Winter Bummerland ♣ Ryan and Norman
{♣}—It was Christmas time, and just like every year, Ryan wasn’t able to do anything. Anything, that is, except for think of him. It was silly, some might say, to fixate on someone who’d been dead for nearly three years, maybe longer. But the tragedy was so fresh, it may very well have happened just yesterday, at least in Ryan’s mind.
Ryan wasn’t aware of it, but his melancholy mood was obvious just looking at him. He hadn’t properly groomed himself in at least a week, and whenever he actually left the room he was staying in, he walked as if on his way to a funeral. He hadn’t spoken to anyone for days, and sometimes at night, he could probably be heard crying from three rooms down.
Maybe that’s why Ryan was now sitting across from Norman, silent and unmoving as the other poured him a cup of hot chocolate. He felt kind of bad that he wasn’t talking, despite Norman’s efforts, but it was hard to bring himself to do anything. He couldn’t even make out what Norman was talking about.













