Splinters and the Wolves of Winter

by William Whyte

“Eh,” said Heidi on the ice during warmups, “Hello again! We always meet like this. In the deciding game.”

“We always meet like this,” said Cindy, tense, sleepy, and trying to smile.

“And you always have something to hide,” said Heidi.

Cindy looked more closely at Heidi. “Are you okay, Heidi?” A wolf howled outside. Heidi glanced towards where the sound had come from. When she looked back there seemed to be fear in her eyes.

“Will Fritz be okay?” she said.

“In the village?” said Cindy. Heidi nodded. “He’ll be safer there than here. It’s going to be worst here,” Cindy said.

“Will we be okay?” said Heidi.

“I know this sounds odd,” said Cindy, “But I think so, if we just play hockey.”

“And even if we are not, I get to play hockey against you, mon ami,” said Heidi. “Maybe we die tonight, but maybe we die any night. Today, hockey is life.”

182 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 8, 2020

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I wrote this, but this is the shit. Even though there's a weird discussion of the insurance market in the middle of it. (Edited: I took that out and now it fucken slaps)