Ice Bones

I.B.

     The last thing Winnie could remember was his wife placing three chapped kisses on his own cracking lips. She gave one, and he began to tell her his evening night speech but Marleen cupped his jaw and pecked him a second and a third time. Her thin lips pulled back to stretch and lighten in color as her cheeks rose pink. She beamed so bright in her failing age; Winnie wouldn't dare let himself forget it.

     His heels cracked a sheet of ice that blanketed the walkway as he thought. Every step of his soles collided with a defining crack and expanding shards that crumbled under them. His pace was slow, as was the lady's who stood next to him and clutching on the bones that jutted out of his wrist. Together, their steps fell in sync and now accounted for four cracks in the ice all up to the door.

     "Do you know where you are, Winnie?" The woman behind him spoke and turned to loosen the grip on his wrist.

     "We are in front of a house. A very big one, lots of bushes..." He nodded and his eyes darted to count each hedge covered with a small sheet of dense snow. He felt the woman's figure move as his arm was tugged.

     "We are at your daughter's house -your daughter, Maria. She lives here." Winnie watched as her skinny fingers rose to press on the doorbell, a soft ring emitting from inside, "Do you remember her?"

     "No... I don't think so." He tried anything to recall himself having a child with Marleen, but whenever Winnie thought, he could only see what was colors. When the woman questioned Winnie's age, he saw a light yellow. And when he was asked about his wife, everything went pink.

     Yet right now, Winnie was swarmed with the color of green, maybe from watching the greens on the bushes or seeing the green peek out from the snow on the grass. It could have been the other woman standing in an open door frame wearing a solid green shirt. Two children clung to her legs and brushed their cheeks against her pants, the color fading when they both wore no green and his mind went back to black.

     "Hello," the green woman breathed and the woman clutching Winnie's wrist pulled closer towards the frame, "Feel free to set him by the television. I'll make sure someone will take care of him from there."

     His heals smashed several more piles of ice up the walkway and stuck shards in his boot ridges when the woman standing beside him pulled even harder at his wrists. He picked up his feet, wet with the melting ice, and stepped on either side of the children to have their eyes scan wide with curiosity.

     "Hi, grandpa," the child on his left spoke, tugging at the pockets of his pants and looking up.

     "These are your grandchildren, Winnie. Your daughter Marie has two children," the woman explained, releasing the grip on his wrist.

     "Hello," he said and turned towards the lady who seemed to hold so much information, as if colors could be put into words. "My wife's name is Marleen; do they have one?"

      The boy with sun blonde hair looked up again from fumbling with the buttons sealing his pockets; "My name is Gavin." He peered behind Winnie's leg to gesture to the small girl, "Tell grandpa your name."

     She spoke so soft, a strain of his ears couldn't pick up what the little girl mumbled into the opposite leg. His brows furrowed, not even aware the child spoke at all but moved her cheeks and lips to say anything else.

     "Anne," suddenly the woman spoke next to her. "Her name is Anne."

     "Anne," he repeated, testing the way it sounded by clicking his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "You're my daughter?"

     The woman clutched his upper arm rather tight as he felt the crescents of her nails put  pressure through Winnie's coat. "No, no -Why don't we set you on the couch, okay?"