Hawk's Short Storyboard

[2,234 words]
A Little White
My family and I had decided to take a walk down the dike; Dad wanted to give mom some time for rest. He said that with the baby coming, she would need a lot more rest as time passed. I didn’t unerstand, but when I asked him, he would get weird. His hand would rub his neck and he would start whispering to himself. I thought my sister Caroline might know something, but when I asked her she only giggled and said I was too young to understand. I pulled her hair for that. Then we ended up rolling on the floor, kicking and biting each other. Dad pulled us apart and then tortured us with his usual lecture about respect for others and “do unto others as you would do unto yourself.” We were too tired to listen to him at that point.
The frost of winter had crept up and onto the window; the darting lines intermingled into a canvas of sparkling white. I tried my best to find two snowflakes alike, but the sheer amount of them left me speechless. Suddenly I felt my head hit the glass with a resounding thud.
“Your head really is hollow!” She laughed, pulling her hand back.
I clutched the back of my head and groaned. “Ouch! That hurt! What was that for!?”
“But it wasn’t even the back of your head…”
“It still hurt!”
Caroline pulled out a notepad and pencil. She was completely ignoring me. “Hey! Let’s play hangman!”
“No way, Goldilocks! Why don’t you play with your three little bears? If you play with them, they won’t eat you.”
“They wouldn’t eat me! You wouldn’t eat me, right?” she looked down at them worriedly. The three bears in her lap remained motionless. “See? They said so! And they said they don’t have thumbs, so they can’t play with me. So, play!” she demanded as she stuck the notepad in my face.
“They don’t have mouths either! You’re so stupid!” I said, pushing it back at her.
“I’m not stupid! Dad, he called me stupid!” her head whipped around to look at the back of dad's head.
I saw Dad’s eyes look down at us through the rear-view mirror. “Get along you two, or we won’t stop for a treat.”
None of us said a word for awhile after that.
When we finally stopped and parked the car, I was already ripping off my seatbelt before my Dad could turn off the motor. I pushed on the door with all my might, jumping out as soon as it was away from me. I heard a familiar crunch from beneath my feet, and I knew that winter had truly arrived. The sound was cool, and I repeated it over and over as I hopped up and down. The freshly laden snow was like a spring, shooting me high up in to the air with every landing. Or at least as high as my Dad’s elbow.
“Let’s go, Chris. The sun will be down soon.”
Dad and Caroline started off towards the head of the dike. I followed, hopping from one footprint to another in short little lunges. It took me a few minutes longer to reach the top. My Dad’s feet were huge.
The dike, a long gravel stretch of trail that almost connects the two mountains on either side, lies a few Dads high above the parking lot, which is on the southern side. Ponds riddle this place, and the long grasses are the perfect place for ducks and their nests. In the summer the wind caught the reeds and sent them kneeling, the yellows and greens sparkling under the red horizon. Sometimes during the fall I would sit and watch with Dad as hunters searched for a prize trophy bird to show off to each other. Their dogs would slowly walk through the grass before scaring them into the air. The beating of wings and cries of the ducks would soon be drowned out by the loud crack of a gun. It wouldn’t be long after I could smell the smoke from it's barrel. Maybe that’s why Caroline never came with us.
On the northern side, The Fraser river snakes up until it disappears into the far away mountain range. In the few months before school begins, many boats come up here to catch the countless salmon that come to spawn. The chatting and shouting of men dressed in warm, dirty sweaters as they fought and filleted their own prizes was always fun for me. The stench of blood was strong though, enhanced by rot and the tar on dock wood. With so many fish to choose from, I always wondered why they didn’t buy nicer looking boats.
But it was winter, and all the ducks had flown south for warmer weather, and the fish had disappeared yet again, to where I did not know. The fishermen and Hunters had gone home to rest and work until their favorite season once again arrived. With no one there, there was nothing but the steamy breath from my lips that made a sound. It was so quiet that I worried that I might wake mom back at home if I was not careful. That is not all that was changed, either. The grasses had died, the wind had stopped and, more refreshingly, there were no scents at all. The ponds had frozen over and half of the lake, too. And the only color to be seen was white. Not a grey white, the white found on the sidewalk. It was a blue white, the true color of snow. It was a frosted mirror of the sky above. As Dad, Caroline, and I stood and stared at this view, I felt as if I was riding on the back of a great big polar bear.
Caroline broke the silence and ran down the trail.
“Come on, Chris, let’s go exploring!”
Her hands beckoned me wildly. I looked to Dad for permission. He nodded, smiling. It was the signal I can go play. I smiled back at him and bolt after her.
“You can’t catch me!” She said, already far ahead.
“We’ll see about that!”
“I’m faster than you!”
“My feet are longer than yours!”
“And Fatter!”
“Hey. Hey, now. That wasn’t very nice. “
We bounded through the snow, kicking powder into the air as we went. I was slowly gaining on her, and already relishing the face-wash that I was bound to give her very soon. She seemed to notice it too, and escaped down the southern embankment. She headed for a small grove of barren trees. She was trying to use the weaving path to her advantage.
“That won’t work!”
I made no hesitations and turned down the slope in pursuit. I heard a muffled voice call from behind me, but I did not notice its urgency. I didn’t stop, using the nearby trunks to swing me through the natural maze. But I had lost sight of her. Her bright pink winter coat should have stood out, but I saw nothing. I ground my teeth in frustration and continued on. It felt like it took forever, but I finally reached the end of the grove. It seemed to open up to one of the ponds.
That’s where I saw her. Caroline, all smiles and waves, was standing on the frozen ice. I noticed she was many, many Dads away from me. “Come catch me!” she said.
“I’m not going out there!” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s fine, It’s fine!”
“Yeah right!”
“It is! See?” Caroline stomped the ice with a foot.
“Are you stupid? Get back here!” I beckoned her over with my hands.
“Stop calling me that!” she stomped the ice again, eyebrows knitted into a frown.
“Fine, just come back here!”
“But you haven’t caught me yet. Come catch me!”
She had started jumping up and down. Although she was older than me, she was acting much younger. I could feel my stomach clenching; I ground my teeth so hard my jaw hurt.
“Just come here!”
“Catch me, Catch me, catch-”
And suddenly, without any warning, she was gone. Her legs went through the ice and the rest of her followed quickly. There was a crack, a splash, and then silence ruled once more.
I was on the ice before I knew it. I didn’t know what to do, but I ran there anyways. I found a moment to throw a prayer that the ice would hold until I got there. Whether it was granted or planned, I reached the open pool without any problems.
I looked through the surface of the water, but I couldn’t see anything. The pond water was still murky in the winter. I searched frantically, but I had to do something. Dad taught me that in ice water, if you fall in, you get really sick after only a few minutes. You could die. I looked back to the forest behind me and beyond it, where my Dad was waiting. If I ran to retrieve him, there would be no time left.
I plunged in. The moment I hit the water, I realized that there must be two faces to hell. I was on fire. My skin was melting from the frozen heat, but it stayed on me, and burned me even longer. I could barely hold my breath in. My legs and arms shook violently, a thousand volts through each finger and toe. All this happened in mere moments under the water. When I realized how long Caroline had been facing such pain, my mind became clear. I thought only of that. And with it, I gained back control of my body and started to swim.
This was one of the shallower ponds. With my eyes shut tight, it would have taken ages to find her. As I touched bottom, I began to sift through the water. The mud was full of jagged rocks, cutting into the palms of my hands with little resistance. I almost screamed at the pain, but I clenched my jaw and continued on. I began to panic as the seconds passed. I could not find her.
Suddenly I touched a soft, firm object. I ran my hand along it. It was a jacket, and as my hand went further down, it touched skin. Caroline’s skin. Caroline’s hand. With elation I moved behind her and readied myself. Wrapping my hand around her, I pushed off from the bed of the pond. Slowly, I dragged up to the surface.
But I could not find the hole. As I had searched, I had moved away from it and lost track of its position. Frantically I groped for it, my heart pounding slowly and heavily. I could feel my lungs demanding air. I could not hold out much longer. I felt my strength draining, as I supported Caroline weight. Soon, the frozen pond would be our tomb.
I felt a tugging sensation at my back. With groggy thoughts I asked it to let me go, but my lips could move no longer. The tugging continued, and with a sudden burst of spray and pure white, we were pulled out of the water.
* * *
The ambulance wasn’t as scary looking as I thought it would be. After pulling us out, Dad had called an ambulance, which quickly came to pick us up. I thought it would be filled with a lot more needles. At the moment, Caroline and I were both wrapped in many heavy blankets and drinking steaming cups of cocoa.
For most of the ride to the hospital everyone was silent. My Dad was so angry and frightened that he was staring off into space in the corner. The other passengers, doctors I guessed, were checking our pulses and such while we drank. Caroline was doing her best to avoid looking me in the eye.
One of the doctors finished his checkup and sat down.
“You two are very lucky. It seems you both just barely missed having serious injury from this. I hope you remember that.”
Caroline’s head fell even lower. She didn’t look like herself at all. I didn’t like that.
“Hey can I have that clipboard?” I pointed to one on the table
“Alright, sure.” The doctor said handed it to me. He watched me curiously as I pulled out a wet pencil from my pocket and began to write. The scratching noise of lead filled the back. It made my Dad look up at me, but I continued. Caroline, however, remained still.
I shoved the clipboard in front of her face.
“Animal” I said, looking away.
Caroline stared at the page for a moment then at me.
“Animal” I repeated, coughing a little.
It was a few minutes before Caroline reacted. Her face glowed and all the colour returned.
“E!” she tried to yell, but her throat still hadn’t recovered.
“One E” I scribble on the board again.
“I”
“Sorry, no Is”
I drew on the board a small head.
“ummmm…”
“No ummmms, sorry”
“That wasn’t a guess!”
Her reddened cheeks puffed out furiously.
“Then go”
She furrowed her eyebrows together in thought as she looked at the page. Dad and the Doctors were so curious about what we were doing that they sat on the edge of their seats like it was a suspense movie. I waited patiently for her to guess again. When she did, she was smiling furiously.
“Polar Bear?”
“Yeah, nice job.” I handed the clipboard board to her.
“Your turn.” I said.