We told my mom we were just going to the park for a little while and she offered to give us a ride but I told her no thanks, that we wanted to walk. I asked her if she would hold on to Skittles so that she wouldn’t get out but she just rolled her eyes and kept on chopping up the vegetables for supper and told us to be home before six.

It was freezing out. It snowed all day so I had on my winter boots and I lent Violet an old pair that my sister used to wear. Violet said she forgot hers at home but I don’t think she has any. I’ve never seen her wear any before, but most kids don’t wear snow boots to school, anyway, so it’s not a big deal.

It took us about fifteen minutes to walk to the tracks. It looked like we were the first people there in a while—at least since it snowed. The ground was glittery and perfect with no footprints. I almost hated to walk across the train yard and mess it all up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Skittles run by. Her golden fur was like a streak of sunshine against the snow. She must have followed us. “Sweet, silly girl,” I said. Violet thought I was talking to her and we both started laughing.

We looked for Skittles’s footprints in the snow, but the wind was blowing and we couldn’t find them. I wasn’t too worried, though; she always finds her way home.

I asked Violet if she believed that Wither was real and she laughed and said no way, so I laughed, too. We walked along the tracks, our boots sinking deep into the snow, until we were both out of breath. Then Violet said sometimes she thought Wither might be real and she wondered where he would go when it was so cold out like this.

I watched her for a minute. I couldn’t tell if she was making fun of me or not. But then she said that maybe he slept in one of the boxcars at night. I guess that makes sense, though I don’t think it would be much warmer inside a boxcar than out.

I told Violet that I thought that Wither probably snuck into people’s houses at night and hid under the stairs or in a closet. Violet wanted to know how Wither got inside the homes. I wanted to tell her that he scratched at windows and came through vents. Instead I told her that I guess he gets in and out the same way Skittles does—whenever someone opens and closes a door.