The candy cane was unlike any other that you’ve seen before, and it was even more surprising since it was hidden in a box of the normal red and white kind. It’s a beautiful blue with silver and clear stripes in it that seem to glisten. When you start to eat this holiday treat, it seems colder than normal, and after about fifteen minutes, part of your body seems a lot colder, in fact…it seems to have been turned to ice. The ice lasts for an hour and will not melt nor shatter. It then fades, with warmth finally coming back to the frozen body part. It doesn’t matter if you only take a taste of the wintery treat, the effect is the same no matter how much you ingest! Boy, this will surely stop you from thinking twice before eating strangely colored candy canes!
This time of year, Heather went all out with her coffee creations. The cold made her want more and more extravagant drinks to warm up with by the TV. Her Pinterest boards were, currently, devoted to coffee and hot chocolate drinks, non-alcoholic toddies, ciders, and even teas. Anything, literally anything to drive away the chill of the winter.
Today, however, by special request of her little brother, she was making simple peppermint hot chocolate. And if Maxwell wanted hot chocolate with candy canes, then come hell or high water, that was what he was going to get. And so Heather picked up a box of cheap candy canes from the corner store and headed home, where Max already had the ingredients all lined up on the counter. Of course, boxed hot cocoa wasn’t going to be good enough.
Not that making it this way was too much harder. Cocoa powder and milk in a pan with some extra heavy cream for bulk. Lots of vanilla and a touch of sugar for sweetness. All in all, it took about as long as Swiss Miss, but whatever. She even took the time to sneak a few ice cubes into Max’s mug to cool it off a little.
“Okay, Maxie. Choose a candy cane.”
And of course, Max took his sweet time doing so. He pushed out his lower lip out and pinched his chin between his thumb and index fingers in mock-thought, humming to complete the image.
“C’mon Maxie, they’re all the same.”
“No, they’re not.”
“Yes, they literally are.”
“No, they are not!”
And to prove his point, Max held up the one candy cane that was not like the others. Where the rest were the typical red and white, this one was blue and white. Heather halted in her argument and let her jaw hang open. It was pretty looking, that was for sure.
“So you want that one, Maxie?”
Max hummed again, considering the cane closely.
“No, I want you to have it. It’s pretty like you.”
And just like that, all irritation she’d previously felt for her brother melted away. She took the cane with a smile and waited while Max carefully chose his cane from the box of literally-all-still-the-same canes. By the time he did, however, his chocolate was cool enough that it wasn’t melting the candy cane at all.
“I’ll just eat it,” he said decisively, crunching on the candy instead of sucking.
Heather only laughed and stirred her own cocoa with the blue cane he had allowed her to have. Meanwhile, Max ran to the sofa in the living room and flipped on the TV, flipping purposefully to Netflix and choosing a Christmas movie to watch, even though Christmas was already over.
Heather waited for the candy cane to be totally melted in to drink before she took a sip. She was then unpleasantly surprised to find that her drink had gone ice cold. Surprise then gave way to confusion as she realized that the only way it could possibly get this cold was by being in the fridge. But it hadn’t been.
“Feathers, your feet are cold, stop touching me with them,” Max whined suddenly. Yeah, they were cold. They felt really cold. Heather tucked then up under her rear and hissed at the sudden sensation of ice on her skin.
“Are you okay, Feathers?”
“Yeah, you’re just right… they are cold.”
While Max was watching claymation snowmen singing the blues, Heather snuck a look at one of her feet. Another deeply unpleasant surprise. Her foot looked as though it had been frozen solid. And not like frostbitten but… literally turned to ice.
Heather squeaked and tucked her foot back under her, trying to ignore the look from her brother.
“Hey, Maxie… I’m gunna… grab some socks from my room.”
“Can you get me some sockies, too?”
“Sure thing.”
Hairdryer. Heather needed to try a hairdryer. She found her seldom-used Conair and began pumping it on full blast to try and chase away the ice. No luck. She turned on a heating pad and wrapped it around her foot. Still nothing. Hot water, those hand warming packets, nothing worked. Finally, she just shoved on two pairs of thick wool socks and tried to ignore the cold.
Maybe it would just fade away…
Lucky for her it did. By the time the movie was done, her foot had… thawed? Not that she was eager to take off her socks at all… maybe sleeping with them would be good insurance to keep the ice away for good.
