Breadcrumbs

The narrator turns their attention to Jack, describing events from his point of view. After the shard of the enchanted mirror lands in his eye during recess, he’s loaded into an ambulance and taken to the emergency room. The fragment moves from his eye to his heart, and it no longer pains him. Instead, Jack is filled with an energy and enthusiasm that he’s never experienced before. He becomes fascinated with snow and develops an instinctive knowledge of math. He longs to be playing outside in the snow, and he passes his time cooped up in class by calculating baseball statistics in his head. The people and objects around Jack begin to appear increasingly flawed to him. He shakes his head at his mother’s worn clothes and untidy hair and thinks that his sled looks “beat up and flimsy” (92).

Jack arranges to go sledding with a group of boys on a steep hill, but no one else is there when he arrives. He yearns to fly, so he sleds down the hill headfirst even though he knows this is dangerous. It begins to snow, and a whirling gust of wind transforms into a beautiful woman wearing a white gown and a white cape.