Winter's Child - Part 9

“James? Are you coming to bed?”

James gave a start and looked up from the journal he’d been reading, eyes blinking rapidly as they readjusted after being focused on the spidery writing. “Maggie? What time is it?”

“You’ve been at this for hours. It’s after midnight.”

“I—” He glanced down at the journal and then back up again. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I guess I lost track of the time.”

“That must be some fascinating reading,” Maggie said with an indulgent smile, leaning against the door frame of his study.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it fascinating,” James said, running a hand through his hair. “Or maybe it is. It’s certainly challenging. The ink is so faded in some places that it’s almost invisible. But at least the writing is fairly legible.”

“Learn anything interesting?”

“Well,” he said, putting a slip of paper into the journal to mark his place before setting it aside. “I learned that Josiah Preston wasn’t a great farmer, but he did make a fair living hunting and trapping.”

He stood up and stretched. “There was one interesting tidbit though.”

“What was that?” Maggie asked as he joined her at the door.

“It was the reason they settled this particular area.” He reached back and flipped the switch for the light, turning it off behind them.

“And?” she prompted.

He put an arm around her waist and guided her towards their bedroom. “The group he was with negotiated with the natives of the area for this land. They found out later this area was considered cursed or taboo or something. I’m not quite sure, the writing was pretty faded in that section. But from what I could gather, it was a win-win situation.”

Maggie frowned. “It doesn’t sound like it was a win for the settlers. The natives were usually respectful of the land. If they were willing to part with it so easily, something about this area must have spooked them.”

“It might be worth doing a little research on this area in general,” James mused.

“Look what I started,” Maggie said in exasperation. “More research!”

He grinned at her. “You’ve created a monster.”

“Just as long as you don’t become obsessed, like your father.”

Smile fading, James assured her, “Don’t worry. There’s no danger of that happening.”

James slept fitfully that night. His dreams were filled with shadowy figures dressed in Native American garb facing off against creatures built of snow.

In the morning, he was grateful that it was the weekend, and that Joey and Maggie had a play date planned with one of Maggie’s friends in town. He took his coffee into the study and eschewing the desk chair, made himself comfortable in the wing chair by the room’s fire place.

Late morning had him straightening up in his chair. He read the passage he found out loud.

“It is to my shame I have discounted the rumor that we are not alone in this place. It was easy enough to pass off the tales as the light on the snow, shadows being cast by the sun, snow devils cast up by the wind. But I have witnessed for myself a strange being, white as the snow. Truly a devil in shape and form. It was only a glimpse, but enough to convince me that the rumors might not be just rumor.”

James sat back in his chair. “And how can we be sure you weren’t hepped up on moonshine, Josiah,” he murmured. Something else he’d learned about his ancestor was that he was both a drinker and a brawler.

He decided he needed to take a break. Leaving the journal face down on his chair, he took his mug half full of cold coffee with him into the kitchen. Dumping the coffee into the sink, he refilled the mug with fresh coffee and then stepped outside onto the back deck.

Leaning his arms on the deck rail, he sipped the hot coffee and stared off into the woods. There had been a light snowfall the night before, just enough to cover the swath of grass between the house and the trees.

Idly he wondered what it would have been like to be one of the first white men to have set foot on this land; clearing the trees by hand, building a home. Josiah had written about the race to get the cabins built before winter, the abundance of game that had drawn them here in the first place. The second year they attracted more settlers and a real community had begun to form.

The things Josiah wrote about had seemed no different than records from other early settlers - the hardships, the rewards, carving out a life in the wilderness - the struggle for survival. What set him apart was the mention of the elusive creatures, the ones Joseph dubbed winter’s children.

For the first time in his adult life, James found himself starting to wonder if maybe winter’s children had a basis in truth after all.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Missed an installment? Catch up here:
Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,  Part 6, Part 7, Part 8,