Rantings of an Arranged Mind

The snow tore at me, almost knocking me over as I came out the door. I tightened my scarf around my face, leaving just a slit for my eyes. I bent low, fighting the wind, and plodded through the snow towards the graveyard.

It had only been snowing for maybe an hour, and the worst of it had only been in the past thirty or forty minutes. Yet it was already higher than my boots. Not much longer, and it would likely be knee high. I stumbled a few times in the wind, and tripped completely when I bumped into something hard.

I felt with my gloved fingers until I found it again. It was a gravestone. I had reached the cemetery. I tried to yell.

“Ethannnnnnnnnnn!” The wind tore away my voice, I doubted he would hear me. I got up, and continued walking. Snow swirled all around, a cloud of flurries that kept me from seeing more than a foot ahead of myself. I kept going, however. I had to find him.

The wind roared in my ears, and I bent down, leaning behind a big headstone. I wiped the snow from my eyes and the edge of the scarf, where it was icing up. I took a few deep breaths and headed out again.

There was something ahead of me in the snow cloud. A looming shadow.

“Ethannnnnnnnn?” I hoped it was him. I put out my hand to grab hold.

My fingers found hard stone. I felt a leg, and pulled myself closer. I looked up at an angel, her face calmly smiling. I felt disappointed: I was never going to find Ethan in this storm. I wasn’t even sure if I could find my way back home.

I knelt at the feet of this statue, trying hard not to cry as the cold wind bit at me through my winter coat. I wrapped my arms around myself, rocking. It was freezing. I wanted to go home. Why had I come out here? What did I think I could do?

Then I saw blood, a few feet away from the base of the statue. The wind was blowing just right, so that the snow hit the statue and left a clear part in the leeside, with only a little wind, and a bit more visibility. I could see maybe three feet instead of one. But there was a patch of blood in that three-foot zone. I crawled towards it.

There was another little splotch a few feet further on, leading further into the cemetery. The snow here showed some signs of tracks, though the continuing storm was filling the trail in. I looked back at the angel. She was looking in this direction. If I used her as a landmark, I knew that the road was behind her. Ahead of us both was the woods, if I remembered correctly. Ethan was somewhere in between, I was sure of it.

I stumbled forward, bent over. I had to keep close to the ground to see the faint trail in the snow. Occasionally I could make out a handprint. It looked like maybe he was crawling, or had fallen over. Blood marked the path here and there. What had they done to him?

“Ethan!!!!!!!! Ethannnnnnnnnnnnn!” I kept calling. I could see the shadow of the trees in the distance; they weren’t that far. I moved forward. The misty snow blasts were obscuring almost everything around me, as if the world had turned white. The only shapes were of the shadow that meant the woods, which grew closer with every step. The trees were too thick for the storm to completely block out sight of them.

The wind shifted just before I got to the edge of the forest. Suddenly I could see ahead of me, like a curtain was moved out of the way. There was a huge tree ahead of me, shelter from the wind. I hurried forward.

Ethan was lying at its base, half-buried in the snow.

“Ethan!” I almost screamed, kneeling down at his side. His face was covered in blood and ice. I put my head on his chest, trying to hear a heartbeat. I couldn’t tell with the wind. I started to cry. His skin felt cold, and looked blue. Those jerks had taken his winter gear and left him to freeze.

I closed my eyes. It wasn’t fair. He had tried to save me. It just wasn’t fair. Crying, it took me a moment to realize something was tickling my cheek. I stopped sobbing. A soft, warm puff of air went across my skin. Crying, I had pushed my scarf down a bit as I pressed against his chest. Now, his breath was crossing my bare cheek. He was breathing, albeit faintly.

“Ethan! You’re alive!”

I heard shouting. There were people, probably searching for him. His mother had said she was going to get his father, after all.

“WE’RE OVER HERE!” I yelled as loud as I could. I stood up. The wind was dying down a bit, though it was still snowing hard. “OVER HERE!”

I headed out into the cemetery. I ran back towards the angel, shuffling as fast as possible through the snowdrifts. I saw a few men at the edge of the yard.

“HERE! HE’S HERE!” I was crying, tears streaming down my cheeks. They had found us. He was going to be okay.

I rode in the ambulance with him to the hospital, refusing to let go.