who Annie was not sure she liked. The blonde nurse with the squeaky voice was there still, who laughed at Bobbi and Annie both being is casts, but gave Annie some painkillers for which she was very grateful. After a series of excruciating X-rays, the doctor put her arm in plaster. She had fractured her wrist and forearm because of her hand getting caught in her crutch, and had broken her elbow when it hit the floor. As a result, the plaster cast she now had went from the base of her fingers all they way up her arm, to just under her shoulder.

Now, once again, she was lying on her bed. She had a very bad night’s sleep, not being able to twist or turn much due to her broken arm, and the pain in her toes that were squashed by Bobbi’s cast kept waking her. She had her plastered foot up on three cushions, as Bobbi said this would help. The hospital had said they were unable to do anything more for her re-injured toes, other than realign the broken bones, seeing as the toes were already supported by the cast’s toeplate. Once she got back to the chalet, however, she asked Bobbi is she could do anything for them. Bobbi knew the toeplate should be sufficient to heal poor Annie’s toes – eventually, providing they weren’t squashed anymore (Bobbi rubbing the cast of her still throbbing leg at the memory…), but also that Annie would no doubt feel better for having her re-injured toes treated in some way. With only one working arm now, Annie couldn’t do this for herself, so Bobbi volunteered her services.

Bobbi could tell Annie must still be in some pain, as she kept cradling her newly broken arm close to her body. Her pale blouse was now open, and Annie was using her remaining good hand to tenderly hold a cold damp cloth to her right breast. Annie had been too embarrassed to mention it at the hospital; that the hot mug of tea that had tipped over her as she fell had scalded her through her thin top. She’d only told Bobbi once they had returned to their chalet, and Bobbi had done what she could for the rapidly reddening mark on Annie’s right breast.

Bobbi sat with the first aid box from the bathroom, as well as the little bag of sticking plasters and tape and all sorts that she always took on holiday, and looked down at Annie’s toes. She was sitting at the foot of Annie’s bed, with her crutches on the floor beside her, and her massive plastered leg jutting out off the edge of the bed, her heel supported by one of the dining chairs. Annie’s injured foot was in her lap, so Bobbi could see her poor broken and re-broken toes. Bobbi surmised it was lucky that her own falling plastered leg (she winced at the memory) had only landed on Annie’s middle, fourth and smallest toes, not crushing her big toe as could have happened. However, the recently re-broken toes looked angrier than ever now, with the fourth one especially now swollen up so it looked like a red chipolata. It was now broken in five places, and the ones either side of it were not faring much better.

Bobbi thought it was probably best to begin my immobilising Annie’s fourth toe as much as possible. Unfortunately, taping it to the toes next to it wasn’t an option. Perhaps if she were to tape it to the actual toe-plate of the cast she thought? However, not really an option again, as it would mean moving Annie’s toes; not something she wanted to be doing at the moment. In the end she employed a temporary compromise, using sticking plaster attached to the cast itself to hold down Annie’s three smallest toes, and bound a pad of cotton wool in place over that. At least that might help keep them safe from further mishap, she thought.

Chapter 8

“Come on, it’ll be fun” Bobbi cajoled.

Annie was still unwilling.

“Look, we’re stuck here until Thursday, we might at least have a drink and some fun!” Bobbi persisted.

“In this state…?!” Annie said, sounding shocked, and gesturing at their plaster casts.

“In this state, in any state, what does it matter?!” Bobbi said flippantly.

“Huh, no thanks” muttered Annie, sulkily. Bobbi had been trying to get her to go across to the resort’s café/bar with her for the past half hour, with very little success. Their holiday was ruined, due to their accidents, but they could not get a flight back home for a few days yet. This had put Annie in a bad mood, but Bobbi seemed determined to enjoy herself while she could, broken leg or not.

“Fine, I’ll go myself” Bobbi said haughtily, then “if that’s OK with you…?” not wanting to leave her friend alone.

“Yes, yes” said Annie, trying to hold the pages of a paperback open with her one good hand. “Have a good time.”

“I’ll try…!” grinned Bobbi, pulling off her baggy tracksuit top and changing it for a low cut pink one, which showed off her d-cup breasts wonderfully. She already had a short black shirt on; far too short for someone with a plastered leg, Annie privately thought. Bobbi rummaged around in her badly packed luggage, until she found a pair of new black shoes. She gave a short laugh as she tossed the right one over her shoulder, and slipped the left one on her plaster-free foot. Grabbing a white sports sock from a tangled mass of over socks, she attempted to pull it over the exposed toes of her plastered leg, as it was quite cold outside. However, the huge casts was almost straight, and, athletic as she was, Bobbi could not reach the end of her leg.

“Um…could you…?” she began, offering the sock in Annie’s direction. With a slight giggle, Annie took it and tried to help her roommate. To both their annoyance, they found then with only one hand free, Annie could not manage to get the sock over Bobbi’s foot either.

“Oh well…!” Bobbi said, wiggling her exposed long slender toes. She gathered up her wooden crutches and headed for the door.

“See you later!”

Picking up her wooden crutches from where they were leaning against her bed, Bobbi pivoted on her good leg and headed towards the door. Although having been in plaster for only a few days, Bobbi had become very good at moving on her underarm crutches. She confessed to Annie she’d used them before however, as part of her medical course, and had quite enjoyed the experience. Somehow, though, the novelty wore off when one actually needed them to move, she thought.

From the chalet’s tiny hallway came the noise of falling skis, and Bobbi’s accompanying shout of “Oh bugger…!”, before Annie heard the front door open and then close. She wondered how her friend could feel confident enough to go to the bar with her leg in so much plaster, and wearing that skirt as well…!

Chapter 9

As Bobbi crutched her way towards the brightly lit bar, she felt a distinct chill in the air. It was always cold up in the mountains, but this was a more intense kind of cold, with a heavy frost beginning to form on everything even though it was still early in the evening. The sky looked heavy and oppressive, even though the air was clear, at least for the moment. She shivered – attractive clothing was all very well for the bar, but it wasn’t at all suited for getting there, especially on such a cold night. Better be careful of the ice too, she said to herself, thinking of Annie, now in two plaster casts.

No sooner had this thought entered her head, when she felt her right crutch hit a frozen puddle, invisible in the growing dusk, and shoot away from her. She shifted her weight rapidly in order to save herself from falling, but this meant she had to put her right leg out in front of her. There was a low ‘clunk’ as her plaster-covered foot hit the ground, and a wave of pain from her broken shin swept up her leg, and down into her foot at the same time. She had managed to stay upright, but the pain involved made her gasp involuntarily.

Steadying herself on her crutches, she made it the last few yards to the door of the bar, moving much more carefully this time, both to minimise the dull pain she could still feel in her leg, and to avoid any further patches of ice. Just as she reached to open the door of the bar, it swung violently towards her, as two drunken men came staggering out. Caught off guard by the sudden opening of the door, Bobbi automatically stepped backwards out of the way. She only needed to move back one pace to avoid the door hitting her, but because it happened so quickly she forgot all about her crutches, or even about her broken leg. She was quickly reminded of it, however, as she stepped back using her plastered right leg. Already aching, taking a full step on it so soon after it was broken caused a dull agony to explode outward from the middle of her shin, making her yelp and stagger against the wall for support.

“Why the hell can’t you look where you’re going…!?” Bobbi half shouted, half mumbled, adding in a few choice names. She gritted her teeth and put her left hand on her now throbbing plastered shin. Some people were so clumsy!

Taking a firmer grip of her crutches, she moved on into the bar, holding her right leg awkwardly out in front of her, making sure nothing was going to come near it, or bump into it, as she slowly made her way to the bar.

The bar was quite crowded, and amongst the people still dining and those at the bar, Bobbi could see several who were in plaster like herself. A man with his left arm in plaster, like Annie’s, was standing at the bar, chatting to a group of friends. Further down the bar, an obviously French girl, complete with characteristic French beret, was holding a drink gingerly using the tips of her fingers of both hands. The reason for this was obvious, as her light green short-sleeved top showed that both her arms were in plaster from mid fore-arm, down past the second knuckle of her hands. Both the casts looked quite worn and heavily signed.

Bobbi reached the bar, and seated herself on one of the tall bar stools. There was another vacant one next to her, and she gratefully used this to prop her throbbing right leg on. It was a bit too high for this really, especially considering the short skirt she was wearing, but her recent knocks to it had made it hurt a great deal, and elevating it seemed to be the best thing for it.

Looking round her, Bobbi scanned the room for any more fellow cast wearers. Her eye fell upon a pair of diners, at a table very close to her, who, judging from their conversation, were clearly English. The man was tall and blonde, and looked about twenty, and was grinning away, looking quite pleased. His partner looked like she was in her late teens, with straight red hair and a very pretty face.

Or it would have been. Currently, she had a very battered appearance indeed. She had several bruises down one side of her face, and a strip of sticking plaster over the bridge of her nose. Bobbi noticed that instead of sitting on a chair, the girl was sitting in a wheelchair. Her partner had just finished cutting her steak into small pieces for her, which was necessary as her right arm was in a sling, with the tip of a cast protruding from it. Her right leg was in plaster too, but unlike Bobbi’s, bend slightly at the knee, and resting lightly on the floor. Bobbi was further shocked to see that the two smallest fingers of the poor girl’s left hand were also splinted and taped together.

The girl looked up to see that Bobbi was peering at her, and, seeing Bobbi’s own plastered leg, gave a faint smile. Bobbi smiled back, and had just made up her mind to go and talk to the couple, and share cast-horror stories, when the bar stood her plastered leg was resting on was seized and pulled away by someone from a large group who didn’t seem to have even realised her leg was on it. Unsupported, her already battered plastered leg dropped like a stone; the white plaster of her heal making contact with the hard floor with a resounding ‘crack’.

Chapter 10

Silently gasping with the pain of her badly jarred ankle and leg, Bobbi grabbed hold of the bar for support. Her broken leg was throbbing mercilessly now. She screwed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, was surprised to see the blonde man; partner of the injured girl, standing in front of her.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “Just saw what happened… why don’t you come and join us?”

Still a bit surprised, Bobbi found she was allowing herself to be helped over to the table where the couple were sitting, and the young man pulled over a spare chair for her to sit on, as she mumbled her thanks. The girl was smiling at her, in a caring sort of way.

“Oooh” she said, in a well spoken voice. “I saw what just happened – it did look painful; are you alright?”

“Er…my cast…” Bobbi stammered, and then squealed slightly, as her plastered leg was gently lifted up by the girl’s blonde companion. He peered closely at the bottom of Bobbi’s cast. Bobbi was acutely aware that from that angle, and with her leg held like that, the stranger could probably see right up her skirt, but her appeared to be deeply concerned with the bottom of her cast, and her cast only.

“Looks fine to me” he said. Then he grinned, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Ah… I’m Tom” he ventured, offering his hand. “Sorry for the… ah… unorthodox introduction. This is my girlfriend Rosalind.” He gestured towards the red-haired girl.

“Call me Ros” said the girl, smiling. Bobbi got the impression she would have offered her hand too, if it hadn’t been in a sling.

“Oh, er, Bobbi” said Bobbi, still quite taken aback. “Erm, thanks for…”

“Ah, it’s fine” said Tom. “I’m, ah, used to it…” He glanced at Ros, who glanced back, blushing slightly.

“So what happened to you then?” asked Ros, indicating Bobbi’s plastered leg with a nod of her head.

Bobbi had never been the sort of person to be shy around others, and now the pain in her leg was subsiding, she was quite happy to chat to her new friends. She briefly explained how she had broken her leg skiing, but wasn’t able to go home yet, so was trying to make the most of things.

“Me too!” piped Ros. She pointed with her left hand down at her right leg. “It was my first time skiing. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but Tommy thought we would have a good time.”

“Did you do all that in a skiing accident?” Bobbi asked, feeling somehow as if she shouldn’t be asking.

“Oh no” said Ros, seemingly not in the least bit offended. “That was just my leg – on my first day too! I didn’t want to ruin Tommy’s fun, so I said we’d stay; we’re in one of the chalets just over there.” She indicated the direction of the far more expensive, two-storey chalets on the other side of the resort. “But then Tommy here…” (she glared at the man, who didn’t seem to keen on being referred to as ‘Tommy’, with mock disapproval) “Tommy here, left his ski-poles at the top of the stairs…”

“Oh no!” said Bobbi. She’d known the girl for less than five minutes, but already had the idea that she was something of a walking disaster.

“Yes,” said Ros, raising her casted right arm as if to illustrate the point, “and I caught my crutches in them, and came down the hard way, and hit my face on the bottom step too.”

“Ouch…” was all Bobbi could think of as a reply.

“And then she managed to break two of her fingers by catching them in the wheel of her chair.” added Tom, lifting up his girlfriend’s left hand, with its two splinted fingers. “Still, I’m used to taking care of you, aren’t I?” he said to Ros, giving her hand a very gentle squeeze.

Chapter 11

Annie was realising just quite how little fun there was to be had in a chalet on a ski resort, when one couldn’t go skiing, couldn’t understand the programmes on television, and had read almost everything that was worth reading in the chalet. Her flight back home seemed an age away still, and even once back home, she still didn’t think she’d be having much fun. Her badly broken toes would take weeks to heal at least, and her arm even longer. She’d never been in plaster before, but certainly hadn’t imagined it to be as boring, nor actually having a broken bone to be as painful as she now discovered it was.

She had only really known one two other people who had been in plaster before this disastrous holiday; her sister, and her first boyfriend. She was only thirteen or so when her older sister had ended up in hospital after falling off her skateboard while trying to jump down a flight of stone steps on it. A stay of a few weeks in hospital were followed by a few more confined to her own bed, but her sister Charlotte had remained quite cheerful throughout, despite long casts on her arm and her leg, both on her right side. Once she was able to move about, Charlotte had been fitted with a rubber heel on the sole of her leg cast, Annie recalled, so she could limp about, without even the need for crutches.

Charlotte seemed to relish being in plaster, and quickly amassed a vast collection of signatures on her arm and leg – all obliterated on a single drunken night, when her friends decided to paint her leg cast bright pink, and her arm cast neon green. Charlotte spent most of the summer in casts of various sizes, but, Annie remembered, always seemed to think of them as only a minor inconvenience, and was never afraid to appear in shorts and a t-shirt, with only a sandal or flip-flop on her good foot, showing her casts off to the world. Annie knew Charlotte kept the casts once they were removed, and still had them somewhere, though Annie couldn’t for the life of her imagine why.

Her first boyfriend, Darren, had broken his ankle as a result of a particularly vicious tackle during a football game. Although it had clearly hurt him at the time, once he was in plaster he didn’t seem to bothered about the whole affair, and only seemed sorry the injury was preventing him from playing in the rest of the football season. He never had a walking heel fitted to his cast like Charlotte did, but then Annie supposed he didn’t need to, as he had two healthy arms, which Charlotte, during her time in plaster, did not. He was on crutches for the duration of his time in his cast, which only went as high as his knee, as it wasn’t a severe break. Aside from stopping him taking part in his precious football, he, like Charlotte, hadn’t let the cast hinder any other activities, Annie reminisced, including love-making…

Now she was in plaster, and finding it hard to be as uncaring about the situation as they had been. Her cute toes were a mess, and her left arm was in plaster from her fingers to her shoulder. She hoped her studies wouldn’t suffer, as she was left handed. She supposed she could still type with one good arm.

She put down the paperback she had nearly finished, and realised she was thirsty. She’d hoped that while in plaster she would have Bobbi to wait on her, but with Bobbi herself now in plaster too, that didn’t seem fair! Anyhow, Bobbi wasn’t here, and Annie knew she should really practice walking on her casted foot more. She still had her single forearm crutch to aid her balance, although now of course she had to hold it in her other hand. The tan coloured cast shoe she now kept permanently attached to her cast, as she couldn’t put it on one-handed. She had to ask for Bobbi’s help to be able to take it off at night and put it on again in the morning. She hoped that Bobbi would be back tonight, and not end up with the young barman. No, she thought, surely Bobbi wouldn’t; not with her broken leg…?

Annie swung her casted foot off the bed, lowering it gingerly to the ground, before standing up, taking most of her weight on her crutch and bare right foot. She sighed, then stepped forward with her left foot. Her shattered toes throbbed slightly as she took the her weight on her plaster-clad leg, limping forward with the unusual gait on one who cannot bend their ankle. She was about to take another step with her good foot, when she heard the front door open.

Chapter 12

Annie guessed the noise must be Bobbi returning from the bar, but was surprised when Bobbi’s usual entering fanfare of toppling skis was accompanied by a shout of “Ow…!”, from a voice Annie had not heard before. A female voice, but certainly not Bobbi’s. Annie did not have to wait in suspense for long though; the inner door opened to admit Bobbi, swinging herself in on her crutches. Behind her was a wheelchair being pushed by a blonde man, and in it sat the owner of the mystery voice. She was a cute red-haired girl, with her arm in a sling and a plastered right leg jutting out in front of her, currently engaged in rubbing her head with her good hand.

“I’m sorry about that…..I really am sorry….” Bobbi was muttering. She stopped, and looked at Annie, giving a slightly-less-than-sober giggle. “Annie,” she said, “I’d like you to meet my casted companion of the evening (another giggle), Ros, and her boyfriend Tommy…er…Tom.”

Ros stopped rubbing her head, and waved at Annie with her unplastered hand. “Hello she said, very cheerfully. “Pleased to meet you! Bobbi told me about your accident too.” She glanced down at Annie’s three exposed toes – the third and fourth ones still covered with the cotton wool pad Bobbi had improvised – as she said this. Annie involuntarily tried to wiggle her toes when she saw Ros looking at them, and instantly wished she hadn’t. However, having some company was far better than being bored, and Annie, although generally a quiet girl, enjoyed meeting new people. Ros clearly had some stories to swap regarding her casts, and Annie found herself wondering if they were the result of one or several accidents.

“The bar was getting way too crowded,” said Bobbi, propping her crutches up against the wall and balancing on one leg as she divested herself of her coat. “So we thought we’d come back here, and have a few drinks” she grinned.

“But we’ve nothing to drink…” began Annie, but Bobbi silenced her.

“All in hand! Ros and Tom have a bottle of rum in their chalet…”

“Which Tommy’s going to fetch for us!” chirped Ros

“And we’ve got that big bottle of coke…” continued Bobbi.

“So rum and coke it is!” concluded Ros, who had by now been positioned in the centre of the room by Tom.

“All planned I see!” said Annie. “I’ll get some glasses.” She turned, and, not wanting to look too concerned about her injuries in front of fellow ‘castees’, hobbled into the kitchen.

“Want any help?” Ros offered.

“No no, it’s fine.” Annie said, wondering what kind of help Ros could really give.

“I’ll give you a hand.” volunteered Tom.

“No no!” Ros quickly shouted him down. “You need to go and get the rum! Go on, of you go…” and Tom was quickly on his way out the door, his protests unheard over Ros’s insistent voice.

Leaving her crutches standing by the wall, Bobbi made her way into the kitchen, hopping at first, and then gingerly allowing herself to put the tiniest amount of weight on her casted leg, taking very short steps with it, and holding on to anything she could for support. Ros followed, using her booted good foot to propel the wheelchair. She seemed to be able to do that very well, and it was obviously something she had practiced often.

The small kitchen was very crowed with the three of them in it, especially due to Ros’s wheelchair. Annie had found some glasses, and Bobbi enquired where the bottle of coke was.

“In that cupboard there.” answered Annie, indicating one behind her.

“Oh, I’ll get it!” said Ros, who was nearer. She stood up from her wheelchair, her weight taken solely by her one good foot, with her casted leg hanging slightly out to one side of her, so her big toe just touched on the tiled kitchen floor. Annie and Bobbi felt sure she shouldn’t be doing that, but before they could say any words of warning, Ros had reached up and opened the cupboard with her left hand. The bottle was on the topmost shelf, and Ros was not a tall girl, being slightly shorter even than Annie. Ros stretched up, and managed to get hold of the base of the bottle with the three working digits of her left hand. Bobbi, being tallest, took a step towards her, but before she could utter a “Please, let me…”, a lot of things happened in quick succession.

Ros tugged the bottle off the shelf, caught it in her left hand, over balanced, and fell backwards, landing back down in her wheelchair. Her right leg, held straight by it’s plaster cast, shot forwards, and collided, toes first, with the lower cupboards. As she landed in her wheelchair, it rolled backwards, and met with Bobbi, who had been stepping forward to help. One of the back wheels, with the combined weight of the chair, Ros, and two plaster casts, rolled directly over Bobbi’s long slender toes, sticking gracefully out of the end of her plaster cast. Bobbi yelled, trying to step backwards out of the way, but already too late. She stepped back with her good left foot, still wearing her shoe on it. Annie was close behind her, and jerked her plastered leg and shattered toes out of the way. She couldn’t, however, move her bare right foot as well, and it was squarely onto the big toe of this foot that Bobbi’s shoe heel, and all her weight, landed.

The girls all yelped almost in unison. Ros was sitting in her wheelchair, biting her lip with the pain now coming up from her big toe. Tom had put one of her favourite pink socks over her toes for the journey to Bobbi’s chalet from the bar, so Ros couldn’t see how bad her toes looked, and she couldn’t reach them either, but they certainly felt painful. Annie had let her single crutch drop to the floor with a clatter, and was standing on her casted left foot, leaning on the kitchen unit for balance, her one good hand clasped firmly round her right big toe, sucking in her breath between clenched teeth in short gasps. Bobbi had hopped into the main room, heading to sit down on her bed, moaning “Ah, my toes, ow, ow! My toes! Ow!”

Chapter 13

Annie managed to stagger into the main room of the chalet, calling out to Bobbi “Ow, Bobbi, you stepped on my toe! Ow, I… I think it’s broken…”

Ros followed Annie, still pulling herself along with her good foot. Bobbi had somehow reached her bed, and had her hand as far down her plastered leg as she could reach. “Yeah… me too….” said Bobbi, faintly.

“Um…” Ros was heard to mumble. “Um…sorry…I…shall I ‘phone the resort reception and ask for, um, a doctor or an ambulance or…?”

“I suppose you had better.” said Bobbi, who seemed unaware Ros probably had broken some toes herself. Ros reached up from her chair and picked up the chalet’s telephone from where it hung on the wall.

“Hullo” she spoke into it, then “Hullo…?”. She pressed a few buttons on it, and tried again “Hullo…? Hullo there…?”. She looked helplessly at Annie and Bobbi. “It’s not working”, she said, sounding surprised, and looking about her as if she expected to see the reason for the telephone being out of order floating in the room in front of her. They all now noticed that the sound of the wind outside had grown much louder since Ros had arrived.

“Oh, Hell!” cursed Bobbi, and the winced as she looked at her bent toes again. However, Bobbi wasn’t a medical student for nothing. She realised that without the telephone, they would have to wait for Tom’s return. Luckily, the small but comprehensive first aid kit they had had been left on her bedside cabinet after Annie’s last injury. She reached for this now, and placed it between her and Annie, who was sitting on the end of the bed, still holding her big toe tightly in her fist.

“Let me have a look at that”, she said to Annie. Annie turned to face Bobbi, and stretched out her leg, seeming reluctant to let go of her swelling big toe, and placed her foot in Bobbi’s lap.

“OK…” Bobbi sighed, as though she had done this too many times already. “Does this hurt?”. She gave Annie’s toe a gentle squeeze.

“OW!” shrieked Annie. Bobbi could see the toe was swelling rapidly, especially around the joint. She slight heel of Bobbi’s shoe had landed squarely on the middle of Annie’s big toe, and Bobbi knew the joint must have been fractured, causing Annie a great deal of pain if she tried to bend her toe.

“Yeah…I’m afraid it’s broken” said Bobbi. “I’ll immobilise it the best I can.” She selected the ACE bandage from the first aid box, and, like when Annie had broken her other big toe a short while back, proceeded to wrap her toe in the bandage. Annie gasped a few times as Bobbi firmly bound her new injury, so as to prevent movement as much as possible, as well as protect Annie’s toe. Bobbi wrapped the bandaged tightly but thickly, so that, what with Annie’s toe being as swollen as it was, it looked over twice the size it should have once Bobbi had finished.

“Um, I don’t suppose you could have a look at mine…?” asked Ros, wheeling herself towards Bobbi.

“Oh!” gasped Bobbi, “I didn’t realise, oh, I’m sorry Ros.”

“It’s OK,” said Ros, through slightly gritted teeth. “If you could take my sock off…” Ros indicated the bright pink sock that was out of her reach on the end of her plastered leg. Bobbi, with her two good hands, quickly tugged the sock off, and looked at the well-manicured toes, each with a coat of clear polish on the nail. Ros had bent her big toe back on itself when her foot collided with the lower cupboard doors; the fact that it was broken was quite obvious. Bobbi also looked concernedly at Ros’ middle toe – it had a distinctive ‘zigzag’ shape to it, and Bobbi touched it gently with her finger.

“Does that…” she began, but Ros interrupted.

“Ah, no, that’s from… a while ago”, Ros said, indicating her bent toe with her one good hand.

Somehow, Bobbi reflected, she didn’t find that surprising!

“How about this?” Bobbi asked, moving Ros’ big toe to one side.

“Hurts!” said Ros, with quite a lot of feeling in her voice, although her expression remained calm.

“Well, it need so be set by a doctor”, Bobbi said. “It won’t hurt as much then.”

“Can’t you do that now?” asked Ros.

“What, me?!” queried Bobbi.

“Yes, it’ll stop it hurting as bad won’t it? Just… do it…” insisted Ros.

“Um, OK, if you’re sure.”

Bobbi seized hold of Ros’ big toe, and, after taking a deep breath, yanked it back into place. Ros gasped, and bit her lip again as she looked away, but then sighed.

“Thank you” she muttered, weakly.

Bobbi quickly used sticking tape to secure Ros’ big toe, before wondering how she could treat her own toes, which had been hurting her more and more.

“You’re going to have to help me here”, she said to Annie, after taping up Ros’ broken big toe.

“Of course, um…how?” Annie asked.

Over the next five minutes, Annie, using both her good right hand and her casted left one, squeezed and wiggled Bobbi’s squashed toes, provoking yelps of “Ow” from her roommate every so often. The first, second and third toes seemed to have taken the full force of the recoiling wheelchair; with the other two being only bruised. Annie used the last of the ACE bandage on Bobbi’s long and graceful big toe, and, once again, the ‘finger bandage’ proved very useful on the smaller toes. Annie padded all Bobbi’s injured toes with plenty of cotton wool under the narrow tube bandage, so her second and third toes appeared to be as thick as Annie’s own thumb.

Once she was finished, all the girls looked at each other, and then down at their broken toes, and then back at each other. The situation was ridiculous! In the space of half an hour, in what was supposed to be an evening of pleasant drinks with new friends, each of them had managed toe break their right big toe. One could only imagine what Tom would think when he returned.

A fresh and even more vicious howl of the wind outside made them all think the same thing, which Ros put into words.

“Where has Tommy got to?”

It was then that the chalet’s lights suddenly went out.

Chapter 14

After sitting in darkness for a few seconds, all the girls spoke out at once

“What..?” piped Ros.

“How…?” said Bobbi.

“Why…?” asked Annie.

“Did a bulb go?”

“A fuse maybe?”

“Maybe it’s some power lines blown over – has the rest of the resort got power?”

“Good point, I’ll check” said Bobbi.

She stood up quickly and took a step towards the window, forgetting entirely for the minute that her right leg was completely covered in plaster. The was a ‘THUNK’ as her plastered foot hit the floor heavily, and the next moment Bobbi was sprawled flat on her face.

“OW!” she shrieked.

“Bobbi!” yelled Annie and Ros. “Are you alright!?”

“Ow, my leg!” was Bobbi’s reply.

A feeble beam of light appeared with a ‘click’, as Annie found the small torch she had packed in her hand luggage and switched it on. In the poor light, she could see Bobbi slowly picking herself up from where she had fallen.

“Are you…?” Annie and Ros both began.

“I’ll live,” hissed Bobbi through clenched teeth, angry with herself for having stupidly forgotten about her own broken leg in the heat of the moment. Rather that attempt to get back on her feet (or foot) again, Bobbi crawled across the floor, dragging her cumbersome rigid leg behind her. Once she reached the window, she pulled herself up using the window sill, brushed the curtains aside and peered out. A good many chalets and other buildings could been seen from the window, and a number of them had lights on in them.

“Hmm….some are in darkness, but probably ‘cos everyone in them is asleep,” said Bobbi. “Plenty of the others have electricity still.”

“Oh dear,” said Ros from her wheelchair.

“Surely that’s a good thing?” queried Annie.

“No, don’t you see, if the whole resort had a power cut, they’d probably send people round to check on all the chalets,” answered Ros. “However, looks like it’s just us, and we’re stuck like this…” she used the good fingers of her left hand to point at her own newly broken toe, “until Tommy gets back – where is that man?!”

“Perhaps he’s had an accident too,” said Annie, glumly. Ros gave a small startled cry.

“We ought to try and get some help,” Ros announced. “It might just be a fuse – that’d put the ‘phone out of action to – and all we need to do is reset it to get everything working again. Where’s the fuse box?”

“In the kitchen I think, but…” Annie gestured at her two casts and her still throbbing big toe with her only remaining healthy limb. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go playing around with fuse boxes, after all that had just happened. On the other hand, getting the ‘phone working would mean getting some help, finding out what had happened to Ros’s boyfriend, and, eventually, getting away from the chalet and back home.

Bobbi seemed to come to a similar conclusion at the same time. “Ros is right,” she said. Her crutches were still on the other side of the room where she had left them, so she dragged herself across the floor towards Annie. Taking the torch, she crawled the short distance to the kitchen door, and lying on the floor, she looked into the small room.

“I think I can see it,” she called. “There’s a small grey cabinet thing over the sink.”

“You’re the tallest,” said Ros, matter-of-factly. “Do you think you can reach it?”

Bobbi seemed to give out something like a quiet sigh, before giving the torch back to Annie and crawling to her crutches. She managed to stand up, and, after a moment to compose herself, crutched carefully to the kitchen. She held her right leg very carefully out in front of her as she crutches. Her leg was now almost totally covered in white, from her bandaged toes to her plastered thigh which disappeared under her short black skirt. The plaster cast seemed to shine brightly in the faint light from the torch starkly contrasted by the low black shoe she wore on her good foot.

Reaching the counter which the grey box was above, she positioned herself so her casted leg was safely to one side. Holding both her crutches under one arm, her reached up with her other for the fuse box. To her annoyance, she was about four inches too short.

“No…” she groaned, stretching further. “I can’t seem too…”

“I’ll do it,” Ros said, almost to herself. Annie and Bobbi both started. Ros was shortest of all of them, and the most heavily plastered.

“Are you sure…?” began Annie, thinking back to what had happened that very evening when Ros had volunteered to help.

“Of course. Tommy might have fallen or something…”

“What are you going to do?” asked Bobbi.

“Climb!” was Ros’s simple answer. She had moved her wheelchair, pulling herself with her good leg, until she was at the kitchen door. Awkwardly, she removed her right arm from its sling, and then used her mainly working left hand to take the sling from around her neck and throw it to one side. Reaching down with the same hand, she unzipped the side of the boot on her left foot, and slipped her left foot out, to reveal another startlingly pink sock. Rising to her good foot, she steadied herself for a moment, and then took a step forward, holding onto the counter as best she could for support. Due to the way her cast was bent, she had to take some of her weight on her toes, which meant a considerable amount of pain in her newly bandaged broken toe. She only needed to take two steps to the place where she intended to climb onto the counter, but it was enough to make her clench her teach against the pain.

With Bobbi holding onto her upper left arm in order to support her, Ros somehow clamoured up onto the kitchen work surface, and by holding onto a convenient shelf, slowly straightened up.

“OK, I’ve got the ‘phone…!” piped Annie from the main room.

Standing only on her socked left foot, Ros opened the cabinet with her left hand, and flicked the big red trip she could see. Lights came on instantly, causing their unaccustomed eyes to blink in the brightness.

“It’s working!” called Annie, already dialling the resort’s 24 hour reception.

“Well done!” praised Bobbi, as Ros closed the fuse box again.

But it was too good to last. As Ros turned to begin the process of regaining the ground, her bright pink sock-covered foot slipped out from under her, and she fell backwards with a cry. Narrowly missing the horror-struck Bobbi, Ros plummeted off the counter, a mass of flailing casted and non-casted limbs. Her left hip struck the edge of the porcelain sink squarely, and Ros shrieked out in pain, before landing forcefully on the kitchen floor, her left arm pinned under her body, and apparently unconscious.

Chapter 15

Annie and Bobbi were leaving. The last day of their ‘holiday’ had arrived, and their luggage had already been sent on to the airport. Annie and Bobbi weren’t going there directly, however. They we calling at the local hospital, for one last time, to visit Ros.

When Annie had woken up that morning it was to a great sense of relief. She was going home! Her skiing holiday, which was supposed to have been a relaxing time away from studying, had caused her first broken bone ever. And not just one bone, but many! She couldn’t even say she’d broken them out on the slopes, as one might expect from someone who has just been on a skiing holiday. Swinging her plastered leg off the bed had still caused her to wince, and her poor shattered toes continued to throb a little when she walked. While Annie was looking forward to being back home, she was not looking forward to having to tell everyone she met what had happened to her, and answering all the questions she would surely be asked about her casts. Oh well, she mused. Other people survived being in casts, with the relentless questioning, and the physical inconvenience, so no reason why she shouldn‘t.

When Bobbi had woken up much later that morning, it had not been in the chalet. She looked around her at the hastily discarded clothes; the crumpled skirt, the strapless bra somehow caught on the back of a chair, the single black shoe lying on its side near the door. Beside her, Jan, the bartender, was still asleep. Bobbi pulled the sheets closer round her naked body, and moved her right hand down to rest on the plastered thigh of her aching right leg. Awkward, she thought. Bloody awkward. Fun though. If only her cast didn’t go so high. Better wait until she was in a smaller cast before trying it again, she thought.

They both looked rather sorry sights as they crutched and limped down the corridor to the room were Ros was. Annie had put on a light grey fleecy top, which hid her not unremarkable figure well, but as she had told herself that morning, who looks attractive in casts anyway? The long arm cast on her left arm was mostly covered by her sleeve, but meant her forearm was held rigidly across her body, and she was holding her single aluminium crutch with her right hand. Her faded light blue jeans had the left leg rolled up to just below the knee, to accommodate her short leg cast, with its tan cast shoe fitted. She had removed the impromptu coverings of her two smallest toes that Bobbi had made, so all five of her broken toes could be seen, lying still and helpless, silhouetted against the white plaster of her toeplate. All she could wear on her right foot was a sandal with a thin green sock under that, which did very little to hide the large white bulge that was her splinted and bandaged big toe.

Bobbi was wearing a purple long sleeved t-shirt, which she hoped was baggy enough to disguise the otherwise very noticeable bouncing (despite the restraining sports bra she was wearing) of her large breasts, caused by her crutching movements. Her hair was neatly combed, but there was a bruise developing on her right cheek from when she had fallen to the floor during the power cut. She had managed to find a pair of old navy trousers, and had painstakingly cut open the outer seam of the right leg using a pair of nail scissors. Through this her massive plaster cast protruded, with her first, second and third toes of that foot now professionally bandaged.

As she limped cautiously down the corridor, Annie happened to glance to her left. In a small room, seated upon a table similar to the one on which Annie had been casted, sat the young nurse with the squeaky voice and blonde spiky hair. She was sobbing to herself, and it was easy to see why. Two other nurses were in the room with her, and were just finishing applying two new short leg casts, complete with toeplates, to the nurse’s legs and feet. Annie stopped and stared in amazement, and then, afraid the weeping nurse might look up and see her, hurried on as quick as someone walking on a plastered leg can.

Bobbi reached the door of Ros’s room first, and knocked. The door was opened by Tom, also on crutches.

“Hi…Tommy…er…Tom,” Bobbi greeted him. “How’s the ankle?”

“Oh, fine,” replied Tom. “It was only a minor sprain, should be all OK in a few days.” Tom had lost the pathway back to his chalet that night, and slipped over on a patch of ice.

“And how’s Ros?” Annie enquired.

“Hi!” came a cheerful voice from the bed.

Tom shuffled backwards on his crutches to allow Annie and Bobbi into the room. Annie was amazed Ros could be in such good spirits. She looked a wreck, Annie thought. Her neck was in a foam collar, although the splint from her nose had gone now. She was wearing a light hospital gown, and a lot of plaster. Her left arm rested on her lap – like Annie, she had a cast from shoulder to her hand on that arm, but in Ros’s case it extended around the little and ring fingers of her left hand too. Her right hand lay on the bed, the cast from her hand to just below her elbow for her broken wrist was still there as it had been the night Annie had met her. The long leg cast on her right leg had been replaced, now extending from mid thigh down to the base of her toes, apart from the big toe, which it encased in plaster entirely. The hospital gown Ros was wearing was quite short and carelessly put on, so the front opening lay more to Ros’s left side. Through this gap, Annie could see just how vast the fourth cast Ros had really was. It began at the base of her cute toes, like any normal leg cast, but ran up and up her leg and over her left hip, until the hospital gown stopped it from being seen somewhere around her midriff. She had broken her hip when she had bounced off the sink after falling, as well as numerous bones in her left leg.

Annie, Bobbi and Ros chatted for some while. In the very short time they had known her, Annie and Bobbi had both become good friends of Ros, and they had agreed to keep in touch once back in England. Ros said they must both come and visit her at her house. Secretly, from what they had already seen of Ros, Annie and Bobbi believed it was more than likely they would be visiting her in a hospital more that at home.

After Ros mentioned something about nurses, Annie remembered the spiky haired nurse she had seen earlier, and commented on it to Bobbi.

“I wonder what happened to her?” pondered Annie.

“Oh, I know,” replied Ros. Annie was surprised she ever knew who they were talking about.

“Oh yes,” said Ros. “She was the nurse who helped change my leg cast” she.” She wiggled the four toes on her right leg that she was able to move. “Or rather, she started to help…”

“What happened?” asked Annie.

“Well, she went to move a large box of plaster of paris,” explained Ros. “It’s very heavy stuff, and it was a very big box, and, she dropped it!”

“Where?” asked Annie.

“On her feet of course! Both of them. She’d taken her shoes off; apparently they were new and were pinching her.”

“Ouch,” said Annie and Bobbi in unison.

“Yes, she fractured almost every bone in each foot, I think I heard them say…” added Ros.

Annie and Bobbi looked down at their own plastered feet, then at Ros, then at each other. They had a strange feeling that Ros was going to be an interesting person to be friends with…!

THE END