No Footprints in the Snow

                                  No Footprints in the Snow

    Skyler looked up to see the canopy of leafless branches waving above him. They’d been walking this path together for months. He needed to keep on with that schedule no matter what. It snowed the night before. Just a few inches, and the sun came out that morning. During that afternoon walk, the path was white. It glistened with light. Wearing hat, gloves and a winter jacket, Skyler’s body was warm, but his blue eyes were cold. Cold as ice. Something inside him had shriveled up.

He looked down. Footprints of his partner were not there. She was not walking along with him anymore. No marking on the virgin snowfall besides his own. This incomplete picture almost crumpled him down into a ball on the cold ground, yet he used his inner strength to keep on walking. There must be a peaceful answer to the impossibility. The loss of her track in the snow had to be resolved.

In the silent vastness of the wild woods surrounding his log home, he began to cry. He also started to sing ‘Wish You Were Here’ at that same time, yet his painful ballad was suddenly interrupted.

“Skyler, I can’t concentrate on training if you keep on with this ridiculous attitude! You must relax and calm down!”

Emily had jumped to the ground. She had been swinging from one of the tall trees above the trail to the next one, landing right in front of him.

“You need to shut-up. I can’t get my rhythm together with the ropes and tackles I’ve installed, if you keep on…”

“Keep on doing what!” Skyler said. “This whole thing is…is…nuts.”

“Why nuts? You knew what I was when you met me. I was a dancer and an actress. I came out of that play on the cruise ship Ecstasy for eight months until it ended, and that’s when I met you.”

Emily was unhooking her safety line and taking off her helmet, eyes molten lava against Skyler’s polar ice cap stare. 

“My agent called me and told me about this gig on Broadway. I want, no I need to go back to work and snag this audition. I gotta get the acrobatics figured out and seamlessly done.”

Weeks ago, she’d installed hooks and brackets over the usual walking trail they took every day. In her mind, she thought she’d be with him in a different way while he walked along below her. Of course, it had not worked. Something else was going wrong.

“Come on, Skyler! Broadway is only three hours away in a plane ride. I am not leaving you, I’m supporting you, supporting us both. You know we’ve run out of money. This job, if I get it, will stabilize us again.”

Emily picked up her helmet and gear, back to walking along the trail with Skyler: footprints reappearing next to his as it had been before. The way he liked it.

“Three hours! Threeee hooours!” Skyler wailed. “That’s ridiculous. If you get that job, you’ll be locked in the city for months with only one day a week off. In your fantasy, I’d fly to New York three times a week and tuck you into bed. No, our relationship will crumble. I know you’ll get the part and then what? ”

“And then we will have more money, that’s what! You are imagining an obstacle we can rise above. There is….”

           Emily’s optimistic words were stuck in her throat as they turned the last corner of the path to see the log home. There was a Sherriff Car, lights on and swirling parked right in front of their front door. Emily grabbed Skyler by the shoulder and pushed him behind the closest group of trees instantly out of sight.

“Why are they there, Skyler! We took care of everything. You did something didn’t you.”

“I haven’t done anything! You’re the one who stole the trinket from Cathy’s jewelry box. I had nothing to do with the burglary in New Mexico last year.”

Emily hissed at him, “And you think I did not know you gambled our savings away last month? Why do you think am I working so hard to get this job? It was the best and only option we had, but I guess the whole thing in over. You called them didn’t you! Why? To give yourself up?”

“Give myself up? Are you nuts? I set up all the proof they need to put you where I want you to be. A place in which you can’t run away from me to Broadway or anyplace else!”

Skyler reached out to grab her, but he missed. Like a tropical animal, she turned fast on her heel, disappearing into the woods. Frustrated, he walked over to the sheriff’s car to explain the situation. He assumed they’d hunt her down and everything, but it did not work. It didn’t work out as he’d foreseen. The sheriff arrested him and dragged him away, telling him they’d get to Emily Bragger soon enough. Now, the quiet and peaceful path behind their home got a few deer and fox tracks. No more human footprints at all.