DEAREST ARTISTS: Breaking the Ice- a short story [part 2 of 2]

5- Claudia’s letter back

The little blue dot on Mona’s laptop blinked at her the moment she stumbled into her hotel room  She threw her keys and jacket off but left the light switch alone, preferring the partial dark. It could give her time to process all she had just seen. Or imagined. Blinding light would be too much.

But that blue blinking light beckoned her to the computer.

The surrealism of the night clung to her.

If she connected to the speedy, gritty, garish digital world then she would know for sure she was losing her mind. Finally. After all these years and all the absurdities she had encountered.

Yet skipping the opportunity to read a letter from Claudia was not in her favor. Nor did crashing into deep R.E.M. sleep seem like a particularly fine idea.

The lid of the laptop lifted to illuminate the room.

“YOU’VE GOT MAIL!”

She nearly jumped out of her skin. Claudia had replied to her email about the painted pond and its mystique.

“Hello,” the email began. Mona  was hoping to find an objective opinion that would explain it away.

“What if locals paint the pond each year and the police figured that out by now and, what with the tragedy of those missing children, do not stand in the way of the town’s way of coping. Sure, the oil paint is bad for the water. But acrylic might not work so well because it dries fast and water color would be asinine on ice. In  fact, I don’t see how painting ice is a good idea at all. How much is it? It must be layers upon layers of the stuff!

What are you up to? Are you feeling less blue up there? I know it’s cold. I honestly don’t know how northerners can handle it. Have any hot chocolate with mushrooms. Make it really hot. So hot it burns your mouth. Maybe I shall have empathy burns with you.:3 “

She had no time to collect her thoughts. Mona typed a stream-of-conscious response then and there before the shock of the night could render her wordless.

“Claudia, something weird has happened. I don’t just mean unusual or bizarre. I mean weird like I haven’t seen in a long time. Not since you were out in the coma. But somehow that was explicable. You know what I mean? There was a reason to the rhyme. This, this is the kind of thing you read about or hear about on the talk shows where people report alien abductions. Which is going to leave me to ask you...am I crazy?”

She hammered out the event that had occurred a half hour ago at the pond. All that she could remember. In no particular order. By the time the event was typed and sent, her forehead nearly collided with the keyboard.

Deep, deep in sleep.

Dreaming about art.

About painting the pond while naked.

 Her hair being used as a brush.

There is a crowd and people are repeating some elusive ingredient to melting ice.

Salt. Salt poured on ice cubes. Sully had told her once that salt in a hollow wand waved over ice makes a street magician look like he’s melting it. But it’s a silly trick.

“You’ve got mail…” a child whispered.

Mona’s eyes fluttered open. Her laptop was still on and the screen dark. But the sound of her mail-service had alerted her. She touched the finger to the sensor and discovered another message from Claudia. She must be wide awake in Louisiana.

“Why didn’t you dance with him?” her message inquired. “Were you afraid or was it just because you didn’t know how to ice skate that well? Do you get a menacing air from him? Be careful but maybe Aubrey and Sully could help you figure this out. Don’t do anything that doesn’t feel safe but...I don’t know, Mona. That is weird. Why would he appear doing that on that particular pond.  (PS- I realize I sound like a loony, assuming he’s not an ordinary man. He probably is someone who lost a kid and ice-skates there to cope. Maybe?  Maybe call the police? Take a deep breath. Try to relax. And you asked if you’re crazy. Remember what my psych said? Crazy people don’t ask if they’re crazy.”

Claudia must not know how sane she sounded in Mona’s moment of puzzlement. Her next action was to instant message Aubrey on his much hated Skype. He was always complaining about uninstalling it and yet there he was whenever anyone needed to get in touch with him.

MonaPizza: Aubrey!

Aub: Oh dear. Who died?

MonaPizza: That isn’t funny. Listen, I saw something weird at that pond. Weirder than the paint.

Aub: And what was that, my gourmet paranoid?

MonaPizza: I think it was a ghost. But I’m not sure.

There was a long pause in between his next message.

Aub: Listen. I’ve read that taking too much xanax can do things to someone’s mind.

MonaPizza: This isn’t a joke. I saw a man there. Figure skating.

Aub: My oh my.

MonaPizza: You think I’m high?

Aub: At least higher than me. Was he any good?

MonaPizza: He was amazing. Do you know if Sully is done with her concert?

Aub: Yes and probably fainted by now. Concerts like that drain a diva, you know?

MonaPizza: We have to tell her about this. She’ll give me the benefit of a doubt.

Aub: I wonder if those benefits include not laughing.

MonaPizza: Message her. She’ll want to get out of that hotel with the back-up dancers.  I’ll meet you both by the pond.

Aub: Why do I have to message her?

MonaPizza: Aubrey, you’re a writer! You came here for experience! To absorb the atmosphere! Get like a sponge and do it!

Aub: If you insist.

MonaPizza: See you both in a while.

Aub: Mona?

MonaPizza: Yes?

Aub: Bring pepper spray. .

That won a smile. Nice to remember that under the snark he did care about her.

6- a dance

Sully’s high timbre carried in the air. Snowflakes had begun to fall by the time Mona found her friends. The tall figure of Aubrey leaned against a tree and Sully seated nearby, playing in the snow. She was singing that creepy Alvin & the Chipmonks Christmas song.

Mona bit her lip as she appeared before them. “You two are great friends.”

“Yes, well, humoring friends’ paranoid delusions comes with the package. That it does have its limits.” Aubrey stretched while Sully scrambled to her feet.

“So what’s all this fuss?” she asked. “I should be resting it.”

 “Come on,” Mona took Sully’s hand and led them to the pond.

The moonlight was still spilling across the ice’s surface, casting the painted mural of the swans and geese in an ethereal wash. “...there’s more. Someone painted more while I was gone.”

Her friends were silent. There was no arguing that. The mural had grown since last they saw it.

“I’m stumped…” Sully squeaked.

“Are those…” Mona turned her scrutiny to Sully “--skates? Did you bring rollerblades?”

“Sure. Why not? Maybe I can one-up him.”

“The circus is always in town around you people…” Aubrey held up a hand. “Wait a moment…”

He squinted and bared his teeth. That was a usual sign of heavy thinking. Mona traced his gaze.

The stranger had returned. It was evident that Sully and Aubrey could see him.

He glided forward, black silhouette shining in the moonlight. He flew through a few figures and landed before them, arm outstretched to them.

All Mona could do was take in breath after breath of winter air. Beside her Aubrey was reticent, almost respectful in his silence. But Sully was walking forward.

“Sully!” Mona made a grab for her but she had ducked. She tied her skates on without explanation or apology. Meanwhile, the man waited for her, arm outstretched with the patience of a trained dancer. Mona pursued her friend. When she reached the smaller woman she saw that Sully’s eyes seemed to look through her. She was utterly absorbed in the stranger.

Sully’s petite frame joined the man’s in the moonlight. She took his hand and he positioned them.

“Sully…” Mona blurted.

When the dance couple shifted even slightly, Mona went to lunge forward. Aubrey’s arm stopped her. “She’ll...she’ll be hurt…”

Why did her own voice sound so distant?

Sully and the masked man began their dance. They glided in Os and 8s. He spun her and she flipped, but always landed just in time to balance herself. Sully was like a feather, and then like a bird. He was support, holding her up, catching her before she fell, then he was the wind beneath her wings. He tossed her, caught her, spun her, threw her and balanced her.

Their dance swelled in danger and aggression.

Mona pulled free of Aubrey and ran for them. But her male friend stopped her again. “Let it go. Let them go.”

“They’ll drown if it cracks!”

Now Sully was being held high in the air, flapping her arms in grace. The shadow of a larger bird held the smaller one as it flapped its wings. Learning to fly.

At last the two dancers stopped, hand-in-hand. With a final bow. The masked stranger leaned in, whispered something in Sully’s ear. If only Mona could hear it from here. He spun around and skated in the direction of the darkest shadows that night. Right at Sully’s feet the ice began to crack. Steam was rising. The young dancer shook her head and the haze of the moment passed.

“OH SHIT!” she yelled. The beauty of the scene also shattered.  The pond was defrosting by the second. She bolted towards the shore with the ice cracking and gaping behind her.

This time Aubrey did not hold Mon back as she shot out and clasped Sully’s arms. She pulled the smaller woman onto the snowy shore.

The three friends gazed out at the rising steam from the melting pond.

The imprint of the painting floated atop the water. But now it was all too much. Mona took both friends’ hands and ran from the pond.

“Sully, what the hell got into you?”

“I don’t know, I lost control!”

When Mona looked back to the rising mist she thought she saw eyes in them. Several of them, several faces, but none of them frowning.

7- the memorial

“I’m not sure. Geese just don’t make for intriguing beasts,” Aubrey was arguing with Sully again.

The following day, with the sun out and civilian volunteers at the pond, Mona could hardly recognize the setting. The pond was icy but not frozen over. The oil paint was being worked out by the volunteers. Mona leaned against a tree as she watched.

“The shark in Jaws wasn’t a great white. They changed it to one for the movie. You could do that with the geese. Make them swans or something more poetic,” Sully carried on\. She seemed untouched by the events of last night. Aside from excessive yawning and dark circles under her eyes, she was her usual post-concert self.

“I wonder where he went…” Mona thought aloud.

“Wherever phantoms go when their haunting ends,” Aubrey suggested.

“What about a non-supernatural explanation?” she asked.

“He got over his little brother’s disappearance, is cured of his psychosis and will live a fruitful and healthy life,” Aubrey droned.

“What does it matter?” was Sully’s characteristic response.

Mona had written her own theories to Claudia earlier that day.

“In that moment, watching Sully skate on thin ice with a masked stranger, I wasn’t only me anymore. I was their parents. Their guardians. My heart was torn between my body and the body of my loved one. Even Aubrey played a part. He held me back. I ached so much during that dance. I watched a child leave my protection, spread her wings and attempt to fly. That is a horror I’ve never encountered before. I am not a parent. I was in that moment. I know it makes no sense. But as Sully would say “God is Absurdity.” When I let them finish the dance, steam began to form and the pond broke open.”

“Hey, Sully…” Mona asked.

“Hm?” She looked at her. “I won’t ask any more questions about it until you're ready. But one more for now.”

“Sure, shoot.” She swept her short hair behind her ear.

“What did he whisper to you?”

Sully’s green eyes focused elsewhere. “I’ll tell you soon. Not now.”

Mona nodded. She had not expected a straight answer. This was all too surreal to sort right away. She wandered over to the goose memorial. The mother goose with her head turned upward as she called for her goslings. But what was this? Another goose head was sticking out from the snow. Mona dusted the snow off with a gentle hand.

They were all there. Six little geese. Her goslings were there, buried out of sight.

___

I hope you enjoyed the ending of this short story. Next up, a web comic for you! Check back Wednesday!

As always, feedback is welcomed!