Winters Breeze

Chapter 1: Entrapment of Danger

When I woke up on the last day of my week-long visit with my grandma, she was already in the kitchen. I had arrived last Monday, and I had skipped a week of school to do so. I had been staying at her house for the past week and today, I was going home.

She used to have a nice house with grandpa on the far edge of New York, but when he died she claimed that it was too big for her and moved to an apartment, and sent lots of her private collection of books to me for my sixteenth birthday. Besides my car, it was my favorite present I had gotten that day. Most of my favorite books were ones that I had read at her house over my visits, and I was delighted to find that most of my favorites were in the gift. The present made me both happy and sad, because though I loved it, I knew that this was a collection of her favorite books. It made me sad that she only kept grandpa's five favorite books.

I only came to visit my grandma once a year, and it was always in the beginning of winter. We always hung out during the last week of November. We had done all our favorite things together, and toured New York. We had gone ice skating, and had checked out so many books that the librarian knew us by name.

I took a shower and got dressed, in the outfit that my grandma had gotten me yesterday when we went shopping, which consisted of dark navy jeans, and red blouse that faded to white as it progressed down the shirt. I put my straight brown hair up into a ponytail, and used the curling iron to curl the bottom in big twists, the way I liked it styled. I pushed my bangs to the side, parting them and putting the majority on the right side just above my eyes.

I went down to see what Grandma was doing and saw her getting ready to bake our cookies, the ones that we made every year since I was little. It was our personal tradition. I snuck up behind her and covered her eyes, laughing.

"Nice. Cookies for breakfast. Do you need some help with that?" I grabbed my apron, where it was hanging on a hook on the wall. She tied it behind me.

She laughed and grabbed a second rolling pin out of the cabinet as I washed my hands. I took it and began to spread out the cookie dough with the rolling pin. This brought so many memories to mind and it made me smile.

We chatted about school and my friends, while cutting out the cookie shapes with the butterfly and dragonfly cutters I bought her as a birthday present. With her taking the dragonfly cookies and me cutting out the little butterfly cookies we had quickly filled up two whole cookie sheets and had put them into the oven. I started the timer and began to wait for them to cook for 20 minutes.

She read a book with me, it's been one of my favorites since the first time she read it to me. By the time we had got to chapter 4, the cookies were finished and it was almost time for me to go. She grabbed a paper plate from one of her white cabinets and piled a sheet of cookies on it. She wrapped them in clear wrap, and gave it to me with my coat, hugging me goodbye. I had put on my coat and turned to leave, but she placed her hand on my shoulder and stopped me. She handed me the book that we were reading.

I sucked in a breath. This meant alot to me. That book was my grandpa's favorite one, and since he died, it became her favorite thing of grandpa's besides the picture of them together she kept in her room. I hated saying goodbye to her, and on top of that I was never really good at goodbyes.

The train station was only a few blocks down from her apartment so I just walked, not wanting to make her have to go all the way down to the train station just for me. I had purchased my ticket yesterday, so I'd be ready for today and would have everything I needed. All I have to do now is catch my train and leave.

I loved my visits with grandma, and I always looked forward to them. I missed my home too, I wanted to go home to my own stuff and my own house and to see my dog, snowflake. I also knew that I had to get back to school, because I'd have a week's worth of homework when I get back.

I sighed. I wish I could stay here and hang out with grandma all the time, it was so fun here, and it had so many places to explore and see. In my little town everyone knew each other, and nothing exciting ever happened.

It didn't take me long to walk the couple of blocks to the train station. It was big, and lots of people were there waiting for their rides. I took a bench which was closest to the tracks, and pulled out the book me and grandma had started reading. There was a little boy playing with a windup train at the bottom of the bench and a couple others around me, but all the benches were crowded. I had been sitting there for a while when I heard the speeding train in the distance. When I looked up, it was still pretty far away, but it was in view. This train was clearly not stopping here, as it wasn't slowing down much.

That's when I noticed the boy's wind up toy train drop into the tracks. For a second I couldn't comprehend what was happening. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Before I knew it, the boy was at the edge of the tracks, about to go down the short ledge. When he did, he would be completely on the tracks and in front of the approaching speeding train. He wasn't much older than one or two, so he was old enough to walk but not old enough to recognize the immediate danger he was in.

No one else in the crowd had reacted as fast as I did, because I saw the train drop and the boy go after it before any of them did. I knew that I would be the only one who would be able to save him.

I dropped my treasured book and it landed on the ground, opened to chapter 10. Soon I was at the side of the tracks, and the train was much too close for comfort, especially since we were on the tracks. I climbed onto the tracks and grabbed the boy's hand trying to get him, and myself, off the tracks and back to safety.

He yanked his hand away, reaching down to grab his toy train first. He reached his hand up again and I took it, and stepped quickly to get off the tracks.

I stepped too quickly.

I lost my footing and slipped, falling to the ground. My foot got caught in the track. I pushed the little boy off the tracks and into the crowd that was waiting, who had seen what had happened and were ready to help. I tried to pull my leg out but it was stuck, and my efforts had no result.

In my efforts to get my foot released from the tracks I cut myself on a sharp edge of the tracks.

A boy my age with orange-blonde hair ran next to me and began trying to get my foot unstuck, but the train was at the edge of the station. He seemed oddly familiar, like I had seen him before.

There was just enough time for him to get out of the way of the train.

"Go! You're gonna get hit." I feebly pushed him away from me, not being able to move much with my foot stuck, and yelled over the noise of the train.

He stood up as if he was going to leave me as I requested. He looked into the crowd, as if looking for someone. Instead, he turned away from the ledge of safety that was so close, but yet so far, and stepped in front of me.

It would hit us any second now.

Even though I'm gonna die, at least I saved the boy. I'm glad that ill die a hero, like in all the books I read. I'd die a hero's death.

I raised my arms in front of my face in an attempt to protect myself, though I knew that it wouldn't have any results, and I turned my head and closed my eyes. I braced for the hit.

I counted down until impact.

3...2...1....

But nothing happened.