Free Winter's Torment by Katie Wyatt

Scene 1
    Winter Lindstrom blinked back tears that threatened to spill as she watched the toddler play on his mother’s lap. The child and his mother sat a few seats ahead of Winter inside the train car, slowly chugging its way across the Kansas plains toward her destination of Dodge City.
    She had already come so far that it felt as if she could separate her life into two different parts; before, where she had stepped on the train in Bangor, Maine, making multiple connections, waiting in endless stations on her journey westward to meet and marry a literal stranger, and after.
    Heartbreak and grief had propelled Winter onto this path, the only one open to her now. Try as she might however, she couldn’t put the past completely behind her. Every time she saw a toddler she saw her own bright little Andrew, his white-blond hair so much like hers, his ice blue eyes, and that wonderful smile that still made her heart melt with love for him.
    It had all ended on a frosty winter’s day. She and her husband Gunter and their little boy had been on their way to church when the buggy had slid on the icy road and toppled. Even though Winter had tried to protect her son, clutching him close, she had failed. The force of the fall had ripped her small son out of her arms. They had all been tossed out of the buggy. Her husband had escaped with a few bumps, bruises, and cuts, and Winter had suffered a broken arm. It was little Andrew who had been dealt the cruelest blow; one that had broken his neck and ended his life in an instant.
    Every time Winter thought of her two-year-old boy her heart broke all over again. To make matters worse, her husband had blamed her for his son’s death. She should’ve held on tighter, somehow protected him, even though it was Gunter who had been urging the horse faster because they were late for church. Naturally, that was her fault too. She had taken too long to get ready, and, not wishing to arrive at church services late, her husband had taken chances he might not have otherwise.
    At any rate, following the funeral, with Winter’s heart crushed, Gunter had slowly yet inexorably pulled away from her. She knew he continued to blame her for their little boy’s death, although she, and everyone else in town, knew it had been nothing more than a tragic accident. Nevertheless, deep inside she blamed herself as well, although rationally she knew that her son’s fate had been out of her hands. She hadn’t been able to go to church since the accident.
    Every week, every month that passed, brought renewed tension and anxiety between the couple. By spring, her husband had grown increasingly withdrawn and angry. He disappeared at times. Sometimes it was overnight, sometimes it was for days on end. What he did during that time she didn’t know. Gradually, she grew to stop caring as well. He wasn’t a nice man anymore. He barely spoke to her, and when he did, the things he said were hurtful.
    Then, one day, Gunter had up and told her he was divorcing her. Divorce ! Scandal, shame, and embarrassment had followed. He had left Bangor after the divorce, one of the first in her small neighborhood that had ever been finalized. The look she got from people afterwards had surprised and hurt her. These people had been her friends, but that was before. Before the accident. Before the scandal of a divorce.
    With nothing left to do and nothing to fall back on, Winter had made a hard decision. She had to leave her beloved Maine and try to make a life for herself somewhere else. A distant relative, out of a sense of duty, or so he claimed, had reluctantly given her a little bit of money to travel south to New York City, where she thought she would be able to find work, but the amount of people and the size of the city had frightened her. She realized that she would never make it there. It was then that she saw the advertisement for mail order brides in a local newspaper.
    Amazed and appalled that she would even consider such a