The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

“I think California’s usually in a draught though, because I think we get most of our water from like… not California. I heard about a lawsuit between the US and Canada because Canada didn’t want to send California all the water we asked for.” Tod pointed out with a shrug. “Is that actually a thing that happens? You melt?” He asked, shocked at the idea.

“Oh really? I’ve never heard of that. How strange that they don’t use the water they could purify from the sea...you’d think that would be more convenient,” Elsa mused, but then laughed at his question. “Oh no...that’d be horrifying though, imagine melting.”

“You’re not old. Because if you’re old, I’m ancient. You’re just old-fashioned. Who’s your go-to when you need a pick-me-up song?”

“We’re both old, real old. I suppose my go to is Queen. You can’t beat Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“You know, from a professional standpoint, I think a lot of it is just in your head. I think you’ve got a lot more control on it than you think and your fear of mucking up is what’s keeping you from reaching your full potential.” She paused a beat. “And having fun with it.”

“Oh I know a lot of it is in my head...but I just can’t help myself. I have some sound reasons to be afraid of myself, even though I’m getting better at it.”

“I wouldn’t say New York got super warm, definitely not as bad as here but I mean, it got really cold. Like there were so many snow days in school that my mom had to start teaching me from home some of the materials because otherwise I wouldn’t have learned them.”

“The heat here is awful...it’s no wonder they’re in a terrible draught here. Hopefully it’ll cool off, I’m starting to melt like an icicle. I don’t know how many snow days public schools had in Norway, but they were used to the conditions so perhaps it wasn’t many.”

“So you’re Elsa.” She said, primarily to herself. Tink couldn’t help feel a little embarrassed at the whole situation. Of course this is how she would meet one of her supervisors, of fucking course. “I’m the new assistant general manager and I got a list of all my higher ups. It’s nice to meet you and finally put a face to the name.”

Elsa blinked a little hearing that Tina knew her name, but her explanation made a little more sense. “Oh, well it’s nice to meet you! I’m not really that important in the whole running of things...I just make sure that the fjords are fine.”

Tod hadn’t ever not been happy with his situation, to be honest. Not since he was a kid. Sure, he occasionally still had nightmares from the night his mother was killed, he didn’t dwell on them. “I’m from New York so it’s not that bad there, but it’s not cold all the time like I imagine Norway is.”

“Norway got warm in the summer, but not as warm as here. But the winters were certainly far more brutal than they would ever be here...not that it bothered me of course. I’ve only ever been to New York once.”

“Maybe, I can’t picture myself like that right now though. I’m happy with my little apartment.” With all his friends, and all the painting he could ever imagine. “We should stop talking about warm things before I burn alive, this sun has been killing me.” He admitted, leaning against the pool edge.

“I’m much the same,” she agreed quietly, though she couldn’t help but wish things were better with her sister. How could she be really happy if her sister wasn’t speaking to her? “It is vile here...far hotter than anywhere else I’ve lived.”

“Oh… Well I guess thats good than.”  Tink looked the woman up and down, the likelihood of it all sounded very fishy to her. But she couldn’t simply be rude to this person for no reason, or at least not right off the bat she couldn’t. “Uh, sorry. Busy day as you know. I’m Tina, who are you?” 

Elsa realised from the way the girl was eying her up that she didn’t really believe her story, but it was the truth. After all, what reason would she have for following her around? “My name is Elsa, I’m the manager of the Fjords here. Nice to meet you, Tina.”

“Yeah exactly, so we had the fake one. It wasn’t that bad though, it was still warm and all that.” Tod explained with a shrug. It wasn’t a big deal to not have a real fireplace growing up, that had always been the least of his worries, with all the trouble he got himself into. “That sounds so amazing, being able to create something so beautiful. You two must love it.”

“Maybe one day when you get a house and you’re all settled down, maybe then you can have a real one. I love fireplaces,” she grinned. “Yeah...it has it’s ups and it’s downs, and learning to control such a volatile element was tough...but I’m getting there.”

It wasn’t uncommon to find Tink zipping around from task to task, or in one trailer and out the next. On the contrary was a figure that seemed to be fixed in the corner of her eye. She had noticed it, or them, all day. Finally she had had enough of this game, Tink stopped dead in her tracts and turned around to face whome ever, “Is there something I can help you with?”

Elsa had happened to notice that all her tasks that day that weren’t in the fjords tended to coincide with another figure that she couldn’t really place. At first she’d thought they were a customer, but she’d since realised she must be a new staff member. When she finally turned to address her, Elsa shook her head. “No...it seems all our tasks coincided today, I’m not following you honestly.”

“That’d be amazing yeah. I wish ours had been real but apartments don’t let you do that very well, unless everyone were to have a huge communal fireplace and I don’t think that’d work all that well.” Tod explained, blinking at what she said. “I don’t think it’s gonna snow here, unless you make it happen… Who’s Jack?” He was honestly curious.

“A huge communal fireplace would take away the charm of it all, I think. We had a big fireplace at home in Norway, it was lovely to just sit around in winter,” she smiled fondly, remembering it all. “Oh we can do that, don’t you worry. Jack is my colleague...he’s like me, he can create snow.”

“You’re right there, he voice is annoying, but I mean, Roar is like the next Eye of the Tiger. They’re great pump-up songs.”

“It doesn’t really get me pumped at all...so I have to disagree. Nothing will ever beat Eye of the Tiger. Call me old.”

“Well I’m glad you’re still able to enjoy that kind of thing. I mean my place actually had a fake fireplace because it was an apartment but… still, it was nice to have.” Tod explained. “There wasn’t really an area to play in the snow in either, unless you wanted to go to the park and that was a few blocks away.”

“I think the fireplace in my cabin right now is real...it’d be amazing if it was, that’d really complete the feel. I mean I’d have to go cut down some trees, but still,” she grinned. “Oh don’t worry....when the snow hits here, there’ll be plenty of places to play. And I’m sure Jack will be running round with snowballs encouraging play.”

“Like it or not, Katy Perry has some damn good songs. Like, you can’t tell me Last Friday Night doesn’t get you itching to dance. If you say you don’t like that song, you are a liar and I hate you.”

“I’d like to argue otherwise. I just don’t think she sings that well.”

“That’s so lucky, I wish mine did that. Then again though I don’t, it’s really nice in the winter to just grab a blanket when you’re cold and just slowly warm up in front of a fire.”

“Oh I still love curling up in front of a fire with some hot chocolate and a book. It’s the best way to spend the winter days...when I’m not out in the snow enjoying myself, of course.”

“Wouldn’t you get super warm then? You’d think they could just like… see that you’re not cold. What’s it even like in Norway like in the summer and stuff?”

“I don’t really get super warm. I guess my body is just a nice temperature all the time. It’s the same as any other summer really, though not as hot as here.”

“Oh, god, I’m horrible in the cold.” Tod admitted. “I need, like, two hoodies and a winter coat. But that was New York not here.”

“I used to wear a coat when I was back home in Norway, but I didn’t really need it. It was more for show, so that my parents didn’t get berated for sending a child outside in the snow in just her shirt and shorts.”