Hearts Under Ice - CS Patra Page 0,23
to know if that happened to you.”
He shook his head. “No, my car was clean. Are you sure it was frost and not someone playing a prank on you?”
“Oh, it was frost. It was only on the front of the car. The back was completely clean.” She explained, closing the door. “Here’s the thing though—I also noticed there was a message on my windshield. I don’t know who put it there, but I got it down before I got rid of it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean, but it said, ‘Your Heart is Under Ice.’ I was wondering if that made any sense to you.”
“Your heart is under ice? That’s a very odd message to leave on someone’s car. That’s got no meaning to me.” He wrote the message down on a sheet of paper. “Has anyone ever told you that?”
“No. I’m not sure if this is a prank or not.” She sighed. “Leaving a message for me is one thing. How do you get frost on my car like that and not have anyone notice it? Even more shocking, how could you do that in less than an hour, and why? I haven’t done anything to anyone, that I know of.”
“I don’t think this is a prank.” Donnie said, staring at the message. “I think someone is trying to reach out to you. They don’t know how to approach you, so they thought about leaving you a message. Maybe there’s more to this.”
“What more could there be? The message is pretty clear. The last time I checked, my heart wasn’t under ice. I don’t think yours is, either.” She sighed. “Why would someone do this?”
“Do you know anyone who would do that to you?”
“That’s the thing, Donnie. I have no idea who would waste that much time on me. I’m more concerned about where the frost came from. You’re right—it’s too warm for anything to form, and it should have appeared on the rest of my windows, too. Maybe we did get some weird weather in the middle of day and we didn’t notice. I don’t know what else it could be.”
Donnie thought about this for a second. “Okay, I don’t think the weather did anything. It’s way too warm for frost. Plus, frost wouldn’t randomly leave a message for you.”
“If that’s the case, then someone had to leave it. Who do you think would be crazy enough to do this?”
“No one that I can think of. Are you sure this was meant for you?”
“It has to be. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that they wanted me to get this message. It holds no meaning for me, though.” She sat down in one of the empty chairs next to his desk. “I’ve never had anything called a heart under ice. Even if I did, what would someone want with it?”
“Are you sure you never called anything that?”
“Uh, yeah. I don’t have too many prized possessions out there.” She leaned back in the chair. “Look, about what I was saying—”
“Don’t worry about it. It was nice of you to take me out today,” he said. It sounded like he was thanking her, but the disappointment was clear in his voice. “Anyway, I’m more intrigued by this message you received. I’m about ninety percent sure that this came from another world.”
“Another world? Now, we don’t have proof of that. It could just be someone who has a lot of time and decided to waste it on my car. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s not proof of something from another world. The weather could be going weird.”
“We live on the West Coast, and it’s summertime. Do you really expect there to be frost now?” he asked. “No, I think we need to look into this. If I can figure out what that message was about, then we’ll be able to know what world it came from.”
Olivia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even worse, she was starting to believe him. “All right, let’s say it did come from a world. We’re talking about a world that has frost and snow. It’s probably winter in that world.”
“That doesn’t narrow anything down,” Donnie sighed. “Look, Olivia, I have got to get back to work. We can talk about this some other time.”
“What if it happens again, Donnie? What if I get another weird message?”
“Go check your car after a few minutes. If you do a get weird message, take a picture and let me know.