Cold
David Ferranti
She shivered
Held her hands over the small fire
I kept my oath
I freed you
She heard the words but did not answer
She had been born in the cold
Captured in the cold
Sold in the cold
Escaped into the cold
The cold was a tormentor and a lover
The cold was the figure that beckoned to her in nightmare
The cold was not the man across the fire now
He was speaking again
I gave my oath I would see you to safety
Where do you want to go?
Home, she might have said
But the cold was all she had ever known
So she did not answer
The silence stretched
Her fingers burned with cold
She licked snow from her lips
Again
Where do you want to go?
She raised her head
A half-buried memory formed in her mind
“Through the valley of the shadow of death…”
She added a stick to the fire
And felt the cold vanish
As the flames crackled
David Ferranti is a sophomore concentrating in Biology.
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