Young Writers Society

Epilogue

I smiled as Aurora and Conner ran around the backyard. They rolled in it like it was a massive pillow of feathers that could cushion every fall. The grass was reflecting the shining sun and the dark green of the spruce trees contrasted the lime green of the lawn. I was just admiring the glittering, crystal-blue lake in the distance when Stacy came to sit by me. Her light brown hair glistened in the midday sunlight and her blue eyes reminded me of the color of the Aurora Borealis that fateful night five years ago.

“Aren't they precious?” she mused.

I nodded. At that moment, Aurora (who had just pinned Conner to the ground) came running onto my lap.

“Hi daddy,” she said, swinging her dirty-blonde hair.

“Hello darling.” I tapped her nose. “Are you having fun with Conner?”

She nodded dramatically. “Yeah! I love the lake-house!” She jumped off my lap to go play with Conner again and I laughed as she swung him around.

Stacy tapped my arm before getting up and going to join them. She had a permanent limp due to the severe frostbite and hypothermia she had succumbed to five years prior when we were trapped in the arctic. I had lost a couple of my toes and two of my fingers, and had to take walking therapy classes after the incident, but the fact was, we were alive. And I marveled at this fact as my wife and my two children played with each other. Life is so precious and so finite. And I learned that the hard way, but I'm glad that I did.

Right about then, I felt like the happiest man on this massive Earth of ours. I got up to join them.