Snow

It is a cold and dark February evening. The days have been getting longer. I’ve never liked looking outside in the middle of this shitass forest. I already said that it’s ominous. But the sunset’s nice. That’s what I thought. So I open the window and who do I see but that girl. Haggard and covered in whatever is the same girl I saw in the psych ward last year. There’s no mistaking it. I’ll never forget the faces of people who were kind to me.

She looked like a painting. She stood out like a sore thumb from the dark, depressing forest with her near-white-blond hair and light blue hospital gown. She looked like an angel worn down by the cruelty of Earth’s nature. Those wild, animalistic eyes locked with mine. She was walking barefoot through snow and dirt. Her legs were cut up. The hem of her gown was torn off. But she herself didn’t seem like she had been scouring the woods. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was in costume playing a prank on me. To be honest, I wanted her to spin around and start laughing at me.

I ran out. She collapsed in my arms. I went to go call the hospital but she looked at me.

She was so scared. Of course she would be.

I started treating her with the first aid stuff we had on hand. It wasn’t much, but Mom taught me how to use it. I would rather die than watch her succumb to the wilds. She told me she’s never been out in the woods before. She told me that she barely lived. She was so grateful. She asked me one last thing before she decided to rest up. She asked me to help her take a bath. I said yes before I really thought about it. It wasn’t really sexual. At least I didn’t think so. I think I was so caught up with how beat up she was that sex just never occurred to me.

She’s sleeping in my bed now while I type this out on my couch. I haven’t told my mom. I don’t know how I would even attempt to talk to her about that. I don’t think she deserves to know.

I still don’t know her name. I swear to you I used to know it. I called her by that name.

I’ll ask when the time’s right.