When the Snow Took Her Name

On the road, I met a woman unlike anyone I had ever seen before. Her name was Janet Smith.

She seemed slow and almost childlike, yet she had been wandering alone for two years without ever going home. Even with one leg crippled, she had forced herself to climb the Highveil Mountains.

This time, however, she was caught in a blizzard. Injured and stranded, she could no longer make her way down.

As her vision blurred and her strength slipped away, tears covered her face. She placed a pair of small handmade clay dolls in my hands.

"I'm probably going to die here," she murmured. "Please give these to my adoptive brother, Chester Graham."

She was clearly at death's door, yet her smile was soft and unexpectedly serene.

"Tell him I've seen enough of the world. I don't love him anymore. And tell him he doesn't need to worry. I'm not so foolish now. I won't cause trouble for anyone again."

Chester? At the sound of his name, I stood rooted to the spot. In Riverton City, everyone who worked at the harbor knew him, the so-called Ship King. Right before I left for the mountains, news of his engagement had been everywhere.

I watched her eyes slowly close and held onto the rough clay dolls even tighter. "You have to keep living. Go tell him yourself!"

Janet Smith shook her head, her smile sweet and gentle. "He doesn't want to see me. He's the one who wanted me to climb the snowy mountain."

I only found out from the bits and pieces she told me.

For the last two years, Chester Graham had been the one sending her on trips all over the world. The last trip, the one to the mountaineering camp, was arranged by Chester's people too.

Even if she had not agreed, they would have made her go up that snowy mountain anyway.

Janet's voice was so faint, like it could disappear any second. "He said I grew up with him and the world seemed too small in my eyes... That's why I was always by his side."

When I heard that, I could not help but raise my voice. I was filled with anger. They made Janet, who was slow to understand things, climb up a snowy mountain.

"That's crazy! He sent you off to die!"

I looked at Janet, feeling so sorry for her, but she just nodded. "I know, but I'm okay with it."

I froze. She was so innocent that she had been tricked.

"Janet, do you know what dying means?"

She looked away, her eyes unfocused as if she were seeing something far, far away. "I figured it out three years ago when Chester gave me those little white pills."

It took me a moment to catch on. The little white pills were sleeping pills. Three years back, Chester tricked her into thinking they were just medicine for a cold. She swallowed them down without a second thought.

Janet suddenly smiled with a little bit of pride in her eyes. "I'm actually really smart, but Chester looked so sad. I didn't want to see him cry, so I took a lot."

Then, her expression changed to frustration. "But I still don't get what happened with Chester. Why did he break my cup all of a sudden? I hadn't even had the chance to think about dying. Death is like an endless sleep, and both Chester and I would find peace in that. "

Suddenly, my heart felt all mixed up. I almost wanted to toss those two clay dolls right back at Janet.

"You silly goose, why are you so head over heels for a guy who treats you badly?"

Janet, who never shed a tear even when she got hurt, had tears flooding her face the moment she heard me.

"It's because I'm a goofball, always causing trouble for everyone. When I was 20, I nearly pushed him over the edge."