Snow fell lightly over the village on Christmas morning. Children laughed and danced around in the fresh white lace, with joy. A little girl stood, separated from the rest of the kids, shivering in the cold with nothing but thin clothing and a box of matches to withstand the freezing temperatures. Her cheeks glowed a frostbitten red and her only company was the heartless, pounding wind. The shoes that once protected her feet were all but lost in the snow. People walked by without even a second glance of sympathy for the poor child trying to earn her living with the frail sticks in her hand. No one cared. Why should they? She was nothing of importance. She had nothing worth taking; no blankets, or warmth of any kind to offer the people. Just a few stale matches and a family who didn't care if their baby froze to death, if it paid the bills. She was alone. No friends, no real family. Alone.
What little hope this child contained was spent trying to keep warm. She waved the small matches around in an effort to gain peoples attention but nobody cared enough to stop. All that was important was getting out of the cold. She stepped in front of a man, in a deep brown coat, that was passing around the corner and he glared down at the child. She lifted the matches up to him with a small spark of hope that she could return home with something, anything.
"Move it kid! I haven't the patience for this!" The man shouted and he shoved the small girl into the snow bank as if she were no more than a broken toy; and that's how she felt. Broken.
She pulled her frail body out of the snow and weakly trudged her way down through the path of people shoving their way past each other. She couldn't go back and face her family. The disappointment on their faces burned in her mind as she found her way to an empty alley. Sliding down, she wrapped her arms around her thin, unhealthily pale legs and prayed. What else was there to do?
Two people skated over the frozen lake with laughs of joy. Little did they know just how much pain their happiness was causing. Of course, they couldn't have known. Nobody would care to remember some boy that drowned in the same frozen waters so many years ago and no one would care or even know just how sad and isolated he was. No one would know of the boy who had nothing and no one, yet held onto such small scarce things such as hope and fun. After all, he didn't really exist to anyone.
That same 'nothing' sat atop a nearby tree, hugging a staff with light blue streaks curling around it. Icy blue eyes watched the young couple huddle together on the frozen lake to keep warm and he wonders, just for a moment, what it would be like to feel the warmth of another person. Of course he would never know; he was the personification of winter itself but, not for one second, would anyone know just how much he hated the cold. He wished, just for a moment, he could feel the warmth and happiness they do.
Unable to watch anymore, he let the wind tug him towards the town. Perhaps he would bring an early snowfall to the children. If anything else, their laughter sent a smile to his face. He loved spreading small bits of joy, like the first snowfall of Christmas morning or the a simple snowflake landing a child's nose. Landing safely down in the square, he waved small lacy snowflakes toward the kids, who stared with wonder and joy shining in their eyes. He skidded around a group of children, making ammunition for them to throw at each other. The young ones grabbed the snowballs without even stopping to wonder who made them all so fast.
One of the children fell back into a snowman and toppled to the ground. Tears started to form in the young boy's eyes as the children laughed at him and the white haired spirit, still knowing there was nothing he could do, ran to the child's aid. He stood over to see if anything had actually been hurt. The boy just wiped it off and stood to run to his calling mother, but not before running through Jack. He sunk his head and stuck his hands in his sweater. It may never have hurt physically but it always felt like a knife was digging a hole in his heart.
He was about to turn for a different, less populated destination when he saw a little girl shivering in the cold, barefoot, waving a small box in front of people's faces in an attempt to gain their attention. The other citizens were so oblivious to her presence, he almost thought she was a new spirit that didn't know why no one could see her. This theory was proved wrong when she stepped in front of a man and held her little shivering hands up to him. The man shouted and shoved the poor child into the snow bank beside him with a heartless hand and stomped away. Jack would have gone up to that man in fury if he thought it would make a difference, but of course, it wouldn't have. Instead, he followed as the little girl stood up shaking off the snow and walked away into the crowd.
He usually hated to walked into large groups of people, because it was hard to avoid someone walking though him, but he found a new spark of concern for the poor girl. Walking through person after person, he followed her until they came to a more lonely, bare street. The girl walked into a dark cold alleyway and sat down, trying to warm her shivering frame. He sat a good distance across from her so she wouldn't be even colder than she already was. She looked as pale as he did, and that was never a good thing. As he examined her closer, he recognized the small box in her hands as a match box. Maybe she'd been trying to sell them? If she was, then she didn't appear to be very successful. Her feet looked stiff and had lost all color and she wore a very thin cloth over her unhealthily thin body. She looked lonely and depressed but, under the cold, pain, and shaking, he could glistens of hope in her faint, faraway, grayish eyes.
He sat and watched in confusion as the girl brought out her red fingers from the warmer safety of her arms, and held them out to pray. Here this girl is, freezing to death, and she's praying?!
"Dear Fat-ther,
I k-know th-that you are good and I'm sure y-your v-v-very busy. I don't ask for m-much but if it
p-pleas-ses you, s-s-send me a friend?" She spoke with teeth chattering in the cold.
It was at that moment that he felt a pang of loneliness, but not for himself. This girl could be seen by others and still they cast her off as a wisp of air, as nothing. The last part of her prayer was almost inaudible; send me a friend. That was all she wanted. She hadn't asked for a pair of shoes to protect her feet. She hadn't asked for warmth, just a friend.
In an attempt to gain some warmth, the girl struck one of the matches up against the wall. She watched the flickering flame glow in front of her and held it close. It waved against the cold winds in a futile effort to stay alive but as one of the harsher winds came they blew it out. As the warmth left her with the all too familiar cold, she lit two more. He watched her, with agony twisting in his gut, as she continued to light each one until they all died out. He hadn't noticed yet but tears were flowing freely as the girl savored each wave of comfort until the last moment. With no more matches left, she sat huddled together in the blistering cold across from the winter spirit.
"I wish there was something I could do for you." He whispered in regret.
He was so caught up in his new found remorse that he failed to see the small head perk up at his soft words.
"Are you the angel?" She asked softly.
His head snapped up to see a pair of grayish eyes staring at him; not through him, at him. She sat with hopeful eyes locked in his direction. Was her prayer answered? Was that why he was here?! He wanted to shower her with questions but her body was almost lifeless now and he somehow knew she didn't have much time.
"N-No." He answered shakily.
Her eyes lowered.
"D-Did G-God send-d you?" She shivered as the cold came back to her.
"I don't know, b-but I can stay if you like!" He answered.
She stared him down with hope and happiness starting to cloud her eyes.
"I th-think he d-did." She weakly smiled and he smiled back.
"I k-know w-we just m-met, but w-would-d you mind h-hold-ding m-me?" She asked with the most innocent looking smile on her face. Having never received such a request before, he hesitantly nodded and came to hold the pale shivering child. Hours passed and her breathing became sharper with every second. Each tear that slid down his face froze and hit the ground as the shivering stopped and her body became cold and stiff. The young girl laid stiffly and lifeless in his arms for the longest time.
"Please, don't cry." A voice came suddenly, from across the alley.
His head snapped up at the familiar voice. He gently laid the body next to him, stood up and stared in the direction of the sound. It was the same small child but she looked…different. Her once brown hair was a snowy white and her hazel eyes turned a crystal blue. She looked like the smaller female version of him! She walked up to him with the brightest smile on her face and she no longer shivered from the cold.
"Will you be my friend?" She asked softly.
Next morning:
Investigators carried a stiff corpse from the alleyway. She had frozen to death when she did not go home but, to everyone's surprise, the parents didn't seem to be fazed. Nobody seemed to recognize the girl, except some man that said she got in his way on the street corner, and so it took a while to find her family. The snow covered the small dead child and was discovered early that morning by a man taking out his trash but, what really caught everyone's attention was, she died smiling. The parents seemed persistent that they search the area to find any belongings of hers (or more importantly, money) and return them. They found no money or even her mysteriously missing shoes. Just a bunch of matches thrown about everywhere.
Two light hearted souls watched from a distance before retreating into the forest. Before disappearing entirely, the white haired boy took the small child's hand and stared up into the sky with a smile on his face.
"Thank you." He whispered and then ran into the trees, laughing.
The town gossiped about it for a while but soon everyone forgot about the little match girl. They didn't remember the girl who froze to death, alone and unloved, yet still had a smile on her face. After all, she wasn't anything special; only a match.