Ocean Eyes

Snow Storm

"If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires." -Horace Traubel

Ryder had always hated winter.

It seemed to her that it brought out the worst in people. The weather was cold, the days were short and everyone was angry. The worst parts of her life occurred in winter and as she stared into the falling snowflakes ahead of her, Ryder felt a familiar dread.

When she was four, she slipped on ice and broke her collar bone.

When she was ten, she got a concussion while sledding.

When she was eleven, her mother told her the story of how Ryder's father left them out on the streets.

She still remembered that day like it was yesterday. Her mother had fallen asleep shortly after but Ryder had stayed up, staring out the small window in their basement apartment. It had been snowing then too, like it was today.

The first beach was grey. The sky was dark with rolling clouds, the water a mirror image of tumultuous water. Delicate white snowflakes fell from the sky, whipped around by the wind. It captured Ryder's hair in a gust, blowing it over her face. Without her hair as a protective covering, her neck was left bare and the cold air kissed her with chills.

The kids from Forks were long gone, her younger friends having disappeared with them. She could see the remnants of the fire smoldering lazily from where she sat on a piece of driftwood. Ryder shifted, pulling her thin jacket closer to her. It was from an army supply store in Houston, a windbreaker material that did not live up to it's fabric's name.

Ryder let out an angry cry, her fists banging down against the smooth wood she rested upon. She was angry, so angry. How dare he? How could he? Why would he? Why now?

She was finally happy. She had a solid job, working for people she loved. She had a home, a place to stay that offered heating and safety. She had her mother, finally, the mother she'd always hoped had stayed inside the shell of Caroline Kane. And she had Paul.

She loved Paul, she was sure of that now. He had changed her in the best way possible, improved her life in the most beautiful of ways. She loved him and he loved her. She was so fucking happy.

Jonathan Greene really had chosen the worst fucking time to pretend to be a parent.

How dare he try to see her? It was his fault that she had had such a horrible life, his fault her mother fell into the abyss of narcotics. He had showed how little he cared about her when he chose his job over her. Yet, now here she was, knowing that her father was in Forks and wouldn't take no for an answer.

The day after Caroline had drunkenly revealed the story of her first love, Ryder had walked to the public library. She had carried Violet on her hip, wrapping the small baby up in winter clothes that Ryder had blown her savings on. It was cold out, and icy. Ryder had fallen on a particularly slippery patch and bruised her knees but she had made sure Violet wasn't hurt.

It was on the slow library computers that Ryder had researched Jonathan Greene. It had turned out he had expanded his law firm into the Greene-Hall Office, a multi-million dollar lawyer office based in Seattle. He was married now, to Susan Hall. Ryder saw a picture- she was everything Caroline wasn't. Soft curves, demure smiles, blonde hair, pale skin. In her arms she held two babies, a girl and a boy. Twins. They had been born two years after her mother had stormed out of the fancy apartment with Ryder in her arms.

"What a piece of shit." Ryder's voice was quiet and wavering against the sounds of the waves breaking on the shore. "What a piece of shit!" She tried again, screaming into the torrents of wind. Snowflakes blew into her open mouth and she slammed her lips shut.