Yutica and the Best/Worst Hot Chocolate

Yutica is deranged, and I am the only one who knows it.

At the edge of Winterglade Woods, right after a new snow (and only after a new snow), Yutica brews hot chocolate that melts the dreariness of winter from your soul.

No one knows where she lives or who she is. But everyone knows that if you offer her a gift and she accepts it, she'll make you the best hot chocolate you've ever had.

Sometimes it's a song, a smooth stone, or a coveted cookie. But the gifts are always small and rarely accepted.

I wanted that hot chocolate. Year after year, I was give the same one everyone else got.

One day, my friend Cindy found the most vivid blue feather. I'm not saying it's right, but I stole it and waited.

Once the first snow came, I rushed to present it to Yutica, cheeks flushed with glee. Yutica examined the feather.

Nodding, she whipped up the coveted hot chocolate, handing it over with a kind smile.

Kids from school and a few grown-ups, who were drinking hot chocolate in clusters nearby, turned to watch this momentous occasion.

It smelled warm, like cinnamon and ginger. But as I took my first sip, it turned to mud on my lips.

I frowned, almost dropping the mug to the snow-covered ground.

A classmate asked, "Don't like it?"

"It's delicious," I replied with a tight smile.

I drank ever last drop.

Yutica never stopped smiling. I hate that beloved psycho.