Light Boxes

Orange Bird Mask

Today we go up the hill with our weather-changing poles. Some of them are fifty feet long, requiring a dozen men to raise them. The idea is to destroy the clouds that cover the sun. An old Peter tactic he never had the chance to try.

It fails, because when we raise the weather poles, an ice storm freezes them together. They blow down the hill and toward the town. One weather pole spikes a shopkeeper’s window.

By nightfall we feel the sadness inside us that is February. I can smell the mint evaporating from Selah and Thaddeus.

Not every tactic will be effective against February, Thaddeus says. Everyone stay positive.

The War Effort has doubled since the great Thaddeus speech. We now have blacksmiths and sculptors and farmers and a little person and beekeepers, and most of them have lost their children to February. Most of them can’t unclench the fingers-into-fists that are their hearts.

Go home and make a large fire, Thaddeus tells us. Warm yourself until your sweat soaks through your clothes.