It had been a long and a hard winter, the snow had been heavy this year and the schools closed for weeks. At first that was fun. Then the snow got dirty and the ice compacted making everywhere an ice rink. Raven would watch the elderly people clutching the walls as they walked along the icy pavements, he would pity their obvious fear as they crossed the road painfully slowly and sometimes he would go out to help. When he was bored he would amuse himself by watching the cars getting stuck on the hill outside his house, neither up nor down, their wheels spinning uselessly in the ice, woman in high heels pushing a reluctant car uphill as their warmly dressed male companion shouted instructions out of the window. Sometimes, when he was really bored, he would be a Good Samaritan, take out his dad’s shovel and help people set themselves free. He got some pride from seeing his captives speed away gratefully, ‘But for how long?’ he would ask himself.
This morning Raven was now beyond bored, no school to moan about, no new excitement for ages in this frozen wilderness. He was restless and spent a fitful night wondering what to do with all his pent up energy. Early the next morning his heart sunk when he saw more snow, but the sun was just rising and the sky was beginning to turn a soft pink. The whole scene was beautiful and he grabbed some warm clothes and headed off for Danny’s, intent on adventure.
Danny needed no persuading to go and sledge in the virgin snow. In his house no work meant no pay and so the brooding anxiety was palpable and he was glad to be free of it. He grabbed his sledge and off they went to the local big park. When they arrived at their local park the freedom of the open space made them giddy with excitement, they careered this way and that in the new snow fall, found the highest hills and launched themselves off with whoops of joy, egging each other on to greater and greater feats.
They loved the isolation of the early morning and being the first ones to plant their feet, or slide their rails over the new snow. They enjoyed the warmth of each other’s company in the cold morning and this time together felt special and intimate.
They laughed at the snow filled boats tied up in the middle of the boating lake they looked forlorn like forgotten, silent hostages shivering in cold blankets. Raven imagined people rowing around the lake in the summer, their children bobbing up and down with excitement and the ducks scattering in all direction. But today nothing moved, except himself, Danny and the snow flakes, all was quiet, eerily so for it was illuminated by a beautiful, soft light.
“He stood by the lake for a long time in silence,” Danny later reported to his parents. “Now I think about it he seemed lost in thought, somehow very distant and very calm. I wasn’t with him, I was making my way back up the hill, as we were taking turns. He walked off when it was my turn.”
What happened next was never very clear. Danny remembered a shattering noise, a thump, nothing human. He was gripped by a sudden sickening sensation that made him turn round and run, and run, and run. The cold air seizing his lungs, his heart filling his mouth so that no sound could escape. He fell, he slithered, his sledge tumbled beside him like a surf board on a wave.
Then he came to a stop, a horrified stop. Time had long ceased and he was alone and suddenly the isolation that he had revelled in became a monster that silently stalked him, that left him wailing at the edge of a frozen lake, frozen himself with fear and despair.
