CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Walking the Frozen Rivers
The old woman had told them about frozen rivers, and in her description about the future they had to walk across them.
“Are you staying here because you do not want to walk the frozen rivers?” Clijsters said. “The ice isn’t going to break as we walk. Don’t be afraid, I’m going to be with you.”
“You don’t want to walk down the rivers because you’re thinking of getting sucked into the ice.”
Chloe looked at the frozen expanse and then looked at Clijsters. She was weighing her chances of success in walking the frozen river; the ice didn’t look very thick.
“Now, concentrate,” he said. “I will go first, walking slowly. And I will make it to the other end. If I manage to cross before they find us, then you should manage too without any fear. I’m giving you inspiration to do this, because it’s the only way we have to use.”
Clijsters began to set off himself. It looked very risky to walk that thin layer of ice. And if she let him go, she would have no other option but following his footsteps. She looked at the ice and felt sick to her stomach.
He didn’t walk. Even though he had set his right foot on the ice, he stayed in the same place for a moment. He fixed his eyes up in the sky and said, “A few years ago, one family drowned in this river. They were also being chased, like us, by the mystery Santa and they didn’t succeed in crossing the river, but they succeeded in making sure that Santa didn’t catch them. I think it’s worth a try, better than falling into his hands again.”
Chloe was in no mood to talk. She still hadn’t believed him about the whole thing. She thought the whole thing was like playing on the edges of the grave. She still didn’t feel convinced or confident enough to cross the river alone. She briefly closed her eyes and said one quick prayer; she always said one before bed. Making sure Clijsters didn’t hear anything, until she opened her eyes.
“Don’t forget that they‘re hunting us.” He said, “I have had to remind you about that a thousand times. With fear, you can never overcome obstacles. It’s on this river where you have got to show all the strength you have got,there is one thing against you now, and that is fear that you going to drown into this ice. But remember that the more you delay here, the more possible it becomes that they’re going to come and catch you.”
Finally he kept quiet. Looking around, and at Chloe, he couldn’t feel any cold, yet it was completely freezing. She could see that he didn’t care; he was okay with the coldness and the mist that surrounded the banks of this frozen river.
“By the way,” he said, before setting his second foot on the ice. “I’m going to start walking, but I don’t want to disappear into the mist. Therefore, just watch my footprints on the ice and step into them, in the same way; you will be able to walk into my footsteps before they refreeze.”
He said nothing else as he began to walk and vanished into the thick mist. She could only see his first four footmarks, but to recognize them she had to look more carefully. She could also see the beginnings of the trail he left in the mist. The further he went, the more she became afraid because anytime she knew that Santa would catch her.
Terrifying moments were rampant, as she then felt the need to follow him. She could not see him anymore, still immersed in the mist.
Suddenly, Clijsters called her name. Still she had no sight of him.
“Chloe,” he called, repeatedly twice. “Where are you?”
He was really calling and asking whether she was alright. She closed her eyes, decided to walk without looking. It was deadly freezing in the mist, and her body was incapable of resisting the impact of the crazy weather. Several scenes played in her mind, while she dealt with the eminent lack of sun shine. Without looking, she just went into the mist. The chilly breeze on her face brought her back in time. She could feel the ice was much thinner and weaker than she had imagined as she could feel ice cracking beneath every footstep she took and she was completely caught up in the thick layer of frost. She tried planting her feet less firmly on the ice path from which she heard his voice calling, still with her eyes closed. She could feel this was a mission much more impossible than she had ever thought.
She was even forced to remember the old woman’s last words to her, “go, fight, my gallant warrior, I can foresee a lot of strange things.”
She didn’t stop walking with her eyes closed. In ten minutes, she could sense how long she had been moving. But there was one problem still, knowing where the frozen river ended if she didn’t open her eyes. What if she had gone in the wrong direction and failed to find Clijsters whom she had been separated from by the thick mist? That was a problem, and he had not called again since she started walking. She knew she was also helping herself to discover her way home, resisting all the temptations to open her eyes. She fought hard to keep her feet anchored to their holds. But every time she moved, it felt like sinking. She wished she could use her herculean strength and determination to get through this.
Her hands and feet had already surrendered and her brain seemed to be next. She could see nothing. Everything was black, although she was walking through the fog.
She now thought that maybe he had finally decided to abandon her, though the other part of her continued insisting that she would find him. She began to feel her eyes hurting after closing them for a long time, while she wasn’t asleep. She knew she was a few steps away from crossing the river through a thick blanket of fog. Until then, she had not stopped drawing images of herself drowning into the river should a big slab of ice crack. But that was part of her odyssey; she didn’t want anything to deter her from getting home. At one moment she slipped, and stumbled a little, increasing pressure on herself. The cold was also unbearable, but she could still draw the right direction of his voice mentally.
A moment later, she could no longer feel the chilly breeze. Had she crossed the river? She wondered, feeling tempted to open her eyes. She wanted to open her eyes before Clijsters, and then look miserable due to the ordeal, although deep inside she was happy for having crossed the river. She had struggled a lot.
“Relax, Chloe.” He said. “You have already made it.”
She looked at him, her eyes shining, and she said, “I feel exhausted, and it was more difficult that I thought.”
“It was entirely up to you and your determination,” he replied, laughing, and asked her whether she was ready to move on.
