I Waited on the Melting Snow While They Sang Her Birthday Song Chapter 10

The Snow Realm didn’t follow the human world’s calendar.

After I returned, it took me a long time to get used to not checking the weather forecast or counting

how much snow remained on the summit before spring.

One of the people of the Snow Realm noticed how often I looked toward the human world

“Still waiting for them?”

“No,” I said. “I was just wondering. If I’d told Graham that I wouldn’t disappear as long as one of them came, would he have left sooner?”

“Didn’t you tell him?”

I thought back to the messages I’d sent.

I’d told them when the snow would melt and how long it would take to drive back from the beach. I’d told them I couldn’t walk the trail and asked if they could come.

“I did.” I lowered my head. “I told them over and over.”

“Then stop making excuses for them by telling yourself they didn’t hear you.”

I didn’t ask again.

Later, the people of the Snow Realm took me farther north. Winters were long there. Fresh snow buried the old footprints overnight, but there was still a path to follow the next morning.

Sometimes, I still thought about the human world.

I remembered Elliot as a little boy, clutching the hem of my coat and asking softly, “Could you slow

down a little?”

I remembered Miles peeling an orange and handing me the biggest segment. “Here. You get the

sweet one.”

And I remembered Graham secretly using his own hand to check the size of the gloves he was

knitting. When I asked what he was doing, he’d hidden the yarn behind his back.

“Nothing. No peeking.”

All those memories were real.

So was the fact that they hadn’t come when they’d promised.

The last time I looked into the human world, Graham was standing beneath the pine tree, slipping

that old pair of gloves into his pocket.

Elliot asked him, “Want to wait a little longer?”

Graham looked toward the other end of the trail and shook his head.

I dismissed the image in the water and followed the people of the Snow Realm.

Halfway along, I glanced back out of habit. Behind me, my footprints were the only ones

snow. Ahead of me, the trail stretched far into the distance.

The people of the Snow Realm stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I caught up with them. “Let’s go.”

I kept walking through the fresh snow.