After the Snow (21 page)
Authors: S. D. Crockett
“There! On the beach. Look!” she cry.
I can just make it out. The telltale wisps of smoke from campfires. And people. Huddled in groups on the shore. Out across the sea in the glimmering light, boats sitting on the waters of the bay. I can see their wide sails flapping in the wind. Like silver wings. Dinghies pulled onto the sand.
“Willo. The boats.”
She’s talking all quiet.
She still got her hand in mine. Sweet and soft and warm.
“We’re not too late,” she say.
But that fire blow hot in my head. Blowing with the smell of the coming spring. I hear the voices. Maybe the dog come down off the mountain for me after all. The voices ripping and tugging and tumbling inside me.
I turn to her. The sun catching on the heathery peaks behind us. Soft greens and russet on the hillside. The sound of the swirling water filling the river on the other side of the trees. And Mary. Lying right beside me.
“Come on. We can make it, Willo. The boat. We’ve got to get down there!”
I roll onto my back. The sun on my face.
“Willo! Come on.”
Yes, soon the russet heather gonna be humming with insects. The grass gonna be tall and soft and sweet. Dogs gonna be bringing pups out of the ground. Birds laying eggs in the bracken. Time to turn over the ground and plant a few oats for the winter. Time to wash the soot out of blankets and beat the rugs. Time to mend the roof. Let the goats out of the barn. Smell the earth under the snow.
“Willo?”
“Look, Mary. The whole world. It’s right here.”
“We’ve got to get down there, Willo. Before they leave.”
“Is it gonna be better than this Mary? Wherever it is that boat’s gonna go?”
“I don’t understand. It’s the boat that’s going to take us away. To the Island. New beginning and everything. Somewhere safe.”
“But don’t you see? It’s all here. This is where we belong. In the trees and the mountains. Across the valleys. In this great big sky all about. The ice is only frozen water Mary. Got to shout it out loud and clear. This is the Island. You. Me. This place. The Island is right here.
In us
. I see it now. Cos you can carry the good around in your head. Like that ship on the sea. Aint nothing gonna touch the things in your head if you don’t let them. I know it.”
In us
. I see it now. Cos you can carry the good around in your head. Like that ship on the sea. Aint nothing gonna touch the things in your head if you don’t let them. I know it.”
Mary look across the bay. She’s close, so close I can feel her breathing. Her hand still in mine. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Maybe what’s on that boat aint gonna be any different in the end. If we get on that boat it’s the same as if they killed us. They won then.”
There’s a big silence between us. Just the sound of the wind in the sky and the trees moving. But those things aint shouting now. Just rustling soft.
“We could go south,” she say in a whisper.
I turn and look at her. Wipe the hair from her damp forehead.
I can feel the fear. But it’s strong. Good and strong inside us like the sun cracking through the stormclouds blowing in my head. Nothing aint certain but the new day ahead.
“Yes, Mary. You see? We got the pony. We can go south. Find a house down there. Plant some oats. Cut some wood. Start fresh. Got to be beacons of hope. If it aint us, who’s it gonna be?”
It’s in that moment. Just looking out at the world all about. Saying and believing.
“And you won’t leave me?”
I look into her eyes.
“No, Mary. No. I won’t.”
She pull back and look at me.
“You promise?”
The wind blow inside me. The voices Tell.
“Heed your own spirit, Willo. Optimism! We must all share it. Around the fire. When we Meet. When we Tell. We must pass this gift to our children.”
“Yes, Mary,” I tell her, “I promise.”
And it been my voice. It always been my voice. Not the hare. Not the dog. Not Dad. Not anyone. Just me.
Timothy Shepard, Julia Churchill, Emma Young, Gordon Stevens, Daniel Crockett, Tony Lawrence, Claude and Therese Mesmin, Michelle and Francis Domps, and Debi Squirrell.
Et enfi n (but not least) Louise Bacou.
Thank you all.
A FEIWEL AND FRIENDS BOOK
An Imprint of Macmillan
AFTER THE SNOW. Copyright © 2012 by S. D. Crockett. All rights reserved. Donnelley & Sons Company, Harrisonburg, Virginia. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Book design by Barbara Grzeslo
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
eISBN 9781466816053
First eBook Edition : March 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crockett, S. D. (Sophie D.)
After the snow / S. D. Crockett.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Willo Blake, born after the 2059 snows that ushered in a new ice age, encounters outlaws, halfmen, and an abandoned girl as he journeys in search of his family, who mysteriously disappeared from the freezing mountain that was their home.
ISBN: 978-0-312-64169-6 (hardback)
[1. Survival—Fiction. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 3. Voyages and travels—Fiction. 4. Missing persons—Fiction. 5. Winter—Fiction. 6. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C8718Aft 2012
[Fic]—dc23
First Edition: 2012
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