"Yours and Emerson's?" Jane was surprised. Harry, this time again, didn't fail to leave her baffled. Her mind was racing with the new information of Harry finally disclosing the story of him and Emerson, and curiosity was eating away slowly. She wasn't the desperate type, but it this situation, she was desperate to know.

"Yes," he sighed, eyes gazing the blazing sky adorned with numerous stars and countless galaxies. "And like I said, if you want to know that, you gotta remain quiet."

Jane could only nod. Harry took a deep breath, and quickly glanced at her. " I-I don't know what I'm doing okay? So you have to promise me that we'll take one step at a time."

"I've no idea what are you talking about Harry," Jane spoke up, "But okay, you'll tell me whatever you want however you want. I promise I'll stay quiet."

He smiled sadly, eyes ablazed with what Jane could only identify as fear in the dark of the night. Taking a deep breath he spoke. "Okay, so here goes nothing......."

Harry was six years old when he first saw the white, cotton-like particles fall from the sky.

It happened on a Tuesday. Or for him it was a Tuesday as he remembered being restless and anxious looking out of the window of his small room and waiting for the familiar rumble of the car; the feelings only came to him when it was the time.
The time he would wait for rather impatiently.

His dad was coming to meet him.

Looking out the window, he was sat on the window sill. Being required to keep the windows shut to keep the cold out, he watched with quite edginess the view when his breath would fog the transparent surface of the glass. He would draw figures that consisted of a stick man with his index figure out of boredom and would see his breath fogging the glass again, covering what he had previously drawn.

It wasn't long before when he saw a ball of cotton fall from the sky, at least to him it was cotton. He tried to look up ahead at the sky, but his window wouldn't allow him to do so.

Slowly but eventually, more balls fell and he watched with his eyes loaded with fascination as they covered the ground beneath him in a white colour. He knew what it was, his pre-school teacher had told them sometime before, but he didn't remember what his teacher had told him.

He leapt to his feet and padded downstairs to his mother, who had her eyes fixed on the t.v screen with a cup of hot cocoa in her hand. Standing in front of the t.v, he got her attention.

"Mummy, look!" He pointed towards the living room window as his mother followed the direction of his finger. She smiled at her son. "Harry, that's snow."

He looked at her mother as she told him that. "Snow?"

His mother nodded, "Yea, snow. It is a natural thing."

His brows scrunched together in confusion. "Na-cho-ral?"

His mother laughed, "Yes, dear. Natural. But do you know what, you can go play with the snow if you want." He looked at her with excitement,

"I can?"

She nodded as he ran towards the door, not before hearing his mother shout to not forget his coat, hat and mittens. She smiled at the fading figure of her boy, knowing what would have happened if the snow hadn't fallen and glad that she got to take his mind off of that even if it was for a little while.

***

An hour and a half later, Harry had successfully managed to build a snowman, with the help of his mother more or less so. The snow had stopped falling, and slowly the sky was getting cleared of the clouds.

The ground was very much still covered with the remnants of the snow and the sun threatened to peak from behind the clouds. He stared at the specimen of snow he had created, forgetting to form the mouth.

Two buttons and a carrot formed its eyes and nose, branches of trees that Harry had found lying on the ground were in place of his arms and the scarf he was actually supposed to wear was circled around the area where the snowman's face stuck to its neck.

He was about to retire to his home when a car rolling down the road caught his attention. A feeling of excitement flooded through his system as he remembered the pending arrival of his dad, so instead of going inside like he had promised his mother he would, he sat down on the stairs. His mood now pensive that he hadn't come yet.

After some moments, the sun finally appeared. Harry watched as the white blanket shone under the bright rays before melting after some moments of his waiting. He had yet to come. Eight minutes later he got up from the place he was sitting before the water the snow had changed into could wet his clothes.

Going over to the snowman, he readjusted the arm, the branch of the tree for it was about to fall as the snowman melted.

Ten minutes had passed. He had yet to come.

Ten more minutes later, he was pacing around his snowman in circles, body close to numb due to the cold. The sun couldn't warm the ice inside his body as the feeling of realization grew in his body.

Fifteen more minutes, and he was now running inside his home now, the pieces of his heart joining the puddle of water where the snowman once had been.

He still hadn't come.

***

The cold January wind blew harshly, not caring about what damage it might be causing. Some people were like that, it seemed, like the wind that was blowing. They acted without a care in the world, almost on impulse. That might be a strength but to them it was their biggest weakness.

It had been almost a week since the pending arrival and needless to say, Harry's father's continued promises to make it up to him on the phone still changed from getting him whatever he wanted to taking him wherever he desired. I'll come soon, I promise. But not now, Daddy's busy, you see remained constant, however.

That was the thing about kids. They believed every piece of lie you told them without questioning you.

Being out in the shrill weather wasn't the best of choices, but Harry's mother had promised to take him out to the park as all week, Harry had been nothing but a good kid.

All week, he had helped the old lady next door who could barely walk without a stick in clearing the front lawn of her house after the snow melted. He helped her get rid of dried shrubs and blunt twigs.

He helped his mother occassionally in making lunch and dinner and to award him (and partially to get him forget even for a bit), his mother took him out to the park close to their home.

The afternoon wasn't sunny or pleasant. In fact, it lacked warmth as cold, grey clouds gathered over the sky like a dark blanket. But that didn't matter to him as he slid down the slide like he was sliding down a mountain. It didn't matter to him as he lost himself in happiness, once again, even if it was just for a fleeting moment.

He could see majority of kids (much, much older than him) out and about playing what he knew to be as football. A smile pulled up on his lips as he saw the ball getting kicked from player to player. It was his gradfather's favorite game, his father had told him that, and therefore, it was his favourite game too.

But Harry couldn't see football being his favourite game, sadly. He was just too....small for it. And that was why, maybe, he sat in the playground, covered with particles of cold sand as he tried to build a sandcastle. Tries after tries, what he managed to get build was a big mould of sand, which collapsed soon after it was formed.

One of the many things Harry was taught by his mother was it doesn't matter if nothing is going as you want it. You can just pretend it is, only if it makes you happy. I'll just pretend it is one, then, he thought, and got up as he dusted off his clothes. Just to the right of the playground, there was a fireman's pole.

It was his favourite as he could pretend to be a fireman as he slid down. His feet carried him to the pole and what surprised him was a girl, too scared and small, standing on the platform next to it. He could see her legs shaking from where he stood.

"What are you doing?" He couldn't help the innocent laugh that tumbled out of his lips as he saw the poor girl's leg shaking terribly. The girl, despite the fear clawing up her throat, shot him a glare that seemed to do the work as Harry visibly gulped.

"Don't laugh at me!" She shouted from above. "It's rude."

The girl couldn't be older than Harry himself, but still she possessed much more manners and intelligence than Harry could ever have.

"Then come down!" Harry shouted back to the girl whose name he had yet to know. "Only two things can happen if you jump. One: you land on your feet and two: you fall. See, it's simple."

The girl stared at him in horror, "What if I fell?"

Harry grinned, something girls would be falling over in years to come. But for now, it only scared the already fearful girl more. "Then you break your arms, or legs."

It was when a fearful wail left the girl's lips that Harry knew he had gone too far. His eyes widened as the unwelcome thought of his mother twisting the outside of his ears came to his mind.

"I was joking," he shouted almost desperately. "Nothing will happen. I'll catch you if you fall, I promise."

The promise meant more to the girl whose name he didn't even know than it did to him. It would mean a lot more in the years to come. Later, the words would haunt him. But now, all they ever meant was a hollow promise of a kid.

And just like that, she jumped. Every time he asked her to.

Notes

So as you can see, the story's gonna progress as a series of moments or whatever you call them narrated by Harry to Jane. The next chapter will be the same like this one with Harry telling past events to Jane, his and Emerson's story as he said before we fall back to the tegular Jane-Harry interactions.

I'm gonna leave you to it. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment if you do! I'll really like it if you would all comment about how you're liking this story so far.

Stay blessed Xx