Her Pale Blue Lips

She’s been underwater for far too long. It’s been at least five minutes since I noticed she was missing and another five minutes for me to ease my way out to the hole in the ice. I’m holding back my tears as I lay on the ice near the hole. The water is so cold it stings the bare skin of my hand like hundreds of tiny needles. I hesitate for only a moment before I plunge my arm in searching for any sign of Rose Lyn.

I feel something, just a slight touch of something other than water. I have to dip my shoulder in to reach further. I feel clothing and grab hold to start lifting up. As Rose Lyn’s body approaches the surface, I can’t hold my tears back any longer. Her skin is without color, and I know there’s no life left in her.

I am able to get her arms out of the hole and lay them across my body which allows me to roll away from the hole and pull her from the water. Her body is so cold against me. My clothes are soaked through, and I am starting to shiver.

The ice is still very thin below my feet as I stand, but it holds me. I grab Rose Lyn’s arms and with each step I take, the ice sends out loud jarring cracks. I’m afraid I’m going to fall through too. It’s not easy to pull her to shore but with my heart pumping and my lungs gasping for breath I somehow manage.

Damn the Snow Witch, I think to myself as I try to control my breathing. She has a spell over the entire valley that keeps us in a perpetual winter. The June sun tries to break through and warm the earth, but her magic is too strong. All the sun can manage to do is thin the ice over the mill pond.

We had been taking the shortcut across the ice to bring our remaining grain to the mill to be ground into flour. The shortcut saved twenty minutes of walking there and back, but now the shortcut turned deadly. Her sack of grain still lies near the hole where she fell in. That sack was the last of her family’s food stores. The food they desperately need to survive this long cold winter spell.

I drop to my knees next to Rose Lyn. She’s my best friend. I have no family left. My mother died when I was born. I almost died when I was born, but my mother… wait. Regence the village Matriarch told me I was stillborn but as my mother was dying, she whispered a prayer and kissed my dead lips. Regence said it was the Kiss of Life. A special ability in my mother’s bloodline that could only be used once in a lifetime. My mother used it on me moments before she died.

I never really thought it was real. I fantasized about it when I was young. In my dream I would be tending our sheep in a field of heather when a horse with a slouched rider would come barreling up to me. The rider was a prince, but he was mortally wounded and as he took his last breath, he pleaded for me to help him. I’d watch him die in my arms.

I would then lean in and kiss his lips to bring him back to life. He would be so eternally grateful that he marries me, and I become a princess and live happily ever after. I knew that was bullshit but at the time I wanted to believe it.

I am looking down at Rose Lyn afraid that my happiness, no, my very existence is now in jeopardy with her no longer with me. Her pale blue lips are nothing like what I remember. I remember them smiling, laughing, telling me her deepest secrets. I can’t go on without her. She’s all I have left in this world.

Do I have the Kiss of Life in me, would it work on Rose Lyn? I remember Regence telling me it would only work on someone I love. Do I love Rose Lyn? With all my heart I love her and I want her to come back to me now.

I bend down and put my lips on Rose Lyn’s. They are so cold, but I press my lips to hers even tighter and close my eyes. I can feel a warmth start to grow. I feel a warmth in me unlike I’ve ever felt before. That warmth begins to flow into Rose Lyn. I feel her lips press back against mine and I open my eyes. The color of her cheeks begins to turn to a warm peachy hue. I can feel the warmth of the sun on the back of my neck.

Suddenly her eyes open wide and she gasps for breath as I pull my lips from hers. Her bright green eyes have a look of panic for only a second and then they focus on me. “What happened?” she asks. “I remember falling through the ice but nothing else. And why is it getting so warm?”

It takes me a second to process her second question. I look up to see the sun shining brightly in the blue sky, the trees in the forest pushing out their dark green leaves as I watch, and the ice on the pond begins to melt and pull away from the shoreline to reveal open water. “I think the witch’s spell has been broken.” I say as I stare at our surroundings in awe.

“You pulled me from the pond and saved my life,” she says as she reaches up and touches my arm.

“I gave you the Kiss of Life. It’s what my mother gave to me to save my life,” I say as I turn back to her gaze. “Apparently it also broke the witch’s spell.”

Rose Lyn pulls me into a long embrace. “I’m so thankful you found me worthy of that gift,” she says and then kisses me. These are the lips I want to remember I think as I kiss her back.

The sun is now blazing warm, so we strip off our overcoats, shawls, and woolen socks and sit on the bank of the pond to dip our toes in the water to cool off. The pond is now an ice-free shade of sparkling teal as the sun sinks towards the western horizon. The hills beyond the pond are full of blooms and butterflies of every color. The branches of every tree have songbirds of all varieties chittering away trying to find their mates for a shortened mating season.

I grab Rose Lyn’s hand in mine as we take in the view. “You know, I think I do believe in Happily Ever After.” I say to her as I lean my head against hers.