"Children, get into the cart." Jack heard a mother say. He was just passing through. Curious, he paused to watch them. A small girl emerged from the cabin, wearing a bonnet and her finest dress. Her brown hair was pulled up into a formal bun. Her hand held one of a smaller boy. They both looked so familiar with their brown hair and matching brown eyes. But instead of the giddy shine in all children's eyes, theirs were downcast and welling with tears. Jack approached them.
"What's wrong?" He asked them, crouching down to their level. They took no notice and kept on walking. Right through him. He'd forgotten. No one could see or hear him. The two children climbed into a small, horse-drawn cart. Sighing heavily, Jack started to walk away.
"Mama," The little boy said, causing Jack to whirl around. Their mother had just come out from the cabin, wearing clothes of mourning. "Why do people die?"
"Is this about Gramma Emma?" The mother asked. The tiny boy nodded, his messy hair flopping in his eyes. "Jackson, even though people die, they still live on." The mother pulled herself onto the driver's seat and flicked the reins. Jack grabbed onto that back of the cart and climbed in.
"What do you mean, Mama?" The little girl chirped.
"People become spirits when they die." She explained. She was a very patient woman. "If they do really well in life, they go to live with God. And that's why you should not be sad for you and me and Gramma Emma will all live together again." Jack listened intently. He was confused, though. He wasn't living with God. Does that mean he's a bad person?
"Why does Gramma Emma have to die?" Jacked socked his head.
"Everyone needs to die, sweetie. Otherwise, we can't go live with God."
"Oh." Both the children muttered. Jack continued to sit in the back of the cart, trying to work things out in his mind.
The rickety cart jolted to a stop and Jack almost fell out. They had stopped outside an old cabin that was falling apart. He suddenly felt sick from a wave of familiarity. The smell of death hung around the old house. A man rushed out and hugged the woman.
"It is good you are here, Emily." He said with tears in his eyes. "You need to make it quick; Mother is in her last moments." Clutching her children's hands, the woman named Emily hurried inside. Jack padded after them slowly.
Inside, it was dark and gloomy with only a few candles going. In the middle of the dim-lit room, there was a bed that held an old woman, gasping for breath. The small family of three stepped forward and surrounded the bed.
"Ah. My *cough* beautiful children." The old woman wheezed. Her eyes could barely focus on them.
I shouldn't be here. Jack thought to himself. He turned and began to go, casting one last glance at the parting old woman.
"It's okay, Mamma." Emily sobbed. "You can let go now; we are all here."
The old woman stopped breathing for a second before breathing shallowly. "Jack?"
Jack Frost stopped in his tracks and turned. He saw Emily shaking her head. "Don't worry; you'll see him soon. He is waiting for you on the other side." He knew she was talking about death. This Jack was dead.
"He was my *cough* brother." The old woman sobbed. "It was all *cough* my fault." Jack knew he couldn't do anything. But he walked over and set his hand on the old woman's. Him and her brother shared the same name. It was something they had in common.
"Let go. He will see you again. And everything will be okay." Emily comforted.
With a few shallow breaths, the old woman's eyes slid shut and her breathing stopped. The tears dried on her wrinkled face.
"Eliza, Jackson," the mother wiped tears from her cheeks. "Say good-bye to Gramma Emma. She is in a better place now."
Everyone, even Jack Frost, said good-bye to this sad, old woman. And, outside, snow began to lightly drift down over the old house, never touching anywhere else.
(Think about it, though. If Jack was there to comfort his sister, Emma, in her last moments, never knowing who she was. Emma was told by her daughter that she would be reunited with her brother in the next life. But Jack was never there. After living her whole life thinking that she killed her brother, she could never see him again.)
