Ever Winter

by Hackshaw, Peter

  Hilde seemed pleased to see Henry and Mary face Mother’s wrath when they first arrived back. Henry heard his sister mutter, “I told you they were just breaking yourn rules!” in a sly way, but Mother shot her a look of disapproval and Hilde went off in a sulk with her words not having the desired effect.

  Iris was holding the bairn, and Henry and Mary kissed each of them on the forehead once Mother let them go. Martin hung back as usual but fidgeted with excitement at seeing his siblings return home safely. Henry tussled the boy’s fair hair playfully and Martin mouthed the word ‘Hello’ in response, although no sound came out.

  They all followed Hilde into the igloo. Once seated, Henry and Mary told the story of their adventure and handed over their gifts. Iris asked many questions, mainly about the snow leopards. Hilde tried to appear disinterested, but she couldn’t help listening to the tale.

  “We can’t keep these possessions here,” Father interrupted without warning, “Be asking for trub.” He didn’t raise his voice, or sound angry. He was calm and spoke with conviction. Everyone knew what he meant. Although they had trekked for leagues to find their new home, further on Lantic than any had ever been, there was still a possibility that someone (if not the same someone) would again find them and the anteeks they possessed.

  “But we moved all the way out here because you said so! Ain’t we safe here, Father? Even now?” cried Hilde, to everyone’s shock.

  “Hilde!” Mother Exclaimed, “Father knows what is best. So, do I. Hold your tongue.”

  “I like our new home,” Iris added innocently.

  Father seemed embarrassed by Hilde’s outburst. An awkward silence followed, until Father insisted that he go to see the yot-boat the very next day, which none argued.

  There was a tension in the air for the remainder of the day. Everyone avoided conversation, because that was the best way to avoid further conflict. After dinner, however, Father made an announcement.

  “Usually, when the young reach a certain age, it is decided when the time is right for them to take on the Ritual.

  “As Father, I get to choose when that day is, and I say that for Henry and Mare, what they did last night – what they discovered – well, I think they’ve completed their Rituals. Any test now would only rob them.”

  Henry and Mary exchanged shocked glances. What Father had just done was unheard of. The Ritual had always been determined in advance of the event. However, when Henry thought of his and Mary’s recent adventures, he felt that they deserved Father’s accolade. Father wasn’t sparing them, or going easy on them; Henry and Mary were lucky to be alive and they’d come back with treasures none had discovered before them. It was the rarest thing and the rarest feeling.

  “Mary-daughter. Henry-son. You are no longer children. You have survived the cold like our Great-Greats before us. I am proud you are of mine and your mother’s blood.” For once, Father beamed. It was a smile Henry would never forget. Father wrapped his giant arms around his eldest children and their faces were lost in the fur of his coat. It was the best feeling Henry had ever had, and the only time he could remember being praised by Father in front of the whole family.

  “Hilde,” Father said turning toward her, “you must step up now an’ help protect the homestead with Mother when we are over the wire. Martin will learn to fish an’ gut now, an’ Iris can handle the bairn.”

  Hilde looked like she was going to be sick, although she’d not yet tasted the pickles. Henry knew she wanted to do more than catch and clean fish, but to receive the news as a result of something her siblings did left her conflicted and so she took her news badly. In contrast, Mother looked overjoyed.

  Iris spoke up earnestly. “Henry doesn’t have his face beard yet. How can he be a man?” Henry was embarrassed, but smiled kindly at his sister. If Hilde or Martin had said it, no doubt Henry would’ve fired back some smart words, but Iris was at an age where she said what was on her mind, or asked whatever she needed to know. It was straightforward and true.

  Father laughed, his shoulders bouncing.

  “Min kara, your brother is what he is, an’ that’s no longer a chook.” Father grabbed his beard with two hands. “I ne’er got this fuzz betwixt one daylight an’ next. Hen will be grizzly before long!”

  “Not before Mare!” Henry added. She punched him hard on the arm.

  Father opened the bourbon whiskey and held the bottle to his children to drink from first. They both coughed as the whiskey hit their throats and then it was passed around the igloo and everyone else did the same. Henry hoped there was another bottle somewhere on the yot-boat.

  Henry could tell that Father was awestruck by the sight of the container ship, when they finally found their way back to it. He was half expecting to see the snow leopards once more, but they never appeared.

  The first corpse Henry and Mary had found was just where they’d left her in the corridor, and Father marveled at the sight of her and the museum she was part of.

  “These boots are good. Not worn out. Best man-mades I ever seen,” Father said.

  “Should we take the corpses out?” Henry asked.

  “I don’t see a reason. They’re not harming none and it’s their yot-boat,” Father replied, studying the boiler suit adorning the body. “She won’t miss the boots, mind. Wrap some fur around an’ they’ll be fine.”

  “But aren’t we going to live here?”

  Father fell silent. Finally, he said, “No, Henry-son. Mary spoke to me about this and I have to hark my agreement with her. It doesn’t feel right. This whole place is asking to be found by the next lot. But we should go through the yot-boat and work out what is what, and what is of use to us. Some of it might suit another purpose one day.” Father paused. “Maybe we could relocate near it someday, but not just yet. Mother is still angry I made her up sticks with the bairn still on’t tit.”

  It perplexed Henry that Father didn’t want possessions in the igloo, didn’t want the family to live on the yot-boat, yet wanted to itemize what they found. He was also slightly annoyed that Mary had told her fears to Father on the quiet and that he’d sided with her. Henry wondered what other purposes the new items could serve – or had Father merely changed his mind about keeping possessions in the igloo? He felt it would be stupid to ask such questions, but now he’d passed the Ritual, he had the right to. He was no longer a boy. But adulthood puzzled him, and he decided to keep quiet and try to work it all out for himself, starting with Father and his ever-changing mind.

  After Father had seen the inside of the vessel, they started with one of the containers. They spent a week traveling back and forth to the ship, gradually digging it out. They took their meals in the captain’s office when the temperatures dipped too low and started using the room to store the most useful items they found, or those they perceived to be of interest, until they could decipher the use and purpose of each. These things included a lighter, two handheld radios that still held charge (though they couldn’t fathom how to operate them), fall arrest rope and harnesses, thermal gloves, a fire axe, a cube with colored squares upon it, cutlery and cooking ware, four more bottles of whiskey and three of something else called vodka, a pair of sunglasses, a box of matches, toothbrushes, sleeping bags, a bucket, and countless other items.

  Mary claimed one of the cabins as her own and would often read her new book in there by the light of one of the torches they’d found. Father wouldn’t lie on the beds, but he did seem to like swiveling in the captain’s chair. Henry himself liked the control room where there were rows upon rows of buttons and dials on the main console. He decided he would push every button, but would wait until Father wasn’t about; it proved a long wait, as Father insisted on going to the ship every day. Henry was slightly annoyed; the ship was his and Mary’s discovery, but Father had taken it over and was making all of the decisions. However, he didn’t say anything about it.

  On the seventh day, they cleared the last foot of snow from in front of the container and opened the heavy,
frozen doors without ceremony. Inside were more boxes of dolls which made them laugh, but annoyed them equally. Each of them had found the dolls to be creepy. Identical, motionless copies of tiny humans. Father proclaimed that he knew the struggle in raising a real child to an age where it would survive and the dolls were like dead’uns.

  They spent another three days trying to open a second container, and this time they had better luck. Inside was a pristine motor vehicle with a long bonnet and imposing curves. It had spoked wheels surrounded by white tires and although it was cloaked in a thin layer of dust, a brilliant red color shone through. To Henry, it looked like a whale of some kind, encased in some unknown material and out of the water. He was unsure what it was, but he was struck with awe at its magnificence.

  Mary removed her hood. Father and Henry did the same.

  “Never seen such color on anything, nor so much of it,” Mary said, then added, “except blood.”

  “It’s a pretty thing,” Henry agreed.

  Father traced his fingers – which trembled with excitement – along the surface of the bodywork, then wiped the dust from the windscreen to peer inside, discovering it was of a different material to the rest. Mary kicked one of the front tires, and Henry found a badge that revealed the name of the car by rubbing it with his glove. Duesenberg.

  The Duesenberg had been built for a niche, trillion-dollar retro futurist car market. It was a beautiful machine, based on a primitive vehicle from the first half of the twentieth century.

  “It’s a car!” Father exclaimed, becoming animated as he spoke. “There was a kindly old ’un in the Favela when I was a boy and he had a toy car you could fit in the palm of your hand. Was meant for young ’uns but he’d had it his whole life long. The car had bits that opened at the side and he said that’s where you’d get in and make it move.”

  Henry and Mary squeezed down one side of the container to see if they could find a way to enter the vehicle. Father took the opposite side. The space was dark and they each felt along the panels. Mary wiped dust from the roof of the vehicle, uncovering a grid of solar cells, not knowing what they were.

  After a few moments, Father called them around to his side of the vehicle to show them what he’d found: a dent in the shape of a hand in the chassis on his side. Father took off his glove, placed his fingers within the recess and the bodywork illuminated underneath his skin. He pulled his hand away and the glow disappeared. More courageous the second time, he placed his hand once again on the bodywork and kept it there until they heard a click from within as the door’s catch released.

  The smell of leather hit them as they entered the vehicle. It was the same sort of scent as the captain’s swivel chair, but it clung in the air and filled the car. There was no steering wheel or control panel inside the car. Father sat on one seat and Henry and Mary shared the other. As the door closed, they stared out of the windscreen at the outside of the container; an all-blue sky above an all-white terrain.

  “What now?” Henry asked.

  A face appeared in front of them, a smiling woman with lips as red as the body of the car they sat in. They all jumped as the projection flickered in the air before them and remained even when Mary passed her hand through the image. When it spoke, the words came from the car itself.

  ‘Congratulations on purchasing your new Duesenberg SJ LaGrande Dual-Cowl Phaeton vehicle. I am here to help.’

  The trio sat in stunned silence, gripping the seats and each other. Henry couldn’t take his eyes off the holograph. She was both beautiful and plain, remarkable yet not. Henry wondered if she were real, living somewhere on the ship in the rooms he’d not yet ventured to beneath the deck.

  ‘Calculating location and searching for roads. No roads found. Your location is unknown. Switching to VADM. Vicinity Analysis Driving Mode. I am helping you.’

  A grid of lines and circles appeared on the windscreen as the car scanned the terrain outside the container.

  ‘Adjusting tire pressure...’

  The car raised slightly as a hissing sound came from below.

  Father laughed and slapped Henry on the shoulder.

  “What’s it doing?” Mary asked.

  “Hello, lady,” Father greeted the holograph, who smiled back but said nothing. The engines roared to life, and once again, the passengers leaped in fear. From over their shoulders came restraints that secured them to their seats. Henry and Mary sat tight together; the seatbelt had wrapped around both of them. The holograph spoke once more.

  ‘Seatbelts activated. Location unknown. What is your destination?’

  “Merika,” Father said.

  The holographic lady looked puzzled, then smiled broadly.

  ‘That destination is not recognized.’

  “Home,” Mary said.

  ‘You have not yet set your home address. Would you like to do that now?’

  “Move,” Henry said and the car instantly lurched forward and accelerated out of the container at speed.

  ‘Your vehicle is moving. Speed limits are not detected at this location.’

  “Vamos morrer!” Father exclaimed and Henry knew it to mean ‘We’re going to die’ in the tongue of the Favela.

  They sped in a straight line faster than Henry had ever traveled in his life. They clung to each other once more and the holograph smiled warmly at them. Ahead, a container blocked their path. Henry screamed as they neared it, but the car calculated the obstacle and swerved by it just seconds before impact.

  “Stop,” Mary yelled, and the vehicle abruptly halted. She looked like she was going to be sick but seemed able to compose herself now the vehicle had stopped.

  Henry let out a sigh of relief. So did Father. Then all three of them burst into fits of laughter.

  The holograph was calm as it asked, “Would you like to try Manual Driving Mode?” as a steering wheel emerged from the console in front of Father. Slowly, he reached for it with both hands, then gripped the steering wheel after some hesitation.

  “I’m the captain of it,” Father said, turning the wheel slowly.

  “Go,” Henry yelled and the car sped forward again with a roar of the mighty engines. This time, the line of direction wasn’t as straight and Henry realized the car was reacting to Father’s hands. “You’re drivin’ a car.”

  Father grinned jubilantly. “Yeah. I am!”

  They drove in a wide circle back toward the ship, then left weaving tracks in figures of eight and loops upon loops in the snow. Mary had a go at driving next and she was a natural at it, like most things she did, and she sped faster than Father by ordering the holograph to Go Fast.

  After some time, it was Henry’s turn. He wanted to outdo his sister, so he drove the car hard and fast and tried to scare Mary by steering close to the containers and the ship. The projected lady looked on approvingly. This gave Henry all the encouragement he needed to push it even further, and they found themselves heading for the stern of the ship at lightning speed.

  Where the spilled containers met the ramp to the ship, a creature leaped from one of the rectangular cuboids and sprinted up the ramp toward the sloped deck.

  “Look! A snow leopard. They’re back!” Mary pointed at the creature just as it met the deck and disappeared from sight.

  Henry had been distracted by the sight of a snow leopard and took his eyes from the ship for a few seconds, but it was all that was needed to lose control. Panicking, he pulled the car into a skid, then into another. Mary screamed as they clipped the side of one of the half-buried containers then careered into the side of the next one, smashing the corner of it with their rear wheel.

  The impact jolted the ice beneath them, but luckily it did not crack through. As Father and Mary scrambled for the steering wheel, the car flipped once on the ice and up became down. The restraints held the passengers tight in their seats and a very strange thing had happened to the air; a mist had sprayed into the car on the first impact, and it had formed a transparent foam cushion around them all. Henry and Ma
ry should’ve butted heads as they were sharing a seat together, yet the air between them was a buffer that prevented them from doing damage to each other. The car slid on its roof and finally stopped moving.

  He tried to turn his head to see if Mary and Father were all right, but he was held fast. Then he realized he couldn’t breathe. The foam had covered his face and mouth. His eyes met Mary’s and he could tell that she’d realized the same thing and was going through the same silent ordeal as he.

  Then the protective foam around him shifted; it seemed to deteriorate until they could move once more and breathe again. It left them covered in a film of gray dust as they welcomed the air back into their lungs. Henry had a strange taste in his mouth from the dust. He spat onto the roof of the car, which was now the floor.

  Henry made a strange noise and heard Father groan, but all of them were safe and unhurt. Mary had vomited this time and was clearly in a rage at her brother.

  “Idiot!” was all she could manage, which was the same word in English and the language of her mother’s Great-Greats.

  The holograph tried to flicker to life, but it was gone and remained the only true casualty, other than the car itself. The restraints would not release them, so Father used his knife to set them free and they fell in a heap to the roof of the car, which had become its floor. They crawled through the space where one of the doors had been ripped off and surveyed the wreckage of the Duesenberg SJ LaGrande Dual-Cowl Phaeton vehicle.

  “You killed it,” Mary said as she backed away from the pile of twisted metal. Her braids had come unfurled and she looked wild and comical, with fresh vomit stains on her clothing to finish the look.

  “And you puked in it,” Henry argued back.

  “You’re a prong, Hen. A stupid, stinking prong.”

  “You’re the one who yelled about the snow leopard! I took my eyes away just for a… Do you think there’s another car in one of them other boxes?” Henry looked around at the litter of containers still strewn and half buried around the ship.