A Winter of Ghosts by Christopher Golden, Thomas Randall Read Free Book Online Page B

wondering if even a gallon of tea would beenough to make her warm again.

Chapter Four
    K ara scraped snow off the groundand packed it in her hands, giddy with mischief. Hachiro and Ren were busyhurling snowballs at Sora, so her boyfriend did not see her approaching. Shethrew it straight and true, pegging Hachiro in the back of the head.
    He spun around, eyes wide withsurprise, ready to retaliate. But when he saw that she had been his attacker,he grinned and gave chase, pursuing her through the snowy clearing while shetried to stop laughing long enough to plead for mercy. Hachiro grabbed her bythe hood of her new jacket, stopping her short, and threw a handful of snowdown the back of her shirt.
    Kara went rigid and cried out asthe freezing snow slipped down her back, melting against her skin.
    "Oh, you're dead!" shesaid, untucking her shirttail to let the snow fall to the ground. She stalkedtoward Hachiro and he backed away, hands raised, grin growing wider.
    "You started it," hesaid. "Good aim by the way. You should play baseball."
    "Flattery will not saveyou," she said.
    Hachiro stood his ground,surrendering. "Do what you will."
    Kara smiled. If her father weren'twandering around amongst the students and teachers, she would have kissed him. Instead,she just shook her head.
    "Sorry, Hachiro. It isn'tme you have to worry about."
    He frowned, confused, but onlyfor a moment. Sora and Ren bombarded him with multiple snowballs. Kara had seenthem sneaking up on him and had maintained his attention to give them thechance to make extra snowballs.
    Miho and Sakura walked over,applauding lightly.
    "I love this," Karatold them. "It feels like home."
    "How much does it snow inMassachusetts?" Miho asked.
    "It depends on the year,like anywhere else," Kara said. "But some winters there's snow fromlate November until the beginning of April. A few years ago we had so manystorms in a row that in my front yard it was above my waist."
    "It must seem like anotherworld, like something magical," Miho said, with a dreamy look on her face.
    Sakura scoffed. "It soundslike torture. I'd throw myself in front of a bus."
    Kara laughed and looked around. Theboys were tiring of snowball fights, but other students were not ready to giveup yet. In the gently falling snow they raced around, chasing one another. Somemade snow angels and others were building tiny snowmen out of the inch or sothat had already fallen. Miss Kaneda and Mr. Yamato had paused the group hereso that they could take a short rest before hiking back to the observatory andthen down to the buses waiting in Takigami Park, but nobody seemed inclined torest. The falling snow made them want to play, as if they were still muchyounger children. Only a handful had taken snacks out of their backpacks,probably because with the fresh snow on the ground there was nowhere to sitdown.
    Kara glanced around in search ofher father and Miss Aritomo, eyes narrowed to slits as a gust of wind blewsnowflakes into her face. She didn't see them, but knew they wouldn't be farfrom their students.
    "Hey," Sora said asthe three boys trudged over to them. "I just saw Reiko. She said there'san amazing view from an overlook down a path over there."
    He pointed vaguely toward thetrees.
    "She shouldn't have leftthe group," Miho said.
    "It wasn't just her,"Sora explained. "We should go look."
    Kara glanced toward the trees,searching for an opening. The snow had started to fall a bit heavier, obscuringher vision, but still did not seem to be amounting to much of a storm.
    "How much time do you thinkwe have?" Hachiro asked.
    Sakura tugged her hat tighterdown over her ears. "At least five minutes before they try rounding anyoneup, and you know it'll take at least that long to get everyone organized and getthem to stop fooling around. They won't be leaving for at least ten or fifteenminutes."
    Miho frowned, wiping snow fromher cheek. "Are you sure?"
    Ren put his arm through hers. Thetwo had become close friends during the