The plane rides were long and arduous but by the time we reached Greenvale National park, most of us were so happy to be through with travel that we forgot our tiredness.

Greenvale was a small community made up mostly of holiday homes and the local resort where travelers would stay before taking on Greenvale’s infamous slopes. It was usually busy this time of year, Winter, but we had visited in the spring at times in the past and this village became quaint and quiet. Besides the resort, there was a small general store, a petrol station, a diner, a liquor store and a bar. There was also a bar attached to the resort, and a classy restaurant. Being a holiday town, Greenvale didn’t have a lot of the amenities one might expect: no theatre, no galleries, no parks. This place really was just for skiing and relaxing in the various beautiful houses or a room at the resort. There was a ranger station, the rangers acting as de facto police as well as their official job in dealing with local wildlife, but the rangers were so bored most of the time they acted more like tour guides.

One of the rangers, a man named Jacob Prescott, greeted us upon arrival. He was an older gentleman, perhaps my mother’s age, perhaps older. His short, brown hair disappeared beneath his ranger hat, which he hadn’t the good manners to think to take off inside, and lines of grey could be seen scattered throughout the brown comb above his top lip. He was handsome, masculine and he smiled widely when he spoke. Despite currently being in Alaska, his thick American accent still caught me off guard.

He was from Minnesota apparently, wherever that was, and several of the things he said seemed to imply he thought we should have some impression of him, based on this location. Being Australian, we were none the wiser.

Apparently he would be the one to drive us up to our holiday house, which was about a 15 minute drive away from the center of town - a distance that kept it nice and secluded and ensured privacy whenever we visited. Jacob also acted as our groundskeeper, a mantle he had taken up ever since our father died. Andrew found this behaviour suspicious and insisted that our mother deny his offer but she and I agreed that he was just being kind. In my case, I supposed he was also probably bored. Unlike the tourists, he spent most of his time here. It’s not everyday that a bear wanders into town and needs to be corralled.

Mother and Jacob immediately began chatting and became deeply involved, so Andrew and I showed the rest of the group around while we waited for the car to be ready. Most of the town's important places were situated around a large roundabout with a circle of walkable brick in the centre. Said centre must have been around 50 metres in diameter, not including the bitchemen that encircled it. There were metal benches lining the outer edge and stone ones attached to a beautiful water feature in the very centre. Everyone marveled at how beautiful it already was, with small fluffy flecks of snow dancing in the air, and wondered how much more beautiful it might be if the naked trees peppered around were adorned with their usual bright green jackets. 

We all walked across the centre of the roundabout to look at the front of the resort. Cory and Matthew wanted to go inside and look around but Andrew felt we didn’t have enough time. Perhaps he was just eager to get to the house and unload all his stuff. We then circled back around the roundabouts edge to look at the general store, which we went inside, as well as the liquor store and bar which we did not. By the time we had looped back around to meet back with mother and Jacob, they were ready to take us to our holiday home.

“Oh, there you all are!” Mother chimed when we got back around to her. “Come, Jacob will take four of you now, I have to stay behind to get some groceries from the store.”

“You should have said something, we were right there, mum!” Andrew said but it wasn’t the end of the world that our trip was slightly less efficient, despite how he might feel about it. He always had liked things to move along orderly and how he expected.

Given the size of our group, we would have to take at least 3 car trips to chauffeur the 11 people (including Jacob) to the house. In the end, Mother going to the store took just as much time as the first two trips, making her timing impeccable. Most of the others had already gone, leaving just me, Cory and Mother. We all soon clambered into the final car with Jacob and we were off.