They were like two little children; laughing and teasing. His face lit up as she skated around him, her smile as wide as his own.
"Marta, your nose is as pink as a berry!" he laughed, tugging one of her braids.
She skated to a full stop to face him. "Then warm it for me!" she laughed and rubbed her nose against his.
He held her for a moment, looking into her eyes. "I love you!" he said, before wrapping her in a warm hug. She nestled under his chin, feeling safe and warm.
"I've never felt more loved," she said. She could feel the engagement ring on her finger which he had placed there hours before. Her thick wool gloves concealed it from view, but she could feel the comforting band on her finger.
He took her hand and pulled her in to motion. As they skated along the frozen pond they couldn't help but smile at each other.
There was no one else on the pond that day to witness their shrieks of delight due to the weather. It was actually quite nasty out. The sky was a deepish gray spitting out intermittent sleet, but you wouldn't have known it from the way these two played. From their faces the sun shone and the clear blue of Marta's eyes was enough to brighten the day.
Laif couldn't have planned the weather. He didn't know it was going to be a day for books and fires. He had planned a special skating outing since he knew it was her favorite. So here they were, braving the nastiest weather of the year to skate. And they didn't care. Hot chocolate and reading aloud their favorite books by the fire would come later. For now they had to enjoy the outside world for what it was!
"Can't catch me!" Laif said, releasing Marta's hand and soaring along with a look of determination on his face. But Marta could. She was a better ice skater and he knew it. He loved her for her exuberance on the ice. She had never taken lessons, but she'd been on the ice all her life. There was nothing she loved more than to don her skates the moment the weather was cold enough. The wind and ice in her hair were life giving.
When she caught up to Laif he held out his hand and caught her so she circled around him, laughing the whole time. He brought her close again, grinning at the icicles in her braids, wanting to kiss the snowflakes off of her cheeks.
But she was too fast for him and pushed off getting a head start. He had a harder time catching her and she stayed ahead of him until her laughter slowed her down and he caught her around the waist and spun her around.
"We will raise our children on the water," she said as they stood looking out over the icy landscape, his arms still around her.
"And in the water in the summer," he said, almost pleading; for he loved the summer as much as she loved the winter. They were two complementary halves.
She laughed. "Of course!" she said. "The only way to tolerate the heat of summer is to be in the water! And besides," she said, kissing his cheek, "They wouldn't be your children if they didn't long for the sun on their curly heads."
"That's right!" he said, kissing her knit cap. "All of our little ducklings swimming along behind me in the summer and skating behind you in the winter."
"And we'll be skating alongside each other. Forever."
He held her tight, and the moment felt like a lifetime and not long enough.
She skated away from him and then twirled once before a terrific crack and she was gone from view, swallowed by the icy depth.
Mask Thoughts
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Gah! That is such a charming story. I was being drawn into it, and everything was serene, then “crack”!
ReplyDeleteI liked it.
Thanks. I really didn't want it to go bad. And I don't think I would have let it had it not beed a backstory.
DeleteNice foreshadowing in the paragraph starting with "There was no one else on the pond that day to witness their shrieks of delight due to the weather."
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my family's "restaurant stories," except yours is so much more delightfully described. Sometimes on Sundays, I take Teo and Carisa to a restaurant for dinner (to give the mama a break, really). While waiting for our food, we sometimes play a game: each one around the table takes a turn adding one sentence to a story. At first, these "restaurant stories" were pretty fun and imaginative. But then, like a little boy who likes to knock down a tower of blocks, Teo discovered that he could take any story and suddenly kill off the characters...or worse. Yikes! Boys.
I have played sentence games like that. Once my friend set one up on a computer and we played where you could go type a sentence or two or maybe even three, but you would only leave a few sentences showing and the next person would carry it on not knowing where it had been. We would laugh so hard when we read them aloud!
DeleteI've also played one word stories with my niecephews. They can also be hilarious, although some of the younger kids get stuck on a few words especially if one word got a laugh the first time they think it will be funny every time they say it so they repeat it every time it's their turn even if it's not the proper part of speech: And.... the.... girl... was... SMELLY!... because... she... liked.... to... SMELLY!" Still a fun game to play with them. Good for letting go of control for the older kids, because they always try to coax other people to say certain words to set up the thing they're going for and I have to remind them that they can't plan how it will go.
And thanks for commenting! As I wrote this, I knew she was going to fall through the ice, but I kept not wanting it to happen. I almost didn't write the end sentence. But I had to.