Letters to Mallory

The beginning

Chapter one

        It was a cold winter morning and the wind hit the side of the window at a steady beat. The house was very quiet and Mallory and I crept through the kitchen. “Shhh”   I whispered.

The sky was still dark but in spots there were blotches of purple. And outside I heard the birds just waking up.

        “Do you think it’s too early Bella?” Mallory stared at me her small face layered with messy long brown hair. “No its fine, there’s no way we’ll wake up Chris but we should be quite for Jacob” Chris is my older brother who is 15 and Jacob Is my younger brother who is 2.

 I peeked in the cupboard, and grabbed the brown box. “Here it is!”

        We each poured ourselves a hot cup of water and poured in the hot chocolate. Mallory’s eyes followed her small white marshmallow in her cup as she twirled it around and around. “What should we do today” Mallory was still watching her marshmallow when she answered. “Let’s go to the park.” I was surprised Mallory wanted to go outside at all it was cold and windy and besides we never go to the park. “Really” I asked almost as if she said she wanted to jump off a cliff.

        Usually going outside wouldn’t be a problem but it was for Mallory. All she had on was a thin t-shirt, jeans and a pair of old shoes. Mallory couldn’t afford a new jacket so she usually used mine.

        “Yay its beautiful outside” she replied looking outside. My eyes followed hers out the window and all I saw was a forest a rusty swing set and a half way frozen over stream. But by the look in Mallory’s eyes it looked like so much more to her.

“Ok” I said but I knew it would be a waste of time; the second we got out there she would want to come back in.

        Mallory grabbed my jacket and I grabbed my mom’s. By the time Mallory’s hand was half way to the door knob I had closed my eyes preparing myself for a gust of freezing cold wind, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and found the door open and Mallory already outside. “ come on lets go” Mallory’s voice rung out through the neighborhood. “Shh, you’ll wake miss barkly!” I whispered knowing that Miss Barkly never woke up but my mom sure did. So I quickly grabbed an extra scarf for Mallory and headed out side.

        It really wasn’t that bad but it was bad enough that Mallory should have been wearing mittens and a scarf.

           

Mallory was ahead so I quickened my pace. When I got there I stared at her face, the  wind was  brushing strides of hair from side to side across her face. Mine was not as long as hers and it was red, her hair matched the scenery perfectly mine just stuck in a messy bun.

        We were following the old gravel path to the stream, and when we reached it Mallory stopped and picked up a stone. She studied it for a second and then tossed it on to the ice. The ice stayed in one peace and Mallory tried again this time harder. So I picked up a rock to and threw it at the ice. Now it was a game me and Mallory laughed and threw rocks at the unbreakable ice.

Ten minutes passed and there was not one crack in the ice. “Come on lets go” I said almost out breath form my last throw. Mallory smiled at me and began back up the small bank of the stream. 

“See, that was fun”, she said and turned her face to me. Her excited face made me smile too. “Ya it was.”

        The morning was cold, and warm light from the house was beckoning us.  Without a word we both headed toured the house. “Maybe we could go back there after breakfast” Mallory was now skipping. “Sure” I said “That was a lot of fun.”