Fiction – Helen Marie Joyce

The Mistress of the Lake (Chapter Five)

She looked up at the sky; it too appeared at calm. No Electric Storms brewing this time. How strange to have been through such an intense experience with no corroboration whatsoever? How was it that there was absolutely no proof that what had come to pass had actually happened? As she pondered at the events that had just come and gone, her gaze browsed her surroundings, and she observed the breathtaking scenery that lay around her: lush grass patches delineated a dirt path that lead to a cluster of tall trees and through them, she discerned a glistening lake that beckoned her.

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The Tale of Santa

Once upon a time, in a land of ice and snow and reindeer, two twin boys were born to a broken mother and a caring father. Their mother was a sad figure, depressed, and full of sorrow; she neglected her children, feeling nothing but pity for them and disgust for herself. The death of her baby daughter a few months before the twins were born had cost her her soul. She would listen to them cry, bawling out in hunger, and she would turn a blind eye, looking out the window at the frozen, white landscape. Her condition became worse as the days went by, with nothing her husband could do to help reverse the sickly process of her mourning. He could only contribute by offering an alleviating substance, an amnesiac that made her forget her woe by stewing rare violet mushrooms he found in the forest surrounding their cottage. Yet in the winters, there were none to collect and the husband felt helpless to watch his wife on her bad days. Little consolation did he find in caring for the boys.

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