Can It Be Love?

A Short Story

Some people, they say, fall in love at first sight. But that was not the case with William Hatchard and Philippa Jameson. They hated each other from the moment they met.

This mutual loathing commenced at the first tutorial of their freshman terms. Each had been assured by their school teachers that they would be a star student of the year.

Simon Jakes, their tutor at New College, was both bemused and amused by the ferocious competition that so quickly developed between his two brightest students. And he used their enmity skillfully to bring out the best in both of them without ever allowing either to indulge in outright abuse.

So William and Philippa were competing against each other in their knowledge and skills, but unfortunately or, perhaps, fortunately they were quite equal. Both students were bright and industrious, hard-working and didn’t lack desire for knowledge and study. They attended classes eagerly and were very attentive and active during them.

After classes William and Philippa usually felt rather awkward because it was time for the students to say good-bye to each other. Philippa would cast her eyes down and wait until William left the room. Other students, their peers, seemed quite understanding on the point, as they knew that those two couldn’t stand each other and didn’t either disapprove of it, or interfere in it.

One day after passing the final examination of the winter session (both William and Philippa had got excellent marks for it), the students decided to go somewhere on their winter vacation. They chose a ski resort in the French Alps for that purpose.

In France young people were enjoying themselves and had a lot of fun. They went to nightclubs, restaurants, casinos, discos, etc. where they danced, drank sweet wines, played card games (pontoon, loo, whist, poker), roulette, just socialized (talked and chatted) and laughed a lot. The students went skiing every day. They mostly preferred a mountain type of skiing. Some of them also went snowboarding, sledging and tobogganing.

One frosty morning the whole company went skiing. They were on the top of the ski slope and had to wait for their turns to ski down it. William and Philippa happened to be the last ones.

Meanwhile, the weather was changing for the worse. It was getting very cold and frosty. A strong freezing wind started blowing from the north, and it began snowing heavily. Besides, that very ski slope chanced to be rather steep.

A skiing instructor on duty advised the young people not to ski down due to difficult unfavourable skiing conditions. But they said that they would manage. Philippa and William were looking at each other almost angrily.

A few minutes later Philippa’s turn to ski down the slope came. She was a rather good skier and wasn’t much troubled about the bad weather conditions. She skied down the slope quite well, though she found it harder than usual to cope with the skis and ski sticks.

At the foot of the slope Philippa started taking off her skis. It turned out a rather long and tiresome procedure, and it took her a number of minutes. As she was busy unfastening the downhill skis from the ski boots, she saw William Hatchard skiing down.

As it was snowing very heavily, Philippa could scarcely see him. But nevertheless she managed to see that towards the foot of the mountain, William’s movements became awkward and clumsy, and soon he disappeared out of sight. Some crackling noise followed, which Philippa Jameson failed to hear very distinctly.

“William must have fallen down and broken his ski, or something”, Philippa reckoned, “and, perhaps, well, is very likely to have injured himself… But it’s time for me to leave”.

Philippa considered. William was the last one. All the rest of the company had already left and were by now, perhaps, enjoying hot tea or coffee somewhere in a cafe or a pub. The skiing instructor was most unlikely to ski down himself. They were alone there, at the foot of the slope.

Philippa had a great desire to go away, to flee herself, but she proved capable of resisting that tremendous temptation. Philippa had a sense, a feeling of responsibility, duty. No, of course she didn’t want to deal with William Hatchard, she didn’t like him at all. But what would she tell the rest of the company? That she had left William alone when he needed help? A good idea! They would despise her and hold her in contempt. They would consider her evil and wicked, and what was even worse, they would be right. Philippa’s reputation was at stake, no doubt.

So Philippa laid her skis aside and went to look for William. She was very cold by that time and couldn’t see anything because of the heavy snowfall. At last she found him.

William was lying in the snow. One of his skis was broken, just as Philippa had expected, and his left leg was injured. Perhaps the bone was damaged or even fractured, or something. Besides, he was lying with his eyes closed.

“William”, said Philippa and waited. He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Please, don’t move”, she continued. “I’ll try and do something”. William was looking at her, and his gaze seemed a bit ironic.

Philippa tried to take off his skis, or what was left of them. It took her quite a long time. So by the time she had finished, William was all covered with snow. Philippa had to wipe it off his face. She took out her handkerchief and started wiping his face. But suddenly she dropped the handkerchief and had to lean forward to pick it up. She felt something hot on her lips. It was a kiss.

Philippa grew furious. What an impudence! How could he possibly dare?! Such an impertinent young man! “What does this all mean?!”, she cried, infuriated. “Who are you to have done that, may I ask?! Could you just be so kind as not to move?”

Philippa got up, “I’ll go to the nearest telephone box and call an ambulance”, she said.

She did so. Then she had to return to William Hatchard and stay by his side till the ambulance came. William was keeping silent all the way round. But still there was that odd, bitter irony or even sarcasm in his look.

As the weather was still bad, the ambulance arrived about fifteen or twenty minutes later.

William was taken to hospital. Philippa had to accompany him.

Doctors and nurses at the hospital all, no doubt, mistakenly took her for his girlfriend. Philippa didn’t object to it, she was too angry to do that.

At the hospital, after examining William’s injured leg very carefully, the doctor brought out a severe verdict: the bone was fractured, and, therefore, William needed some serious treatment.

“I hope you’ll take a good care of your young man, miss”, said the doctor.

“Sure, sure”, Philippa replied, feigning affection.

She stayed with William. When he became better, she left.

…Philippa Jameson had to leave New College to never come back there again, and joined another one, as the scandal proved quite up to the mark. The whole company were entirely convinced and dead sure that she was William’s girlfriend, and it was absolutely no use telling them that she actually was not: they would all the same fail to believe. Of course Philippa liked the English language and literature, but she simply had no other choice. Simon Jakes had to be contented with only one bright student.

…Whether she loved him or not, she couldn’t really tell for sure… But that he was infatuated with her, at least for a short while, she was quite certain. Though she couldn’t tell when exactly it had begun: before his unfortunate skiing down that infernal slope, when he was lying in the snow or when she was staying by his side in the hospital.