Snow and Ice

Snow & Ice

A cold wind blew across the open land. Thin clouds hurried along the moon, making it difficult to see. The field was covered in snow but Aileen knew she had to keep going straight ahead. She didn’t know why but she often found herself here on this same stretch, walking the same snow covered field. I must be dreaming, she thought.

She noticed now that her feet were not sinking into the snow. Despite going barefoot the only cold she felt was from the wind blowing in her back. A thin, gauzy white dress flapped around her sandy brown legs. Around her arms there were a few strips of cloth attached to the dress at the shoulders.

The strips billowed in the strong breeze leaving her arms unprotected. Well this is a bit dramatic isn’t it? Aileen wanted to wear something more comfortable. The dress obliged, turning into a cotton summer dress with a motif of small white flowers embroidered along the hem just above her knees. Her arms were now covered to the elbow by slightly puffed up sleeves that allowed for easy movement.

I suppose a pair of jeans and my snow boots are out of the order then? Aileen sighed. She wondered if she could change the season to match her dress and make the sun come out. But the snow still stretched across the field and clouds still chased the stars out of the sky. A crunching sound started coming up from behind.

Aileen looked over her shoulder. A darkness within the dark was fast coming towards her. Fear gripped her heart. Aileen turned and ran. The gauzy dress was back. It’s long fabric flapping around her legs made it difficult to run. She hitched it up and tried to move faster. But the harder she tried to run the further her feet sank into the snow.

Panting she searched for a place to hide. The crunching sound was upon her. Aileen got slammed to the ground. Snow filled her nose and mouth as she screamed. She scrambled onto her back and desperately fought her assailant. Aileen scrunched her eyes closed and kept on struggling until it all went black.

A voice sounded far off. There was music playing. Aileen opened her eyes and saw a soft light coming from below. She lifted her head from her pillow to see it was 6:30 in the morning. The air felt cold around her face. With a groan she dropped her head on her pillow again. She would give herself three songs on the radio, which roughly translated to 15 minutes, before she’d get up.

The dream came back to her. Aileen tried to recall as much as she could. When she got up she wrote what she could remember in her diary before taking a shower. A pale light hung in the sky when she shut the door behind her. Wearing a thick winter’s coat, wrapped in a scarf that covered her nose, braids hidden under a fleece cap that she’d pulled down to cover her forehead, Aileen gingerly walked and slid across the small courtyard to the bike rack. A thin layer of ice covered her saddle.

If only they made winter tires for bicycles, she thought. She would manage in the city. But the day-care centre where she was subbing today was out in one of the small towns. Some of the paths she had to take never saw a salt spreader truck. Still she had to get to work and in these conditions it’d take her a good 15 minutes longer than the usual half hour.

A strong wind buffeted Aileen as soon as she left the last buildings of the city and turned south towards the Schie canal. She crossed the bridge while struggling to keep her bike straight. Out in the polder the biting east wind was relentless. It crawled through her gloves to nibble at her fingertips and crept underneath her fleece cap to chew her ears. Aileen slumped forward over the handlebars careful to keep her nose buried in her scarf.

She went along at a snail’s pace adjusting whenever she felt the front wheel trying to escape her grasp. With the frozen Waif canal on her left-hand side this was no place to slip. She had successfully navigated through a bend when she saw a dark blue lump hanging on the grass bank to the left. Her stomach knotted. There was something strange about that lump. A dark smear covered the ice on the road next to it.

As she got nearer Aileen could make out a pair of legs stretching out beneath the dark blue with what appeared to be a bicycle trapped on its way down toward the Waif canal. She eased off her bike and did a penguin shuffle toward the figure. A woman lay unconscious on the bank. Aileen reached for her brand new cell phone. Zero bars. ‘Now what?!’

She knelt by the woman who seemed to be breathing. Aileen couldn’t see the wound on her head but the trail it had left on the ice was bad enough. Fear settled inside her chest. What could she do? The nearest place was the students flat at the other end of the road. But that was nearly a kilometre away. She couldn’t take the woman with her. Still the idea of leaving her felt utterly wrong. Maybe she could haul her on the bike somehow?

But what if she had hurt her spine? It might be dangerous to move her. Then again it was freezing. Lying on the grass like that she could get hypothermia. Aileen didn’t know how long the woman had been there, what if she got help only to find the woman frozen to death? 

The dream came back to her then. She had been in control until she got scared. She wrestled with a person without seeing their face. I must have been wrestling myself. A sudden clarity came over Aileen in that moment. She saw that the bicycle was still trying to drag its owner down. She went round and carefully untangled the woman’s legs. “Ma’am? Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?” No response.

Aileen straightened her back. She had to go, it would be slow and awful but out here there was nothing more she could do. The next 800 meters were the longest in her life. The road was slippery from one end to the other. At last she reached the old monastery turned student flat. She chucked her bike next to the others, locking it without thinking. Oh I forgot to lock her bike! Well I guess nobody’s going to steal it from under her…

Someone had cleared the snow and ice from the steps. Aileen went into the hall. She didn’t know anyone who lived here. She slammed her hand on the doorbell board not caring who’d respond. “Hello?”, a male voice sounded through the intercom. “There’s a woman unconscious out in the polder I couldn’t reach anyone you need to call an ambulance!” “Wait, what? Hang on, I’ll come down” “No!” But it was no use. He had already hung up.

Nervous, Aileen turned to the stairs. After a long five minutes a tall, lean fellow came bounding down. His arms were full with a bundle of sorts. “You said there’s someone out in the polder? Don’t worry, my flat mate is calling 112. I thought we might take some blankets to cover them up or something.” A crackle came over the intercom. “Rutger you still there?” “Yeah I’m here” “Where in the polder is this woman?” Rutger turned to Aileen with a questioning look.

“She’s at the other end of the Waif road. A little beyond the bend after crossing the Schie canal.” “Did you hear that?” “Waif road at the Schie canal side. I’ll tell them.” Rutger stuffed the blankets under the straps of Aileen’s carrier. His own bike didn’t have one anymore. Together they toiled out to the place where Aileen had left the unconscious woman.   

Her wandering eyes found the dark smear on the road while they were looking for the bulk of the blue jacket. “There, that’s her blood!”, she pointed it out to Rutger. “Did she fall on the ice?”, he said. “What? No, I…”, but as Aileen looked at the bank she realized the woman was gone. She got off her bike so quickly she nearly fell.

“She was here, I swear she was here, how…?”, Aileen was trembling. “I believe you, look her bike is still down there with her stuff on it. Maybe she got up and started walking the other way. You stay here and wait for the ambulance while I go search ok? Hey did you hear me?” Aileen tore her eyes away from the empty spot on the bank and nodded at Rutger.

The icy wind wrapped itself around her while she stood there waiting. Her feet had already gone numb when the cold bit into her cheeks. She couldn’t stop staring at the spot where the woman should have been. The smear on the road ended near a dark ring of bare earth on the bank. Beyond that the grass was flattened all the way down to where the bicycle lay with a black purse still secured on the carrier.

I didn’t call work. I should have tried when I was at the flat. It was a silly thing to be thinking about. But standing here waiting for the police she was once again beyond the reach of a signal. Rutger came back looking worried. “I didn’t see anyone on the path. Maybe she walked to the road and got someone to give her a lift.”

“That would be dangerous, there’s no sidewalk or bicycle lane and the cars go pretty fast.” “Yeah well I’m just guessing.” Rutger shrugged. Aileen didn’t know how long she’d been there when the ambulance arrived. Rutger took charge explaining the situation while Aileen tried to keep from trembling. The paramedics radioed for the police. They told Aileen and Rutger to wait in the back of the ambulance while they conducted their own search.

Two police units showed up. One car took Rutger and Aileen to the student flat for questioning. Being out of the wind and the cold, Aileen slowly began to thaw. When the policemen left she finally made a call to work. She was surprised to hear the adjunct director say: “Well I’m glad you called in so soon. I’ll ask central if they can send someone else. You sound pretty shook up so I think you should go home and get some rest. Maybe the police will call to tell you they found her.”

Aileen thanked the woman and called central herself to verify that she could go home. It felt like she had spent the whole morning trying to get to work. But it was 9:30 when she hung up the phone after talking to central. Her shift should’ve started at 9.

“So they’re giving you the day off huh? If you want to hang around for another 15 to 20 minutes, I have classes in town at eleven. You won’t need to go down that path alone.” Aileen gratefully accepted the offer. She had been dreading the way back. The flat had a nice communal room. The windows overlooked a large section of the polder. Ice glistened on the fields beneath the sharp winter sun.

The clear blue sky seemed out of place against her dark mood. A woman had been in an accident and then vanished. Yet the world moved on as if nothing had happened. On their way back they saw the police driving off. The ambulance was no longer there. At home Aileen sat down on her couch feeling a little lost. She must have fallen asleep because her phone woke her up around midday.

The police had found an identity card in the woman’s purse. Judith Smid had been on her way to a temp job when Aileen found her. Nobody had heard from her since she left home early that morning. They had called the hospitals in the surrounding area and had come up blank. Judith Smid would now be entered in the missing persons’ database. Aileen crumpled back on her couch. After a long while, she called a friend. It felt good to hear a familiar voice.