The Frozen Lake

A Story by Grace Coggins

One boy alone in the middle of winter

Jacob Scott had spent the entirety of that month following the trail of clues and evidence, trying to piece together a story that was so much larger than himself. He was close, though, he could feel it in his bones. He was so, so close to understanding the truth.

He stood at the edge of a clearing, staring out into the winter landscape. Most people thought the snow-capped trees were beautiful and serene; he just found it eerie, though, but the answers he needed lay on the other side, across the ice and snow. And it could be a matter of someone’s innocence; saving them life from life in prison was far much more important than his uneasiness.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the frosty air. His father was innocent. If there was one thing he was sure of, that was it. His father was a good man, someone truly incapable of murder. But the only way he could prove his innocence was to find the murder weapon. And it rested in a cabin on the other side of the clearing.

He clenched his fists and tentatively stepped out into the open, feeling vulnerable and an easy target. For what? He didn’t know, and that just made him feel worse.

“Okay Jake, you got this.” He told himself, his voice creating puffs of clouds against the frozen air. “Just one foot in front of another.” He took a step, then two. “Just like that, you got this.”

Within minutes, his long strides caused him to be halfway across the clearing, and he was beginning to feel more at ease about the harsh winter surrounding him. He could almost see the appeal to this season.

Almost.

The next step he took caused a loud crack under his foot; Jake stopped dead in his tracks. For a split second, he thought it was just an old tree branch that had been buried under the first snow fall. But the next step told him otherwise. It wasn’t a clearing he was crossing. It was a lake.

And the ice was cracking.

He took off at a run, trying to out pace the breaking ice. But he never got to the shore, at least not before the ice buckled under his weight; he fell through, completely submerged by the freezing waters, struggling for air and control. He reached for the surface, but he couldn’t reach it.

And no one was around to save him; no one, but himself.