Winter

– Oh, it's been so long since I last saw him – said the grandma with a sudden blush, and turned to stare at the flames in the fireplace. The evening was still young, but in the middle of winter, night embraced the world well before dinner time. The soup was simmering and spreading its hearty aroma around the room. Claire asked her: 

– Please, granny, tell me, how was he?

– He was charming, my dear. A real prince with no castle or crown. He had eyes as deep as the deepest wells, but they would light up like stars when an inspiration struck him.

– Was he handsome?

– Yes, I guess you may say so. I never really considered that aspect.

– Oh, c'mon…

– Ok! Ok! Yes, to my eyes he was the most handsome in the world.

– But what about grandpa then?

– No, grandpa came much later. I wouldn't have noticed him, like you don't notice a fluffy dust bunny in a corner until you get very close and look right at it.

– Tell me about the pendant!

Adèle, Claire's grandmother, stood up with a sigh to give a good stir to the soup. She smelled it, added a pinch of salt, stirred again and put the lid back on. She then sat again on her rocking chair, brought her hand to her chest, the blue veins tracing a roadmap to her fingers, grabbed the silver chain and pulled out a wooden pendant in the shape of a snowflake.

– Let me hold it please granny!

– No! It's a delicate thing, and I can't give it to anyone. I made a promise.

– Not even to have a look for a moment?

– No, not even that. He was very clear.

– But why?

– That is not something for little girls to know about.

– But I'm not little! I'm twelve!

– Be good then, big girl, go get some more wood for the fire, the night will be bitter.

As Claire left, Adèle raised her pendant a bit higher, in front of her eyes. She smiled to it, brought it closer and gave it a soft kiss, the type one would give to their lover asleep next to them, when they wake up and the fire has died out, and the world outside is bathed in white darkness.

– She'll be gone tomorrow. Be patient. I miss you too.

***

Grandma Adèle was asleep on her rocking chair. That happened more and more often as the years went by. Claire could see her white hair glow rosy with reflections from the fire, and her wrinkles casting strange shadows on her cheeks and around her eyes. She looked smaller than she used to be, but that perhaps had more to do with Claire growing from a little baby who needed to hold on to a grownup's fingers to walk, to the twelve (almost thirteen!) years old girl who already had boys trying to peek under her shirt.

She had felt attracted by her grandma's pendant since she had first seen it. It had visited her dreams, and more often in the last 3 months, after her body had decided it was time for her to grow up. She gently pulled on the silver necklace until she could start to see the beautifully carved snowflake. She felt compelled to hold it in her hand. She touched it, unsure, and it was cold as stone, not something you would expect from a piece of wood kept so close to someone's heart. She grasped it with her right hand. The world disappeared.

When she could see again, she was on the snowy peak of an unknown mountain, the wind howling around her and snow whirling in all directions. She felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She turned around, regretting having disobeyed.

– And who might you be? – asked the handsome old man staring down at her. 

His eyes were as deep as the deepest wells, but they lit up like stars when he laughed out: 

– Claire? Little baby Claire?

– Yes, that's me. But who are you?

– I'm someone you were not supposed to meet. Where's Adèle?

– She's sleeping in her rocking chair. Please, let me go back to her!

– It's not so easy. I need to take something to let you go, but you are too young!

– What do you need? My money? Here, I have this! – She handed him some cash.

He laughed.

He didn't need any cash, and had nowhere to spend it anyway. He did not want any of what she had to offer. But something needed to be taken, and fast.

***

Claire had gone back to her parents in the city, and grandma Adèle had gone back to her winter daily routine. She hadn't thought much of the sudden change in her granddaughter. From one day to the other, she had become distant, as if staring at the world around her from a very far place, where nothing could really reach her. She hadn't said a word about what happened with Adèle's pendant. She surely hadn't shown anyone her own. 

Each snowflake is unique, even among the most similar ones there's none that's really identical to the other, just like people. Each with their peculiarities and their quirks, each with their desires and fears. Each one with something too dear to share, and something else just waiting to be dumped.

Adèle went to him, of course. Not on the first night: she had to chase out a mouse family from the larder. Not on the second: she was too tired after chopping wood. Not on the third: she didn't feel like it. But on the fourth, she put on her warmest clothes and squeezed her pendant in her left hand.

His hug was cold, which lit up her inner fire. And the stars were shining in his eyes. 

– I met your granddaughter. – He told her, digging his fingers in her coat to hold her waist. He had been able to almost completely surround it with his hands, her waist, when they were both much younger and the winter nights seemed shorter and brighter. He could still hold her, just in a different way. 

They were quiet for a short time, snowflakes dancing in the still air, the sound of a snowplow engine echoing up from the valley in the distance.

– So she did touch it, the little rascal! I had a weird dream that I had lost you, it must have been then.

– She's a sweet girl. – he smiled, staring in the distance. – Back home with mom and dad?

– Yes. I love her, but I'm happy to have my time for me again. You know there's not much of it left. – She said, letting her thick coat fall down on the snow. He embraced her with his ancient-fashioned cape, and they stood there, surrounded by the thick snowfall, invisible under the silvery fur. Soon after, the pillar they had turned into collapsed into a mound, and then further spread on the ground, looking like a freshly dug white grave, while the flurry in the air almost completely hid its rocking movement.

– What did you take from her? – Asked Adèle, while following his breastbone with her index finger down to his slightly bulging stomach.

– There wasn't much really. Had she been a bit older… Ouch! Don't!

***

He had taken her dream. The dream she kept having ever since she first saw her grandma's pendant. In a couple more years, or perhaps even earlier, she would have understood what she was seeing. But for all those years when the dream had visited her, she had taken it as a strange, snowy dream, where this young woman who looked a lot like her was given this beautiful pendant in the shape of a snowflake, and the young man placing it in her reddened hands was the most charming of young men. How that was determined, Claire couldn't say. She just knew. She would see him surrounding the girl with his strange, silvery cape, and the pillar of snow that quickly formed on them collapsed into a mound, and then stretched to remind her of a freshly dug grave, like grandpa's when she was five, except this one was white and raising and falling like a snoring dragon. 

– Yes, this will do – he had said, kissed her forehead and sent her back. She had woken up in her bed, next to her grandma's which was still empty, with this little wooden snowflake hanging from her neck on a thin golden chain. She had felt different ever since, as if something was missing but she couldn't tell what.

– Do you think she's really free from the spell? – Adèle asked, playing with the gray hair on his chest. He hugged her closer and gently bit her earlobe, before whispering:

– We always know it comes back again.

 Jan 26/27, 2023