Underfoot, the ice crunching

Extremities are blue and numb

The lake is freezing, Ice expanding

Autumn coming to a destruction

The snow Is damp and white

It is cold, frigid and bleak

Death is a grim visitor, and bleak

Arriving uninvited, wicked plans crunching

At lives, innocent and white

He is black, apathetic and numb

Causing loss and destruction

Melancholy, poignant feelings are expanding

Death and loss expanding

The season has been bleak

Nothing but destruction

Ribs crunching

Grief and numb

Malicious blizzard, white

Aloof and white

Consciousness expanding

From over-thinking to numb

Outside cold and bleak

Soul retreating, crunching

Towards survival, avoiding destruction

Away from destruction

Approaching a hopeful white

Grief retreating, snowdrop crunching

Through the thawing ground, expanding

Because nothing now can remain as bleak

As when my soul, mind and body were numb...

The ground green, once frozen and numb

Winter coming to a destruction

This season is always jaunty and warm, never bleak

Snowdrop daffodil, and claytonia, white

Turf, vines and other flora expanding

Sorrow crunching

That boy is on fire!!

There once was a boy named Bob and he was on fire, if you think that was a metaphor then you're wrong. He was born with a condition called ‘fire human’ where someone is born literally on fire and they can never put it out. Luckily, he didn’t feel the fire but if someone else touched it then they would burn. This is why Bob’s mother was dead. His father didn’t want a baby who was on fire so he threw baby Bob in a forest and started a forest fire, but Bob was saved by a random pack of wolves and was raised by them. Now we cut to December 1st, the beginning of Winter.

Bob surprisingly loved the snow, even though he was on fire he still loved to play around in the snow and make snow angels and howl around. Every year in the town all the little kids his age would go out to the snow at the town square and play. Bob wanted to go but every year his random wolf family said no.

Today was a similar day

“You cannot go” screeched the random wolf

“But I wanna howl at humans and experience snow” Bob responded, trying to reason with random wolf.

“No means no, Bob. Besides me and your random wolf family are going to Vegas to eat tacos” the random wolf stated while his random wolf family got their luggage. “Remember Bob, you can go around but stay away from trees and no going to town”

The random wolf family ran to Vegas to get some tacos before Bob could say goodbye.

Bob squinted outside the cave and waited until his random wolf family left, when he was sure they were gone he carefully tip-toed out of the cave and made his way to town

He did a little victory dance on his way to town out of glee, it would be his first time around people. Unfortunately, he fell into a bush and accidentally started a bush fire. He quickly tried to put it out by picking up some snow in the ground and throwing it at the fire but the fire spread to the other bushes. It only grew bigger and bigger till the forest was covered in flames, Bob ran away before anyone spotted him and ran to town for help but it didn’t go the way it planned

“THE FOREST IS ON FIRE!”

The town ran around screaming instead of trying to put out the fire

“THAT BOY IS ON FIREEEE” screeched a random guy with a hat. The random guy with a hat ran towards Bob with a bucket of water and threw it at Bob “HE’S STILL ON FIRE?!” questioned a townsfolk “WITCHCRAFT!!!!!”

They all pointed at him “but how will we hang him, he's on fire!!!” They all sat on the ground at the same time with a thinking pose except for one guy with a mustache

“You know….we have guns?” he said.

The town all got up “ohhh” they all ran in their homes looking for guns.

Bob took it as a good time to run, he began to run while an angry mob of shooters chased him in the burning forest.

The wolves came back with tacos and pineapple pizza. They were enjoying their nice walk home until they heard gunshots, screaming and smelt smoke. They all sighed knowing what happened already

“We are starting the pizza without him!” The wolves opened the pizza box and found its already cold, they shrugged and made a barbecue with the forest fire whilst poor Bob was running away from an angry mob. Luckily the snow put out the fire but the damage was still there.

There goes our barbecue..” The wolves mumbled.

Bob ran back into the cave and luckily the angry mob lost him but they were still running around the forest shooting things. Bob held his breath as he heard footsteps

“I know you're in here witch, I can hear your flames”

Bob recognized that voice, it was the random guy with a mustache.

“I know who you are Bob”

Bob was confused ‘He knows me?’.

Mustache guy turned towards where Bob was hiding, “I am your father!”

Bob was in shock “noooooooooooooooooooooooo” he screamed star wars style. He got up and ran, the reason he didn’t get shot is because he is a main character.

The next day the headlines were ‘Australian bushfire in winter?!’ and ‘Crazy witch makes a fire’. Other countries laughed at the headlines and thought they were mad. Bob’s random wolf family were reading the papers and saw a picture of Bob. Even when Bob was running for his life he always had to pose for a picture. He talked about wanting to be on a cover of vogue being the first person with his condition to be a model. Only one in 7.8 billion people have this condition, and that one person is just Bob. At least wolf Santa visited Bob, though he accidentally set his gifts on fire. But that was just another normal winter for Bob Howling Random Wolf.

It was that time of year, the time where kids scattered through their wardrobes in hopes of finding outgrown cozy mittens from last winter season to feel the warmth while forming frosty balls of snow to throw at one another. Meanwhile, this was not the case for Venery-high student Aviana Emberson. Aviana wasn’t as cheerful about the fact that the season that had arrived.

Aviana missed the sparse cool mid-autumn air, and the autumn leaves fluttering down after delicately detaching from tree branches. She missed the delightful feeling of hearing the soothing crunch after stepping on a leaf dryer than the tip of her bottom lip.

That was Aviana Emberson’s idea of a breathtaking season, but it hadn’t always been like that for her. She used to feel differently about winter.

Now, the story of Aviana Emberson is no facile trouble-free life,

And as for her sister by heart Jaidis Paisley, let’s just say, her story wasn’t any more secure as Emberson’s. But what they’ve experienced, now that’s a story that needs to be told.

These girls were raised in a small town that they were familiar with as home.

This compact yet lively area was well known as Northtale and was usually responsible for supernatural events, unexplainable things have happened in Northtale, and even without a genuine answer, others still hadn’t believed what Northtale’s townspeople said about what was truly behind all of those unexplainable things.

Now, again. Let me take you back to a time where winter's heavy pure white snow and a breeze that sent shivers down your spine were appreciated in the warm heart of Aviana Emberson...

“Come on, Come on!” a voice had exclaimed, and this charming little voice belonged to Jaidis Paisley.

_____________________________________________________________________

She rushed through a slim snow trail in a forest, that before winter season, was Jaidis and Aviana’s shortcut trail leading to the center of Town Northtale where lived Aviana, Jadidis’s home was further in the town so she always slept over in winter season, awaiting for the arrival of snow.

The center of this abnormal town had been filled with chilling icicles and thick pure white snow during this time, all the town's kids after school had always gathered in the center and had the best fun they could with winter’s frost.

“I’m coming Jaidi!” Said the stunning young voice of Aviana, as she tucked her frozen hands into the ends of her pockets, she could feel the gum wrappers.

Frosted air forced its way into her lungs and stung her eyes. She wrapped her scarf twice around her neck so that it overlapped her bluing lips. Aviana bent her ahead to avoid the oncoming wind.

“Well, Catch up faster Avia! Or else all the snow will already have footprints left behind!”

As Aviana kept walking the same pace as before, Jaidis being the devoted best friend she is, turned back to stay near Aviana and keep her warm, wrapping her nylon jacket sleeve around Aviana’s shoulder, They walked at a normal pace taking in the beautiful scenery, branches hanged low with the weight of snow on them, glittering snowflakes fell soundlessly. Aviana started warming up as she slowly moved her hand away from her pocket holding out her hand as a snowflake drifted down landing on the palm of her mitten, underneath was cold pale skin. Aviana took hold of Jaidis’s hand, unwrapping it from her shoulder. They ran hand in hand through the misty fog that moved below their knees.

Jaidis squinted her eyes noticing through the frosty tree branches, a blurry sight of snowballs being thrown, and a couple of foggy moving colors appeared.

“There’s only a couple kids there already! Come on, Come on!” Said by Jaidis, as she tightened her grip on Aviana’s wrist.

They rushed through the slippy thin melting snow below their boots, smearing on the rock floor of the forest. As the fuzzy vision cleared up, Aviana and Jaidis, not watching their footsteps, stumbled out of the bitterly cold weather of the snow trail, and into the magical center of Northtale.

Seconds passed as if time had been frozen while Aviana and Jaidis had been knocked down knee-first by the thick whited snow that extended up until their calves. Their mittens sank into the thickness of the snow, they pressed down on it to find their way up. The girls giggled while they dusted themselves off.

“Well, that was unexpected.” Said Aviana.

“Couldn’t have described it better myself.” Sighed Jaidis.

They turned to face each other smirking with a look of “RACE YOU TO THE BENCHES!” idea. They ran while taking huge steps through the heavy snow that only occurred this thick in Northtale.

Aviana in a rush, hardly pressed down her mittens on the rustic high-backed bench, as she breathed heavily, she awaited Jaidis. She raised her eyes to the top of the bench and in carved writing the words,

“Keep the good memories alive, Forever.” Were there.

“Hm? What does th-” Aviana said while quickly getting interrupted by the voice of Jaidis.

“You’ve won again!” Said Jaidis barely able to speak, as she jogged over to the Bench. Aviana was in deep concentration thinking about the carved writing.

“Hey, what’s up?” Said Jaidis, Looking concerned.

“Oh, I was just admiring the writing on the benc-” In shock, she noticed the writing had vanished.

“Looking at what writing?” Said Jaidis, In confusion.

“Nothing! Uh, yeah... Nothing at all. Now let's go Enjoy the fresh clean snow before more kids come and leave footprints!” Said Aviana brushing it off while running away from the bench and heading forward towards a huge pile of snow.

“I’m coming, Just give me a m-moment.” Said Jaidis. Jaidis’s face went almost as pale as the snow, as she took deep breaths. She laid her back on the bench feeling the wood curves.

“Am I having difficulties breathing..?” Mumbled Jaidis. Jaidis was not one to usually have breathing issues, as her health was in perfect condition. She took one last deep breath and ran towards the snow pile where she noticed Aviana was forming snowballs. Blinking slowly, Jaidis hadn’t noticed a snowball coming right towards her. BAM!made the noise as cold smushy snow dripped down Jaidis’s nylon jacket.

“YOU BETTER NOT JUST HAVE-” Jaidis said in a laughter tone.

“Oh yeah, I did!” Said Aviana proudly while tossing another snowball up and down.

Aviana’s going to regret that,

Has she forgotten Jaidis’s captaincy in the school’s volleyball team? Let's hope not.

As time passed, let’s just say Snowballs flung, and falls were made.

Aviana and Jaidis layed on the cold winter snow laughing after an epic match of Snowball-war. A game Invented by yours truly, Jaidis Paisley.

“I have an idea, Let's go build a snowman!” Said Jaidis, Picking Herself up, then giving Aviana a hand.

“Why not!” Said Aviana.

Carrots, buttons, scarfs, twigs, and cereal were all sectioned into metal bowls and set on wooden steady tables as decoration for building snowmen. Parents set them up every year before the arrival of their children after school hours. That's the kind of loving town Northtale is.

The girls rushed over to the tables, Jaidis began collecting materials for their Snowman.

While Kneeling, Aviana gathered snow together to form the first snowball, afterwards, she shook melted snow off her mitten covered hands.

Jaidis Knelt beside her, spreading out the materials, she began to feel her trousers soak in the cold snow.

Aviana was finishing off the last miniature snowball for the snowman's head, While Jaidis was cautiously pressing on the brown-colored buttons, In hopes of not applying too much pressure so the snowman wouldn’t collapse.

Time went by as they finished off most of the other decorations for the snowman. As more children arrived, more materials had been collected. Aviana and Jaidis pressed the brand new-looking carrot into the center of the snowman’s face gently. They were guessing it was new as it still had the label sticker on it, and also the fact it still had that untouched bright orange shine to it. Jaidis bent down grabbing a hand-knitted scarf, They wrapped it twice below the snowman’s head so it would stay warm. They then took steps back and stared at the snowman for seconds.

“It feels... Incomplete?” Said Aviana.

“Hm.” Jaidis was in thought with her snug wet mitten on her chin.

“I know!” Said Aviana. “It's missing a hat!” Aviana walked a couple of steps to the tables one again, Searching for the metal bowl with knitted hats. “There must be none left.” Said Aviana in her thoughts, She slightly frowned. As she wanted to make her snowman feel complete. She turned around facing all the other children, All their snowmen looked so similar. Aviana heard light crying noises coming from nearby, She narrowed her eyes and looked around. She noticed a little girl crying with her knees tucked into her chest near her snowman that was begging to melt, dripping drops. Aviana took smaller steps as the snow had begun to lighten up and it wasn’t as thick. She bent down sitting crossed-legged near the girl.

“Hello, Are you Ok..?” Said Aviana, placing her hand on the girl’s dry nylon coat.

“M-my Snowman d-doesn’t have a s-scarf.” mumbled the unknown girl, Raising her head away from her skirt that now had teardrops on it.

Aviana smiled with grace, She stood up and ran through the iced snow over to Jaidis. She unwrapped the snowman’s scarf and smiled at Jaidis while jogging back to the little gir-

“Where did she go? Where did her snowman go?” Said Aviana, stopping with a blank face.

Without a trace of where the little girl had gone. Aviana stood there holding the scarf in confusion. Could this have been a test for Aviana Emberson? Would she choose to give, rather than keep? An act of true kindness.

“Aviana?” Said Jaidis, Placing her hand onto her shoulder.

Aviana gazed out to that same corner, deep in thought. “She didn’t even leave footprints..” mumbled Aviana.

“What was that?” Said Jaidis.

“Nothing! I was just observing the frosty bare trees! You know me, Just taking in the scenery.” Said Aviana, trying to improvise.

“Ok, well come on! I know where we can find a hat!” Said Jaidis Grabbing Aviana’s wrist once more.

As Jaidis ran forward, Aviana faced back into that same corner, still in confusion blinking. Through a tree, Aviana saw a figure behind the branches. “That's the-the girl!” Aviana Mumbled.

The girl smiled raising her hand then vanished? Leaving sparkly essences on the snow.

“What. In. the. worl-'' Said Aviana but before completing her sentence, she felt tugging on her wrist by Jaidis.

“Come on! What is with you?” said Jaidis.

“No- Nothing. Sorry, let’s go.” Said Aviana.

They stood outside a wooden door with a window. The weather had been so bitter cold, the glass had turned frosted. Jaidis stood on her tippy-toes using her sleeve to whip a clear circle into the foggy glass, to peep through. Aviana gently pulled Jaidis back and Bent down, Picking up the rustic old mat and revealing a key underneath. She unlocked the door then nudged it open. A steamy hot chocolate smell spread from across the office. A coat with a golden plate badge was hung on a silver coat rack in the corner, the area was decorated with a grey fuzz carpet and thistles hanging from the walls with sparkling red balls.

“These are my two favorite girls.” Said an unknown man, dressed like a cop.

“Uncle Keller!” Cried Aviana, stepping inside, shaking the snow off her boots on the mat, then running into the open arms of Uncle Keller for a hug.

Uncle Keller Placed his hot Coco down on a firm office table stacked with paperwork.He bent down a bit and hugged Aviana.

“Sheriff Keller!” Said Jaidis, Running up to them, joining in on the hug.

“Now what do I owe this pleasure.” Said Sheriff Keller lifting his steamy hot cocoa and taking a sip.

“We need the box.” Said Jaidis, knowing the reaction that was coming. She didn’t want to bring it up, but she knew it was a brilliant idea.

Sheriff Keller spat out his boiling Coco, brown splatters went all over the carpet.

“The Box? You mean..” Said Sheriff Keller, losing his words.

“Yes, I mean, Mrs. Emberson’s belongings box.” Said Jaidis nervously.

Aviana bit a dry area on her lip holding back tears that began forming in her eyes. She wiped them swiftly before anyone noticed.

Sheriff Keller smiled, then opened a door and walked inside. Seconds passed as he walked out holding a wooden box with a golden lock on it, Pictures of a beautiful lady and her family were on the top with pins. He placed the box on the floor then unwrapped a chain from around his neck that held a silver key. He handed it to Jaidis.

The girls bent down and Aviana wiped the dust off from the pictures. Jaidis picked at the lock then unlocked the Box, rusted air came out spreading across the room.

“Mom’s old stuff..” Said Aviana, Smiling. You could see the sadness in her eyes as if her heart was made of glass and was about to shatter.

Jaidis delicately touched the items. There were so many memories Aviana could remember in an instant. Cards, Bears, blankets.

Aviana’s eyes widened as she picked up a black fedora hat. Dusting the dirt off.

“Mom bought this for dad when they first met, damn, She really didn’t know his style.” said Aviana as a tear slid down her cheek.

They all laughed, and Jaidis wiped the tear-off of Aviana’s face. Jaidis picked up a rusted looking book with the title of- “Home can be everywhere and anywhere.” in gold cursive writing. Jaidis flipped through the pages stopping at a page.

“A lavender flower, Mom’s favorite.” Said Aviana picking it up from the book padge and smelling the sweet scent of lavender.Aviana slid the lavender through a thin strip of brown leather on the hat. The flower twinkled.

“Thank you, Uncle Keller.” Said Aviana picking herself up with Jaidis.

“No problem Snowflake, don’t worry about the box and things. I’ll clean it up.” Said Sheriff Smiling drinking his warm cocoa.

Aviana held the hat smiling down as if her mother was with her. The girls left closing the door and hiding the key underneath the mat once more.

“Best idea ever right?” Sais Jaidis wraps her arms around Aviana’s shoulders behind her.

“Thank you, What would I do without you.” Said Aviana taking hold of Jaidis’s hands and bringing her to the side. They ran back towards the center of Northtale.

On the way to their snowman, Aviana bent down picking up the scarf for the little girl’s snowman she had dropped. Adding the last details on the snowman, Aviana Wrapped the scarf around the snowman twice again. While Jaidis was pressing in the cereal hoops for his smile. As they both finished, they knelt picking up the hat and both placed it on the snowman's head. A glimmer shone around the snowman almost like it had been given life.

“Woah!” The girls exclaimed stepping back and looking at their snowman.

“It needs a name!” Said Jaidis.

“How about, Stical? Short for Mystical.” Said Aviana.

“I. Love. it.” Said Jaidis.

No other snowman that had been built that very day had been like Stical, he was different.

_____________________________________________________________________

Stical had been revived for several years, every year. With the same exact materials. But as the tradition grew old and untouched It faded. Aviana and Jaidis Grew much older themselves, Forgetting the old memories, and starting the new. Stical’s spirit had been forgotten and the joy he gave to the girls every year was gone, The girls didn’t celebrate winter with the town anymore, and Northtale itself changed. The Celebration had been different ever since, Parents wouldn’t set up tables and Christmas decorations around town. Let's just say the spirit of Northtale had just vanished. Stical had become a lost memory.

The girls began attending Venery-high. The relationship between Jaidis and Aviana became much stronger, they were inseparable. Except Jaidis was hiding a deep secret from Aviana, One she couldn’t find out about.

As you may remember, Jaidis was having breathing difficulties, She told her parents about it and they scheduled a doctor's appointment. And what came as a shock, Jaidis was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. Being punished from having a normal life, She would have to take on 24 hours of surgery to be able to live a normal life. But that came with the risk of death. She struggled to keep this secret from Aviana, but she knew it was for the best. That's what she thought was right, but was that truly right?

As I had mentioned before the story of the past came along, was that it was winter. No sooner had the cars’ icy tracks been imprinted on the roads. Snowflakes drifted down landing on tree branches that moved with the heavy wind. The girls walked down the snow trail freezing cold.

“Hm, Jaidis. Why do we still take this trail? We don’t really need to get to the center of Northtale for the snow anymore, Plus it’s a long way from Venery-high.” Said Aviana kicking at the snow after a rough day.

Jaidis smiled, stopping Aviana and giving her a warm hug. “We take it because we always will, It's just how it is,” said Jaidis.

Both of the girls weren’t as celebrative with winter as before, as they were always occupied with their teenage lives. But Jaidis still had some hope, she always has. But with Aviana It was different, ever since her mother passed at a young age, her brother and dad and herself never looked at winter the same. Losing the spirit.

“Race you to the end of the trail!” Said Aviana releasing Jaidis from the hug and begging to start off running.

Jaidis was not supposed to run in her condition, but she didn’t want to seem like she was acting differently in front of Aviana, so. She did something stupid and ran.Sweat began to slide down her cold face, her skin turned pale and Jaidis began breathing heavily, “In and out, In and out.” Said Jaidis in her thoughts. Her sight began to blur up and everything began to spin.

Aviana noticed Jaidis wasn’t running so she decided to run back, and just in time. Jaidis stumbled forward before she fell, Aviana grabbing for her arms as she tumbled. The time had felt like it had been paused once again, Aviana’s facial expression was a look of terror. Jaidis knocked her head on the solid rock beneath the snow. Then she laid there, barely breathing at all. Aviana knelt beside Jaidis, screaming for help in panic.

"Help! Somebody! Help! Please!” but it was useless, nobody had been around.

Aviana lightly laid her head on Jaidis’s heart in hopes of hearing beats. She took off her jacket swiftly, wrapping it around Jaidis. Aviana speedily took her phone out of her back pocket After dialing numbers, her hands shaking as a shiver rushed down her spine. Soon, she began to hear sirens in the distance, Aviana felt a sudden relief. Tears ran down her cheeks as she placed her hands on her face, looking down at the slushy snow, drops fell sinking into the snow soon after disappearing. She raised her head and squinted her eyes as the ambulance came closer, she noticed her Dad in the ambulance along with Mrs. and Mr. Paisley.

The rest of the time was a blur, for everyone.

Aviana remembers the warmth of her dad’s arms wrapping around her as she shed tears.

A young lady in the ambulance began asking for a description of what had happened, but Aviana’s throat tightened and she shook her head not wanting to speak.

Jaidis opened her eyes at one point, seeing color lights flash and a lady holding up fingers trying to keep her conscience by asking questions, but then she blacked out again.

_____________________________________________________________________

“You can come to see her now.” Said the doctor, she held a clipboard and took notes of every description of what had happened when Jaidis blacked out, taking Aviana’s word for it.

Aviana had been pacing up and down the hall for the past 2 hours, she slept at the hospital with her Father and Jaidis’s parents the previous night, an office lady offered them empty patient bedrooms but Aviana slept on a cotton grey chair in the waiting room, curling up into her dad’s arms where she felt the safest.

“Thank you.” Said Mr. Emberson as he placed his hand onto Avina’s shoulder as they both walked in.

Aviana rushed straight to the bedroom where Jaidis rested, she saw a sight she would never forget. A clear mask over Jaidis’s face connected to a foggy tube, The nurse described it as- "Positive airway pressure.” There were several tubes attached to her arms and fingers. Aviana noticed a heart rate monitor machine, the bright green line hadn’t seemed to make too many movements. Aviana held Jaidis’s hand and felt a relief that she was going to be OK.

While Mr. Emberson and the parents of Jaidis talked in the corner of the room, Aviana was wishing on every shooting star she’d ever seen.The doctor then came in the room with an update on Jaidis, The parents then talked with the doctor and Aviana listened carefully.

“Jaidis has one choice, and that is to overcome 24-hour surgery, there is a possibility she may not make it, but the chances are she will.” Said the doctor reading notes off her clipboard.

“No!” Cried Aviana.

Her father walked over to her picking her off the floor and held her tightly.

“I can’t lose Jaidis! Please! No!” She slipped from her father’s arms and onto the floor once more with tears flooding her eyes.

As night came quickly, Aviana laid her head on her father’s lap hugging her coat in the waiting room.

Days passed as they prepared for the big day, the surgery.

Aviana opened the window and inhaled the crisp, cool air. “Feel that Jaidis? That’s the weather of a snowy day to come.” Said Aviana looking over at the bed while holding the curtains wide open. “You're going to be fine today, I know it.” Said Aviana as she walked over and sat on Jaidis’s hospital bed, smiling.

“Visiting hours are over, we have to prepare Jaidis for the surgery now. Feel free to stay in the waiting room.” Said the doctor barging in.

Aviana stood up swiftly and took one last good look at Jaidis before leaving the room. “She’ll do awesome because she’s my brave hero,” said Aviana in thought while walking out.

An hour had passed, while Aviana was flipping through the pages of some sort of Christmas holiday magazine.

“Honey, The surgery has halfway been completed.” Said Mrs. Paisley reaching for Aviana’s hands in relief. She stood up and crossed her fingers.

A cold breeze came from Jaidis’s room as the door swung open, doctors in medical masks came rushing through with Jaidis half concise.

Something went wrong.

Aviana realized Mrs. Paisley’s hands and ran after Jaidis, Doctors stopped her from proceeding. They received the news later on that day that Jaidis Paisley had-

Aviana ran as if her life depended on it out of the hospital, so fast her teardrops moved with the wind. Her arms crossed as she burst through the doors. The hospital had been in Northtale so she ran to the center of it all and huddled into a ball, tucking her knee into her chest underneath a frosty tree not deep in the forest. Aviana felt the same pain she had felt when her mother passed, she didn’t know how she was going to live without Jaidis. The best memories suddenly occurred to Aviana’s mind.

“Building a snowman..?” Said Aviana in confusion as she un-huddled from her ball, she sniffed.She suddenly had an idea. Winter…….my favourite season!

She sprinted over to her house unlocking the door with a key charm that dangled on her bracelet. She rushed up the stairs and picked up a cardboard box with dodgy writing in chalk- “Stical” was written on the front, the box held all the snowman materials they had used for past winters from underneath her bed. She closed the door on her way out and she began to form three large snowballs. She had left her mittens at the hospital, so her thin blue-veined hands began to shiver. “The last Finishing touch..” Said Aviana, placing the black fedora hat with the now, lifeless lavender dangling down from the leather strip.

Twinkles ran through the snowman twisting and turning, The lavender revived slowly, rising into a beautiful lavender before.

Aviana’s infectious smile beamed when she saw the lavender.

Stical began to raise his cereal hoop mouth from side to side smiling with Aviana when she least expected it.

Life had been given back to Stical, and his spirit will never be forgotten again. Stical quickly lowered his smile becoming as still as snow.

Aviana continued re-building Stical every winter season with the feeling of Jaidis looking out for her, after all, Stical was Jaidis’s idea. Building Stical regave Aviana great memories, and now she knows Jaidis will be watching her.

The power Northtale holds.

Coming from a tropical country, experiencing winter made me realize that I love the season!

Where I came from, we only have two seasons, summer and monsoon. I would often only see snow in movies when I was small. I hoped that one day, I would also be able to experience winter.

Coming to Qatar, gave my family and I an opportunity to see other parts of the world. That gave us the chance to go to different countries that have the winter season!

Winter is Switzerland forever.

A cozy chalet

With a steamy hot chocolate

On a wooden table.

And the warm sunny colors

On the bright glistening snow.

The fresh piny air

With a hint of Toblerone flavor.

A chill environment perfect

For the birth of icicles.

Once again.

Then all the dead opened their cold palms

and released the snow; slow, slant, silent,

a huge unsaying, it fell, torn language; settled,

the world to be locked, local; unseen,

fervent earthbound bees around a queen.

The river grimaced and was ice.

               Go nowhere-

thought the dead, using the snow-

but where you are, offering the flower of your breath

to the white garden, or seeds to birds

from your living hand. You cannot leave.

Tighter and tighter, the beautiful snow

holds the land in its fierce embrace.

It is like death, but it is not death; lovelier.

Cold, inconvenienced, late, what will you do now

with the gift of your left life?

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing drear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

I tell my secret? No indeed, not I;

Perhaps some day, who knows?

But not today; it froze, and blows and snows,

And you’re too curious: fie!

You want to hear it? well:

Only, my secret’s mine, and I won’t tell.

Or, after all, perhaps there’s none:

Suppose there is no secret after all,

But only just my fun.

Today’s a nipping day, a biting day;

In which one wants a shawl,

A veil, a cloak, and other wraps:

I cannot ope to everyone who taps,

And let the draughts come whistling thro’ my hall;

Come bounding and surrounding me,

Come buffeting, astounding me,

Nipping and clipping thro’ my wraps and all.

I wear my mask for warmth: who ever shows

His nose to Russian snows

To be pecked at by every wind that blows?

You would not peck? I thank you for good will,

Believe, but leave the truth untested still.

Spring’s an expansive time: yet I don’t trust

March with its peck of dust,

Nor April with its rainbow-crowned brief showers,

Nor even May, whose flowers

One frost may wither thro’ the sunless hours.

Perhaps some languid summer day,

When drowsy birds sing less and less,

And golden fruit is ripening to excess,

If there’s not too much sun nor too much cloud,

And the warm wind is neither still nor loud,

Perhaps my secret I may say,

Or you may guess.

Superman and

Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit

by Sylvia Plath

The year the war began I was in the fifth grade at the Annie F. Warren Grammar School in Winthrop, and that was the winter I won the prize for drawing the best Civil Defence signs. That was also the winter of Paula Brown’s new snowsuit, and even now, thirteen years later, I can recall the changing colours of those days, clear and definite patterns seen through a kaleidoscope.

I lived on the bay side of town, on Johnson Avenue, opposite the Logan Airport, and before I went to bed each night, I used to kneel by the west window of my room and look over to the lights of Boston that blazed and blinked far off across the darkening water. The sunset flaunted its pink flag above the airport, and the sound of waves was lost in the perpetual droning of the planes. I marvelled at the moving beacons on the runway and watched, until it grew completely dark, the flashing red and green lights that rose and set in the sky like shooting stars. The airport was my Mecca, my Jerusalem. All night I dreamed of flying.

Those were the days of my technicolour dreams. Mother believed that I should have an enormous amount of sleep, and so I was never really tired when I went to bed. This was the best time of the day, when I could lie in the vague twilight, drifting off to sleep, making up dreams inside my head the way they should go. My flying dreams were believable as a landscape by Dalí, so real that I would awake with a sudden shock, a breathless sense of having tumbled like Icarus from the sky and caught myself on the soft bed just in time.

These nightly adventures in space began when Superman started invading my dreams and teaching me how to fly. He used to come roaring by in his shining blue suit with his cap whistling in the wind, looking remarkably like my Uncle Frank, who was living with Mother and me. In the magic whirring of his cape I could hear the wings of a hundred seagulls, the motors of a thousand planes.

I was not the only worshiper of Superman in our block. David Sterling, a pale, bookish boy who lived down the street, shared my love for the sheer poetry of flight. Before supper every night, we listened to Superman together on the radio, and during the day we made up our own adventures on the way to school.

The Annie F. Warren Grammar School was a red brick building, set back from the main highway on a black tar street, surrounded by barren gravel playgrounds. Out by the parking lot David and I found a perfect alcove for our Superman dramas. The dingy back entrance to the school was deep set in a long passageway which was an excellent place for surprise captures and sudden rescues.

During recess, David and I came into our own. We ignored the boys playing baseball on the gravel court and the girls giggling at dodge-ball in the dell. Our Superman games made us outlaws, yet gave us a sense of windy superiority. We even found a stand-in for a villain in Sheldon Fein, the sallow mamma’s boy on our block who was left out of the boys’ games because he cried whenever anybody tagged him and always managed to fall down and skin his fat knees.

At this time my Uncle Frank was living with us while waiting to be drafted, and I was sure that he bore an extraordinary resemblance to Superman incognito. David couldn’t see his likeness as clearly as I did, but he admitted that Uncle Frank was the strongest man he had ever known, and could do lots of tricks like making caramels disappear under napkins and walking on his hands.

That same winter, war was declared, and I remember sitting by the radio with Mother and Uncle Frank and feeling a queer foreboding in the air. Their voices were low and serious, and their talk was of planes and German bombs. Uncle Frank said something about Germans in America being put in prison for the duration, and Mother kept saying over and over again about Daddy: “I’m only glad Otto didn’t live to see this; I’m only glad Otto didn’t live to see it come to this.”

In school we began to draw Civil Defence signs, and that was when I beat Jimmy Lane in our block for the fifth-grade prize. Every now and then we would practice an air raid. The fire bell would ring and we would take up our coats and pencils and file down the creaking stairs to the basement, where we sat in special corners according to our colour tags, and put the pencils between our teeth so the bombs wouldn’t make us bite our tongues by mistake. Some of the little children in the lower grades would cry because it was dark in the cellar, with only the bare ceiling lights on the cold black stone.

The threat of war was seeping in everywhere. At recess, Sheldon became a Nazi and borrowed a goose step from the movies, but his Uncle Macy was really over in Germany, and Mrs. Fein began to grow thin and pale because she heard that Macy was a prisoner and then nothing more.

12 The winter dragged on, with a wet east wind coming always

from the ocean, and the snow melting before there was enough

for coasting. One Friday afternoon, just before Christmas, Paula Brown gave her annual birthday party, and I was invited because it was for all the children on our block. Paula lived across from Jimmy Lane on Somerset Terrace, and nobody on our block really liked her, because she was bossy and stuck up, with pale skin and long red pigtails and watery blue eyes.

13 She met us at the door of her house in a white organdy dress, her red hair tied up in sausage curls with a satin bow. Before we could sit down at the table for birthday cake and ice cream, she had to show us all her presents. There were a great many because it was both her birthday and Christmas time too.

14 Paula’s favourite present was a new snowsuit, and she tried it on for us. The snowsuit was powder blue and came in a silver

box from Sweden, she said. The front of the jacket was all

embroidered with pink and white roses and bluebirds, and the

leggings had embroidered straps. She even had a little white

angora beret and angora mittens to go with it.

15 After dessert we were all driven to the movies by Jimmy

Lane’s father to see the late afternoon show as a special treat.

Mother had found out that the main feature was Snow White

before she would let me go, but she hadn’t realized that there was a war picture playing with it.

16The movie was about prisoners of the Japanese who were being tortured by having no food or water. Our war games and the radio programmes were all made up but this was real, this really happened. I blocked my ears to shut out the groans of the thirsty, starving men, but I could not tear my eyes away from the screen.

17Finally, the prisoners pulled down a heavy log from the low rafters and jammed it through the clay wall so they could reach the fountain in the court, but just as the first man got to the water, the Japanese began shooting the prisoners dead, and stamping on them, and laughing. I was sitting on the aisle, and I stood up in a hurry and ran out to the girls’ room, where I knelt over a toilet bowl and vomited up the cake and ice cream.

18After I went to bed that night, as soon as I closed my eyes, the prison camp sprang to life in my mind, and agin the groaning men broke through the walls, and agin they were shot down as they reached the trickling fountain. No matter how hard I thought of Superman before I went to sleep, no crusading blue figure came roaring down in heavenly anger to smash the yellow men who invaded my dreams. When I woke up in the morning, my sheets were damp with sweat.

19Saturday was bitterly cold, and the skies were gray and

blurred with the threat of snow. I was dallying home from the

store that afternoon, curling up my chilled fingers in my mittens, when I saw a couple of kids playing Chinese tag out in front of Paula Brown’s house.

20Paula stopped in the middle of the game to eye me coldly.

“We need someone else,” she said. “Want to play?” She tagged

me on the ankle then, and I hopped around and finally caught

Sheldon Fein as he was bending down to fasten one of his furlined overshoes. An early thaw had melted away the snow in the street, and the tarred pavement was gritted with sand left from the snow trucks. In front of Paula’s house somebody’s car had left a glittering black stain of oil slick.

21 We went running about in the street, retreating to the hard,

brown lawns when the one who was “It” came too close. Jimmy Lane came out of his house and stood watching us for a short while, and then joined in. Every time he was “It,” he chased Paula in her powder blue snowsuit, and she screamed shrilly and looked around at him with her wide, watery eyes, and he always managed to catch her.

22 Only one time she forgot to look where she was going, and as Jimmy reached out to tag her, she slid into the oil slick. We all froze when she went down on her side as if we were playing

statues. No one said a word, and for a minute there was only the sound of the plane across the bay. The dull, green light of later afternoon came closing down on us, cold and final as a window blind.

23Paula’s snowsuit was smeared wet and black with oil along

the side. Her angora mittens were dripping like black cat’s fur.

Slowly, she sat up and looked at us standing around her, as if

searching for something. Then, suddenly, her eyes fixed on me.

24 “You,” she said deliberately, pointing at me, “you pushed me.”

25 There was another second of silence, and then Jimmy Lane

turned on me. “You did it,” he taunted. “You did it.”

26 Sheldon and Paula and Jimmy and the rest of them faced me

with a strange joy flickering in the back of their eyes. “You did it, you pushed her,” they said.

27And even when I shouted “I did not!” they were all moving

in on me, chanting in a chorus, “Yes, you did, yes, you did, we

saw you.” In the well of faces moving toward me I saw no help, and I began to wonder if Jimmy had pushed Paula, or if she had fallen by herself, and I was not sure. I wasn’t sure at all.

28 I started walking past them, walking home, determined not to run, but when I had left them behind me, I felt the sharp thud of a snowball on my left shoulder, and another. I picked up a faster stride and rounded the corner by Kellys’. There was my dark brown shingled house ahead of me, and inside, Mother and Uncle Frank, home on furlough. I began to run in the cold, raw evening toward the bright squares of light in the windows that were home.

29Uncle Frank met me at the door. “How’s my favorite

trooper?” he asked, and he swung me so high in the air that my

head grazed the ceiling. There was a big love in his voice that

drowned out the shouting which still echoed in my ears.

30 “I’m fine,” I lied, and he taught me some jujitsu in the living room until Mother called us for supper.

31 Candles were set on the white linen tablecloth, and miniature flames flickered in the silver and the glasses. I could see another room reflected beyond the dark dining-room window where the people laughed and talked in a secure web of light, held together by its indestructible brilliance.

32 All at once the doorbell rang, and Mother rose to answer it. I could hear David Sterling’s high, clear voice in the hall. There was a cold draft from the open doorway, but he and Mother kepton talking, and he did not come in. When Mother came back to the table, her face was sad. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me that you pushed Paula in the mud and spoiled her new snowsuit?”

33 A mouthful of chocolate pudding blocked my throat, thick

and bitter. I had to wash it down with milk. Finally, I said, “I

didn’t do it.”

34But the words came out like hard, dry little seeds, hollow and insincere. I tried again. “I didn’t do it. Jimmy Lane did it.”

35 “Of course we’ll believe you,” Mother said slowly, “but the

whole neighborhood is talking about it. Mrs. Sterling heard the

story from Mrs. Fein and sent David over to say we should buy

Paula a new snowsuit. I can’t understand it.”

“I didn’t do it,” I repeated, and the blood beat in my ears like a slack drum. I pushed my chair away from the table, not looking at Uncle Frank or Mother sitting there, solemn and sorrowful in the candlelight.

The staircase to the second floor was dark, but I went down

the long hall to my room without turning on the light switch and shut the door. A small unripe moon was shafting squares of greenish light along the floor and the windowpanes were fringed with frost.

I threw myself fiercely down on my bed and lay there, dry-eyed and burning. After a while I heard Uncle Frank coming up the stairs and knocking on my door. When I didn’t answer, he walked in and sat down on my bed. I could see his strong

shoulders bulk against the moonlight, but in the shadows his

face was featureless.

“Tell me, honey,” he said very softly, “tell me. You don’t have to be afraid. We’ll understand. Only tell me what really

happened. You have never had to hide anything from me, you

know that. Only tell me how it really happened.”

“I told you,” I said. “I told you what happened, and I can’t

make it any different. Not even for you I can’t make it any

different.”

He sighed then and got up to go away. “Okay, honey,” he said at the door. “Okay, but we’ll pay for another snowsuit anyway just to make everybody happy, and ten years from now no one will ever know the difference.”

The door shut behind him and I could hear his footsteps

growing fainter as he walked off down the hall. I lay there alone in bed, feeling the black shadow creeping up the underside of the world like a flood tide. The silver airplanes and the blue capes all dissolved and vanished, wiped away like the crude drawings of a child in coloured chalk from the colossal blackboard of the dark. That was the year the war began, and the real world, and the

difference.

“Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit” [with brief edits as specified] from JOHNNY PANIC AND

THE BIBLE OF DREAMS by SYLVIA PLATH. Copyright 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961,

1962, 1963 by Sylvia Plath. Copyright © 1977, 1979 by Ted Hughes. Reprinted by permission of

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Dad on bench, looking at his phone

Son on bank, sitting on his own

Little daughter riding her bike

up and down

up and down

up and down