Winter this year behaved in an unexpected manner. Blizzard after blizzards unloaded angry winds and snow while whirling funnels of snow devils made several visits. We have three in a week, leaving the people frightened and perplexed as snow devils didn’t come this often. The constant pounding of the freak weather left our town battered, almost in a state of ruins. The snow choked the roads while the wind wrecked light and old structures and frozen bodies crowded the corners of our town.

     She did it; I’m sure, from the strange weather to the frozen bodies. My neighbours never knew her, but they took extra measures when the snow devils appeared. How come they had charms and amulets in their front door? In my case I stayed in my house more than others even if the weather calmed. I must, thanks to her constant visit to my place.

     I first met her last week as I read a book with my name Connors etched on the cover. The threat of blizzards forced people, including me indoors. But outside my window, I spotted a girl taking a stroll in the frigid weather. Maybe I cared for her safety or was intrigued, perhaps. Before I knew it, I’m in my thickest of clothes braving the wall of snow. Being small and skinny, traversing the snowy ground proved hard. I screamed to get her attention, and a deep gust of chilled air swept me off my feet. I got up and found myself in the alleyway near our school. Murmurs from someone unseen filled the air before a silhouette of a ghostly form materialized in the alleyway. The image approached the girl, its blurred outlines sharpened to reveal a tall figure draped in white.

     I didn’t have a name tocall her, but she had black hair that contrasted her pale skin and grey eyes. Chills emanated from her, strange cold stronger than the winter chill. From her cloak she extended a hand and touched the girl on the forehead and the girl turned to an ice statue.

     When the news about the frozen bodies came out, I never thought it meant people turning to ice. I made a run for it before the apparition added me in her figure collection. The heavy winter clothes and boots didn’t let nimble movements. A few yards away, and I’m on the ground beholding the ghostly girl’s menacing form.

     “You could see me, didn't you?” She said.

     “Connors, what are you doing there?”

     And she vanished into a whirl of snow before my dad gets to her.

***

I peeked out from my window later that week and spotted her blurred form prowling near the tree. Great! The winter spectre seemed to seek me more than ever after our first meeting. Sometimes I thought I’m looking at my reflection in the window, only to realize that I’m hazel haired and boyish, not pale and black haired. It gives me a fright each time her face peered into our house and I closed the drape and locked the door.

     “Leave me alone,” I said one night. Why did she want me? A boy like me who stayed at home a lot had little value. Before going to bed, I scribbled a note saying leave me alone and tucked it between the slits of my window. Frost covered the note when I retrieved it in the wee hours of the morning. It had bits of ice shaped to form letters and words.

     “She wants to talk,” I read the note.

    What a cheap attempt to lure me into a trap! Yet what am I doing outside in the same place we first met? I looked up and the snowless skies smiled back, a rare sight in these harsh days.

     “So you came.” a voice whispered.

     Her appearance never frightened me anymore after she haunted me for days.

     “Just want to make something clear,” I replied, “what do you want from me? Why did you come to this town? Did you cause the freak weather? And why are you turning people to ice?”    

     Yet to my surprise, she smiled at me.

     “Sorry if I bothered you, but I want to know why you could see me,” she replied.

     “You mean…”

     “Yes, I’m invisible to many unless I use magic. And if I did, they will turn to ice.”

     I look down at the icy ground and said, “You are making yourself visible to us?”

     As a reply she caught my eyes, and a vision flashed in the back of my mind. In the vision she watches a bunch of laughing friends alone, her face wearing a sad expression.

     “I only wanted to join you humans, but I never expected that my magic will turn people to ice,” she added when the vision faded.

     Laughter rang behind us, chuckles not heard of for days.

     “It’s her,” I said, recognizing one of the laughing girls to be the one she turned to ice.

     “My magic will lose effect by sundown,” she replied, “and as for the bad weather…”

     The wind blew; soon another blizzard will pound our town.

     “You are just having a bad season,” she smiled before vanishing.

***

The town recovered well when spring arrived. Thesnow devils, ice statues, and snow storms now lived in a forgotten past. In the sunlight of spring, no one noticed the scattered snow whirl in the alleyway near the school, or how a weirdo will chat with a strange girl for hours. I’m not sure why I could see the Snow Lady, my pet name for her. But my mother resembled her a bit from the black hair to the grey eyes. My father also mentioned how they first met in a snowstorm.

 

End