Have you ever had a crazy dream? Well, consider what Chupchip dreamed about on Halloween night.
There was snow everywhere and an icy wind blowing. Chupchip was standing in the front yard wearing only green shorts and a tank top. On his head there was a wreath of dandelions, tulips, daffodils and lilacs. But the frost made the flowers fade, so it looked as if he had long hair of flowers on his head.
Frostlings were rampant around him. They’re the little ghosts that only appear in winter. They make icicles, frost, paint on windows and do all sorts of other mischief. They like to freeze cars and their batteries and then secretly laugh at their owners who can’t start them.
But Chupchip has never seen so many frostlings in one place in his life. Even at the Wraithmoor, they’ve never had so many. And then he noticed who was standing nearby checking on the frostlings making frost and destroying flowers. Chupchip’s sister Toothy Boo! She was dressed in a tattered curtain that billowed in the wind just like her hair.
“Toothy Boo! What are you doing here?” Chupchip called to her.
Toothy Boo smiled, revealing pointed white needle-like teeth that would make any toothy ghost envious.
“I’m not Toothy Boo. I am Morena now, Mrs. Winter, and you better get out of my way. I can’t stand spring here! This cruelly beautiful winter isn’t going to end, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it!”
At that moment Chupchip felt like someone had stuck his foot in the freezer. He looked down and saw a little frostling licking his foot.
“Get out of here!” Chupchip shouted at him, wrenching his leg out of his grasp.
But the little frostling ran toward him again. Fortunately there was a snow rake by the house. Chupchip grabbed it and shoveled the frostlings out of his way. Some stayed on the rake, holding on and spitting the frozen snow at Chupchip. Some just cursed him.
That’s how Chupchip got home. In no time at all, he was frozen to the bone. He walked to the living room and flopped down on the shaggy rug by the fireplace, where the fire warmed him up nicely.
“No one will ever get me out again,” Chupchip promised himself, and slowly he went to sleep. But he was disturbed by the arrival of his mom.
“It’s cold in there,” she wailed, rubbing her cold hands. “It’s so cold that our dog turned into an ice sculpture. Spring seems to be asleep somewhere when it should have been here long ago.”
Chupchip was frightened. Spring was asleep somewhere? And their dog? Frozen?
Before he knew it, someone was banging on the door.
“Who is it, Mom?” Chupchip asked after a while.
“That’s our neighbor, the water goblin. His house is frozen, I told him that he could stay at our place.”
The water goblin came into the room. The icicles were sticking out of his jacket, instead of dripping water. His bare feet were not green but blue with cold, and so were his hands and nose. Instead of a hat, he wore a winter cap.
“I was freezing at home. The ice on the pond is so thick you can’t cut through it. If I’d jumped into the water, as I sometimes do, I’d have a big bump,” he complained. “This cold will destroy all my fish. And spring just sits in some warm place and does nothing.”
Chupchip rolled his eyes. Spring is sitting in the warm place? Why the hell is everybody talking about Spring?
Before he could think any more, Daddy the Ghost came running into the living room. He was holding his pants and looked like he was in pain.
“What happened to you, Daddy?” Chupchip asked, picking himself up off the carpet.
“Do something! You’ve got to get that Morena out somehow! It’s so cold out there, you can’t even pee. Everything turns into an icicle. Ouch!”
It suddenly dawned on Chupchip. He took off his wreath of flowers, which were as beautiful as in spring. He was the Spring! He had to do something.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like going into that winter,” Chupchip said at last.
Everybody started begging him, the water goblin even offered him his cap. In the warmth, even the icicles on his jacket melted, and now he was sitting in a chair in a puddle.
“More ghosts are coming,” he heard his mother’s worried voice.
He looked out the window, but it was frozen. So he looked out into the hallway, where Mummy was standing by the door, inviting the other ghosts of the Wraithmoor to come to their place so they could be safe from the cold.
“Where is Spring when the ghosts needs it?” complained Grandfather. Then he looked at Chupchip, and smiled at him, but instead of teeth he had pointy icicles.
“Spring will save us with his magic and chase the winter away. I believe it,” said Mama.
Then it dawned on Chupchip. Magic? I can cast a spell! Yaaay!
He rolled right out into the cold. Toothy Boo, who was now Morena, stood on a pile of snow and laughed at all the ghosts that didn’t make it to the warmth in time. Some turned into ice statues, others turned into snowmen.
“That’s enough, Morena! Spring is here!” Chupchip shouted.
“How dare you? Don’t you know who I am? I’m the cruel ruler of winter!”
“You’re not a ruler of winter, you’re Toothy Boo. Now watch this.
“Hocus pocus, Morena,
turn into a log of woe.
We’ll carry you from town today,
to greet the spring in bright array!”
Suddenly the wind came around Morena, lifted the snow into the air, whirled it around her, and only the scarecrow on the stick fell to the ground in front of Chupchip. It looked like the scarecrows people put in the fields. And Toothy Boo was left standing on the pile of snow.
“Chupchip, our Spring, you have saved me! And look! The snow is melting,” Toothy Boo pointed.
Indeed. The snow was melting, the icicles too, and the little frostlings were quickly burrowing into cracks and holes in the ground to protect themselves from the sun.
What about Morena?” Chupchip pointed to the scarecrow.
“We’ll take her out of town and burn her. So she can’t hurt us anymore,” said Daddy the Ghost as he grabbed the scarecrow, carrying it up the hill outside of town. The other ghosts followed him. There, together the scarecrows made a pyre and burned the scarecrow. At the same time, everyone rejoiced that they had survived the long winter.
They’ve done it every year since. It’s not just people who believe that fire protects them from ghosts, cold and witches. The ghosts also believe that fire protects them from everything bad, even from people. Because ghosts and humans, they don’t go together. Or do they?