Snow Roses by Taryn Tyler

Author:Taryn Tyler [Tyler, Taryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Snow

“ It's unmarked.” Otto said.

“Yes.” I stared down at the soft rounding edges of the grave where the snow rose over the earth. It was a soft bed, a quiet place to sleep despite the cold, and close to the cottage as if even in death she couldn't stray far from it.

“Does Rose ever come here?”

I looked up at the man standing next to me near the edge of the forest. He looked nothing like the red bear. Nothing like the friend who nuzzled me in the cold of winter and watched me practice throws. I gazed past him into the trees. There were so many shadows even in the daylight, each covered with tiny pieces of ice. “I've never seen her here but . . . sometimes she goes on walks by herself. Maybe she comes here then.”

“Maybe.” Otto said. “Why is the grave unmarked?”

The wind whirred around us, tangling the loose threads of my hair. I pulled them out of my face. They stuck in my fingers. “I don't know.”

Otto knelt. He pressed his hand into the snow. It looked small on top of the cold, icy mound, almost like a child's hand-print. “Her Gran. My nurse.” He stood and dusted snow crystals off his hand. They sprinkled onto the ground, disappearing into the thick layers of white. His face was so much like Rose's. He even set his jaw tight with determination the way she did when she had made a decision. He turned toward me. “Rose said you are hiding from Lucille too.”

I nodded.

He looked back down at the grave, then turned around and headed back toward the cottage. I followed him.

Rose wasn't inside. She had started the laundry but then abandoned it, leaving a pile of our stockings on the floor and my extra shift soaking in a bucket of ice-cold suds. Our bedding drip dried from the washing line she'd strung across the room.

I turned to look at Otto. “I think you've been a bit of a shock to her.”

Otto stared at the dripping cottage, tense, distracted. “I've been a shock to myself.”

I finished the laundry and Otto and I left to find something alive to put in our stew. We brought the rabbit traps, but I hoped that with the two of us we could bring home a deer.

“How?” Otto asked. “We don't have a bow.”

“I have a knife.” I said.

Otto looked unconvinced. He held on to the traps as we moved through the trees in silence, listening for the sounds of our prey. We couldn't see the ghosts in the daylight but we could hear them from time to time, whispering with the trees. “Lost.” They said over and over, a softly hissed warning caught and tangled into the wind, sticking to our ears like dusty cobwebs.

“How do you get used to it?” Otto asked.

“They won't hurt us,” I assured him. “Rose says that they are our protectors.”

Otto shook his head. “Rose scares me.”

I turned to face him. “Why? She's your sister.”

Otto ran his fingers through his curls, raising both eyebrows.

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