Frost

Further Education

This time, however, she finished her slice of leftover pizza and opened a search on the computer by the register. Her initial keyword bought up nothing overly useful to her, as she was quite sure the legend of Jack Frost didn’t have a damn thing to do with a children’s movie.

Jack kept a frozen lady in his front hall for God’s sake.

“I haven’t seen that look on your face since you were writing your honors thesis.”

Mari looked up, color highlighting her cheeks. “Didn’t think you were back yet. Sorry.”

Evanne Phillips, Storylines owner, leaned her elbows on the counter and raised a dirty blonde eyebrow at her best employee. Granted, she only had two, but Mari had been with her since she was old enough to get her working papers in high school.

“I’m not having much luck finding what I’m looking for,” Mari said. She played with the edges of her French braid and asked, “What do you know about Jack Frost?”

“I know there are several representations of him,” she said, straightening. “He’s got a few different names, too, depending on which country and story you’re reading.”

She went back to her search page and clicked the box. “What’s one of his other names?”

Evanne blew out a loud breath. “I don’t know. I want to say he’s middle or eastern European in origins. Start with Norse mythology and go from there.”

There was a website devoted totally to Norse mythology, gods, goddesses, and religion. It was the second link of her search results, and she was more inclined to trust it than the first one since it had a .org at the end. There was a wealth of information available on Odin, Asgard, and the creation of the world, but nothing about Jack Frost.

“Anything?” Evanne asked from where she’d wandered along the shelves.

“Nope.”

“Try eastern European.”

Mari typed it in quickly and hit enter. Wikipedia was first up, followed by something from her search engine, but the third looked promising. It was another .org, and she clicked it, noticing she was, technically, ten minutes past when she was supposed to have been done with lunch and ready to work again. As Evanne hadn’t noticed or didn’t seem to mind, Mari carried on with what she was doing.

A few clicks later and she found something she could work with. The first bit was something she already knew – he was responsible for crisp, cold weather and leaving pretty patterns of ice and frost on windows – and the second bit was another name. Jokul Frosti.

“I’m going to assume from the lack of cursing that you’ve found something worthwhile,” Evanne said, setting two old, thickly bound books on the counter.

“Jokul Frosti.” Mari tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s another name for him. What are those?”

“Mythology books. Might be helpful for what you’re looking for.” She left Mari to her own devices and opened a box of new arrivals the UPS man had dropped off the day before.

Mari clicked, read, jotted down notes, and gathered information about the origins of something intangible until a customer walked in sometime later. She hastily shut the small spiral notebook and clicked out of the internet browser before showing him where the self-help books were located. The man had only just gotten a cell phone upgrade, and his children thought he would find an iPhone beneficial. She rolled her eyes when she was sure he wasn’t looking, and did her best to answer his questions. Her mind was decidedly elsewhere, and she glanced discreetly at her watch to see how much time she had before she could leave.