Rolling along the stone path, a lone carriage makes its way back down the mountain of the green countryside.The driver looks up at the greying sky with a smile on his face as he glances back to his passenger, a woman who is quietly looking out the window watching the countryside roll by. Soon the white flakes of snow start to fall and the woman finally speaks up for the first time during the entire ride. “My brothers and I loved the snow growing up.” she says with a small smile crossing her face. The driver laughed in response “Ah! She speaks!” he smiled and looked back at her “You don’t ever talk about them Mistress Schmidt.”
She nods “I miss them everyday, talking about them just brings back the pain of losing them.” She looks back out as she sees snow sticking to her window. “I can tell you about one year back home that the five of us spent together.” she paused for a moment. “My brother, Johnathan-’
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A younger Schmitty ran through the snow filled garden looking around her surroundings when she got pelted in the side of the head by a snowball. She falls to her knees pretending to hold her head in pain while secretly collecting snow into her own little ball. A frantic voice speaks up now “I’m so sorry Kellin! I didn’t mean to throw it that hard.” a young boy about the age of nine comes running up to check on his sister.
Kellin waited till he got closer and then lifted her snowball smashing it into his face causing the boy to fall on his rear with a cry. He rubs his nose looking up at her tears forming in his eyes. “No fair! I thought you were hurt!” he cried out in protest. She smiled with confident delight “Oh Johnny! You fall for the easiest tricks.” she smiled offering him a hand, which he begrudgingly takes pulling himself off the ground. She giggled in delight and dusted him off. “Come on, let’s go find Ad-” in the middle of her sentence she gets smacked in the face from another snowball that flew right over Johnathan’s head.
Standing not far is another young boy, maybe about twelve years old, a mischievous smile on his face as he looked at the two who would quickly dash for cover as he started throwing more snowballs at them. Kellin hides behind a large potted plant that her father had, oh so lovingly raised and now used as a shield from the onslaught of flying snow. She watched as Johnathan hid behind a stump and she laughed as was pelted in the back. “Adam! Sneaking around isn’t fair!” the boy yelled out from his hiding spot as he made snowballs to retaliate against his brother.
Kellin smiled as she went to throw a snowball over the plant and she just heard a loud crash as she let the ball fly. She cringed and looked up to see Adam standing next to a broken pot and then he looked up at his sister. “Mom is going to kill you.” he said with an obvious scared look on his face now. Johnathan had popped up to throw another snowball and saw the two just looking at a pot on the ground, he dropped the ball and walked over to the broken pot and looked at the two. “What are we going to do?”
Kellin looked at her brothers and began to pick up the pieces of the pot. “We need to hide this before the servants do and tell Mother.” She quickly moved to the other side of the garden to where the garden wall is and threw the pieces over the wall. They hear another loud crash and the voice of a man “Oi! Who ookin’ threw tha’?’ The two younger boy instantly freak out because their sister just smashed a pot on some poor sod’s head, and they take off back towards the mansion. Kellin doesn’t even take a second to think either and follows her brothers’ back to the mansion, when she looks back she sees the mansion guard she smashed over the head stepping into the garden and spotting her just as she made it inside.
Making her way quickly to her room, she closes her door behind her breathing heavily as she had never run up those stairs as fast as she did in her life. After about twenty minutes of waiting in her room quietly hoping nothing came of this, her door swung open and standing in her doorway was the most terrifying thing she could have thought ever existed. Her mother, looking at her with the most disappointed look, the guard standing behind her arms crossed. “Kellin Vanessa, care to explain?” She holds up a piece of broken pot.
It doesn’t take Kellin long to fold to her mother, she tells her everything, about the snowball fight and the broken pot. She even tells her about her throwing the pot over the garden wall. Her brothers are soon brought in and they are all sat by each other. Adam elbows her in her side when their mother isn’t looking and whispers “I can’t believe you told!” Kellin frowns and watches her mother as she sits the youngest boy, Johnathan, by the two.
“I am very disappointed in you three!” She starts off with her stern angry voice at the three children. “You break a pot, and try to cover it up by throwing it over a wall, in the process you hit one of our guards who does not get paid enough to also have children throw things at his head.” She crossed her arms and looked at them. “You are all grounded for the week and you will apologize to him this instant.” the three avoid her eyes the entire time and all spit out their apologies to the man. Afterwards the man left the room and the door is closed behind him leaving the four in there. Their mother tuned back to them looking at them with a stern look. “SO…… Who won the snowball fight?” she laughed softly.
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Schmitty smiled as she finished her story as the snowfall was heavier now but still light. The carriage stopped at the point and the door opened to allow her to exit it. She stands on the step of the carriage looking at her large estate now, with her servants lined up the walkway from the carriage to the door with their heads bowed. The driver offers her a hand to help her step down. “It was nice hearing you talk about them, My Lady.” She takes his hand and steps down and speaks in a choked up voice.”It…. It’s a good memory…. I am happy I got to share it with someone.” she wipes away a tear forming at the corner of her eyes and begins to step towards her large, lonely, quiet estate.