Hearts Under Ice

by CS Patra

  “Donnie?” Olivia knocked on his door. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting but—there’s something I wanted to ask you. It’s been bothering me.”

  He swallowed hard. “Yes?”

  “Did you get any frost on your car today?”

  That was not the question he wanted to hear. “Frost? It’s about seventy degrees outside, Olivia. It’s not cold enough for frost to accumulate.”

  “I know, but my car had some frost on the windshield as we were leaving.” She explained. “I didn’t see it on anyone else’s car, so I was wondering what that was.”

  “Your car had frost on it?”

  “Yup. I had to scrape it, which is why I was a little late getting back. Don’t worry, I’ll make up the time today. I just wanted to know if that happened to you.”

  He shook his head. “No, my car was clean. Are you sure it was frost and not someone playing a prank on you?”

  “Oh, it was frost. It was only on the front of the car. The back was completely clean.” She explained, closing the door. “Here’s the thing though—I also noticed there was a message on my windshield. I don’t know who put it there, but I got it down before I got rid of it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean, but it said, ‘Your Heart is Under Ice.’ I was wondering if that made any sense to you.”

  “Your heart is under ice? That’s a very odd message to leave on someone’s car. That’s got no meaning to me.” He wrote the message down on a sheet of paper. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

  “No. I’m not sure if this is a prank or not.” She sighed. “Leaving a message for me is one thing. How do you get frost on my car like that and not have anyone notice it? Even more shocking, how could you do that in less than an hour, and why? I haven’t done anything to anyone, that I know of.”

  “I don’t think this is a prank.” Donnie said, staring at the message. “I think someone is trying to reach out to you. They don’t know how to approach you, so they thought about leaving you a message. Maybe there’s more to this.”

  “What more could there be? The message is pretty clear. The last time I checked, my heart wasn’t under ice. I don’t think yours is, either.” She sighed. “Why would someone do this?”

  “Do you know anyone who would do that to you?”

  “That’s the thing, Donnie. I have no idea who would waste that much time on me. I’m more concerned about where the frost came from. You’re right—it’s too warm for anything to form, and it should have appeared on the rest of my windows, too. Maybe we did get some weird weather in the middle of day and we didn’t notice. I don’t know what else it could be.”

  Donnie thought about this for a second. “Okay, I don’t think the weather did anything. It’s way too warm for frost. Plus, frost wouldn’t randomly leave a message for you.”

  “If that’s the case, then someone had to leave it. Who do you think would be crazy enough to do this?”

  “No one that I can think of. Are you sure this was meant for you?”

  “It has to be. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that they wanted me to get this message. It holds no meaning for me, though.” She sat down in one of the empty chairs next to his desk. “I’ve never had anything called a heart under ice. Even if I did, what would someone want with it?”

  “Are you sure you never called anything that?”

  “Uh, yeah. I don’t have too many prized possessions out there.” She leaned back in the chair. “Look, about what I was saying—”

  “Don’t worry about it. It was nice of you to take me out today,” he said. It sounded like he was thanking her, but the disappointment was clear in his voice. “Anyway, I’m more intrigued by this message you received. I’m about ninety percent sure that this came from another world.”

  “Another world? Now, we don’t have proof of that. It could just be someone who has a lot of time and decided to waste it on my car. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s not proof of something from another world. The weather could be going weird.”

  “We live on the West Coast, and it’s summertime. Do you really expect there to be frost now?” he asked. “No, I think we need to look into this. If I can figure out what that message was about, then we’ll be able to know what world it came from.”

  Olivia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even worse, she was starting to believe him. “All right, let’s say it did come from a world. We’re talking about a world that has frost and snow. It’s probably winter in that world.”

  “That doesn’t narrow anything down,” Donnie sighed. “Look, Olivia, I have got to get back to work. We can talk about this some other time.”

  “What if it happens again, Donnie? What if I get another weird message?”

  “Go check your car after a few minutes. If you do a get weird message, take a picture and let me know. We can work on it during our next break.” He said, looking through his papers. “Now, you should get back to work, too.”

  “Yeah, I know.” She mumbled. “I’ll check up on my car later.”

  She left his office and gave him one last look. Donnie was so engrossed in his work that she dared not to interrupt him. They had designated breaks for a reason. She headed back to her office, where Pam had left her some more work that needed to be done by four. Of course she would get more work now. It just seemed like everything was against her.

  “Great, this will take another three years to get through.” She sat down at her desk and flipped through the pages. She would do as much as she could, and then call it a day. Her heart wasn’t in her job today. She logged in and started to type the pages up. She made sure to double-check everything, but she didn’t care much about it. Her mind was on Donnie the whole time. He wanted her to finish this, as well. There were just more things to worry about now. She hoped no one would leave another message for her—she really couldn’t take much more weirdness happening to her today.

  Chapter Six

  It was almost five by the time Olivia left work for the day. She arrived home to find their neighbor’s car parked by the mailbox. Ms. Howard was one of those people who are generally forgettable, unless she came to visit the family. There was nothing wrong with her—she lived by herself with her two cats, and she always smelled so nice. When she did stop by, she was always pleasant, and sometimes stayed over for tea. Not much was known about her except that she didn’t have any immediate family. She had never married, nor did she have anyone else that visited her regularly. Still, she was a good baker, and spent her days inside her house. Once in a while, she went out, but that was a rarity. She always seemed to be the one person who remembered birthdays and anniversaries. Years ago, she had made Olivia a scarf for her thirteenth birthday, and it still stayed in her closet. For that reason, she was polite to her, and did anything she wanted.

  Olivia entered the house and was greeted by her mother in the kitchen. The house was starting to smell like tomato sauce, and that only meant one thing; there was a new casserole in the oven. Olivia’s mouth watered as she thought about what kind it could be. Lunch had been a bit of a bust, so she was ready for dinner.

  “Hey, I’m back!” she yelled into the house and headed towards the living room. “Man, what a day!”

  “Olivia! You’re a little late coming home.”

  “I know. I had to make up some time.” Olivia mumbled, putting her coat away in the closet. She closed the door with a sigh. “I was late coming back from lunch so I decided to work after my usual time.”

  “Why were you late coming back from lunch? I’ve told you never to go anywhere that’s too far from your workplace.” Her mother scolded her. That was when Olivia noticed that they had company. Ms. Howard, their neighbor, was sitting on the couch, waving at her. The two of them were having tea when she came in.

  “It’s a long story, Mom.” She didn’t want to talk about the frost or the message. Ms. Howard was sitting right there, looking pleasant as always. Now was not the time to bring up the strange things that had happened to
her car. “Everything is okay, though. No one was mad at me for taking time in coming back. Anyway, I’ll go and see if I can help with dinner.”

  She disappeared before anyone could ask her what she meant by that. Her father wasn’t around, but there seemed to be a bag of peas thawing in the sink, and a bag of bread on top of the microwave. She had no idea what was for dinner, but she wasn’t going to argue or do anything with it. Even though peas were never something she liked, she just wanted to do something that could take her mind off of the message. Donnie had no idea what it meant, and she doubted that Vijay, Leila, or Pam would know. Even if someone wanted to play a trick, this was the strangest thing to leave behind. That would have taken too much time, and she would have seen something if it had come from anyone at work.

  “Your heart is under ice.” She repeated to herself, looking through the fridge and trying to find something to hold her over until dinner. Most of the stuff was either not good for her or needed to be warmed up. She finally found a small ice cream bar in the freezer and decided to eat that. Then she tried to figure out what the peas and bread mess was going to be. There were no recipes lying around, and she couldn’t think of anything they’d had in the past with these two together. Perhaps they weren’t going together after all.

  “O?” It was her mother, peeking through the doorway. “You don’t have to make dinner. I have a new recipe I wanted to try out.”

  “Oh, that explains everything.” Olivia said. “I didn’t touch it. I think I can take some time to make a small salad. We can have that on the side.”

  “Anyway, I just wanted you to go to the living room. Ms. Howard said that she needs to talk to you about something. She happens to know your coworkers very well.”

  “Ms. Howard wants to talk to me?”

  “Yes, she said it’s important. Just leave everything behind.” Her mother said, leading her to the living room. Madeline Howard might have visited them before, but she never asked to see Olivia alone. “I’ll leave you two, but if you need anything, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” Olivia saw Ms. Howard sitting patiently, waiting for her. There were three things that she knew that her neighbor enjoyed; she loved cats, she liked to bring baked goods when she visited, and she loved embroidery. She couldn’t have been more than seventy, yet she was filled with life. Nothing seemed to slow her down. She was smiling and had a warm demeanor about her whenever they crossed paths. Embroidery was her current hobby, and she would always have something that she was working on. If not that, then she would come with cookies or cakes for the family to share. Today, however, she had come empty-handed. She brought nothing to work on or share. It was a little disappointing, but they had to deal with it.

  Olivia cleared her throat and Ms. Howard looked up with a smile. “Hello, Olivia. Congratulations on your new job! I’ve heard that Vaughn Industries is a great place to work! I know you liked your salon job, but it’s good to move up.”

  “Oh, it’s not so new anymore. I’m more or less used to how things are run there now. It’s not Yanitza’s, but it will do. As long as they pay me well, I’m good,” Olivia admitted. “Anyway, my mother said you wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, I wanted to congratulate you, in the first place. Secondly, I was just wondering if anything interesting has happened recently.” Ms. Howard crossed her legs and folded her hands on her lap. “Did you hear anything strange? Have your coworkers been treating you well?”

  This was something new. Ms. Howard had never tried to pry into her life before, and Olivia was hesitant to tell her anything. “Well, my coworkers are great. My boss seems friendly. I haven’t had much trouble over there.”

  “Did you see anything strange?”

  Olivia bit her tongue and thought about the frost on her car. So far, Donnie was the only person that knew what happened. “Actually, I wanted to know if the weather has been weird lately around here. Say, it’s supposed to be hot today, and instead it’s cold? Did that ever happen?”

  “The weather? What does that have to do with your job?”

  “Well, I was wondering if it got cold enough to make frost on—someone’s car?” It was a horribly phrased sentence, but she hoped Ms. Howard would understand. She was starting to feel uncomfortable, and regretted revealing this.

  “Your car was covered in frost?” Ms. Howard asked.

  “Wow, I never thought you would get it!” Olivia exclaimed. “It’s only one incident though. I thought the weather went cold for a while and I just didn’t notice. I know the mornings can be chilly, but afternoons? That just doesn’t make sense.”

  “Your car was covered in frost?” Ms. Howard repeated.

  “Yeah, it’s very weird. I know it was cooler than usual out, but not enough to make frost,” Olivia said. “Someone was probably playing a really elaborate trick on me.”

  “I don’t think so. No one would take that much time trying to frost a car unless they wanted to tell you something.” She lowered her gaze. “Was there a message on your car, too? Did someone leave a note?”

  “There was a message, but it wasn’t written on paper or anything. They put it in the frost.” Olivia frowned. “Wait, how did you figure all this out? Were you the one who left it?”

  “Oh no, I can’t make frost on a car like that. Even if I could, I would not waste my time trying to annoy you. It sounds like someone is asking you for something.” Ms. Howard said. “They needed to get your attention.”

  “I get that part, but why put a message like, ‘Your heart is under ice’ on my car?”

  “The message said your heart is under ice? That’s not something people normally leave on cars. This is getting stranger by the second, and it wasn’t what I was expecting you to say.”

  “Yeah, that was it. What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I think whoever it is was trying to give you a clue.” Ms. Howard said. “Maybe the frost is supposed to suggest something. Obviously it didn’t accumulate because of cold weather, so it must have come from some other source.”

  “You said it couldn’t have been someone playing a trick on me.”

  “No, it isn’t someone from here playing a trick on you. I think this message comes from somewhere else.” Ms. Howard lowered her gaze. “Do you see where I’m going with this?”

  “Not really. What do you mean by the message coming from somewhere else? You said no one could have done this.” A headache was coming on, but Olivia stayed cool. Ms. Howard sounded like she knew what was going on, even if she was looping her around.

  “No ordinary person could have. It would take way too much time. However, consider a person that has abilities from another place. If they wanted to seek you out, they would use their special abilities to make sure you got their message. Are you following me now?”

  It did make sense, but Olivia wasn’t ready to believe it. “Wait, are you telling me aliens left this message on my car?”

  “Not aliens, dear. People, just like you. The difference is that they might have abilities you don’t because they live in a different world,” Ms. Howard explained. “I know you’ve been working at Vaughn Industries. Your mother told me, so I asked her about Donovan Vaughn, and she told me that he was your boss. I used to know his uncle back in my day, and we’ve still kept in touch, though he’s gotten busy as of late.”

  “You know Donnie?”

  “Apparently, so do you. You’re the first person to ever use his nickname that wasn’t related to him.” She had that look on her face, the kind that no one could understand. It wasn’t a happy or disappointed expression—she was neutral. “How is he doing?”

  “Okay, I guess. Like I said, he is really friendly, although he’s very quiet. I don’t really know him that well,” she shrugged. Unlike the frost on the car, she didn’t want to talk about their disastrous date. “He did tell me about his projects and all. Outside of that, we don’t talk that much. I don’t think we’d have a whole lot in common.”

  “He told you
about his projects? Now that’s very interesting.” Ms. Howard nodded. “Yes, Donovan was always quiet and kept to himself, so you finding out about his projects is something unusual. It took him years to tell me anything. He is very private, but a very smart young man. I thought he would go on to do amazing things. Did you know that he went to MIT when he was about fourteen?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been told that. Donnie seems quiet, but I don’t think it’s because he wants to be left alone. I don’t think he would have opened up so easily to me if he didn’t want company,” Olivia said. “He told me about time travel and other worlds. I’m guessing that’s what you’re also leading towards.”

  “Now you’ve got it!” Ms. Howard was pleased. “That frost on your car came from a world where frost is a common thing. Whoever came from this world wanted to deliver the message. They didn’t know how to approach you, so they tried to leave you a message the best way they could.”

  “I get that much, but I just don’t understand the message. What do they mean by my heart is under ice? I don’t think I’m cold-hearted in any way.”

  “I doubt they were referring to you. I’m guessing that this message has something hidden inside of it. Maybe they are not talking about your heart, but someone else’s. Can you think of anyone that has been cold-hearted to you?”

  “Well, my real father left the family when I was young, but I’ve never been angry at him for it. I just never thought about him at all.” She shrugged. “He’s never sent me letters or called or wanted to know what I’m up to. I don’t talk about him with anyone, so I don’t think that could be it.”