Elements' Eyes (Book 1: Going-Through)

A Surprise 1.0

Years ago, when Keernah was scared to the bone by her first awful winters in the country, she started her preparations a few months before leaving for winter; then the time shortened to one month. Then she relaxed to the extent that she started thinking on it only when the autumn puddles were freezing even at noon. She had gotten away with it for a few winters, but now it happened – the thing that was bound to happen. What should she do now?

"Kitty, kitty!" called the ghost boy who appeared to be brave enough to come back from where he had run to. The snowfall was as mesmerizing as the sight of a natural disaster, and Keernah did not enjoy watching it. Relieved, she turned her head and looked into the face of a fair-haired boy about four. On meeting her eyes, he loudly squealed and laughed out and broke into running again. Keernah smiled more out of habit than cheer, but the boy looked back at her and decided that she wasn't annoyed by him. Giggling, he hid in an empty space near a house – there were probably big boulders or trees in his world. He probably tried to watch her from there.

A few minutes ago Keernah would have been happy to talk to him, but now she didn't want anything. She wished she could wake up and realize that she had been having a nightmare while there was not a single snowflake in the air and the sun was shining as if it were summer. But she suspected she wouldn't have been able to believe it were she even as little as the boy. Tears of cold and pity welled up in her eyes. Keernah dried them with her scarf and reached into her bag for the hat she disliked: it interfered with her hearing and vision. However, Keernah forgot about it for a moment – her usual energetic attitude had completely disappeared, and she only wanted to warm herself a bit. The snow was already gathering and rolling over the pavement like fine translucent dust. Keernah stepped on it firmly and kept walking, only letting herself slip once in a while. She wanted to concentrate and think.

But the little boy followed her – he imagined how he would tell the story to his friends and was so inspired that his fear of the ghost's cat eyes evaporated. The ghost was actually very amusing. Its hat alone was something – so thick and warm that the ghost's head seemed to be able to catch fire any minute. He had seen hats like this in the pictures in a book, but no one wore such things now, because the weather was usually good and sunny. But the ghost was still cold for some reason.

The boy caught up to it, held his breath and asked the first question he could think of, "Are you afraid of me?"

"You're afraid of me yourself", Keernah replied without looking at him. She never drove the children away but didn't want to make herself talk either. She hoped the boy would get bored and leave her be.

"Where are you going?" he continued, afraid as he was, but at the same time he felt very brave. So brave that the children would not believe him when he told them he had been walking together with the ghost. But he would know it was true! His eyes lit up with delight, and he instantly asked again, "Aren't you hot in the hat?"

"I'm cold in the hat."

"So take it off!"

Keernah finally chuckled. She didn't feel like laughing yet but thought she could think about her personal issues as much as she wanted later; while this lovely child might never want to meet her again if she kept ignoring him. She took her hat off.

"I'm still cold, you know," she remarked skeptically.

"Why?" asked the boy, looking astonished. Keernah started thinking and fell silent but a few seconds later heard another question.

"Can you fly?"

"No."

"But how do you get across the sea? Are you just swimming? And they told me you can fly!"