There is a small village near the border between Livia and Engel, where most of the people live by farming and logging. The fathers cut down trees in the forest to sell them as firewood. Mothers worked as tailors, sometimes going out to collect acorns and breaking them together in the grasslands around Althea Hill. Children who insist on helping their parents are usually asked to help squeeze lemons and collect mushrooms. Life in the village is so harmonious and simple, with colourful diversity and unity.
When winter comes, the local villagers adopt the principle of living like most animals who gather grain in the spring and eat it in the winter. Most of them do not work when it snows and prefer to improve the family quality of time at home. And if they are bored with the same food at home, they can exchange side dishes with the next-door neighbours.
Unlike Anika who lives alone in her home, there is no one she can spend quality time with. No one could hear her there. No one to accompany her to chat there. So in a state where it was snowing intensely, she went to the back of Althea hill which was quite close to her house. She wore a thick knitted hat and carried a woven bamboo basket with her. In her other hand, she carried a long wooden branch with her. She walked for a while walking down a familiar path. Her footprints left a deep recess in the thick expanse of snow. When she arrived at her destination, there was already a group of children who were both about to collect mushrooms to cook. Apart from collecting mushrooms, they also like to go to this place to play snowball throwing. No adults would scold them here.
"Oooh, there's Anika!" the kids exclaimed happily. Instantly, they left their half-filled mushroom baskets and surrounded her.
Anika laughs happily and rubs their heads one by one. "Did you guys have permission from your parents before coming here?"
They answered loudly with laughter, "Of course!"
"Let's look for mushrooms together."
"Let's go!"
Their little hands roamed all over the place, scavenging the many pale cream-buff Field Blewit buds that were a bit crumbly and as soft as the flesh of their cheeks, then began to fill each other's little baskets while occasionally having fun throwing snowballs at each other. Many of them, after their basket was full, chose to help fill Anika's basket.
A little girl aged 5 to 6 years shakes a brown winter chanterelle mushroom the colour of autumn leaves right in front of Anika's crouching face. She said cheerfully, "This is for you."
"Ah, thank you." Anika waved her hand forward to accept the small gift, but all she found was empty air.
The little girl waving a winter chanterelle mushroom in the air burst out laughing, followed by another laugh. A stocky boy with cheeks as thick as a meat sandwich said with a cramped stomach,
"Ah, dammit. You did it on purpose huh? Anika can't see right!"
They make her a joke.
Anika did not shortly withdraw her hand that was outstretched in the air but was silent for a moment. Not far from her, a grown man laughed. Anika feels like gets electrocuted when she hears it.
Since when was there an adult other than her here?
On the other hand, the man who was laughing heartily had already been squatting beside her. When he finished laughing to his heart's content, he picked up the rocks and wooden sticks that were cut into small pieces from Anika's woven bamboo basket and replaced them with various kinds of winter mushrooms that he had collected himself.
"Wh-who are you?" His voice was foreign to Anika who depended most of her daily functions on hearing.
The man replied, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Anika parrots.
"You're free to give me one. You know, a name. Kids do that too."
"Yes! I call him Peter!" one child replied to the man's sentence, followed by other children who soon said their respective nicknames for him.
Anika always funnily wrinkled her nose whenever she was astonished. This time she also did as she asked, "Since when have you been here?"
"Since the beginning." Actually, it's been a week. Usually, he never makes a sound no matter how cruel these kids are toying with Anika. But this time for some reason he wanted this girl to know his services so far in replacing the rocks and sticks from her basket with fresh mushrooms. He continued, "Did you know that they often put rocks and sticks in your basket?"
Anika clicked her tongue, her hand smacking her thigh in exasperation, and then she exclaimed, "No wonder I've recently found the right mushrooms in my basket. It turned out that you exchanged them, didn't you? Thank you very much!"
The man grinned widely in response. But he realized that this girl couldn't see so he corrected his answer with, "Yes. You're welcome."
He then waved his hand in front of Anika's face, wondering, "Are you really unable to see? Your way of walking is very normal and orderly. You can even reach places this far without tripping over."
"Yes. Precisely, there are still faint shadows, so I'm not so blind about the position." Anika raised the thick scarf around her neck up to her chin to block the cold, and then she asked once more. "Um, are you new to this village?"
The man replied, "Yes. About a week ago Uncle Odette found me half-buried near the local river and rescued me. I worked chopping wood for him, and often saw you collecting mushrooms here."
"Often?? "
The man scratched his head non-itchy, "Well... At least more than once."
"Boy, why don't you greet me at all?"
The man did not answer but turned the conversation to something else, "The weather is getting too cold. Let's go back homes."
"Oh, you're right."
Anika comes home to her cosy little house and thinks that she will not meet that guy again in near future. But who would have thought that the next day, the man would be standing at her doorstep with a free bundle of firewood?
When Anika insists to pay, the man asks her to cook a bowl of mushrooms they picked yesterday instead, and Anika agrees.
"Come in first. It's very cold outside."
Anika ushered the man in and sat on the only chair in the living room while she went to the kitchen and prepared the food. Since the kitchen and living room were so close together, it was easy for them to notice each other. Or maybe it's just for the guy, because Anika can't see.
The man's eyes wandered to the furniture around him. Hardly any items are present just for decoration. All the things this girl has must have their respective uses. And almost everything is uneven in terms of colour. Shows with certainty that the owner truly can't tell the difference between one colour and another. Out of curiosity, the man peeked at how Anika cooked.
He asked in surprise, "How do you tell the difference between salt and sugar?"
"From the smell. But by the way, I don't have enough money to buy salt and sugar, so I just use mushroom broth for every one of my dishes. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, not at all."
"So, is it true that I may come up with a nickname for you?"
The man answered without hesitation, "Yes." His voice sounded like someone in his mid-20s who was deep and quite gentle.
Anika scratched her itchy calf with the tip of her toe inside the long skirt she was wearing. While thinking, she stirred her mushroom soup with a wooden knife she had carved herself. The shape is quite chaotic but doesn't detract from its usefulness. "Uh, since you showed up in winter, may I call you Winter?"
"You may." Winter, as he was called from now on, answered without any hesitation.
"Winter, it's cool tho." For some reason, Anika was happy with this nickname. She kept repeating it several times to get used to it.
The two of them chatted about trivial things until the food was ready. Winter sat with anticipation in the single seat with his bowl of food still steaming hot. As he lifted his spoon and was about to eat, he remembered something. "...Sorry, I used the chair..."
"Oh, no problem." Anika who stood up instantly laughed crisply while shaking her hands here and there.
"Let's sit on the floor together." Winter then carried his bowl of mushroom soup to the floor without waiting for the host's response.
"No need to hesitate, you—"
"I've been sitting on the floor." Winter patted the rough floor in front of him to voice his position to the girl.
Anika sighed resignedly in amusement. She then came before Winter without any trouble and sat down politely in front of the man. She said, "Eat now."
"It tastes good. You're a good cook."
Anika smiled, "Of course! Come here if you're not busy. I can cook a variety of dishes for you."
Winter took his soup into his mouth, chewed eight bites before swallowing, and then asked, "You live alone?"
"Yes."
"You're not lonely?"
"I am lonely. "
Winter nodded. Realizing that his interlocutor couldn't see, he answered with a mumble while unable to stop eating. "Mmmm..." that's why she let the kids in the village make her a joke, Winter thought. After swallowing his food, Winter actively asked once again, "Tell me about your daily life, I'm curious."
Anika raised her eyebrows high, also curious about this man's reason. "Huh? What made you curious?"
Winter chewed on his mushroom and replied, "I've only seen you in the woods so far. I was wondering if you went elsewhere too."
"Oh" Anika plays the link of her hands on her lap. She chuckled. Her face facing the window gave off a light that was brighter than the winter sun. She continued, "Yes. Sometimes rich people from downtown would take me to help them assess fragrances. I would go to places that I would never have imagined before. I also made a lot of money from them."
"Oh, so looking for mushrooms is just a hobby?"
Anika laughed shyly while scratching her cheek "Hehehe. I'm lonely at home."
"Hmm. I can feel it too if I have to stay at home alone." Winter twirled the wooden spoon in his hand while tilting his head, trying to dig up some memories from his past. He also told a little about it, "In my old house it was so crowded that we wouldn't instantly know if someone was missing." At the end of his sentence, he gave a small laugh full of amusement.
Anika is shocked to hear that. This person can't remember his very name but can remember the condition of his house in the past. Is that possible to happen?
She asked, "Didn't you lose your memory?"
Winter sneered, "I never said I lost my memory. I didn't really have a name in the first place."
"...You don't have a name?"
"Yes. We don't all have names. We call each other by serial numbers." Winter answered lightly as if it was the most normal type of chat anyone could have.
The winter wind blew bringing the minuscule temperature of the outside world through the old, weathered, rickety wood-framed windows. Amid the whistling wind, Anika lost her words. After a long silence, she asked with a hint of horror. "What kind of place gives humans a serial number to call?"
Winter smiled broadly, "That's quite a fun place for me."
"Then why are you here?" Anika asked carefully, afraid that she might accidentally offend him.
"I'm looking for someone."
"Your friend?"
Winter shook his head, then flinched at his bad habit of responding with gestures. He explained, "We're not friends."
"Then family?"
"No. "
"... So what? "
"Hmmm. I don't know either." The mushroom soup in his bowl had been entirely finished. Winter let out a long sigh as he leaned his back against the wall that supported the window behind him. When he looked up, his head would hit the window sill and the hair on the top of his head would be danced by the cold rustle of the wind.
Anika on the other hand, has just met someone who has more bad luck than her. And she felt sympathy for him.