In Guardian's Instinct, Deidre, Mary's best friend, calls her up and invites/insists that Mary join her on an impromptu trip to Haute Nandez, Switzerland. Mary finds herself on skis at the top of the glacier, and Mary doesn't know how to ski.
This scene was based on my true life story way back in the day when I was a fille au pair for a Swiss family. They could not conceive of someone not being able to ski as easily as they walked. Yes, the snow patrol was bringing in the dog team. Yes, I sat on the elasticated T-bar and made some poor guy tumble down the mountain beside me. Yes, there was an adrenaline junky who willingly went up with me and kindly coached me all the way up.
This was in the days of disposable cameras. When I got to the top of the glacier, there was a line of Swiss people waiting patiently to one-by-one take a picture with me. Since there was no Internet back then, I thought, "Whatever, sure, take my photo." Was there hot coffee and good food waiting for me at the top? No. No, there was not. But I felt Mary deserved sustenance after all that.
The next stop for Mary was Estonia.
I actually went to Estonia to research Guardian's instinct. In my next blog post, I'll tell you about heading out to the bog, what it felt like to get into a bog pool, and the struggle to get back out.