Ava swirled through inky blackness with Ezzie, making her dizzy, and the world turned red, reminding her of that field of mushrooms and she recoiled, and then the redness was replaced by a bright white light, and they stood on the broken cement road on the other side—snowflakes falling around all about them, and snow on either side of the road, and Ava blinked and willed her dizziness to pass. At least she wasn’t seeing the world through a red haze, just bright white here, and above the world was clouded with grayness, and she shivered.

“What’s this white stuff?” asked Ezzie, putting out her hand to grab some of the snowflakes. They melted on her hand.

“It’s snow,” said Ava, figuring it made sense Ezzie had never experienced snow before.

“Oh. It’s cold,” said Ezzie.

“Yeah.”

Huge snow drifts were on either side of the road, which now glistened with ice, and behind them was the inky, twilight black archway. So it just led into this winter wonderland? Ava could deal with that. Though she had a sinking feeling that there was more to it, and she shivered and put her hands in the front pocket of her black hoodie. She could only imagine how cold Ezzie must feel.

“Well, does the road still lead north?” she finally asked.

“Yes,” said Ezzie, seemingly mesmerized by all of the white grayness around them. “Direct north.”

“Lets follow the road then,” said Ava, feeling like she was dreaming. Everything seemed so surreal. Fog lands to snow lands?

“Okay.”

Ava took a step, but immediately slid, falling to her butt on the icy road. Ezzie leaned over to help her stand, but also slid and fell, and then an overpowering shadow leaned over them.

“Why aren’t you with the children?” it asked.

“Um—” started Ezzie.

“What children?” asked Ava, not liking this overpowering shadow. It blackened out the snow and made her see red at the corners of her vision, and she tried blinking the redness away, but it wouldn’t go away.

“The children of course!” said the shadow. “You’re not a parent, so you must be here to help watch them.”

Children? Parents? What was this overpowering shadow talking about? Ava tried standing, but slid to her butt again, and then she was sliding down the road and off to the side and into a snowbank. Ezzie followed, bumping into her back, and they were both sliding through the snowbank and through the white snow, and whenever Ava tried standing she just slid to her butt again. She didn’t want to get too far away from the road. She didn’t want to lose the road in this white and gray and red wonder land, and then they slid down a steep incline and landed in a huge snow drift and stopped temporarily.

Ava frantically dug herself out, and was relieved Ezzie was able to do the same, and two children—maybe eight or nine—stood before them. Both wore long pink dresses. One had carrot red hair, knotted and long, and the others hair was up in ringlet pigtails. Both had red, rosy faces, and Ava had to admit they were pretty cute. These must be the children the overpowering shadow had been talking about.

“My name is Cadence!” announced the girl with the carrot red hair, pointing at herself with her thumb. “

I’m Leona,” said the girl with the ringlet pigtails. “Who are you?”

“Yeah. Who are you?” asked Cadence, peering at them, and Ava wondered how they couldn’t be freezing.

“Where’s the road?” asked Ezzie.

“What road?” asked Cadence, and the two girls laughed joyfully. “Come play with us!”

She took Ava’s hand, and Ava was surprised by how warm Cadence’s hand felt. It was like a warm blanket, and she slid to her feet. The other girl—Leona—took Ezzie’s hand, and Ezzie also slid to her feet.

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“Play with us!” said Leona. “We’ll have fun! We can play kitchen.”

Play kitchen? What was this girl talking about? They needed to follow the road out of this strange winter place and back into the fog lands! They didn’t have time to play, but Leona and Cadence were stronger than they looked, and Ava and Ezzie slid through the snow after them, and Ava thought that if Cadence wasn’t holding onto her hand she would have slid to her knees. Why was it so icy in this snow? It was almost worse than the spinning world!

Leona and Cadence pulled them past wooden, shut doors that stood, free standing, in the snow, and down into a wide ravine, where children’s play stations were set up—a play kitchen, complete with table, stove, microwave and refrigerator, bean bag chairs, a huge ball pit, a basket of raggedy looking stuffed animals, dolls with their hair ripped out next to a play crib. The girls swung them onto two small chairs in front of the miniature kitchen.

Ava shivered, but was surprised she wasn’t colder than she felt.

Leona and Cadence put two plastic plates in front of them.

“Oh! This will be fun! You two can be our mommies! You can be momma—” Cadence pointed at Ezzie, who frowned. “And you can be mommy.” She pointed at Ava, who immediately felt uncomfortable, and her sexuality confusion came to front, but these two little girls didn’t see anything wrong with having two moms. These two little girls seemed to think it was the most natural thing in the entire world.

“Please, the road—” began Ezzie, but Leona laughed.

“Come on, momma,” she said. “Serve us. We want cake.”

“Can we please have cake, mommy?” Cadence asked Ava, blinking bright blue eyes, and Ava couldn’t help smiling. She was that cute.

“Well, sure,” said Ava.

Cadence and Leona laughed and smiled joyfully, and Leona opened the plastic microwave and took out a plastic serving dish and set it on the table.

“Can we eat it now?” Leona asked. “Or do we have to eat it after dinner, momma and mommy?”

“You can eat it now,” said Ava, smiling.

“The road—” started Ezzie.

“Oh stop about the road, momma,” said Leona.

“Just play with us! Mommy is playing with us. Right, mommy?” Cadence asked Ava, again blinking her bright blue eyes, and Ava couldn’t help nodding.

“Okay,” she said.

“Ava—” started Ezzie.

“Not Ava!” snapped Cadence. “She’s mommy.”

“Oh be nice, Cadence,” said Leona, laughing. “Momma is just the serious and strict parent. She’s just playing with us. Right, momma?” Leona stared straight at Ezzie.

“No, we have to—”

“Let’s play dolls!” Cadence suddenly announced, and the two laughed as they stood and pulled at Ezzie and Ava’s arms, making them get to their feet, and Ava again thought she would have fallen if it wasn’t for Cadence’s hand.

Why was it so slippery?

The two girls laughed as they pulled Ezzie and Ava to the miniature toy crib, next to a basket of hairless dolls. Ava and Ezzie sat down, on a red and blue rug, and Leona took out one of the dolls—which was naked and missing a limb—and rocked it in her arms.

“We have to get back to the road!” said Ezzie, sounding exasperated.

“Shut up, momma!” snapped Leona.

“The baby is trying to sleep,” whispered Cadence.

They did have to get back to the road.

“We do have to go,” said Ava.

“No you don’t. You have to play with us!” said Cadence. “Come on, mommy. You don’t want to go.”

“Yes we do,” said Ezzie.

“Shut up,” Leona said again, rocking her missing a limb, hairless baby doll in her arms. “Momma is no fun.” The girl frowned.

“Mommy’s fun. Right, mommy?” asked Cadence, staring straight at Ava, staring straight into her soul it seemed.

“Well—” began Ava.

“Ava—” said Ezzie.

“Shut up, momma!” snapped Leona again, putting the doll in the crib and covering it with a blanket.

“Shh, Leona. That’s no way to talk to momma,” said Cadence. “But she’s disturbing the baby,” said Leona.

“No she’s not. We don’t care about the road,” said Cadence to Ezzie.

“But we do,” said Ava. “Please take us back to it,” she begged Cadence, thinking she could at least convince this girl to take them to it.

Cadence suddenly yawned.

“I’m tired,” she said.

“Me too,” said Leona, stepping away from the crib and also yawning.

“Read us a naptime story,” said Cadence to Ava.

“Yeah, mommy, read us a story!”

Ava couldn’t help yawning herself, and she realized she was exhausted. She saw a bookshelf, lopsided in a snow drift, near the red and blue rug her and Ezzie sat on. It couldn’t hurt to read the girls a story, could it, and then maybe they’d be able to find the road on their own. Hopefully they’d slide right into it. Or maybe they could find that strange shadow presence to lead them to it. Or at least direct them to it. She went to the lopsided bookshelf, on her knees, and picked out a book at random.

“We really don’t have time for this!” said Ezzie.

“Shut up, momma,” snapped Leona.

“Shh, Leona,” said Cadence. “Mommy is going to read us a story. Right, mommy?”

“Yes,” said Ava, knowing Ezzie was right, but suddenly feeling as sleepy as the girls now looked, who rubbed their eyes and lay on the rug next to Ava, a girl in the crook of each arm. They were warm and snuggled closer to her. This was nice, Ava had to admit to herself, and she fell asleep too, soon after she started reading the random book, not being able to help herself, dropping the book down to her chest without even realizing it.