Ice-Ghost
Copyright 2014 Gilbert Pangelina
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***Ice Ghost***
The Rink
Christy, a 13-year-old figure skater, diligently practiced her routines every night of the week. She was often the last to leave the rink, with the exception of the ice-rink manager, Bob. It was a cold winter’s evening and Bob had slipped into his office for a warm cup of coffee. Christy, not expecting her mother to arrive at the rink for at least another 10 minutes, was delighted in having the freedom of an empty rink, at least for a short while. Happy to be on the ice alone, Christy exuberantly ran through some of her routines. Feeling more confident as she skated alone on the ice, she decided to attempt her most daring feat, The Triple Lutz.
Skating faster and faster over the ice and with slow steady breathes, she began to coach herself for the jump. “Remember now” she thought aloud, “drive-turn, back outside edge, dig in and rotate.” Reaching the desired speed, she turned and gracefully glided on the back outside edge of her left skate. Gliding several feet, she simultaneously dug the toe pick of her right skate into the ice as she swung her right arm and leg inward toward the center of her rotation. She flew into the air. As she rotated through the air, she could hear the air whirl past her ears. She felt as if she had just launched herself to the moon. A perfect ten, she thought. Christy was feeling ecstatic, but, as she landed, the toe pick on her blade scraped into the ice and she fell. Something went wrong. She slid several feet on the ice before everything went blank.
When she woke up, there was a young man standing beside her. On his head, he wore a small, faded green cap with two thin gold stripes around it. His hair had a faint earth color to it and his skin was oddly pale. On his neck, he wore a silver chain that was tucked into his tunic. His tunic was green, thick and as faded as his cap. It went a few inches below his waist and had faded golden designs woven into its sleeves. There was a brown utility belt strapped around his waist. He wore brown, high-front trousers and brown boots that had skates attached to their bottoms. Without a facial expression, he reached his hand out to her. She accepted it hesitantly—after all, he was a stranger. As she got to her feet, Christy noticed that the ice-rink now seemed oddly darkened.
Oh my, everyone has left, she thought. But where are my parents? How odd! She looked toward the far end of the rink and thought, Here is another mystery. The entire end of the rink has a darkness to it that seems to lead nowhere and, yet, it seems like it goes somewhere. It is so dark that I don’t think light could ever find its way in there! How strange! Now Christy had two mysteries in front of her: the boy and the end of the oddly darkened rink. As she looked at the odd boy, she began to wonder where he had come from. Somewhere or somehow, she felt as though she had met him before.
“Hello,” said Christy, “and thank you.” The boy smiled cautiously. Christy continued, “I thought I was the only one left at the rink.” He silently smiled at Christy and shook his head no.
Christy then asked, “Who are you?”
With a boyish smile, he gently answered, “Some call me Ice-Ghost, but I have other names.”
Christy replied, “Oh…are you giving me a riddle?”
With a disconcerted look, he answered, “No, but it’s a long story and we don’t have that much time.”
“What time don’t we have?” asked Christy “And why are you answering my questions with riddles?”
A Different World
As Christy spoke, a voice calling for help came from the far end of the rink. Skating to the end of the rink, Christy stared into the darkness and listened. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that there were many tall, dark silhouettes just ahead of her. As her eyes continued to adjust, she could now see that the dark figures were trees. Looking inquisitively at the trees, she thought, That’s odd. I don’t remember paintings of trees in our ice skating rink. She skated to the edge of the darkness and discovered that they were not paintings at all. The trees were indeed real. They were old, thick and gnarled. The trees had long, dark branches that seemed to be covered with moss. How could this be? she thought. She couldn’t help, but notice that the darkness seemed to have no visible ending to it. It just seemed to go on forever. Rather than being scared, Christy had become fascinated by this new turn of events. Pulled by the chain of curiosity, she skated further into the dark void.
“Don’t go…” was all Christy heard from the Ice-Ghost as she skated into this dark, new world. As she continued to skate, the ice became as smooth as glass as she effortlessly skated. She began to wonder if she were skating on ice or anything at all. Christy heard the voice of a little girl calling to her again. The voice sounded close. She continued skating into the darkness and, then, something strange and unexpected happened. The further she went into this new place, the lighter her surroundings appeared. Finally, she skated into the day’s light. As she looked around, all that she could see was ice and snow. There were several trees, some very large, but they too were made of ice or maybe the trees were heavily coated with ice. It was hard for Christy to tell. The ground was more like a sheet of ice. It was as smooth as glass. Snow banks scattered the landscape. In the distance were small ice structures that resembled igloos, but no one appeared to live in them. Each had a visible and small, beautifully wrapped package in them, but something told Christy to stay clear of them.
It seemed like only a minute had gone by when the Ice-Ghost skated up to her. “Finally,” he said, “I have found you, but now we must get out of here—the sooner the better.”
“What do you mean finally? I just left you less than a minute ago.”
“No,” he said. “I have been searching for you for a couple of hours. I’ll explain later.”
Christy looked puzzled. She was about to ask the Ice-Ghost what he meant when she again heard the voice of the little girl.
Imploringly, Christy urged, “We must find her and see what is wrong.”
However, the Ice-Ghost fervently warned against it, shouting, “Stop, it could be a trap!”
Disbelievingly, Christy light-heartedly laughed, “A trap?! Don’t be so worried. No one wants to trap me. That just couldn’t be.”
The Land of True Ice
As Christy continued to skate, she heard the young girl’s voice call out again and again. She followed the voice until it led her to an ice-bush that stood in front of a snow bank. From behind the bush, she heard the voice call out again. Christy stopped in front of the bush and spoke. “Hello? Is there someone in there?”
From behind the bush, an older sounding voice called out, “Help!”
Just as Christy was about to circle around the bush, a small figure skated out. It was an ice dwarf who looked to be at least 75-years-old. He wore a light blue cap that had a thin white band around the base of it. His face was slightly tanned and he had light, rosy cheeks and a thin, scraggly, white beard. He wore a blue ring on his left hand. His coat and trousers were also light blue. His loose-fitting clothes were held up by a wide blue belt that had a big brass buckle. Clamped onto his feet were his skates. He approached Christy with a wide and pleasant smile. As he looked down at the ice skates that Christy wore, the corners of his smile rose so high they looked like an upside down grimace.
The dwarf bowed.
“Welcome to The Land of True Ice.”
Christy smiled for a moment and then stopped. “Were you calling for help?”
“Indeed, I was,” said the dwarf.
Embarrassed, Christy said, “But your voice sounded as if it were that of a child! A young child.”
“I am a snow dwarf and that is often how we sound in distress. Our voices can become very high and shrill.”
With a concerned look, Christy asked, “Why were you in distress?”
“My beard had been tangled in this bush for some time, but I am now free.”
Not knowing what to say next, Christy asked, “Why do you call this The Land of True Ice?”
The dwarf replied, “It is because this ice has been here since the beginning.”
“Since the beginning of what?”
“Since the beginning. That is all that I can tell you, but that should be more than enough,” the dwarf continued with a smile.
The Gambit
From behind Christy stepped out the alarmed Ice-Ghost, who urged her to leave. “Christy, we must leave now. This is Gloo and he is one of the