The first time Katniss met Peeta she was five years old. Her father woke her up early one winter morning. "It snowed, sweetheart. Put on your warmest clothes. I'll take you outside and we'll build a snowman."
Katniss jumped out of bed and rushed to the window. The yard below was engulfed in a thick white blanket that completely covered the green lawn.
It's so pretty.
Her mother dressed her in long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a pullover sweater. The outfit was completed with a red plaid coat, an orange scarf and hat, and green mittens.
"You look like a colorful bird," her father commented.
Katniss smiled at the thought. She liked birds. "Can Baby Prim come outside, too?"
"She's too little," her mother said. "But Prim and I will watch you from the living room window."
The family went downstairs. Katniss sat on a chair by the door as her father helped her put on her boots. When he opened the front door, cold air blew into the heated house. But Katniss didn't mind. Instead of being chilled, she was refreshed.
Holding her father's hand, they made their way off the icy porch and down the snow-covered steps.
The snow was so deep it came up to Katniss' knee. "How do we make a snowman?" she asked.
"First let's find a good spot."
Katniss trudged after her father as he made his way to an area in the yard across from Katniss' bedroom window. "If we make the snowman here, you'll be able to see him from your bedroom. He can guard you while you sleep."
Her father gathered up the snow with his hands. He showed Katniss how to shape it into a ball. They made the snowman's head first. "You look for something we can use for his eyes, nose, and mouth," her father said. "I'll make the rest of his body."
Katniss tramped back to the house intending to ask her mother for supplies. But as she climbed the porch stairs, she caught sight of the evergreen wreath fixed to the front door. It was festooned with pinecones, red berries, and colorful glass balls.
I'll use that. But how will I reach it?
A short wooden stool that in warm weather was home to a potted plant sat near the door. Katniss dragged it underneath the wreath to use it as step stool. She pulled off two blue balls to make the snowman's eyes, a pinecone for his nose, and about ten red berries to form his mouth.
When she brought them to her father, he'd already constructed the snowman – three solid rounds atop each other. He lifted Katniss up so she could arrange the snowman's face. When she was done, her father set her down. Both stepped back to view their creation.
"He needs something more," her father said. He broke two thin branches off a nearby tree and stuck one on each side of the snowman to make arms.
"He needs a scarf, too," Katniss decided. She unwrapped the orange scarf from her neck and handed it to her father. He wrapped it around the snowman's neck, or the place his neck would be if he were a person.
Again, they stood back to survey their work. Katniss' jaw dropped as one blue ball flashed suddenly as if the snowman was winking at her.
"Did you see that Papa? The snowman winked at me."
Her father who'd been looking upward toward the sky as a few flakes had begun to fall, looked down at her and smiled. "You have a good imagination, Katniss. It was probably a twist of sunlight reflecting off the glass ball."
Katniss stomped her foot. "No, he really did, Daddy."
The wind whistled suddenly. A strong gust blew snow at them stinging Katniss' face with icy pellets.
"It's starting up again," her father said. "I guess the weatherman was right about this storm." He reached for Katniss' hand. "Let's go inside, Buttercup, and eat breakfast. We can come out again later."
But the snow fell all day, and her parents wouldn't let Katniss go back outside. They said it was getting too deep. Instead, she played with her Christmas gifts. She drank plenty of hot chocolate and gingerbread and went to bed early, but not before peering out the bedroom window and wishing the snowman "good night."
She fell asleep quickly but woke a few hours later. Thinking about the snowman, she jumped out of her bed and rushed to look out the window. In the bright moonlight, it almost looked as if it were daylight outside. Katniss' eyes flew to the spot the snowman had been planted, but he was gone.
Did the wind knock him down?
Upset, she scanned the yard. Her heart nearly stopped as she caught sight of the snowman twirling over the snow. It looked as if he were dancing.
I was right. He's alive. I want to talk with him.
She rushed downstairs, past the fire dying in the fireplace and her sleeping parents lying snuggled under a blanket on the sofa. Katniss unlocked the front door and stepped onto the porch in her nightgown and bare feet.
"Hey snowman," she called out across the yard. "Are you real?"
The snowman stopped and turned to stare at her. His blue bulb eyes sparkled for a moment and his berry smiler grew bigger. He sauntered across the yard toward her.
"Hey, Katniss" he said when he stood at the bottom of the porch.
Her eyebrows raised. "How do you know my name?"
"I heard your Papa call you it this morning. Or is your name Buttercup?"
Katniss smirked. "Buttercup is a nickname." She paused. "What's your name?"
"Peeta."
"You're a snowman. How come you're alive?"
"I don't know. But I like this scarf I'm wearing." The sticks her father had set in place for arms tipped upward to point to the scarf. "Orange is my favorite color," he said.
"My favorite color is green," Katniss announced.
"Like the mittens you wore today?" Peeta asked.
"Yes." Katniss shivered. "Just a minute. I need to get my coat and boots." She rushed inside the house and pulled her coat off the hook putting it on over her nightgown. She sat down on the chair by the door and tugged her boots onto her bare feet. She found her still damp green mittens in the pocket of her coat and put them on. Then she went outside again.
Peeta was waiting at the bottom of the porch stairs.
"What were you doing in the yard? Dancing?"
A few drops of water dripped from Peeta's face, as if he were blushing in embarrassment at being caught. "Oh, you know," he mumbled. "Just playing around."
"It's hard to play by yourself," Katniss said.
"I used to play with my two brothers. We had snowball fights."
"Brothers? I didn't know snowmen had brothers."
"I wasn't always a snowman," Peeta explained. "I used to be a real boy. But our neighbor Mr. Snow got mad when I threw a snowball and broke his big, front window. He came out of his house and yelled at me. I told him it was an accident. But he waved his arms and poof, I was turned into a snowman."
Katniss raised her eyebrows. Peeta's story sounded like one of the make-believe stories her mother read to her before bed. But she didn't want to make Peeta feel bad. Maybe he wanted to be a real boy and he was only pretending. Her mother had once read her a story about a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who wanted to be a real boy. Pinocchio lied a lot too.
"I'll play with you," Katniss said. "My sister is only one years old. She's too little to play in the snow."
She stepped down from the porch and joined Peeta in the yard. They spent hours building a snow fort, throwing snowballs, and even making snow angels.
As the sun came up, her stomach began to growl. "I'm gonna go inside and get something to eat," Katniss said. "Can I get you anything?"
Peeta shook his head. "Nope. Snowmen never get hungry."
"See you later, then," Katniss said as she opened the front door. The wind slammed it shut as she closed it, causing her parents to awaken. As Katniss removed her coat and boots, her mother rushed toward her.
"Katniss, you must never go outside without telling us." Her mother sounded panicked.
"You were sleeping," Katniss explained.
Her father, who'd come alongside her mother, cleared his throat. "Don't argue young lady. What were you doing out there?"
"I was playing with Peeta the snowman."
Her father seemed on the verge of a smile. "So, you've named the fellow?"
"Nope, Peeta told me his name. He says he used to be a real boy, but his neighbor Mr. Snow turned him into a snowman."
A strange look appeared on her mother's face. "He said his name was Peeta? Are you certain? Maybe you heard him wrong. It was probably Peter."
Her father exchanged a curious look with her mother. "What does it matter what his name is? I'm just amazed at Katniss' imagination."
Her mother frowned at her father. "Don't encourage her, Glenn."
She turned to Katniss. "Go upstairs right now and get out of that wet nightgown. I'll be right up."
Katniss climbed the stairs and turned the corner to go to her room but stopped as soon as she was out of her parents' sight. She had a habit of sometimes listening in on her parents' conversations. That's how she'd learned about her sister Prim coming long before her parents told her about the baby that was growing in her mother's tummy.
"Did you hear her say the boy's name was Peeta?" her mother said. "That's the name of that missing boy in Dandelion. You know, the baker's son. It was in the news last month."
"It is an unusual name," her father said. "She probably heard it on the t.v. news, then."
"I don't want her going outside without our knowledge. I don't want someone to snatch her like they did that little boy. I doubt they'll ever find him alive."
"We'll have to keep a good eye on her, Lily. I'll put another lock on the door so she can't get out."
Katniss left her hiding spot and went into her room. Was Peeta kidnapped and turned into a snowman?
Sadly, she never had the chance to ask him. She developed a cold from her late-night playdate with Peeta and her parents refused to let her go outside until she was better and by that time the snow had melted. Katniss' mother picked her orange scarf off the wet lawn and carried it inside to launder.
An entire year passed. Katniss was six now and in the first grade. She'd outgrown her red plaid coat - her mother packed it away for Prim along with her orange scarf and matching hat and green gloves.
That winter was unusually warm. "Can we make a snowman?" she asked her father, eager to welcome her friend Peeta back to play with her when snow finally fell.
"No honey, there's only an inch on the ground. Not enough to make a snowman."
As the years passed, Katniss and Prim made other snowmen with their father, but none ever came alive again. After pondering the event that occurred when she was five, Katniss concluded it must have been a dream.
A long, beautiful dream that had made me so very happy.
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Everything in her life changed during the winter Katniss was eleven. Her beloved father died a week before Christmas in a car accident. In her grief, Katniss' mother took to her bed leaving Katniss to take care of both her seven-year-old sister and her mother. They subsisted on casseroles brought by kindly neighbors. When those ran out canned soups took over, although they weren't very filling.
One snowy February afternoon in a desperate attempt to lighten the gloomy depression that hung over the house, Katniss insisted on taking Prim outside to build a snowman. When the snowman was completed, Katniss pulled the green scarf from her neck, and threw it around the snowman's neck.
Later that evening, after she'd heated up some canned soup for Prim and their mother, Katniss looked out the window at the snowman. He was smaller than the ones she and her father had always made, but then she was only eleven years old. She wasn't strong enough or tall enough to lift heavy snowballs and place them atop each other.
In the middle of the night, she woke up to the sound of something hitting her window. Curious, she got out of bed and pushed back the drapes. Below, she saw the snowman dancing around the yard.
It can't be possible. I must be dreaming.
She pinched herself hard, but she didn't wake up. Can this be real?
Careful not to wake her sister who slept in a twin bed beside her own, she tiptoed down the stairs. She put her coat on over her nightgown, pulled on her winter boots, and put on warm gloves. She unlocked the door and opened it. She stepped onto the porch.
The snowman stood at the bottom of the porch stairs. "Hey, Katniss. It's me, Peeta. Remember?"
"I do remember you," Katniss replied. "Why did it take so long for you to come back?"
"I don't know. I was sleeping and I didn't wake up until now." Peeta looked downward with eyes made of ribbon candy. "I like this green scarf you put around my neck. I remember you said it's your favorite color."
Peeta's comment about her scarf set her mind to spinning. The scarf. That must be it. The first time Peeta had come to life he'd worn Katniss' orange scarf. But all the other snowmen she'd made afterward had been adorned using apparel from other family members.
Peeta only comes alive when he wears my scarf.
"I think I know why," she said. "It's because you're wearing my scarf."
"That must be it," Peeta said, nodding. "So, how have you been? You're taller than last time."
Katniss giggled. "I am, and you're shorter."
Peeta grinned back. "You're right. But I feel the same."
"Good."
"And your family?" Peeta asked. "I saw you playing outside with your sister today. Where's your dad?
Katniss voice lowered. "My dad died a couple of months ago. His car crashed into a tree."
"Oh, no," Peeta exclaimed, his ribbon mouth forming a perfect circle. "I'm so sorry. Do you want to talk about it?"
Ever since her father's death, no one had even asked Katniss how she felt. All the attention from the grownups in her life had been focused on her mother, and the rest had gone to Prim since she was the youngest. But Katniss was hurting as well. And with her mother's fall into depression, Katniss was expected to be the responsible one.
I'm only 11 years old. I can't be the person in charge.
"I would, Peeta."
She sat down on the front porch and began to tell Peeta about the day her father died. A police officer had come to their house to break the news. Her mother had screamed. After the officer left, her mother had gone around the house smashing things up - like most of the dishes in the kitchen. Katniss had been the one to send her mother to bed and sweep up the mess. Now Katniss was responsible for cooking and cleaning and taking care of her mother and Prim.
"That sounds like lots of work," Peeta exclaimed.
"It is."
"Is there any way I can help? I can bake bread."
Katniss raised an eyebrow. "If I let you inside the house, Peeta, you'd melt. Anyway, I thought snowmen didn't eat. How'd you learn to bake bread."
"I wasn't always a snowman, you know. I come from a family of bakers."
A fleeting childhood memory of her mother calling Peeta the son of a baker flitted through her mind. Her mother had said that boy had been snatched.
But maybe he wasn't. Maybe he's under an enchantment like in Beauty and the Beast.
Just thinking about it was confusing, though. "How do you make bread?" she asked.
"Flour, yeast, and water," Peeta said. "Mix it together and let it rise. Then knead it, and bake it."
That'd doesn't sound too hard. Besides I saw some flour in the pantry. "I'll try it," Katniss said. She smiled at Peeta. The sun was just peeping over the horizon.
We must have been talking for hours. "Let's play for a while and then I'm going inside and make some bread for my mother's and sister's breakfast."
They spend the next couple of hours tossing snowballs at each other and making snow angels before Katniss excused herself to go inside. "I'll come outside later with my sister. She's seven now. You'll like her. We can all play together."
Katniss' first loaf of bread was hard like a rock, but it was filling and warm. Later that morning she came outside to introduce Prim to Peeta.
Her sister's eyes sparkled in delight when Peeta began to speak. "I thought you were pretending," she said to Katniss.
"No, I'm alive," Peeta said, grinning at her. He turned to Katniss. "How'd the bread come out?"
Katniss wrinkled her nose. "Not so good. It was hard like a brick."
"You probably kneaded it too much."
"I'll be careful next time."
The three of them played in the snow for hours for the next few days. Katniss spent her evenings perfecting her breadmaking skills, until the temperature warmed.
One day Peeta was with them, the next day he'd turned into a puddle of water and her green scarf lay on the wet ground.
"I miss Peeta," Prim said sadly. "Will we see him next winter?"
"I don't see why not," Katniss said. "Now I know how to summon him to us. I'll just put the scarf I'm wearing round his neck."
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But Katniss didn't see Peeta for many years. Her mother's depression became so bad, that extended family stepped in. Her mother was sent to a special place to recover, while Katniss and Prim were shipped off to relatives who lived where it never snowed. Winter was only slightly less warm than summer.
Years passed. Katniss grew used to the sunshine and didn't think about Peeta much. But when she was sixteen her mother was deemed well again to take care of her daughters again. Katniss and Prim returned to the town they'd grown up in. Their old house had been sold to pay for their mother's medical care, so they moved into a tiny cottage on the edge of town. Their mother worked as a receptionist at a medical clinic. The relationship between Katniss and her mother was awkward because of the years of separation – it was hard to fall under the authority of a woman who'd proven herself weak for so long. Still Katniss resolved to follow the rules her mother set for her and Prim.
On the first day of high school, Katniss met a boy named Gale. In many ways he reminded her of her father with his lean, athletic frame and dark hair. Gale was in a few of her classes, and he contrived to sit next to Katniss in all of them. By the end of the first week of school, everyone assumed they were a couple. While in the girls' lavatory – the only place where Gale wasn't attached to her hip – all the girls talked about him and told Katniss how lucky she was to have caught his eye.
Katniss had never had a boyfriend before. While she was flattered at Gale's interest, she wondered why he'd chosen to pursue her out of all the girls in school.
Snow came early that year – in late fall. School was cancelled, although their mother still had to go to work. She gave both girls some housekeeping tasks to do while she was gone.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Gale knocked on the door to Katniss' house. "I thought we could spend the day together." He looked over her shoulder at the couch in the living room. "Can I come inside? It's cold out here." He rubbed his ungloved hands together to warm them.
If she was alone, Katniss might have agreed to Gale's request even though she knew her mother would be upset as she didn't approve of 16-year-old girls having boyfriends.
Even if he's more friend than boyfriend. We haven't even kissed.
But Katniss worried that Prim might tell on her, and she didn't want to get into trouble.
Thinking quickly Katniss smiled. "Let me put on my coat and boots and we can make a snowman together."
Gale frowned. Still, Katniss shut the front door – leaving him in the cold on the porch – while she put on her coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and boots. She found an old pair of her father's gloves for Gale to borrow, and then ran to the bedroom she and Prim shared. Her 12-year-old sister was lying in bed reading.
"A boy I know from school stopped by," Katniss announced. "We're going to build a snowman."
Prim looked up from her book. "You have a boyfriend, Katniss?" Prim gave her a knowing look.
"No, he's not my boyfriend. Just a friend."
"Is this friend named Peeta by any chance?"
Peeta. I haven't thought about him in ages. I wonder if I could still summon him with my scarf. "No, his name is Gale."
"Okay, whatever," Prim said, focusing on her book again.
Katniss joined Gale outside. She handed him the gloves. "You need something to keep your hands warm."
"You know it would be warmer if we stayed inside," he whined.
"It would be. But my mom doesn't like us to invite anyone inside when she's not home. And I'm worried my little sister will tell on me."
The sour expression on Gale's face disappeared, and he chuckled. "I get it. Your little sister is a tattletale. I've got a few siblings like that as well." He stepped down from the porch. "Okay, let's make that snowman."
They set to work gathering up snow into a pile. Between the two of them, they were able to make a decent sized one that was slightly taller than Katniss. Gale broke two small limbs off a tree in the yard and stuck them in the middle ball to make arms.
"Great snowman," Prim called out from the porch, startling Katniss. "I brought you some things to make his face." In her hands were two cookies for eyes, a carrot for a nose, and candy lips leftover from Halloween for his mouth.
Katniss walked over to the porch. "Thanks Prim," she said, as glared at her sister mentally wishing her to get lost. "Don't you have something else to do? Weren't you reading?"
"I finished my book," Prim said.
Katniss took the items from Prim and carried them back to the snowman. As she set the foodstuffs in place to arrange his features, she could hear her sister speaking with Gale.
"Who are you?" Prim asked sweetly.
Gale's voice spewed forth like honey. "I'm Gale Hawthorne, a friend of Katniss'. And you're…?"
"Prim, Katniss' sister."
"Well, aren't you the pretty one with that gorgeous blonde hair."
Katniss turned when she heard her sister giggle. Her eyes flew back and forth between her sister and Gale.
I can't believe it. She's only twelve and he's flirting with her.
"Since you know me now Prim, why don't you tell your sister to invite me inside? It's freezing out here." Gale put his arms across his chest and pretended to shiver.
Memories of a conversation Katniss had overhead about Gale surfaced. "He gets around," Madge had said. At the time Katniss had thought Madge had said it because she was jealous. Delly had told Katniss that Madge and Gale used to date. Suddenly Katniss no longer felt special.
Why is he here today?
A strange impulse came over Katniss. She removed the yellow scarf she was wearing and placed it around the snowman's neck. She took a step back and smiled at the snowy figure.
But nothing happened. The snowman's face didn't crinkle up and become animated in front of her. Peeta hadn't come to life. Her heart sunk.
Behind her Gale was still hinting that they should all go inside. "A hot drink would warm us all up. And I brought something that will help."
He tapped Katniss on the arm to get her attention. When she turned toward him, he pulled a small bottle of alcohol halfway out of his coat pocket and winked. Then he turned back toward her sister on the porch. "What do you say, Prim? You don't need to tell your mom everything."
At those words, the snowman sprung to life and his tree stick arm pushed Gale hard in the back. So hard that Gale lost his balance as he fell forward into the snow. The snowman returned to his fixed stance.
"What the hell?" Gale shrieked, his mellow voice disappearing replaced by a nasty shriek. "Why did you do that Katniss?"
What? "It wasn't me," Katniss insisted.
Gale glared at her. "Yeah, so who was it, then? The snowman?" He pulled off the gloves she'd loaned him and threw them at her. "I know when I'm not wanted."
He stomped off. Katniss took an inventory of her feelings. The boy all the girls talk about just dumped me. She found herself oddly relieved.
"Oh, Peeta you're back," Prim shouted from the porch. "That was pretty funny what you just did there."
Katniss turned toward the snowman. Peeta was grinning. "Sorry I chased away your friend." His voice was much deeper than it had been in the past, as if Peeta was getting older too.
"You're not sorry at all," Katniss replied wagging her finger at him and laughing. "Anyway, he's shown that he's no friend of mine. He's nothing but a jerk."
"I'd be your friend if I wasn't a snowman." The sincerity in Peeta's voice caught Katniss unaware. Even though she saw Peeta so sporadically, he'd always treated her kindly.
"You already are my friend," Katniss said generously. "I think I've known you longer than anyone else. And I always have fun while you're around."
"I'm going to put on my boots on. I'll be right back," Prim announced. She went inside.
Katniss walked nearer to Peeta. She leaned in and kissed his frozen cheek. A little sizzle sounded. She stepped back to see a curious look on Peeta's face. "I appreciate your help, Peeta," she said softly.
I needed your help. That's why I threw my scarf around your neck.
Maybe Peeta was thinking the same because he lowered his head to look down at the yellow scarf. "This color reminds me of the dandelions that grow in spring. I miss spring so much." He sounded so wistful, that it made Katniss want to cry.
"What happens to you when the snow melts?" Katniss asked. One minute Peeta was a solid being, then he became a puddle of water. Peeta had once told her that he fell asleep when he melted. But there had to be more to it than that.
"I dream."
"What do you dream of?"
"Sometimes I dream of my life before I broke Mr. Snow's window. But mostly I dream about you."
Katniss cheeks grew warm in the cold air. "Do any other people make you come to life?" she asked shyly. Any other girls make you come alive?
"No," Peeta said.
Prim burst out the front door dressed warmly. "Let's build an igloo."
The three of them spent the rest of the day in the snow. When the girls' mother arrived, Peeta froze in place, and the sisters went inside. Later that night after Prim and her mother were asleep, Katniss snuck outside to talk with Peeta.
"They say it's going to warm up starting tomorrow," she whispered. "I wish you didn't have to go."
Peeta frowned. "I do, too. But don't worry, I'll be back as soon as it snows again."
Katniss saw him several times that winter, as the season was unusually cold. Sometimes they played in the snow with Prim. But other times they walked around together exploring the woods behind Katniss' house.
On Christmas day, Peeta gave Katniss her very first kiss. It was gentle and a tad sticky since Katniss had been saving and re-using the candy lips Prim had given her that first snowfall. But the moment caused her heart to race with excitement.
She lay awake the night of the kiss rubbing her index finger over her lips glad that it was Peeta who'd kissed her first and not Gale.
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The weather grew warm and soon Peeta was gone. For the first time though, Katniss was not nonchalant about Peeta's departure. She'd begun to think of him as a real person – her boyfriend – and she wanted to see him year-round. Every. Single. Day.
But where could she live where there would be snow year-round? A quick online search led her to realize that she'd have to move to a mountain top which wasn't practical at least for her mother and sister. Her next thought was that she could get a job and purchase a walk-in freezer, so Peeta had a place to hide out when the warmth returned.
That summer she got a part-time job at an ice-cream shop. Everyone hated going into the walk-in freezer and organizing the tubs of ice-cream on the shelves. Not Katniss. She volunteered. Spending time in the chilly cold made her feel close to Peeta.
One rainy summer day, when the shop was empty of customers, a co-worker sidled up to her at the counter and asked her out on a date.
"Sorry, but I already have a boyfriend," she told Darius.
The youth's cheeks flushed as red as his hair. "You've never mentioned him before."
"He's only here in the winter," Katniss mumbled, wishing she'd never said a thing. She liked Darius, but she didn't want to date him, or hurt his feelings either.
She wanted, no she needed Peeta. She knew it was ridiculous to feel a romantic attachment to a being made of snow.
How can we every have any kind of normal relationship?
If she were smart, she'd never summon him back again. Why torture herself?
But what will happen to Peeta if I don't call him back? Will he stay in some sleepy limbo in which he spends eternity dreaming about me? I can't do that to him.
She had to figure out a way to break the enchantment that enslaved him. An enchantment that now enslaving her as well.
I guess I have until the next snowfall to figure something out.
Amid Katniss' dilemma, her life took a completely unexpected turn. Her mother who had fallen apart at her husband's death met someone. And the boyfriend – if you can call someone pushing fifty a boyfriend? – encouraged the family to move into his large, luxurious home. For several months, she and Prim reveled in their new house with its large kitchen that had a dishwasher, and a bedroom for each girl, and a tv that took up half the wall. Katniss even eyed the large chest freezer in the garage. Maybe?
But money didn't bring happiness - that came from being around those you love -and since Katniss couldn't be with Peeta the big house wasn't as satisfying as it might have been when she was younger.
Then her mother's boyfriend took everyone south to celebrate the Christmas holidays causing Katniss to miss the only snowfall of the winter and thus miss a chance to connect with Peeta.
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On the first day of spring, a freak snowfall occurred in Katniss' town. Only two inches covered the green grass, but Katniss didn't care. She had to talk with Peeta.
Even if it's only to say good-bye.
Waking up before anyone in the house, she pulled her yellow scarf out of the bottom drawer in her dresser where it had already been put away for the season. She took a large bowl from the kitchen and went outside to gather snow. Once the bowl was full, she sat on the front porch and made a tiny snowman, only a foot tall. She added two cherry cough drops for eyes, a large black button for a nose and some candy lips for his mouth. She broke a breadstick in half to give him arms. When she put her scarf around him, he was wrapped like a mummy.
Peeta blinked and smiled at her. "Hey Katniss," he said cheerfully. His deep voice didn't match his small size. He eyed her up and down. "You've grown a lot bigger."
"I'm the same size as the last time you saw me," Katniss whispered, not wanting her family to wake up. "But I didn't have enough snow to make you bigger. Today's the first day of spring."
Peeta turned around to survey the scanty snowfall. There were a few errant dandelions and even some blades of grass popping up from beneath the thin, white coverlet. "It is spring," he sighed. "Thanks for wrapping your scarf around me so I could see it."
Katniss smiled. "I missed you. I wasn't here in the winter when there was more snow. And I wanted to talk with you."
"I missed you too," Peeta said, bending his head to nuzzle at her arm.
"I wish you were a real person so I could talk with you anytime I wanted." Here's where I tell him I can't keep doing this. It's killing me.
Peeta pulled his head back and looked solemnly at Katniss. His cherry cough drop eyes glistened. "I'm want to be real, too. I love you, Katniss. I can't have the future I want if I'm not real."
He wants a future with me.
Her heart soared and her plan to stop seeing him flew out of her mind. "I love you, too," she admitted. It would have been the perfect moment to kiss Peeta, but she was scared that the passion of her feelings would result in her lips melting his face entirely.
"Do you have any ideas on how to become real again?" she asked.
"I need to face Mr. Snow. He did this to me. He needs to undo it."
"How do we even find him?" Katniss asked. Is he still alive?
"He lives on Panem Drive in the town of Dandelion."
"Dandelion is twenty miles down the road," Katniss said excitedly. "It's the next town over."
"Can you drive?" Peeta asking, eyeing the truck in the driveway.
"Sure. I got my license last summer." She pursed her lips. "Let's take care of this right now. Wait here, I'll get the keys."
She left Peeta on the porch and went inside to get her purse and grab the keys off the hook on the kitchen wall. She left a short note for her mother and her mother's boyfriend.
I borrowed the truck to help a friend. I'll be back in a few hours.
Because of his small size, she carried Peeta in her arms and perched him on the dashboard. Opening the windows on both sides of the truck's cab, she let the cold air blow through to keep Peeta from melting. The streets were bare of snow, but icy. She drove slowly looking to avoid patches of black ice.
After a 20-minute drive down the highway, she pulled off onto the Dandelion exit. No snow lay in the yards she drove past, and the temperature seemed 10 degrees warmer. On Main Street, a big neon sign for "Mellark Bakery" caught her eye.
"Is that your parents' bakery?" Katniss asked.
"Probably, since my last name is Mellark. But I don't remember that sign."
They drove further down the street. "Where does Mr. Snow live?"
"About a half mile down this road," Peeta said. "There was a hill by his house where the kids would sled and have snowball fights."
Main Street was lined with stores, but then abruptly narrowed and turned residential with family homes on both sides. It dead ended at the bottom of a small hill. Atop the hill was a house painted white with green trim.
"That's it," Peeta said.
Katniss drove the truck up the steep driveway to the top and turned off the engine.
"See the picture window in front. That's the one my snowball hit."
The sadness in Peeta's voice carried all the angst of his situation - a young boy punished for accidentally breaking a window and then turned into a snowman.
"Let's get him now" Katniss said, reaching for Peeta. Already she could see that he was melting. He was about as thick around as Prim's old Barbie doll.
She had her hand on the car door, when Peeta announced. "We need a plan."
She set Peeta down onto the passenger seat. "There's a crowbar under my seat," she said.
"I was thinking about using words," Peeta said. "Not violence."
"Well, seeing as you know him and I don't you should probably do the talking," Katniss said.
"Oh, I intend to. I've been planning my speech for years."
Katniss climbed out of the truck with Peeta in her arms. She supposed if anyone saw her, they'd think she was carrying a kitten wrapped in a knitted scarf. Not a melting snowman who held her heart in his tiny breadstick arms. She marched up to the front door and knocked loudly.
Inside she could hear someone walking to the door. Then it was opened wide, and a gust of hot air rushed out, causing Katniss to take a step back in fear that Peeta would melt completely. An overwhelming floral fragrance hung in the warm air.
A frail, old man with white hair stood in the doorway. Beyond him were tables and tables of buckets holding rose plants.
He's turned his living room into a greenhouse.
"Hello, my dear," he said in a calm voice. "How can I help you?" Katniss shivered when he gave her a creepy smile. His lips were overly full and stretched too tight. They didn't match the rest of his wrinkled face.
From within her arms, Peeta's voice sounded. "Hey Mr. Snow, remember me? Peeta Mellark."
The man's eyes dropped to the lump of snow in Katniss' hands. A sly smile appeared on his face.
"Ah, the doughboy who I turned into a snow boy. You broke my front window and brought cold air inside my house and damaged my beautiful roses. I must say you're looking mighty puny these days."
"It was an accident," Peeta explained. "I told you so at the time." His voice was soft.
He's melting.
Mr. Snow shook his head. "So, you brought a friend with you. Would you like to join the boy in his punishment, my dear?"
"Leave her alone," Peeta howled. He leaped from Katniss' arms to Mr. Snow's neck, the yellow scarf trailing behind him. He pushed his breadstick arms into the man's throat, in attempt to choke him. The action caused Mr. Snow to stumble backwards into the warm house. Then next minute the scarf fell to the wet floor.
Peeta was gone.
Katniss let out a terrific scream. Now I'll have to wait until winter to see Peeta again.
Furious she picked up the scarf from the floor and wrapped it around her own neck. She scowled at Mr. Snow. Angry tears ran down her face.
Mr. Snow looked amazed. "You have feelings for him? A snowman?"
Katniss shook her head. "He's more than a snowman. He's my Peeta. He's been my friend since I was five years old. He helped me when my father died. He taught me how to bake bread. He stopped me from dating a jerk." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "He gave me my first kiss."
She turned and started to walk away when a thought struck. She turned and faced her enemy. "I might not be a magician who can destroy the lives of small boys who can't throw straight, but I love Peeta. Turn me into a snow woman, so we can have a life together."
A crack of thunder sounded overhead in the clear blue sky. From the driveway, a familiar voice called. "Hey Katniss."
Peeta?
Katniss' jaw dropped. How?
She turned around and saw the smiling face of a bare-chested man sitting in the passenger seat of the truck. He had ash colored hair that curled around the sides of his face, and bright blue eyes. He was far more handsome than she ever imagined he would be in the flesh. Still, the cheerful expression on his face looked familiar. She knew that it was him. My Peeta.
"You have more power than your give yourself credit for," Mr. Snow said behind her. "You've broken the spell. True love always does."
Katniss leaped off the porch and jogged across the yard toward Peeta. Before she could reach the truck, Peeta exclaimed. "Look behind you, Katniss."
She stopped and turned. Snow's house had disappeared. A heap of broken boards stood in its place.
She turned back toward Peeta. "What just happened?"
"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "But he's gone."
Katniss walked to the driver's side door. As she looked in the window, she noticed that Peeta was completely naked. She took a step back as her cheeks burned.
"I don't care if you see me," Peeta said.
"I care," Katniss replied.
She unwrapped the scarf from her neck and threw it in the open driver's window. "Cover yourself Peeta. We need to get you some clothes."
When Peeta had arranged the scarf to cover his private parts, Katniss climbed into the truck. Shyness came over her. Human Peeta was so different from his snowman counterpart. While she was desperate to throw herself at him and smother him with kisses – what would that be like? – the thought of jumping on a practically naked man made her hesitate. Instead she asked, "How are you feeling?"
Peeta grinned at her. "Starving. Let's go to my family's bakery. I should let them know I'm back."
The End
I was the child who cried at the ending of Frosty the Snowman. It always struck me as a sad story. So now I've fixed it. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022.