Make my way down to the lake and walk the shore to the far side. The entire lake is thickly covered in snow, but here there are circles without any whiteness, damp dark well mouths many feet across. I stand alone and look at this place, and in the middle, near the falls, I see a dark spot shaped like a huge cocoon. Shaped like a woman wrapped in cloth. I step onto the ice and break through to the bottom.
Ice is always thin at the edge of the lake because the ground keeps it warm.
I step further out and feel cracking, but it holds, so I push off my other shore-bound foot and stand on the lake. Mom would have had my hide. I shuffle toward the middle slowly, looking back to see my tracks turn black from the water at the surface of the ice. At the spot, I kneel in the snow at the edge of the dark. There is ice.