One day he decided to go ice-fishing to a nearby lake. He filled a bottle with hot tea, made sure he put the right amount of maple syrup in it and he went. On his way he saw a fox running to find some food – when he saw the fox running like this he noticed that she was of a different color than a few days ago, in fact everything around is a little changed… “Maybe the fox has cubs and is looking for prey to feed them. She is a really fast runner. She is lucky she has got a lot of fur, she must be warm. So am I in my fur-coat… And look at the caribous crossing the shallow but fast river minding each rock. They are just like me in a big city trying to cautiously pass across a wildly flowing street.” David walked along a well-known path that was never the same. Up quite a steep hill he encountered a bear catching fish in a creek which never got frozen, even when it was so cold that it is painful to take a breath and let the air down to your lungs. “In a way the bear is kind of a murderer who kills you totally unexpectedly when you do not know… Do fish expect anything? Do fish think?”
Thinking like this David reached the lake in no time. He knew this lake very well because he had fished there with his father in summer. This was also a lake they learned about at school. They talked about this lake in geography class because it is one of the biggest and deepest lakes in the region. In summer tourists take hikes to this lake. “I feel so strange and calm whenever I walk round this place… in autumn when the myriad-colored leaves fall into the water and the water glows in lots of colors, it was charming…,” David realized this seeing the beautiful picture of winter all around.
He skillfully made a neat hole in the ice. It was not very easy to make the hole. David used a special saw to do this uneasy job. But at the end the hole was exactly the right size – not too big or small. Then he could finally start fishing. He patiently stayed there almost not moving for almost three hours, but he didn't get even a nibble on the hook. This changed in a few minutes, it was almost like a miracle! When David wanted to go home, there came a lot of fish. They were big and gray and they looked exactly like the fish David’s friend and classmate caught here last year. At that time everybody was talking about this catch – the fish was so big that the whole family ate it for a week. Nobody really knew what kind of fish it was.
The fish appeared suddenly. Did they get hungry or were they short of oxygen? There is only little oxygen in the water under the ice… The fish came here even with their families. The small ones in the front, the bigger ones behind.
The only thing David was focusing on was getting the fish from the water. He did this very carefully. But still he was silently impressed by everything he witnessed around. It felt so normal and still so different from other times. In spring birds sing all sorts of melodies, but now everything is so calm as if asleep, almost as silent as on a graveyard… There were more and more fish coming. David stayed not catching the fish any more, just staring and smiling at them, completely forgetting about the time. “They must be thinking something.”
It was dark when David realized that he should be home for dinner. It became black dark. Only the moon was casting some light and also some scary shadows… the atmosphere was similar to the film he saw two weeks ago. He didn’t like that film, because it made him really scared and he couldn’t sleep a week after. David didn’t watch TV so much, because he had a long way to school and from school and the only thing he did in his free time was walking over the forests and being with animals.
David couldn't see one step ahead. He knew the forests well, but it seemed it would not help him now. The sky was cloudy, not many stars were visible...
He had to stay here all night and wait till the morning. He grew more and more tired and he wanted to eat. He had the fish he caught, but his matches were wet. All tired and hungry David started thinking about his parents. David´s parents liked nature too. That’s why David lived in a forest. His dad was a hunter and his mother was a vet. David’s mom and dad first actually lived in a city, but when David was born, they decided to move somewhere to be close to the nature. David was so proud of his father, he liked his ways. In summer they played soccer, went swimming and hiking in the woods. His dad taught him a lot of practical things to do… He could not even think about his mom – it would make him cry, he loved her very much. Were his mom and dad worried, did they miss him, were they looking for him?
After all these questions flying in his head he fell asleep. He fell asleep right where he was, under some branches of an enormous tree. David was sleeping there all tucked in his fur-coat and holding his knife in his right hand.
His parents walked through the forests, but they couldn't find David. They looked everywhere: under the trees, behind the bushes, by the river and the lake, simply everywhere. “David, David!!!…”
They were also very tired. They couldn’t find him, they didn’t know what to do. A wolf might kill him. Or a bear could… also the ice could melt under David´s feet. His parents were very much afraid for him, tears were coming in their eyes.
It was morning when they found him lying under the branches. Mom was crying, now from happiness, finally she found her son. She could see that something changed – David was not the baby, the little boy absolutely dependent on his parents any more… She hugged him and asked dad if he could take him in his strong arms. They took him back to his warm bed and waited until David wakes up. When David woke up in his home he knew he had a lot of things to say to his parents but also to himself. Things were the same but at the same time he felt different.
