Emma knelt beside the lake. Her mom stood behind her. She laid a few flowers in a pile of dirt on top of the ice. It was exactly a year since Jack had died.
Highland and Elsie sat apart from each other in the courtyard today. Neither of them had ordered lunch.
Jack hovered over a local park, looking for his next victim. He crouched on top of a tree above a young boy, grinning wickedly. By leaping lightly from branch to branch he came to rest a few feet above the boy's head. Then he jounced the branch and a large pile of snow buried the kid. Jack laughed hard enough that he would have fallen out of the tree had he not been light as air.
A muffled yell came from inside the snow pile. The boy's blonde head popped out and he shouted "Susie!"
"What now, Calvin?" Said a girl building a snowman a few feet away.
"What was that for?!"
"That wasn't me, Calvin. You're just a klutz." Susie said condescendingly.
Jack chuckled and flew away. He soared joyfully to the next town over to look for another kid or two to prank.
He spotted a girl walking along the sidewalk. She met up with a couple other kids and started talking. Perfect! Time for a snowball fight.
He landed behind the girl and picked up a handful of snow, creeping toward the group. Suddenly the girl turned on the spot, facing him. He stopped cold.
"What is it, Emma?" One of her friends asked.
"I thought I felt...nevermind." she kept looking in Jack's direction though, a confused expression on her face.
Emma. How could he have not recognized her? Forgotten her? He was back in his hometown, and all the pain of those lonely weeks rushed back.
He stumbled back, dropping the snowball and staring at Emma, afraid that if he blinked she would be gone. She continued walking with her friends, but she glanced over her shoulder at him every few seconds, like she knew he was there. He scrambled away and took off.
How had he not noticed where he was? There was the restaurant where he, Elsie and Highland liked to hang out. The park down the street from his house, perfectly equidistant between his and Highland's.
What day was it? Where were Highland and Elsie? His head spun. He landed on the roof of his very own house and broke down. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he buried his head in his knees. He had almost forgotten his home and family and friends. Did he still even have a home? Was all that lost to him the moment he became Jack Frost?
It began to snow lightly. As Jack watched the flakes falling gently, he saw two familiar figures approach the front door. Looking over the edge of the roof, he saw Highland and Elsie knock on the door. He vaulted over the edge and came to rest behind them just as his mother opened the door.
Her face shocked him. She wasn't quite as he remembered, thinner and more lined. Less happy. "Oh, hello Highland. Elsie. Through the back here." They walked through the house quietly and went into the woods out the back door.
Jack wondered why they were here. They wouldn't have come over much with him gone. He cringed at that thought. As he followed them through the woods he noticed little things all too easy to forget. The bush he had liked to hide behind waiting to scare Emma. His favorite climbing tree. Suddenly they stopped, and Jack walked through them with that horrible empty feeling rushing through him. He had stepped onto the frozen lake where…
He looked back. Elsie was crying and, Jack noticed, holding a bunch of flowers. She placed them on top of the ice, right at Jack's feet. Highland stepped beside her and put a tiny, messily made snowman next to the white bouquet. Jack crouched next to the gifts. They were mourning him.
Elsie laughed wetly. "A snowman, Highland?"
He smiled sadly. "It seemed right. You know how he liked the snow. And I just had a feeling…"
Elsie nodded and they stood looking at icy lake for a long time before turning back to follow Mrs. Overland out of the woods.