Hiding Winter
Editor’s note: The following is the winning story for the Brome Bright Lights writing contest. It was written by Grade 5 Knowlton Academy student Forest Kolbe-watkins.
Svalbard, Norwegian Island Chain, Norway, 1620.
Kårsh Märlyøk was sitting in his silent freezing, somber, house. It was a windy day. The wind was singing a song, that would seem happy to the majority of people but to Kårsh, it’s a song of memories, rancid memories. Usually the chimes Kårsh’s mother gave him when he was 13 would be swinging, emitting fantastic songs of joy, but they were frozen into nothing but pieces of metal with an icy coat on them.
Kårsh didn’t want to think about the frozen chimes, they reminded him of worse times, times of sorrow and burning despair. It seemed that in Svalbard, winter never ended just like Kårsh’s aching memories of that time of sorrow. Kårsh lived in a house with his sister, there originally were many more family members in the house but they all died of hunger, every one of the corpses is still in its room, doing nothing, because Kårsh and his sister both can’t go into the room because it would remind them of the old times.
Kårsh’s sister loved winter, and the falling white patterns of unbelievable complexity that came with it, also known as snowflakes. However Kårsh himself hated winter, it was a reminder of the sorrow times, to him the snowflakes were like burning words, that when they make contact with Kårsh’s jacket, they engrave horrid memories of the famine into Kårsh’s mind.
That is why Kårsh hasn’t gone outside for seven years, his sister gets him food from a hidden supply crate she found in the nearby forest, close to where the Mayor lived. Kårsh just sits in his room reading books. He ran out of books six years ago but he just reads the same thing, over and over again, in a never ending loop of despair.
Kårsh’s sister knew he despised winter, so out of compassion she hid winter. How could one hide something as gargantuan as an entire season? For Kårsh’s sister it’s trivial, just slide the flower pattern curtains to the point where they act as a barrier for the eyes. Kårsh never left his room, so his window was his only portal to the outside, and that window could be blocked with a pull of a cord.
The reason this so called eternal winter began was because the biggest volcano in the world’s history erupted in 1610 in Southern Java, Indonesia. It’s amazing how something all the way across the Earth could affect so much in Svalbard, and the rest of the World. The volcano caused the biggest famine in history causing there to be only 3000 people on Earth. Of course Kårsh and his sister didn’t have any clue of what was going on being from an island North of Norway, East of uninhabited Greenland, Forest Kolbe-watkins is a Grade 5 student at Knowlton Academy. He was the grand prize winner of the annual Brome Bright Lights writing competition.
and about the size of Iceland. They thought it was Løki himself playing Note: This story is based on the true tricks on the miserable mortals of Earth. events of the Toba Super Volcano eruption.
Kårsh and his sister lived in the city of However these characters, themes, Äle kięek, population two, Kårsh and his dates and events are 100 per cent fictional. sister were the only people in Svalbard. The only things that existed in Svalbard were an eternal winter and Kårsh’s final family member.
Warmth was scarce, as Kårsh’s sister had already collected all the firewood within a mile.
He eventually grew tired of being in his room, so he gently placed his book to the side of his cold chair, and stood up, his muscles aching as they haven’t been exercised for years. Kårsh sauntered out of his room into the silent corridor, passing his parents’ room, sending a frozen tear down his frozen cheek. He continued downstairs, passing his sister, she asks, “where are you going?” Kårsh responds back in an unemotional voice “to visit someone.” He slides on his coat, and opens the door, a gust of wind enters the room, not even making Kårsh flinch.
As Kårsh departs his home and saunters outside, he passes the chimes, scoffing at them remembering his mother. He soon was out of sight of the house, walking towards the coast, through the forests he played in with his sister as a child before 1610. He reached the south Coast of Svalbard, remembering when he went fishing with his Dad and Brother.
Kårsh spotted his dad’s row boat, walking towards it, more memories popped into his mind, he hopped into the snow covered boat, and then untied the knot he made when he was 14 with his dad. The boat drifted away from the coast, cutting through the icy waters, and Kårsh said, “I’m coming to visit mom, I’m coming to visit dad.”
Kårsh’s sister never glanced at his face again.
The End
Way back in 1841, a group of people started meeting in the Ball Schoolhouse. Colonel Paul Holland Knowlton arranged for the land and building for a church a few years later. After 50 years the church was too small and inconvenient for the parishioners and so they decided to take the old building down and put up another! It was a beautiful perpendicular Gothic structure with “perfect acoustics.” Sadly on January 18th, 1941, that St. Paul’s burned down. One month later, armed with new architectural plans, the present St. Paul’s building took shape. Costing $30,000 the building was finished by October using local wood and stones from local farmers fields.
Today St. Paul’s members are still active in the local community helping with the breakfast program at Knowlton Academy (which St. Paul’s helped found), the Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, the senior’s residences, the Lion’s Club and many more “behind the scenes” helping hands.
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