The Girl and the Yew tree

Chapter 11

Year 5

The warm sun had gone and in its place was a chilling breeze that threatened to bring the coming winter. Sasha opened her eyes, feeling the chill from the crack in her window. The winters were never too freezing and rarely ever brought snow but something about today seemed colder than usual and this was what she feared. Slowly slipping out of bed, inching her way to the window Sasha prayed silently until finally she swung the wooden panels open. It was just as she feared, the village, every roof, as far as the eye could see was covered in a thick layer of snow.
Sasha blinked away tears, and decided not to visit Yew that morning; instead she curled in her blankets sitting atop her bed, preparing for what was to come. Once the hour of school loomed the girl began to get ready, lazily dragging her feet with each step, like a prisoner to the gallows. One by one she slipped on what she needed, the knitted scarf of her mother, the thick winter jacket purchased with money she earned for doing odd jobs around the village and lastly, with reluctance she laced up her winter boots. This last item was the most dreaded, not because of how they scrunched by the toes or how ugly they had become over the years, though those held merit, but it was due to the fact that on each were holes sliced into the outer sides.

Three years before, Sasha had bought these boots brand new; she had saved for the longest of time and had wanted to make a purchase that would last her the next couple years. When she had come to school with them the boy Bradley had taken notice and Sasha was foolish enough not to be on her guard. She had fallen asleep during break and so he silently cut holes into each of them. The holes werent too big and so she hadnt noticed them until that night. Sasha stayed up to sow the holes shut as best she could but there was only so much she could do with her minimal skills against the leather. Though the job she had done, kept most things from getting in it would do nothing for the watery snow that would melt and drench the inner souls. Thankfully it rarely snowed and when it did, the thin blanket of white would last at most a few days before disappearing, but this year seemed different. The snow looked thicker, denser, it wasnt leaving any time soon.

As Sasha walked to the school house, every step she took were knives stabbing into her feet, the white reached above her ankles and nearly slipped in from the top of her boots. when seeing Yew at the end of that day she hadn't breathe a word of the pain she was in or what had happened, and neither did she for the days to come. Sasha told him that she had to stop visiting him in the morning because it was too cold, and though that was true it wasnt entirely so, she made sure to leave out the excruciating pain she endured whenever walking. Yew didnt need any more reason to worry about her; she thought she was doing him a favour.

When Sasha reached school every day, tears would brim her eyes from the pain and she would remain at her desk the whole day, trying to get feeling back into her feet. Sometimes Bradley would give her a quizzical look whenever he caught her crying at her desk, it seemed that he had forgotten about what he had done, to him it was merely an act of jealousy come and gone, one that the kind Uncle he thought she had would correct by getting her new boots.
The thought of buying new boots crossed her mind but Sasha knew it would have been a waste; the times it snowed were not enough to justify the cost of new ones.

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One day when school had finally finished and Sashas feet were particularly frozen, the girl went to go meet with Yew. The snow was the same, no colder than any other day but Sasha had grown tired of being in pain and could hardly find the strength to wear her smiling mask. When she had made it into the forest her feet were already soaked through, throbbing with pain.
"Sasha!" a familiar voice called out, after a moment of looking, her eye eventually fell on the wooden boy. His face dazzled with excitement and though Sasha so desperately wanted to run to him she could hardly muster a broken smile while taking one slow step at a time and so Yew ran over. "This is incredible, its the tenth day the snow has been here, it never stays this long!" Yew beamed with a brightness that Sasha couldnt touch, she tried to match it as best she could but didnt seem to manage and so instead she faked it. The two walked side by side, taking in all the beauties of the forest in winter and still Yew hadnt thought anything was amiss, but how could he, Sasha was very skilled in concealing her emotions when needed, loneliness, fear, pain, she mastered them all.