The Winter Letter Read online

  ”I wanna kn—“

  ”Well I’ll tell ya, I don’t have any. I’m always the last to know, but I know where ya can find em.

  “Where can I—”

  “Finish your meal honey. Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

  Will gave up and didn’t speak until he sopped up the last of his gravy with a biscuit and Ms. Lani took his plate. She dropped it in the old crooked sink and motioned for Will to follow. With quite the wobble she walked to the other side of the one room house, to the door of the only closet, and offered to hang his bag while he slept for the night.

  “I can’t stay. I just need to know what’s going on,” Will said.

  “You can’t stay?” Ms. Lani replied. She pulled back a curtain to a crooked window so black it looked painted. “Where you gonna go? You can’t go trompin out in the woods in the middle of the night.”

  “I’ll follow the trail. How do you get back to the train station?”

  Ms. Lani laughed. “How would I know? I’ve spent the last two hundred years in Mississippi!”

  “Two hundred years?”

  “Yep, only been here for about 45 minutes or so. I always arrive early, unlike some people.”

  This woman was crazy, but she was right. Will knew he’d never find his way back to the platform in the dark, and besides, the next train wouldn’t come till tomorrow.

  “Ok, I’ll stay,” Will said once he realized he couldn’t think of any other solution.

  “Good. It’s nice to have some company,” Ms. Lani replied. She took his bag, opened the door of the closet, and hung it on the inside doorknob. Then, reaching in, she pulled out a pallet that was already prepared.

  Will washed up in the sink and laid down. The next thing he knew he was floating from one dream to another, trying to grasp a sky full of faces he was sure he would see nevermore, while Ms. Lani rocked the night away in her crooked, creepy, squeaky rocking chair.

  Five

  Down and Down and Down...

  “Wake up Will! Time to get some breakfast. You’ll need the energy for your journey down the mountain. I think ya had better get going before the birds come out. Ya never know what they might do this time of year. Last year, bout this time, I found one living on my roof. When I asked it what it was doing it asked me for money, then if it could stay in my guest room! Can you believe that?!”

  “What?” Will asked through drowsy irritable eyes. “What mountain? And birds, living in your guest room? What guest room?”

  Ms. Lani let out a huff of a laugh. “Come eat sleepyhead.”

  Will got up and followed Ms. Lani out the back door to a porch. A small path was the only space between the house and the forest as if it has been dropped in from the sky. The two sat and ate their fill of sausage links, biscuits, gravy, eggs, and a large glass of orange juice. After the meal Will was no longer irritable, at least until Ms. Lani confirmed he was right about the bathroom being outside and made him do the dishes.

  “Come over here and help me,” Ms. Lani said once Will finished. She led him to the center of the room and bending over (which looked quite painful to Will) she flipped up one side of the pallet Will had slept on. Underneath was a trap door in the floor. She undid the latch and made Will pull it open, revealing a set of stairs that disappeared into the dark. Without explaining the old woman walked down, and Will, not knowing what to do, followed.

  Beneath the crooked house was a dreary color that made grey feel bright. The air was musty, and everything seemed depressed. The rocks looked sad; the single lantern (somehow already lit) looked lonely; even the dark seemed like it wanted some company. The light from the lantern revealed a well circled by stacked stones three foot high. Ms. Lani walked over and picked up a rope that was already tied around a beam in the corner. She tossed the loose end down the well.

  “Okay William.”

  “It’s Will.”

  “Get down there. When ya get to the bottom knock out the wall. Should be hard now; gotta give it a good kickin, then slide through the hole you make on your belly.”

  Will walked over, bending slightly at the waist to keep from hitting his head on the floor ceiling. He looked into the pitch black hole Ms. Lani was calling a well. “Uhhh… I’ve got to go home,” he said.

  “Don’t you want your answers?”

  “Yeah I do, so tell me who wrote the letter?”

  “You know already.”

  “Yeah, but why?”

  “Why?” Ms. Lani asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Will replied.

  “Why why?”

  Will shook his head.

  “Listen, the only way to find the answer to why is to go down this well,” said Ms. Lani.

  “Why can’t you just tell me?” Will asked.

  “Cause it wouldn’t satisfy ya.”

  “Is there water?”

  “No Honey,” Ms. Lani said, rolling her eyes. “Why would I send you down a well full of water?”

  “Why would you send me down a well, period?” asked Will. “This is crazy.”

  “Crazy? Yeah, it always seems crazy at first. But, what does that matter? Now, go.”

  “Umm, I don’t think so. It was nice to meet yo—ouch!”

  Ms. Lani pulled Will close by his ear. “You came all this way and now you’re turning back cause you’re scared? Really?”

  “No, I just don’t think that—”

  “You just don’t think what? Listen, I may sound just a lil crazy sometimes—”

  “A little...”

  “Don’t interrupt! Like I was saying, you may think I’m crazy, but I think stopping out of a little fear is just insane. Either you’re in or out. Ya can’t have it both ways.”

  “Okay! Okay! Geez!” said Will. “Let go of my ear. I’ll go down.”

  Will grabbed the rope, tugged on it hard, and stepped over the well rocks. What came next was quite possibly the worst repelling display ever. One moment his feet were set, the next he was holding on for dear life, swatting at a fly, then he had dropped the last few feet, landed, and fell butt first to the ground.

  “I’m at the bottom!” he yelled with excellent sarcasm.

  “Okay honey, see you at the top! Have fun!”

  Above, the light from the lantern faded, and Will heard Ms. Lani slam the trap door upstairs. Will pondered his situation. He was at the bottom of a dried up well, under an old leaning house, with a crazy old lady, in some forest, at some train stop, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Tons of horror movie scenarios ran through his mind.

  To the left, just near the floor, a dull light shone through the cracks of a few nailed together boards. Will got down on all fours and peeked through. The other side was a room of stone whose brown walls were warmed golden by a lit torch leaning out from a mount. The flame from the torch cast shadows that danced wildly to its random rhythm. Will leaned back on his hands and kicked at the boards until the hole was big enough to squeeze through on his belly. Once on the other side he dusted himself off and took the torch from the wall mount. The room was completely empty, but in the far corner was the beginning of a spiral stone staircase that descended into God knows where. Wasn’t he already underground? Will stretched trying to see pass the curvature, but the light faded around the spiral and he could only see the next few steps.

  Slowly he began, one step at a time, descending into the unknown. He was terrified, but didn’t know what of. He took a step, and there was nothing. Another step; another nothing. Step, Step, Step; nothing. Step, Step, Step, Step; nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. He took another step and there it was again; nothing.

  Perhaps not knowing what he was scared of was what he was scared of.

  Will’s steps grew faster with each new nothing he faced. Around and around the spiral he went; down and down and down and down, around and around, further down, more around, down and still further down for what seemed like hours. At one point he stopped and walked back up to make sure he wasn’t walking in circles, but after a few
up and arounds he turned and headed back down. After a while his head was spinning, so he stopped and leaned up against the wall, holding the now very heavy torch out in front of him.

  Will gasped. The torch was fading, dying right before his eyes. He hadn’t noticed while he was walking, but now, looking straight at the flame, he could tell how much smaller it had become. Will shivered at just the thought of being stuck in such a place with no light. He could turn around, but there were still hours to go up and in the dark. Surely by now he was closer to the bottom than the top. He had to be getting close to the end. How far underground was he anyway?

  Will took off, taking three to four of the short steps at a time. As he went the torch grew dimmer and dimmer, darker and sadder, until it was flickering, fighting for its life. Will stopped the moment the flame died. He snapped his eyes shut, having read this would help him adjust to pitch black, and counted to thirty. When he opened them he could see the stones, lit by a dim light further down the staircase. The bottom.

  A few minutes later, after what seemed like hours, the nothing Will had encountered time and again became something: a different torch hung by an old wooden door. Will took the new torch and set the old one in its mount. The moment he let go it flamed back to life.

  The bottom of the stairs looked almost like the top of the stairs, except for here there was a door with a bag hanging on the doorknob. Will stepped closer, shedding the light from the torch onto the bag. He grabbed it with his loose hand. “How in the world did this get here?” he said out loud. He was holding his dad’s travel bag.

  Slowly, Will twisted the doorknob and creaked the door open. Light rushed into the dark room like rapids from the sun. Once his eyes adjusted he realized he was in an old house. Everything looked old; the floor, the ceiling, the table, the chairs, everything but the old woman sitting at the crooked table.

  “Ms. Lani, is that you?!”

  “Who’s it look like?” the old woman answered.

  “How did you get here?!”

  “I took the elevator.”

  “What?!”

  “I’m kidding. Come sit down, better get you something to eat before you head down the mountain.”

  “What mountain?!” Will said, much too loud. “What the heck is going on?!”

  Ms. Lani shot Will a momma look and motioned him to the window. Will stomped over, cracked the old crooked curtain, and looked out. The back was no longer full of trees, but a yard of bright green grass. At its edge was a wall of stones.

  “Better go out and see for yourself,” said Ms. Lani.

  Will opened the door and crossed the yard, most of the way mumbling and rolling his eyes. When he reached the stone wall he leaned over and looked. He gasped and almost hurt himself shuffling backwards. When he turned around he was white as a ghost. On the other side was a bajillion foot straight drop into an ocean so blue it seemed to be lit underneath.

  “That mountain,” Ms. Lani said from the doorway. “Now come on, let’s eat.”

  Six

  Hello Forest

  Will stared at Ms. Lani, quietly begging for answers. Ms. Lani ate and never said a word.

  “What’s going on? Where am I?” Will finally demanded.

  Ms. Lani finished chewing her biscuit before she spoke. “You’re in Baru on Pugian.”

  “What?”

  “Always the same questions,” said Ms. Lani, shaking her head. “It’s another world William, not Earth at all.”

  “Another World? You’re kidding.”

  “Listen Toto, You ain’t in Kansas no more.” Ms. Lani stopped and laughed. “You ain’t even in the same universe Will. You’re definitely in a land, far, far, away.” She chuckled again quietly.

  “You’re crazy. I don’t believe you. You’re...” Will swallowed. “You’re lying. I think I should go home.”

  Ms. Lani looked suddenly serious. “You wanna go home? Again? Go ahead, anytime you want. Walk back through those doors, up those stairs, through the wall, back up the well, through the forest, ride the train to Nameless, and things will be the same when you get there. Ain’t nobody gonna make you stay. That’s not how we work round here.”

  Silence hung in the air for a moment.

  “I don’t know Ms. Lani. I don’t even know where I am. How do I find my way?”

  The old woman leaned in close to Will. “Take the road less traveled,” she whispered. “Most people run back through those doors right about now, but if I were you I’d keep going. If you go back you’ll wonder for the rest of your life. King Mel sent for ya, didn’t he?”

  Will’s insides did a backflip at the mention of the king. “Who is this Mel?” he asked coldly.

  “That’s King Mel. He’s King of Baru for almost fifteen years.”

  “But why did he send me the letter?”

  “Ask him!” she replied. “I don’t know.” She leaned back and looked up towards the ceiling. “Why does everyone always ask me these things?”

  Will looked up. As he suspected, there was no one there. He picked up a biscuit. Should he go or turn back? Was the king a killer, or someone with some strange power to know the future? Maybe he shouldn’t dig any deeper and just leave it at that, but something urged him forward. He didn’t have anything to go back to anyway and besides, it seemed like the only one who could answer his questions was this King Mel guy, good or bad.

  “How do I find him?” Will asked.

  Ms. Lani smiled. “Follow the path out of the forest behind my house,” she said, pointing towards the back door with her cane.

  Will got up and peeked out the front window. All was dark brown and bright yellow at the same time. The trees were not pine, or cedar, or oak, or gum, or any other Will had ever read about. They were short and stumpy with large trunks, low hanging oak-like limbs, and tree bark that looked like it would flake off easily. The low branches held earth-tone yellow leaves (or straw — Will couldn’t tell which.) and moss fell in perfect swirls from limb to limb to ground. A few of these yellow branches hung low beside Ms. Lani’s front porch, swallowing whole a narrow trail.

  “Okay, then what?” Will asked.

  Ms. Lani laughed. “One step at a time; you’ll find that’s how we give direction round here. If you get lost just ask somebody, but not the birds; they’ll send you God knows where. Don’t worry, there are always good people around who can help. You’ll know`em when you see`em.”

  With this Ms. Lani opened the front door and wobbled out. “Hello Forest!” she said right as she stepped onto the front porch, then Will heard her mumble something back to herself in a different voice.

  “Be sure to greet Forest,” the crazy lady yelled.

  Will grabbed his Dad’s travel bag and stepped through the crooked doorway. Ms. Lani was staring up at a tree smiling.

  “Where can I—”

  Suddenly, there was a swoosh and a thud mixed with the rustling of leaves and a blur of yellow. The next thing Will knew something had swung down and slapped him in the chest. He flew back through the door, landed butt first, and slid to a stop against a wall.

  “What the—”

  Ms. Lani was standing in the door, leaning on her cane, turning red from laughing so hard.

  “What are you laughing at?! What was that?!”

  Will jumped up and started to walk out again, but the little old lady held up her hand and motioned for him to stop.

  “William, greet Forest for goodness sake,” she said in between laughs.

  “What are you talking about?!”

  Ms. Lani pointed her cane up at the tree she was standing by.

  “What? What are you pointing at? That’s a tree—” As Will was speaking some of the tree’s flaky bark parted, and a deep voice came out of what appeared to be two wooden lips.

  “Hello William,” the tree said.

  Will freaked. He jumped back inside, slammed the door, and held it shut with both hands. Outside, the laughter exploded again.

  “Come out William,” Ms La
ni yelled.

  Will slowly stuck his head back through the door.

  “William, meet Forest. Forest meet Will.”

  A tree limb hanging by the porch moved, making Will jump and Ms. Lani laugh even harder. It bent like an arm and waved. “I’m sorry, but we get everyone with that trick. It’s horrible, I know, but it’s so funny. No hard feelings I hope,” Forest, the tree, said in a deep tree voice.

  Will stared with his mouth open. He was acting a bit like a tree himself.

  “Will, greet Forest,” Ms. Lani said again. “Just say, Hello Forest.”

  Will looked at the tree. Above the lips was a huge nose and two large oval eyes. The lips were smiling, and the eyes were brown and green (of course).

  “Hello Forest,” Will said.

  Ms. Lani smiled. “Forest is gonna lead you down the mountain. This is his home. He knows the way well.”

  Will nodded, although inside he was a little unsure about being led around by a walking tree. Ms. Lani motioned for Will to start down the path. Will waited for Forest to lead. Forest didn’t move.

  “Umm, are you going to lead me out?”

  “Yes,” Forest simply replied, then his big wooden eyes opened wide and his mossy eyebrows raised. “I see,” he said. “Let me explain what I am William—”

  “It’s Will,” Will said.

  “I’m sorry, Will. I’m not used to people not knowing about us Xylons. Please forgive me.”

  Forest was extremely polite, which would have made Will forgive him instantly, if Forest had done something that actually merited forgiveness.

  “Xylons are trees for sure, but we are much more than trees. We’re spirits that live inside of trees. We can’t walk, but there are many trees in the world and whenever we want to move we just ride the roots to another tree. The real me, you can’t see, and from what Ms. Lani told me about humans, you’re the same way, except you can walk and only need one body. You’re a spirit too. I wonder if we look alike inside?” Forest was thinking out loud. “Do you understand?”

  “I’m not sure,” Will answered. He had never really thought about it like that.