In the morning, Theo started building a snowman.

"You're a snowman," said Luke. "And you're building a snowman."

"Yes", said Theo.

This struck Luke as very circular. He thought of several comments he could make about it. But he rejected them. Finally, he settled on one. "Is there a reason?"

"I'm seeing if I can make it come alive."

"Ah," said Luke.

After a few minutes of patting and fussing, he had a snowman. With twigs for arms. And two stone eyes. But it just sat there. Theo stood back and pondered.

"It's as big as me," said Luke. "But bigger than you."

"Oh!" said Theo. "I forgot. I get lost in what I'm doing sometimes. I get worn down when I'm moving about." Theo grabbed some snow and patted it into the side of his torso.

"You can DO that?" asked Luke.

"Sure. And after awhile it redistributes itself." Theo was back to Luke's size now.

April examined the snowman. "She looks nice! I'll call her Lydia. Hello Lydia!"

"... heLLOO aaaaprilll ..." croaked Luke, trying to cast his voice.

"You!" scolded April.

Theo poked at Lydia some more. She was just a construction of snow. Finally he pushed her over, and she fell, crumbling into a few large pieces.

"That definitely didn't work," said Theo. "No puff of snow. That was just snowballs being knocked over."

"How big can you get?" Luke asked Theo.

"I don't know," said Theo, "I haven't tested that."

---

April was shuttling back and forth, gathering more snow and packing it onto Theo. Theo was over 3 feet tall now. He'd had to replace his arms with larger ones twice now.

"Are you getting stronger?" asked Luke.

"Sort of. So so," said Theo. "I can pick up bigger stuff. But I'm feeling more sluggish. I felt a lot more nimble when I was smaller." Theo leaned. He reached up nearly 5 feet with one arm and down to the ground with the other. "It feels like work keeping my head on."

"More snow!" said April, packing on more and hustling away for more. Being busy had lifted her spirits considerably.

After an hour, Theo had reached five feet tall.

"You look like you could lift a tree," said Luke.

"I'm having trouble lifting myself," said Theo. "Let me try running."

Theo thudded across the field, slowly, leaving big holes in the snow with each wobble. At the end he tried leaping. His head went up, came down, then his head split in two. Half fell to the ground.

"Theo?"

He did not respond.

April stared. "Is he dead?"

"I don't think so," said Luke. "He didn't explode in a puff of snow. That seems to be an important part of us, that we explode in a puff of snow when we die."

"He's missing an eye," said April.

"I think he's just disabled," said Luke.

They poked through the fallen half of his head. April found the stone for his eye and tried to put it back. "I can't reach." She was only one foot tall and Theo's head was five feet up. She tried putting it on his belly. That didn't seem to help.

"Wait, I know this one," said Luke. He looked around. "You need a longer arm. Take out one of your arms, and put that long thin branch in its place."

April did this. The new branch was four feet long, way out of proportion to her one foot body. "This is freaky," she said, leaning way back to try to lift the new arm. She lifted it and it dropped and fell out. She stuck it in further, tried again, then maintained control this time.

"Now the eye," said Luke.

April carefully picked up the eye with her new arm. She awkwardly maneuvered it into the air and managed to place it in the middle of the remaining half of Theo's head.

Theo's head turned. "Oh. I feel very odd," said Theo.

"That's probably too big," said Luke.

"I agree," said Theo, turning his head again. "Oh man. I feel dizzy. Perspective." He took out his eye and placed it back on the front of his head. "That's better." He sat. Both eyes were on the same side of his face now. "One to two feet tall seems ideal. Smaller is too wispy. Bigger is heavier than it's worth."

"That was fun," said April.

Theo started digging snow out of his side. On a whim he made another snowman of it. With arms and eyes. It just sat there. "Still no good," he said. He knocked it over.

"It's good to know what our limits are," said Luke. "There's only the three of us."

"Four. There's Sylvia too," said Theo.

"Sylvia?" "What?"

"You probably haven't met her. I don't know if I have even, properly. Sylvia is just what I call her. She hides in the forest behind trees and doesn't say anything."

Luke laughed. "How do you know you're not just making her up?" he asked.

"She leaves tracks. Or at least, she used to. I haven't seen any trace of her so far today. She keeps herself small."

"Maybe she died?"

"Maybe she got better at not leaving tracks. We're all learning to be better at being who we are," said Theo.

April looked out to the forest.