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Contemporary Friendship Inspirational

“Do you believe in God?” Maya asked. She blew out a frosty steam of air and laid her mittened palms on her narrow bright-red face to warm it. 

“What?” her sister asked. Her boots were much larger than Maya’s; the tops too wide, letting in clumps of snow onto her sockless feet. The boots, thick black rubber with heavy soles, sank through the crusty rim of snow and into the softer belly, almost to the frozen dirt six inches beneath.

Maya repeated the question.

Jane sat down in a pile of snow and leaned back to look at the sky, thinking hard. A V of black-billed geese made their way across the pure white sky. Maya paused and waited, the rope of the sled hanging limply in her hand. The mitten had begun to sag around Maya’s wrist beneath her jacket, exposing reddish skin with chapped cracks spiderwebbing across her pale wrist.

Maya watched Jane’s face with an expression that turned gradually from intense interest to desperation. The way younger siblings watch their older siblings’ faces when they’re unsure of what to think. Maya would decide whatever Jane decided, believe whatever Jane believed. 

The unsaid hung in the cold air between them. Maya dropped the sled handle and bent to pick it up, and when she stood back up, the moment was over. Her breath fogged out underneath her tightly wound scarf.

“It’s hot out here,” Jane said abruptly, still watching the V of geese. Wind blew icily around the two girls on the white hilltop. Maya shivered. “I’m hot.” She unzipped her jacket lying down and sat up to pull off the sleeves, which were leaking tufts of stuffing. 

Jane lay back down on the snow, thin sweater sticking to the ice particles. Maya thought Jane was beautiful, lying there in the snow in an ugly sweater and uglier boots, as all younger sisters know their older sisters to be beautiful. Jane put her hands behind her head and looked up at the sky once more. 

It was scudded with blue by now. It had begun to heal over after the day-long furious storm that had begun with rain and ended with six inches of snow all across southern Oklahoma and north Texas. The first such snowstorm in ten years.

“Jane!” Maya stomped her foot. 

Her sister stood, snow clinging to her back and hair. She sighed, took the handle of the sled in her bare hand, and walked past Maya up the hill. Maya stared after her. Then she balled her cold hands into fists and ran after, leaving Jane’s tattered winter jacket on the ground behind her.

Jane pulled the sled up to the top of the hill and sat down on it expectantly. 

“Push me,” she said.

Maya sat down behind her, put her arms around Jane’s waist, and gave a shove with her feet. The two girls, one with saggy mittens and the other with huge, clumpy boots, shot down the hill. They hurtled past Jane’s limp grey jacket, which waited patiently on the hillside.

The sled crunched to a stop at the base of the hill. Jane and Maya, curled tightly together, paused. They squinted in the sunlight. Maya tucked her head onto Jane’s shoulder and whispered, “What about time? Do you believe in time?”

“Time?”

“Time.”

Jane twisted around, less gracefully than she would have if not wearing a thick sweater, scarf, and snow pants. “Of course I believe in time.”

“I mean — ”

Jane stood and yanked the sled out from under Maya. “Come on, let’s go home.”

“Please? One more time? There’s no one here.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

“Jane, please! One more time, then we can go.”

“I’ll buy you hot chocolate on the way.”

“I don’t want to go home. Please. Not yet.” The last part came out as a whisper.

“Well, you’re pulling the sled up.”

Maya took the handle in her mitten and started walking back up the hill. Sweat beaded her forehead and slipped down through the holes in her scarf. Little woollen strands had come undone from the purling and waved in the static air behind her. 

“I mean,” Maya panted, “Time, like the future. Do you think about the future?”

“Of course.” Jane paused and turned, hands on her hips. She looked out over the golf course now covered with a blanket of pure white. Thin black tree branches hung over soft-looking dips in the snow, all bearded with icicles. The sun glinted across the snow like an owl’s yellow eyes falling dangerously on its next prey. In the summer the course was full of carts and cars and people, but for now the snow rested in the hush, ringed by trees and the feeling that this wouldn’t last long. (Looking out, she thought about a couple at the store she’d heard the month before. “Do you think it’ll snow one of these next few years?” the husband asked. “No,” the wife responded decisively. “Not for a long time.”) “All the time, actually. I dream about leaving home and never coming back. Just two years to wait. I’m already gone.”

Maya knew it. “But I mean, do you think the future is inevitable? I’ve been reading this book — ”

“Oh, you’ve been reading this book.”

Maya pressed on, undeterred. “There’s a philosophy about time that has to do with alternate universes and things, and if those exist then they think the future is inevitable.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“When we came here last, I was four,” Maya continued, though she was almost at the top of the hill. “Do you think, then, that it was inevitable we came back here?”

“You mean…” Jane said slowly, interested despite herself. 

“If we hadn’t come back would we have broken time? The future? Ten years is a long time, Jane,” Maya said, grunting as she positioned the sled on the steeper side of the hill.

“No…” Jane said, putting her finger on the bridge of her nose, as she did when she was thinking hard. “I mean…”

“You’re gonna say I read too much.”

“You always read too much. You don’t need me to tell you.”

Maya sat down on the sled and put her feet up on the board. Jane sat behind her and wrapped her arms tightly around Maya’s waist. 

“Ouch! Move your boots.”

“Can’t help it,” Jane grunted, pushing hard on the ground to get them going. “Dad won’t buy me a different pair.”

Maya was silent, swallowing and blinking hard. “Don’t call him Dad.”

“Stepdad.”

“He’s not our dad.”

Jane was quiet. The wind rustled fiercely in their ears as specks of snow flew up and sliced their chapped faces. When they ground to a halt at the bottom of the hill, they mutually paused. 

“Do you think,” Maya said quietly, “that Dad’s dying was inevitable? If he hadn’t… if he hadn’t fallen off the roof, and the pneumonia, and all that, if some or none of that never happened, we wouldn’t be here? Because then Mom wouldn’t have married him. And he wouldn’t have come. And we would not have come here just to get away. We would not be here.”

“If he hadn’t fallen… You can’t think like that, Maya,” Jane said. “Just don’t. You couldn’t’ve helped the pneumonia.”

“My book says you can’t change the future,” Maya whispered. Twin tears ran out of her eyes and bled through her scarf. They dripped down onto her pale collarbone, reddened with the cold and the chafing wool scarf. Bruises like faint traces of ice dust had darkened the skin. “Or fix the past. Do you think…?”

“Maya.”

They met eyes for the first time. 

“… Fix the past?” Maya mumbled indistinctly. “I want to. Have to.”

Jane heard. “No. You can’t time travel, no matter how many books you read. There’s no fixing Dad’s bones or lungs, or his coming into our lives.” Her strong, beautiful sister stood up, brushed off her pants, and gave Maya a hand standing up. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Jane threw her long arm, as graceful as Maya had always known her to be, across Maya’s shoulders as they walked heavily through the snow. On the way to the car Jane bent and slung her winter coat over her shoulder.

Maya dragged the sled behind them, its runners digging deep into the snow, following a pattern of barely discernible indentations in the snow where tears had fallen. 

“Do you think…” Maya whispered once more, looking up into Jane’s face, “that it’s inevitable? Or that we can change the future…?”

“Of course I do, girlie,” Jane said firmly. “Nothing’s inevitable until you let it be.”

Maya relaxed and smiled, as she always did when Jane called her “girlie.”

They reached Jane’s battered Toyota and Maya swung the sled up into the truck bed as Jane started the raspy engine. Jane turned the radio on as loudly as she could, and when Maya got in, told a joke that made Maya throw her head back in laughter.

A hawk landed in the tree at the top of the empty hill and surveyed the empty field.

The sun shone down on the snow-covered golf course, smiling until it began to melt, and the tracks of the sled were almost, but not quite, invisible. 

January 16, 2021 22:10

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24 comments

Zilla Babbitt
22:11 Jan 16, 2021

"If he hadn’t… if he hadn’t fallen off the roof, and the hospital, and the pneumonia, if some or none of that never happened, we wouldn’t be here? Because then Mom wouldn’t have married him. And he wouldn’t have come. And we would not have come here just to get away.” Is this way too much dang exposition? Be honest please!

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Megan Sutherland
15:35 Jan 17, 2021

No, it's perfect! It explains why the girls had to escape- why they're going sledding for the first time in so long. :) Great story Zilla!

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Maya W.
23:45 Jan 16, 2021

Hey Zilla! You used my name! While this one was really short, I still liked it. There was a lot of stuff packed into a short story, and I think it was successful. Also, your Maya is a lot like me, ironically. I used to ask deep philosophical questions like that when I was younger, though I would typically follow them up with stupider statements. One thing - you call Maya Mara in the second paragraph. All in all, great work!

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Your story really has a beautiful hint of poetry in it. I feel like all of your stories do—actually. I loved that this is such a good friendship story. Great job Zilla. You really have outdone yourself.

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Kelly Ellen
05:27 Jan 17, 2021

Lovely story!

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Niveeidha Palani
05:31 Jan 18, 2021

I love this too much for words. Beautiful descriptions.

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Bonnie Clarkson
02:47 Jan 18, 2021

Good job on describing the effects of the snow on the pair, especially as symbolism of their history on their emotions.

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13:32 Jan 17, 2021

Let's get into this . . . 1. What drew me to this story was the aspect of philosophy. Though I planned to read it anyways, once I saw that, I knew I had to read it now. 2. I think it's sad that Maya believes in such a grotesquely ridiculous idea as the multiverse, but it does make a nice opener for the emotional side of the story. Just last week I actually had to debate the existence of the multiverse. 3. This is a sad story, but hopeful. Nice work on that turnaround. 4. Lovely writing style. The details make this one come alive. I could...

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Zilla Babbitt
17:51 Jan 18, 2021

1. Thanks for reading! I got the title while listening to a lecture :) 2. It's such a fascinating idea, I couldn't resist. Maya is wondering what to believe about it and will believe whatever Jane tells her to believe. Jane may not understand what a multiverse is, but she knows what's important: Sister love, keeping your chin up, etc. Not so much "girl power" as "sister power." 3. Yay! 4. Oh good. I love describing snow and winter. 5. I'll revise it. Thanks again!

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01:17 Jan 19, 2021

🙂

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Allison M
19:27 Jan 28, 2021

I actually think Maya believing in something as far-fetched as the multiverse adds to this story, not detracts. She’s fourteen, grieving, and living in a broken home with what we assume is a terrible man replacing her beloved father. It seems to me that, at her core, she knows the multiverse is a ridiculous idea. But the idea that there’s a version of the world out there where her father is still alive, where her family is still whole, and where the dreaded stepdad never even entered the picture is appealing. She clings to it as a way to cop...

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Thom With An H
20:54 Jan 18, 2021

The thing I love most about the story is the part not told. You give us a glimpse of a single day, maybe just a single hour or less but I feel, in a way, as if I'm part of these girls whole life. There is a gift to your writing and how you weave a story. I always come to your stories so I can ask you to read mine and I always find more value in what you have written. I can honestly say I love your writing. I don't read a lot but if anyone asked me who my favorite author is I might say you. Now can you go look at my new story? I actu...

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Soofia Asad
09:05 Jan 25, 2021

Your description was outstanding I am hoping to become a marvellous author like you

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Scout Tahoe
16:12 Jan 19, 2021

Mm, this was sad. I liked it a lot, two girls questioning the past and the future. They had experienced so much and yet they were on a hill, thinking and smiling, and sledding. "Jane lay back down on the snow, thin sweater sticking to the ice particles mixed on the top of the new-fallen snow." Okay, too repetitive with snow. Also, lied. "Jane lied back down on the ground...." "The snow glinted across the snow like an owl’s yellow eyes falling dangerously on its next prey." Also too repetitive with snow. Just find a synonym. Love the the ...

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Shelsea Beaulieu
15:38 Jan 18, 2021

I caught a troubled home vibe from pretty early on and you exposed it well. The description of the clothes and car paint a picture of low-income. But not being explicitly said is clever. I enjoyed this piece, I have also lost my father (ironically a roofer who succumbed to lung cancer, you use both the words 'roof' and 'lungs' so that really stood out to me on a personal level) but I wish I had a sibling to bounce these types of feelings off of. Overall, you create a great dynamic between the two with good metaphors and similes.

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User_2443 0967
22:15 Feb 27, 2021

Beautiful.

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Allison M
19:15 Jan 28, 2021

Wow, this is such a strong story. Really wonderful character development in such a short space! Only critique I might offer would be that it might serve you well to clue us into their ages more towards the beginning. From the description of the too-big boots and the little sister’s adoration, I thought these characters were much younger than they turned out to be, and I was thrown off a bit at some of the existential discussion coming from what I thought was a far younger child until you mention that Maya was four ten years ago, making her f...

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Rose Cartwright
22:38 Jan 27, 2021

So descriptive, inspirational!!

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Alya Kaikuahine
17:04 Jan 27, 2021

This story is so heartwarming. I loved the philosophy and how Maya questions things. The first line was what really hooked me, and I stayed on right until the end. Amazing job! I wouldn't even care if I lost to this, it's so good! :)

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Kevin Weaver
15:07 Jan 24, 2021

I get what your saying but in reality one should never play the “if” game. If you take it back far enough it borders on the ridiculous and absurd. Frankly, nothing would happen if one was never born. See what I mean!

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Zaineb Haj Nasr
11:40 Jan 24, 2021

I really love it, it made me think about my existence, time, god, and future. keep it up. * and please for anyone reading my comment could you please read my story it's my first time ever writing I need ur opinion*

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Eva Bhalla
22:13 Jan 21, 2021

Great story, detailed and well-done. The only thing is that her (Jane)little sis is 14 and she acts younger than that so personally I would make her about 11-13. Other than that it was amazing. You never fail to make a emotional story.

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Zahraa Assaad
04:13 Mar 30, 2024

This is perfect it fits with everything you show truth and you say that you can't change the feature I love it

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Kasey Fisher
16:25 Jan 16, 2023

I relate to Maya! Asking those deep questions! Great work, beautifully written!

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