Winter Wonderland

4

"You're not human?" I ask.

"No in fact I'm a spirit." He answers.

"Y-you're dead?"

He nods his head, "I died here a long time ago, and I only appear here at Winter."

"So I can't touch you?"

"Humans will just go through me and I will just go through humans." He tells me.

I can't touch him then ...

"Are you scared?" He asks me.

"No, it's even better because you'll never go away!" I say and joyfully smile.

Jack smiles, but not like his normal sincere one, it feels a bit forced.

The Winter passes and Jack is gone once again and I continue my normal life, but I still visit Winter Wonderland and admire Jack's Snow Angel carving, that has never faded.

I continue enjoying my the Winter's with Jack and it has come to my 12th Winter.

"Ah, so you're in Middle School now." Jack says.

"Mhmm ..." I nod my head.

He whistles, "Time flies, you're starting to look more like a woman."

"I know right!" I say and I play in the snow.

"I wish I can see you grow in Spring, Autumn and Summer." He responds.

"Oh, so where do you go during the other seasons? There must be somewhere you go ..." I say.

Jack shakes his head, "Nowhere, I just disappear."

"So how do you spend your previous Winters?" I ask him.

"With the Snowmen." He says, "Come on I will introduce you to them."

I follow him into a clear snow field and there has three standing snowmen.

"Hello? My name is Elsa." I introduce myself and they don't respond they stay still with their button smiles.

"They don't talk much." He says.

"You must have been really really lonely." I say.

"It doesn't matter anymore! I am with you." He says pouting.

The 13th and 14th Winter flew by quickly, and now I am up to my 15th and I come to visit Jack once again.

"You're really growing up." He says.

"Of course I am!" I shout at him.

"Yet you still act like a total child." He laughs and I laugh too.

We sit down on a hill which overlooks the frosted forest.

"... Jack, why can't you leave the Wonderland?" I ask him.

"My spirit only exists in this area if I leave I will turn into who I once was before I died and then vanish forever." He tells me.

"How did you die?" I ask him.

"The ice, while I was saving my sister from the cracking ice I died during the process. The man on the moon made me the Guardian here." He explains, "But there's nothing here to Guard, I can just have fun times with you."

"You know, that won't last forever." I say softly, "I wish I could stay with you forever."

"Forever can be empty though, I want to live life with meaning again. I want to live life you." He tells me.

I lean in to embrace him but I end up plummeting to the snow.

"Jack ... do you want to live forever?" I ask him.

He tilts his head at me and smiles, "When I am finally happy with my life, I don't see the use of living forever."