Winterfrost by Michelle Houts

kitchen and flipped on a light over the sink. He smiled as the soft yellow glow washed over the room.
    Back in the barn, Klakke settled himself into the warm golden straw in the loft. He was tired, and sleep came quickly. But it didn’t last long.
    Klakke awoke to the sound of Felix’s deep barking.
Vo-vo-vo.
Then a moment of silence. Then
vo-vo-vo-vo-vo-vo.
Someone must be outside.
    Klakke ran to the front of the hayloft and pushed open the window the tiniest bit. Felix was darting in circles around the barnyard, his tail wagging furiously. Klakke’s gaze turned toward the road and saw unmistakably that the neighbors were making their way toward the Larsens’ house. He drew in his breath and closed the door. He was sure Bettina would be home by now. There was nothing he could do to help. Bettina must handle this one on her own.

Bettina expected the house would be cold and dark, but when she emerged from the forest at daybreak, she noticed three things: a small light glowed from the kitchen window, smoke curled from the wood-room chimney, and everything around her was normal size again. Gradually, during her walk back from making rounds with Gammel, she had grown tall again.
    No longer being tiny came as a relief. It was the first two observations that worried her. With a light on and the fire going, it sure looked like someone was home.
    Surely Mor or Far couldn’t have returned so soon. Or could they have? Had her sense of time been altered while she was nisse size? She took off running toward the door.
    Inside the wood room, she saw that the fire had been stoked recently. The firebox was full, and warmth filled the adjacent kitchen. Bettina removed her winter coat and snow-covered boots, remembering how tiny they had been when she was nisse size. To her amazement, the white thistledown socks had grown right along with her, and they remained warm and snug on her feet. But despite that bit of evidence, Bettina’s recollection of the night in the house under the tree was becoming fuzzy, more like a dream than reality.
    “Hello?” Bettina called as she stepped inside the house. She turned off the light above the sink. There was enough daylight now, even though it was turning out to be another cold, cloudy winterfrost morning just like the one before. This string of identical days only added to her inability to keep track of what day it was.
    “Anyone home?” she asked, her heart pounding. Then just to be cautious, she added, “I’m back from my walk in the woods!”
    There was no response, and Bettina knew she was alone. The clock on the kitchen wall read 7:47, but she ran to look at the one on the fireplace in the living room. When the second clock confirmed the time, Bettina sighed. She found comfort in knowing that she was back to a place where time was measured and meant something. She put a kettle of water on the stove for tea and then sat down at the kitchen table to gather her thoughts and make a plan.
    Outside, Felix let out a loud bark. Then another. She dashed to the window above the kitchen sink and moved the curtain aside. Oh no!
    Rasmus and Lisa Pedersen were walking down the road toward the Larsens’ house.
    Bettina scrambled from the kitchen. She took the stairs two at a time and quickly changed into clean clothes. At the bottom of the steps, she tossed the clothes she’d been wearing into the laundry room just as she heard the familiar
ting-a-ling
of the bell inside the wood-room door.
    Mr. and Mrs. Pedersen were standing in the wood room when Bettina opened the kitchen door. Their smiling faces covered up a long night of worry.
    “Good morning, Bettina!” Mrs. Pedersen greeted Bettina with a hug.
    “Hi!” Bettina returned brightly. She stood in the doorway, not offering to let the Pedersens in. Mor would be aghast at her rudeness had she been there to witness it, but Bettina could hardly risk their poking around and asking after Pia.
    “Lisa and I are just checking in on you girls,” Mr.