Face in the Storm

Voices hung in the wind barely discernable from the roar like a storm tide rolling in. "Just a storm..that was all," Sara reassured herself in the dim light of candles. Still, the almost comprehensible words whispered just below the wind.

It was late in the season for such a storm. That didn't help the ominous feeling building in her gut like something was waiting for her to make the first move. She walked to the window and looked out into the darkness. The wind blew flakes of snow horizontally. and she couldn't see much beyond the back porch. Was that a face in the swirling snow?

Her grandmother's house had always been such a magical place. It had also been one of her safe places in a turbulent life. Since Sara's mother's death, her grandmother had done much to raise her. Now that grandmother was gone it seemed the magic had soured. It was almost as if the house and nature itself were angry at the loss.

Sara spent most of the last week sorting through her grandmother's estate. As the sole beneficiary of the will, all of it was hers to deal with. Her stepmother encouraged her just to have an estate auction, and be done with it. Dimly, she believed that wasn't what her grandmother or her mother would have wanted. Grandmother had been careful with her money. Even without an auction, Sara had ample money to complete her college education. The house was hers free and clear.

None of that mattered to the storm. The wind still howled. Sara returned to the puddle of candlelight around the kitchen table. Unbidden came the memory of another storm. It was during the week she spent with her grandmother after her mother passed. Sara's grandmother told the story of a young woman trapped in this house during an unseasonable storm. A stranger had knocked on the door. He was pale with ice-blue eyes and white-blonde hair. The young woman had fallen for him and he for her. They spent a passionate night together as the storm raged. THe next morning he was gone and the storm was over.

Sara heard a knocking at the back door. It shook her from the memory with a start. She carried a candle to the back door and peered around the curtain. The shadow of a man stood silloetted against the blizzard. She opened the door. In the candlelight she could see the thin clothing he wore not so much as a scarf to keep him warm. "Come in! That storm will be the death of you!"

He entered and chuckled, "Hardly."

She closed the door and rushed to collect a pile of blankets for him. As she draped them around his shoulders she made note of his pale almost bluish skin and ice blue eyes. His white blonde hair stood up at various angles from his scalp. His face seemed familiar.

"My name is Sara. Welcome to my grandmother's house she passed recently, if you were looking for her..."

He smiled sympathetically, "I know. We are well acquainted. I am glad to finally meet you Sara. Last time I visit she felt you were too young to understand our relationship."

"Relationship?"

"Your grandmother is the only woman I ever loved. Sara, I am your grandfather." He said with a smile.

The man looked old enough to be Sara's elder brother but something itched at her mind. His face, it was the same face that had stared at her from the storm. "How?"

"My name is Jack. I am the local winter spirit. Your grandmother called to me when she passed. She wants me to look after you."

The sheer fantastic nature of his words warred with the serious wistful look on her grandmother's face when she told the story about the stranger. "How are you supposed to look after me?"

"You are my granddaughter. Like your mother, you have a choice. You can continue on with your mortal life, or you can join me and become a spirit of nature."

Sara thought about all of the times her father left her in the care of her grandmother after her mother died. He didn't seem to care and her stepmother surely did not...

"What would that mean for me? Would I ever die and join my mother and grandmother in heaven?"

Jack smiled, "Your grandmother is with us now, and your mother. I see and speak with them often. They just can't interact with this world anymore."

"How would I be different?"

"As a spirit of nature your business would be this world, but you would see that that doesn't cut you off from the next. If you tire of the life I am offering, you may join your mother and grandmother at any time." Jack answered.

"How would I change?" Sara asked

"You would still be you but you would be more, a part of nature."

"How do I..."

"Just shed your blankets and come into the storm with me."

"I'll freeze!"

"No, you will feel warmth and love like you have never felt before."

Jack offered her his hand. It didn't feel cold for all he had just come in unprotected from a blizzard. She nodded and followed him out shedding blankets as they went.

- - - - - - - -
"It was the damnedest thing sir. We found her body at the end of a trail of blankets she had evidently dropped. She was barefoot and not dressed for the weather. With the below zero temperatures last night she likely had hypothermia before she even left the cottage. My condolences on your loss..."

Sara's father cleared the lump from his throat. He had dreaded this day since her mother died from exposure decades ago. "We lost her mother and grandmother the same way."


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