Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Everything’s going to be okay.
Chapter 7
Faith
I
finished the jails for my snow creatures. The cells were two big boxes with ceilings. It had taken me forever to figure out the design.
I wasn’t a fan of jails.
I’d never been locked up, but many of my friends and family found themselves in cells for things that shouldn’t have put them behind bars. Later many were found nonguilty or given a lesser charge. Regardless, all of them were changed when they came out—more violent, less hopeful, and so angry.
Due to that, I believed those jail cells not only limited their physical movements, they confined their minds. Locked up their psyche.
Mom would say that when a person dreamed of being in jail it meant that something or someone was imprisoning their soul.
This winter, I’d been having a lot of nightmares about jail—being dragged into a dark cell and fighting for my life behind bars.
That was why it was so difficult to put anyone behind bars.
Even ones made from snow.
Icy bricks, stones, and branches served as the foundation. I’d formed four bars in the front of each cell with my chain saw.
If jail cells negatively affected humans, then what would this do to my snow people? Am I making the situation worse?
There were a few times I stopped making the cells and tried to think of another plan. It wasn’t always good to cage animals and think that we would see each other as friends after they were free. But what else could I do? I was only one woman out in the snowy woods. No one would believe me.
What if I’m crazy and just imagining all of this? Maybe that’s why they only come alive around me.
Back and forth, back and forth, my mind zigzagged and bounced within my skull. I started talking to myself and then I shifted to apologizing to my snow people. I bet I looked like a mad woman, mumbling incomprehensible words as flickers of bitten snowflakes sprayed across my face and stuck in my hair.
I’m sorry, my friends, but this is war.
When they came alive, they would have a tiny bit of space to walk on the left and right, but nothing more. There were no doors or windows, just bars.
Hopefully, this keeps them in. But what will I do after that? We’ll have to talk. I guess.
Daniel drove up in his personal truck, just as I finished the last cell.
Great. If he doesn’t think I’m crazy after blow torching Santa, then he’s knows I’m a lunatic now.
I set the chain saw down and brushed all the snowflakes out of my hair. Even with the gloves on, my fingers had gone numb.
In fact, once Daniel pulled up, it jolted me back to reality. Cold rushed in my whole body. I hugged myself to keep in as much warmth as I could. I should’ve taken a break and gone inside to warm up.
Waving at him, I coughed and winter smoke left my lips.
Daniel parked near the jailed Santa and mermaids.
His truck was a huge, green beast that fit him perfectly. And if he had a favorite color, it was surely green. I’d never saw the man without green on or around him. He lived in nature—hunting up in the mountains, fishing down in Parker’s lake, and hiking through the woods.
He’d been that way ever since he was a little boy. It was why he’d refused to leave the state. Everything he needed, was right around him—in the bark of the trees and hum of the wind blowing through the branches.
Even with that dark green jacket on, the bulk of his body was obvious. It was in his walk and the way he held himself as he got out of the truck. “How’s your day going?”
“Fine.” I patted the ice to make sure the jail’s walls were reinforced.
Snowflakes clung to my curls, hat, jacket, and boots. I probably looked more like a snow woman and less like me. “What brings you by?”
“Just checking up on you.” That beachy scent of his wrapped around me.
Daniel took in the property. His gaze fell on the jailed Santa and mermaids. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t hear anything else last night or today.”
I didn’t hear anything, but I did have a snow pervert climb into my bedroom and sexually invade my dream. I won’t be making a complaint because that was the most sex I’ve had in two years. Therefore, I’m just going to self-reflect and try not to end up in the looney bin.
“Faith?”
“Oh, no. I didn’t hear anything. I think you were right. It was probably deer.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Deer?”
“Yep. Wolves or deer. But if I hear anything else, I’ll call you.”
“Good. Use my personal number.” He pulled out a folded piece of paper where he’d already written the information down. “I’m off for the rest of the week, but I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”