An Icy Altercation

It was the two of us against the world. My sister Ebony was the protective one and I was the practical one. We had worked as a unit our whole lives, never apart. But being so close came with its own tribulations. We both had an explosive temper, a parting gift from our absent mother. We fought like crazy women. Screaming and yelling was common in our household.

We weren’t always great at talking things out, but that just built up, causing spectacular explosions.

The frozen pond was our place. We were the only ones in town who could ice skate. So when winter came and the cold settled in, the fishermen would leave with their fishing rods and the kids would stop swimming in the pond's icy torrents. Slowly but surely the pond would freeze over, leaving it all to us.

No one else goes near the pond when it's frozen, so Ebony and I made it our hangout spot. We went there every day, skating until we were so tired we almost had to be carried home. But we loved it. Floating down the ice, we felt free, weightless, invincible.

We would sing and dance and talk and compete with each other. It was my favourite time of the year, where my best friend and I would spend all our time doing what we loved most, together.

But lately, things had changed. Ebony got a boyfriend. Thomas.

Little by little she started to fade away from me. We didn’t skate every day anymore, in fact, we barely hung out at all. I had complained about it to dad, but he told me to let it go. He said that Ebony was growing up and that when I got my own boyfriend I would understand.

But I didn’t want a boyfriend, I just wanted Ebony back.

So naturally, I hated Thomas. He had driven a wedge between me and my best friend. He stole her away from me. I didn't get what was so special about him anyway. He was too tall and too smart and too nice. He was no fun at all, he always followed the rules. He was boring! I didn't get why Ebony would choose him over me, I was her sister. We always had fun! But now I was alone, and I hated it.

At least I still had the frozen pond, so that’s where I was headed today. To skate all day, all alone. Imagine my surprise when I saw Ebony and Thomas skating about in our place, laughing together.

In shock, I stormed onto the pond and grabbed my sister.

“What the hell is he doing here? This is our place!” I yelled.

“You don’t own the pond; I can bring whoever I want here!” she screamed back.

It hurt that she didn’t respect the pond as our sacred place. This was meant to be our safe haven; she wasn’t meant to bring anyone else here! More than anything I was angry. She didn’t care about me, or even ask if I would be ok with this. I knew this would happen. That she would get a boyfriend and forget all about me.

She spent all her time with him, it was just a matter of time. But if she thought that I was going down without a fight she had another thing coming. With that in mind, I ran at her screaming. I tackled her to the floor. Hair was pulled, faces were scratched, and expletives were exchanged.

“Oh my God, guys! Calm down, I can go, it’s ok,” yelped Thomas, the fricking peacemaking saint.

“Shut up Thomas!” Ebony and I shouted back. This was between the two of us. If she thought it was ok to disrespect and hurt me, well two can play at that game.

I slammed her onto the icy floor in all my rage, hard.

Suddenly there was a loud crack that echoed all around us. Ebony and I froze in our tracks. I looked down to see that the ice had started to crack where my sisters’ body laid. I had slammed her so hard that I had cracked the ice beneath us.

My anger disintegrated instantly as fear gripped my heart. Ebony looked up at me, terror in her eyes. We were going to die. We were way too far away from town, and it was much too cold, if we fell in the water we would freeze to death. The cracks continued and grew in size.

“Thomas!” I cried out. I looked around for him. But the bastard had left! I knew he wasn’t good enough for my sister.

“I’m so sorry,” whispered Ebony. She looked like she had accepted that she was going to die.

“We are not going to die today,” I stated definitively.

I looked around me, the edge of the pond wasn’t too far away, if I crawled towards it then there would be less weight on the ice. Ebony could crawl after me. Maybe I could even get a branch and help her.

I relayed my plan to her and slowly started to crawl off of her, keeping my movements slow and minimal. Carefully, I began my crawl to the edge, the ice creaked and wobbled under me. My heart was beating as fast as a woodpecker pecking wood, I was barely breathing.

By the grace of God, I reached the edge and pulled myself to safety. I turned around, prepared to help my sister, just in time to see the ice break under her.

She fell into the icy water below, screaming as she fell.