The Fabulous Spec-Fic Smack Down Anthology

Frosty the Danceman

Date of creation: 08/30/2024

Word count: 2493 

Author's note: This was my round one, part two entry. The prompt included an image and the following text:

At the age of 7, Lily was looking forward to witches school. But now, at 21, she has to find her place in the world, and that's a challenge no one prepared her for.

Maximum word count: 2500 words

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*****

The happy, computerized tones of Winter Wonderland shattered the silence and my concentration. I groaned and threw my head back against the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Every other day, I had no visitors, no calls, nothing but time to myself. Today, I wanted to use that time to read a new book. Alone. Uninterrupted. And today, I was suddenly the most popular person on the block.

Gone away is the bluebird...

Soft blue light glittered from the algae trapped within the icicles above my head. The harsh yellow light of day had faded to black outside my windows, allowing the gentle, pulsating bursts to reach every corner of the room and shade the translucent frozen decorations I'd fashioned over the years with the colors of the ocean in its various moods. I sighed and picked up the plain, thin sheet of ice serving as my bookmark from the spot where I'd discarded it on the sofa next to me.

In the meadow, we can build a snowman...

I removed my right glove and traced three delicate circles in the ice with my fingernail, and then I withdrew my finger from the cool surface and jerked it just slightly to drop Frosty the snowman's top hat on the smallest circle. His face appeared below it, one tiny dot emerging at a time, until his smile curved upwards as thin lines scratched out and up from the middle circle to wave at me. I smiled back. Maybe I could make him answer the phone. That would be an interesting challenge.

Later on, we'll conspire...

Maybe too much of a challenge right now. I pulled my glove back on and placed Frosty between the pages of the book, right between his proposal and her rejection. The couple would still be in turmoil when I got back. Unless Frosty worked his magic and turned them into the next big Hallmark Christmas movie. Now, there was a story.

In the meadow, we can build a snowman...

"Hello?"

"Hi, Lily!"

I suppressed another groan and slumped against the kitchen counter. "Hi, Crystal."

"So, what do you think of the new book?" she asked in a sing-song voice

I frowned and held the mouthpiece to my chest, leaning around the corner to look back down the hall at the living room. She was up to something.

"Lily?" I heard her muffled voice ask.

I sighed and put the receiver to my ear again. "You charmed the book."

She laughed. "You don't have to make it sound so bad. I just wanted to see your honest reaction, because I knew you wouldn't tell me what you actually thought. Although I'll admit it was mean of me to call you at this point in the story. So much for a straightforward, happy ending, huh?"

Anger froze my blood solid. "A visual charm? Crystal!"

"Oh, please," she dismissed me. "Like you didn't mess with me with that snow globe. Who enchants something to teleport five feet in a random direction every hour? I thought I was going crazy."