One Complete Heart

Chapter 9

The sea was vast and beautiful. Small crystal-like pieces of ice crashed with each breaking wave, shimmering like diamonds. Dimentio had not even been aware that there was an ocean nearby. The snow covered the land as far as the eye could see, sitting like sand along the shore. The gentle breeze coming from the ocean was soft, yet harsher than most places, gently pushing him away from the sea. 

He never thought beaches were a place people would bother to visit in the winter, but now that he was seeing it for himself, he thought that this was somehow even more beautiful than it would be in the summertime. The water wasn't a tropical teal color, but a deep blue, like the sky just after the sun sets. 

Mimi had taken her shoes off and started running toward the icy water. Everyone else seemed to follow, and for the first time, Dimentio found himself noticing how warm the snow was. It was still cold, but not nearly as cold as it logically should have been. 

Still, he avoided the water. He never liked the ocean all that much anyway. 

Mimi held her dress up and walked until her knees were submerged. O'Chunks followed, only to trip and make a large splash. Dimentio was concerned he'd get hypothermia, but when he arose once again he seemed just fine. In fact, he was laughing. There were zero signs of pain. 

"Careful," Nastasia called out, sitting just close enough to the water for her to be near them without actually getting wet. "We can't have any of you dying."

Dying...

The thought had been on Dimentio's mind throughout the previous night, and he wasn't sure why. The idea of death had always scared him. He wanted to live. He wanted to be happy. He wanted what everyone else had. He wanted what he had now. 

Everything was perfect. He had friends, he had a warm place to stay, and he had himself. What more did anyone need? There were some people out there who always wanted more, but he was not any of those people. He was content with what he had. Sometimes simply being alive was enough. 

"Hey, Dimentio!" Mr. L called out. "Let's build a raft!"

Dimentio frowned, then turned his attention toward the man in green, who had a vehicle with him. It wasn't a kart, though. 

"It's a snowmobile," Mr. L chuckled. "Brought it from town. That's why I'm late. Anyway, on the way over, I found a bunch of wood! Let's build a raft!"

"Um, alright..." Dimentio trailed off. He was certain that they couldn't possibly finish building a raft in one day, but working on something with the man in green would give him the opportunity to get a better read on him. Besides, it could be fun, so long as he didn't have to actually get on it. He was very well aware of how dangerous the ocean could be, so going out to sea on a makeshift raft wasn't exactly something he planned on doing. 

"Great, hop on!" Mr. L grinned, pulling out a rope with a sled attached. He tied one end of the rope to the back of his snowmobile, then placed the sled on the ground. 

"On there?" Dimentio asked, skeptical. It hardly looked safe. 

"Yeah! Unless you prefer to walk. It's about a mile away, so not far, but this is more fun." 

Dimentio raised an eyebrow but shrugged and sat in the sled anyway. What was the worst that could happen? If he were to fall, the snow would catch him. 

The man in green smiled, then hopped on top of his snowmobile and started the engine. Dimentio could hear a quiet roar before suddenly being pulled forward. Before he knew it, the two of them were zooming across the beach, moving even faster than Dimentio had when he was sledding. 

"Oooh, I want to go next!" he heard Mimi call, though her voice had already gotten so small that he could hardly hear it. He laughed to himself, holding onto the sled tightly so he wouldn't fly off. Fresh white powder sprayed up on his face, but it didn't hurt. In fact, it tickled a little. He tried to keep his mouth closed so it wouldn't get in, but the small amount of snow that he did happen to swallow tasted like slightly sweet water.