Whatever After #6: Cold as Ice (9 page)

I
warned you I was going to do that,” the Snow Queen says, wagging her index finger. “Tsk-tsk. You are not a very good listener.”

I am an icicle. No. An Abby-sicle.

I can’t move at all.

Not only do I not have powers, now I am also truly powerless.

The only good news is that I am still alive.

Also, I don’t feel cold anymore. But I do feel numb. Like when your leg falls asleep before the pins and needles kick in.

I see my hands. They are both open. They look like my regular hands, only covered with a thin layer of frost.
Move, hands, move!
I push. But they don’t budge. It’s freaky. It’s scary. Poor Prince. He’s been like this for over a day!

“You should have joined me,” the Snow Queen chides. “There’s nothing you can do to save yourself. No one will help you. No one cares about you.”

“I care about her,” I hear.

Huh? Who said that? Everyone else here is a frombie!

I would turn around to see if I wasn’t frozen and all.

Ding, ding, ding!
Is that Ralph’s bell? It is! It’s Ralph! He’s back!

“Do I know you?” the Snow Queen asks.

Ding, ding, ding.

Ralph is standing in front of me now. I can see both of them without moving my head. Which is a good thing, considering I
can’t
move my head.

“No,” Ralph says. “But I know you. I remember hearing about you, many years ago. I remember how you chose power over friends and family when you were young. I remember how everyone was scared of you and ran away.”

“They
did
run away!” she huffs. She turns her back on both of us. “They left me!”

“They were afraid of you.”

“And how come you’re not?”

“I am,” Ralph says. “But I was halfway home to my family when I decided I couldn’t leave these kids to fend for themselves. We’re JARG.”

JARG! My heart melts. The rest of me, unfortunately, does not.

“So you came back to try and save them?” the Snow Queen asks incredulously. “And risk your life?”

“I did.” Ralph looks me right in the eye. “I should never have left to begin with. Abby risked her life for me. Gerda risked her life to save Kai. And Jonah and Abby even risked their lives to save their
dog
. A dog! Such a puny animal.”

I roll my eyes. They’re my only body part I can move.

“No one has ever risked his or her life to save me,” the Snow Queen murmurs.

“You have to earn that,” Ralph says.

“Earn what?” the Snow Queen asks.

“Loyalty. Friendship. You can’t force people into it.”

The Snow Queen turns and looks at Ralph. “But how? How could I possibly earn that?”

“Well, you could start by unfreezing everyone.”

“Why would I do that?” she asks, her voice chilly. “Then no one would stay here with me! I’d be all alone.”

“That’s the point,” Ralph says. “You have to give them the choice to stay with you. By their own free will.”

She shakes her head. “They won’t stay. I know it. If I release them, they’ll all leave. Would you stay?”

“Me? No. I haven’t seen my family in years. I might visit, though.”

The Snow Queen is right. I think Kai and Gerda have to get back to their families, and Jonah I need to get home ASAP. But Sharon … Sharon loves this place! She thought it was cool, didn’t she? Sharon might stay.

Wait. Maybe that’s it!

Ralph has to tell the Snow Queen that Sharon might stay! He has to give her hope! And it’s not even false hope. Sharon really might. She has nowhere else to go. But I can’t move my lips. How do I tell Ralph what to say?

Oh!

I wait until I catch Ralph’s eye and then I do it: two long blinks and one short.

Then I do it again to make sure he saw.

At first Ralph looks confused. “Danger? Yeah, I know we’re in danger. No kidding!”

“Who are you talking to?” the Snow Queen asks him.

I do the Rorse code again.

Ralph’s eyes light up.

“Sharon!” he yells. “Sharon will stay! Sharon has nowhere to live! Sharon would stay willingly! At least, I think she would. But we’ll never know for sure unless you release her. Unless you release them all.” He gives me a wink.

I wink back.

I did it! We did it! Yay, Rorse code!

The Snow Queen looks back and forth between me and Ralph and narrows her eyes. “How do I know you’re not lying to get me to do what you want?”

“You don’t,” Ralph replies. “But you have to trust me. And I think I’m a pretty trustworthy reindeer. I came back to check on my friends, didn’t I? I’m risking my life talking to you! Never mind that I’m sliding around all over your slippery floors. You do not want to know what happens to a reindeer with a broken leg. It ain’t pretty.”

The Snow Queen looks at Ralph, and then back at me again. Then she takes a deep breath.

Uh-oh. Is she gearing up for a huge
MM-WAH
that will knock Ralph off his feet? Is she going to blow me a kiss again?

Is this the end?

But instead of blowing out, the Snow Queen starts sucking in. And in.

I don’t know where all the air is going, because she’s not blowing up like a balloon, but she keeps inhaling.

A cold breeze goes through me as she does it. I watch Kai and Jonah and Gerda.

Their expressions are changing. Almost as if they’re thawing.

Gerda stretches her arms above her head. Kai rubs his eyes. Sharon wrinkles and unwrinkles her nose.

Jonah blinks and then blinks again. He shakes his shoulders as if he’s shrugging something off.

“Abby!” Jonah shrieks. He runs over to me and throws his arms around me. “That was so awful! I saw you, but I couldn’t talk to you! I couldn’t do anything I wanted to do!”

I want to respond, but since I was more frozen than he was, it’s taking me longer to defrost. Finally, my arms start to tingle and I can feel them again. Slowly, I wrap them around Jonah. I can’t talk yet, but our hug is saying everything our words can’t.

“Gerda?” Kai says. “Is that you? You came to get me!”

“Of course I did,” she says. She runs to Kai and gives him a tight hug. “You’re my best friend.”

“I think she looooooves you,” Sharon sings, and then starts to laugh. “I think you looooove each other. You’re gonna get maaaaaarried.”

“We’re only twelve!” they both yell. But they’re both blushing.

Who knows? Maybe one day they will.

My lips start to tingle, and I can finally move them. “I am so glad you’re okay,” I tell Jonah. “I was so worried when I didn’t see you outside the robbers’ house!”

“The Snow Queen picked us up in her sled. All I really remember is hiding, and then I felt a kiss of cold air, and then I was getting into her sled and we were coming here. And I kept thinking about ketchup and Cheetos.”

“All I could think about were bagels and cream cheese,” says Sharon, licking her lips. “I love cream cheese. Snow looks a lot like cream cheese, don’t you think?”

“Great mustache, by the way,” Jonah says.

I rip it off and hand it to him. “It’s all yours.”

He cheers and sticks it under his nose.

Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!
I hear from the roof.

Prince is okay! Hurrah!

“Prince!” I yell. “We’re down here!”

He comes bounding down the stairs and leaps onto my brother. He licks Jonah’s face and then bounces over to me and does the same.

Never has a dog kiss felt so good. Or so warm.

“Who’s a good boy?” I ask. “Who is? Prince is!”

“We did it!” Jonah says. Then he looks confused. “How did we do it?”

“Abby and I did it,” Ralph says.

The Snow Queen is sitting by herself in the corner. She’s extra pale and her eyes are wide and … teary? Is it possible? Or maybe she’s just cold and exhausted. She did inhale a lot of iciness.

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

“I don’t know,” she says, her voice shaky. “I’ve never defrosted so many people at once before. I don’t feel so great. But I’m sure you guys want to get out of here. Go ahead. I won’t stop you.” She sighs.

“We’re not going to just leave you after you saved us,” Gerda says, hands on her hips. “What kind of people do you think we are?”

“We’re JARG,” Jonah says.

“No, we’re JARGSKSQ,” Ralph says. “Is your real name Snow Queen?”

“No,” she says. “It’s Nicolette.”

“JARGSKN!” we all yell.

Prince barks.

“JARGSKNP?” I say. “We could really use some friends whose names start with vowels.”

*  *  *

Ten minutes and a few blankets later, we’ve all completely defrosted. The Snow Queen — Nicolette — has regained some of her color and doesn’t look as deflated.

“Thank you,” she says. “I feel much better. You guys can go now. I understand.”

Relieved, I grab Prince and put an arm around Jonah. Gerda and Kai link arms, and Ralph whinnies happily.

“Go? I have to go?” Sharon asks, frowning. “You’re kicking me out?”

Nicolette shrugs. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“What home? Can’t I stay a little while longer?” she asks hopefully. “I’ll be really helpful! I can cook! And steal!”

Nicolette looks confused. “I don’t need you to steal. But … you can stay as long as you want,” Nicolette adds happily, and Sharon smiles. I’m suddenly glad for her — she doesn’t have to go back to the robbers.

“See?” Ralph says proudly. “Told you she’d stay.” He winks at me again and I laugh.

“How many rooms do you have?” Sharon asks, looking around. “Do you have space for me?”

“There are ten bedrooms,” Nicolette explains. “I’ve always wanted people to come and stay. But no one ever does.”

“Oh, I’m staying,” Sharon says. “And I bet we could get other people to come, too. We could rent out the rooms! How fun would that be?”

“So much fun!” Nicolette says. They grin at each other. I knew it! The two of them will get along like a house on fire. Well, not actually on fire. You know. It’s an expression.

I grin, too. I notice Jonah, Gerda, Kai, and Ralph also look pleased. The Snow Queen really was just lonely all this time.

“You don’t play any instruments, do you?” Sharon asks Nicolette.

“No,” Nicolette says. “Why?”

“The robbers I lived with were dying to start a guitar band. Every morning, they’d practice, and they were horrible. They gave me the worst headaches.”

Jonah’s eyes light up. “The band of robbers was really a band?”

Sharon nods. “A wannabe band.”

“Ha!” Jonah strikes his guitar pose. “Did you hear that, Abby? The band
was
a band! Amazing!”

I can’t help but laugh. I guess I’m not always right. Usually. But not
always
.

I think about Robin, and my cheeks heat up. I guess I was pretty bossy to her….

“Kai and I should go,” Gerda says. “My grandmother must be missing us. It’s going to take us at least a few days to walk back.”

“I can fly you,” Ralph says. “It won’t take more than a couple hours.”

“We have to get home, too,” I tell Jonah. “Do you still have your watch?”

“Of course I still have my watch!” Jonah says. He lifts his arm proudly to show me. I’m proud of him, too. Maybe he’s not so irresponsible after all.

“It’s only five thirty
A.M.
at our home,” he adds. “So we have some time. But I could use a nap before school. And we still have to figure out how to get back.”

I look up at the mosaic mirror. “I have an idea.”

Nicolette smiles sheepishly. “Sorry that I told you to break it. I’m glad you didn’t. It’s fun, but not that worth it.”

“What’s fun?” Sharon asks. “What’s not worth it?”

“If you choose to break the mirror over your head, you get snow queen powers,” I explain. “Willingly, right? You have to choose to do it?”

Nicolette nods.

Sharon’s eyes widen. “Really?”

Nicolette nods again.

Sharon jumps up and down in her spot. “I want to! That would be fun! Would my hair turn silver?”

Nicolette nods. “Yes. But you’re better off without the powers. And anyway, you don’t want people to be scared of you.”

“I love scaring people!”

“She really does,” Ralph agrees.

“Sharon, don’t take the powers if you can only hurt people with them,” I say. Then she’d be just like the Snow Queen.

“But don’t you see?” Sharon says, her eyes wide and shining. “There’s tons of good stuff I could do with freezing powers. I could freeze wolves before they attack people! And I could help injured people feel better! I could numb their injuries! I could help them think about the things they love. There are
lots
of helpful things I could do.”

I feel a wave of warmth. “You are absolutely right.”

“She
is
absolutely right,” Nicolette says. She hangs her head. “I’m ashamed for not doing all those nice things with my powers.”

“Well, we can start together now,” Sharon tells Nicolette. Then she heads for the mirror. “Here I go!”

“Wait!” I say. “Do you mind if we use it first? To get home? It turned purple and swirled before, so I’m pretty sure it doubles as a portal. And then you guys can have a mirror-breaking party.”

Sharon pouts. “Fine.”