Savannah Cass

Without Prejudice

If I had but known how it was all going to turn out I may have been tempted that Monday, the first day of winter 2003, to pull the covers back over my head and sleep till the end of my least favourite season. But having been born with reasonable intelligence and very little psychic ability, I didn’t. I am not a fan of winter. I love autumn with its crisp nights and sunny days. I long for summer with its heat. And spring, with its promise of new life and good times just around the corner. But for me, winter is ugly. With its bare trees, devoid of foliage, the cold that nips at the fingers and turns the nose pink. Winter to me is like entering a long tunnel of dark with only a faint tiny pin prick of light at the very end.

                          Certain animals have the right instincts about winter, bears especially. Long before winter begins bears simply load up on carbs and sleep right through it, in restful hibernation. I think we all have something to learn from that! But blessed with neither strong psychic ability nor bears instincts, I rolled out of bed that Monday ready to tackle the day, the week, the month, the winter season head on. And so it began, the winter of 2003. My normal winter’s journey into darkness. But that winter would be different. Darker than any winter that had gone before. I have never killed another human being, but by that dark winter’s end, all that would change.