Wanderings of a Muse: An Anthology
Page 7
1A man with icicles in his white hair stood in front of an icy coffin. Engraved in scrolling gold letters on top of the coffin was the name Noelle. In the coffin lay a woman with jet black hair and blood red lips. Her eyelids were tattooed with holly. Pale skin stretched over high cheekbones. Around her neck was a pearl and amber choker.
The man standing in front of the coffin with his head bowed and frozen tears fell from his eyes. Ice was forming around his pale lips as he brokenly murmured, “One day Noelle, you will walk the snows with me again. I promise.”
“You shouldn’t come here every day Jack,” an aged man sagely informed from the white doorway.
“She can still hear me Father Time,” Jack replied brokenly.
“Seeing her everyday isn’t healthy for you,” Father Time insisted.
“If I don’t visit my sister, who will?”
“The two of you aren’t alone,” Father Time insisted again.
Jack’s thin lips sneered as he turned to face Father Time. “For someone who has been around since The Beginning you don’t know everything. Or is it that you have forgotten,” Jack harshly retorted.
Father Time shook his grey head and closed his ancient blue eyes. “Jack, we are all still here. Just in different aspects than our pasts,” Father Time explained softly.
A glittering teardrop fell from Jack’s clear eyes as he bitterly shot back, “Sixty years ago she danced beautifully on the snowflakes! Now the mortals couldn’t tell you her name! How am I not supposed to be biter,” Jack asked hotly.
“Jack, time will heal all,” Father Time sagely assured.
Jack violently shook his head as he spat, “Not this time, Father Time. Unless they return to the old ways never will Noelle slide down the snowbanks again,” Jack bitterly assured.
“Times change Mr. Frost,” a mellow female voice said from outside the room.
“Mother Nature,” Jack sneered.
“You’re young by our standards Mr. Frost. But not by the world’s. You know these things; why can you not accept them?”
“Because out of all of us she is the only one who ever cared for me. Noelle is kind, gentle, and caring. Not to mention free spirited and fun loving. My sister doesn’t deserve to be forgotten by the fleeting memories of mortals,” Jack stubbornly insisted as icicles began to form in his short locks.
“Jack, she will dance again,” Father Time benevolently guaranteed.
Jack angrily shook his head as he stormed past Mother Nature and Father Time leaving a light trail of fallen snow in his wake.
Mother Nature bowed her vine tangled hair in the wake of Jack’s icy anger as Father time sadly shook his elderly head. “How do we thaw Jack’s frozen bitterness,” Mother Nature asked Father Time.
“With time he will see that the mortals will remember the joyfulness that Noelle embodied. Until then all we can do is keep Noelle surrounded by warm hope and soft thoughts,” Father Time positively stated.
“Jack won’t accept that Father Time. We have to be able to tell him something more than that,” Mother Nature quietly insisted as a cool wind swept the snow away.
With hunched shoulders Father Time closed his eyes as he stood in front of the frozen Noelle Frost. “I don’t know what to tell him,” Father Time whispered as a tear trailed down his paper thin face.
“Do you think Mr. or Mrs. Claus could help,” Mother Nature gently asked.
“They could try. Unfortunately I think it would only increase Jack’s bitterness. After all Mrs. Claus has gained in popularity where Noelle has lost,” he sadly explained.
Mother Nature shook her head as she joined Father Time in front of Noelle Frost. As the two stood silent watch over the frozen youth, multicolored leaves fell to the floor around them.
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