Leaves on Frozen Ground

Céline Vaillancourt saw the untamed forest in shades of apprehension. But Edmund, her 11-year-old son, was possessed of a different vision, as though he had put the very same brooding colors together and produced a painting shot through with adventure and the light of discovery. There was no talking to him. But talk no longer seemed to matter. Edmund was his father's son, stubborn and willful. His dog and the wild country beyond their orchard owned his heart. But now it was December, and cold. And neither dog nor boy were paying attention.