Chapter 3: A Life Worth Living

"Ma'am?" finally opening my eyes to look at my mother. She was a young woman with strawberry blonde hair and eyes that would change color according to her mood. she wasn't very tall and it didn't help that she wore clothes that covered her whole body to hide the scars she got when she was younger. Today she was in my father's old overalls. The legs are rolled up because they were too long for her. She always said that my father only wore them twice and she wore them all the time. From the stories that she tells me, she and my father were very happy and in love until one day he died just before I was born, I wasn't ever told how he died just that he was, and though my father was very wealthy she didn't want to use his family money if she could help it. Until about twelve years ago when we got kicked out of our apartment and so we moved up here to wolf mountain to my father's family cabins. We live in the smaller cabin that doesn't have electricity so we don't have to spend money we don't have on power. We do go to Dad's cabin when it's too cold or if I want to study or read. Funny thing is I've never really wondered who he was or what he looked like because of mom's stories, I feel like I know him, and I don't mind it because I love the work we do to make money on our own by learning to live with what we have around us. Sometimes we get requests for huge blocks of ice that come from the top of the mountain. It's the freshest, most sweet water in the entire state. People love it, to carve majestic statues with. Sometimes we go to help a farmer with their livestock, or sell our paintings we make out of hide and clay. We dabble in a little bit of everything, it doesn't really matter what.  "We're getting ice today!" mom grins all giddy and excited. I love when she gets excited but she and I both hate the cold and we both have to carry the ice block all the way down the mountain before it melts then stuff it into Nicky's ice truck. "I already ran to Nicky's and cranked the truck!" I can see the slight blush coming to her cheeks.