Snow Guardian

Prologue

It is six o'clock in the evening, and Mrs. Henry prepares meatloaf for her and her family.

******

Only five minutes pass when her husband arrives home.

"Hi, honey!" Mrs. Henry greets him, walking up to him.

"Where's my food?" the husband bluntly asks.

"We're having meatloaf. I just put it into the oven," she said, pointing toward the kitchen.

"I should be coming home with my dinner already prepared!" he yells.

"I was trying to, but I realized I was missing two ingredients," she said matter-of-factly. "I had to run to the store. I tried to hurry, but all the lines were long."

"I'm sure there was something else you could've made instead, then."

"Our daughter wanted meatloaf," the wife responds.

"She's five," he tells her as he plops onto the couch. "She'll eat what we want, not what she wants!"

"I'm not going to ignore her!"

"But you ignore me?"

"I do not ignore you!" she yells, pointing at him. "You get food put into you!"

"I shouldn't have to wait for my food!"

"Oh, grow up! You're a big boy. You can make your own damn dinner!"

Mr. Henry practically jumps off the couch. "Women serve the men!" He slaps his wife in the face.

Holding her now reddened cheek, she yells, "It's the 21st century! Men and women both share equal responsibilities now!"

She is smacked again, this time falling to the floor.

"Not in this house!" he yells, standing over her.

As her parents yell and fight, the little girl, with shoulder-length light brown hair and dark blue eyes, runs into her room to hide under her bed covers.

Before going to her bed, she grabs a black crayon and two white pads of paper from her little kid's desk.

She jumps onto her bed, pulls the covers back, grabs her Tinker Bell flashlight from her lone nightstand, then lays on her stomach under the covers.

The little girl begins to write as best she can.