The snow was flying outside and there was already a lot of it on the ground. Children were building snowmen, playing snowball, skating, making angels in the snow. Kaško was flying among the flakes and enjoying the noise, joy, happiness. Children need to play. If children don't play, they don't learn anything. Kaško's great-great-grandfather, Jan Amos, knew this well, and even before him Kaško's greatest great-great-grandfather, Leonardo, knew it to.. So Kaško thought that today was the time when he should get his friends to play with him and make their heads spin.
He flew to the window, but it was dark in Maxík and Majka's room.
"Just where can they be?" Kaško wondered.
He scratched his stuffy head and suddenly heard a familiar laugh.
"Only Majka laughs like that. That's not a laugh, that's a small bell ringing." And he was already flying after that ringing laugh.
The hill behind the houses and blocks was full of kids sledding. Some had left their sleds at home, so they put plastic bags under their butts and just slid around on them. Others were trying to learn how to stand on small skis and bounce with sticks.
Kaško saw Majka and Maxík on pale blue sleds with backs and whizzed down the hill. Before they knew it, he was flying by their sledges.
"Kaškoooooooo, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to play with you, but you weren't home."
"Do you want to join us sledding?" Maxík asked.
"Well, you know…," Kaško said cautiously.
"Maxík, you’ve forgotten," Majka interrupted him, "we're going on the ice in a minute."
"Oh, yes!"
"I'll figure skate with the girls, and you are to play hockey with the boys," Majka performed a little pirouette without skates.
"I've completely forgotten about it," Maxík laughed, "would you like to join us?" He turned to Kaško.
"But I don't know how to skate, Kaško blurted out and sat on the sledge that Maxík was already pulling up the hill.
"What?" Maxík stopped and almost fell down the hill.
"I thought you knew everything," Majka said.
"Well, yes. Almost everything," Kaško corrected her, "and skating is in that almost."
"Majka, I don't think we're going out with our friends today, but only with one friend," Maxík smiled at his sister.
"And we'll teach him how to skate," they both pulled the sledge with Kaško uphill, "you hockey-skating and me figure-skating."
"You'd actually do that for me?" Kaško couldn't believe.
"After all, you're our best friend," the siblings said as one man.
"Great, then you go home and get your skates and I.... and I...... and where do I get my skates?" Kaško wondered.
Maxík and Majka were already running home and didn't hear his last words.
Kaško climbed a sad willow tree, sat on a branch while swinging and thinking. He was also thinking about a ghost ice rink.
There are many lakes, ponds, and bodies of water of various sizes in the land of Haravara. And on one of them, on the Turzovské Jazero (Turzov Lake), near the town of Gelnica, there is a ghost hockey championship taking place every year. When the lake freezes over, it's the best ice rink in the world.
There once used to be an old castle right next to the pond. Now there are ruins, but his old friend Balthazar still lives there. He used to be a master skater.
"He'll definitely have some leftover skates."
As soon as he figured it out, Maxík and Majka were already there. Kaško took them behind the willow tree, where he had hatched an amazing plan a while ago,
"We're going to Gelnica."
"Where?" the children didn't understand, "we thought you wanted to learn to skate!"
" I still do," he tapped their frost-bitten foreheads with his little finger, "and that's why we're going to Gelnica to my cousin's, to get the skates and then to our ghostly ice rink."
"Hmmmmm," the children murmured, not resisting at all, for they suspected a fantastic adventure.
Soon they were sitting on the bus to Gelnica. They were there in a little while.
They climbed a small hill above the town, where the ruins of an old castle could be seen.
"You see, there used to be an old castle here," Kaško pointed to the snow-covered piles of stones, "there was a kitchen here, there was a corridor full of paintings here, and here..."
Something whistled through the air and Kaško was hit squarely in the right shoulder.
"What was that?" Majka got scared.
Kaško looked around in surprise at first, but after a moment he smiled and shouted:
"Balthazar, you may come out, I know it's you."
Kaško's friend Balthazar appeared From behind one of the stones. The most smiling ghost Maxík and Majka had ever seen.
"I couldn't believe my own eight-hundred-year-old eyes that it was you, Kaško," Balthazar cried happily, and he and Kaško were hugging each other right away.
"I immediately knew that only one ghost would go to the trouble of making a ghostly snowball and throwing it at me. You, Balthazar."
Balthazar smiled at the children standing next to Kaško:
"But you don't look like you are ghostly kids, are you?"
"Nor are they."
"What?", Balthazar lost his smile for a moment.
"They are ordinary kids; they just can see us." Kaško explained briefly.
"Interesting," murmured Balthazar, and again a broad smile appeared on his face. "What are you doing here, anyway?"
"You won't believe me, but I came here to learn how to skate," Kaško revealed the truth.
"Finally!" Balthazar shouted triumphantly. "Did you persuade him?"
The children nodded.
"You have my infinite admiration," Balthazar bowed to them, smiling, "I have been trying this for more than four hundred years and he has been steadfast."
"Well, don't exaggerate," Kaško tried to defend himself.
"And what do you need from me?"
"I don't have any skates, so I thought you might have some," Kaško continued pleadingly.
"Come on, skaters," Balthazar pointed to one of the stones and moved towards it. "But I see you do have skates."
"Sure," Majka confirmed, "I really like skating. I am even trying to figure-skate a little."
"Fantastic, fantastic," Balthazar exclaimed, and his smile stretched even further to the edge of his face, even though it seemed impossible to the children. "And you?"
"I like playing hockey," Maxík boasted.
"Well, you're going to come into your own today," Balthazar enthusiastically cooed. "This way."
He showed them a hole in the ground by the wall.
"This was once a huge castle. It defended the whole city. Then it was conquered in a war," Balthazar laughed. "See that town hall building down there in town? And that old school building over there, and those buildings?"
The children and Kaško just nodded.
"So, they built all those buildings with stones from this castle. That's how the castle lives on," Balthazar comforted himself when they were already in one of the passages under the castle.
"My ancestors built many underground passages here. Some were for defence, some for escape, some for wine," he laughed at the whole castle.
"Now that's something you just don't see, I can see why you said I was going to have fun today," Maxík stammered.
"No, nothing like that compares to it," Majka confirmed.
"So, you're still doing it?" Kaško asked and walked with Maxík and Majka into a room full of skates of different sizes, hockey sticks for left- and right-handed skaters, helmets with funny ear grips. There were about 30 baskets on the floor and an incredible number of pucks of different colours, but no black ones.
"You don't play with black pucks?" Maxík looked at the red, purple, yellow, light green, and iridescent pucks in surprise.
"Who would see those black pucks? After all, we play mostly at night. On white ice, but still at night. It's more fun this way," Balthazar winked and walked over to his skates.
"Come on, which one shall we pick for you, my friend?"
Kaško looked around, glanced back, and pointed his finger at the red and yellow and turquoise skates with a picture of a runaway horse on the side.
"I like these, and they might fit me well," he took them off the shelf.
"And why do you have so many skates, hockey sticks and pucks here," Majka didn't understand, "do you collect them?"
"Oh, no," Balthazar chimed in, "I'm organising the Haravara Hockey Championship here."
"It's a big celebration," confirmed Kaško Baltazar's words and put on his second skate.
"A huge one," Balthazar spread his hands, "and it will be this very afternoon."
"What?" Kaško was scared, "but then I can't do any training."
"You just have practice now and play with us tonight."
"Don't give up, Kaško," Maxík encouraged Kaško.
"You'll be fine," Majka grabbed his trembling hand.
"Well, if you think so, too, I'll give it a try," Kaško decided, stood on his skates, and fell on the ground.
"And we're not even on the ice yet," he groaned.
Balthazar led him out of the castle. The children followed them out. The ghosts took the children by the hand, and they were already flying away. In a little while, the lake appeared below them. It was all frozen over. There were already lines drawn on it, with gates at the edges and around the grandstands reaching up to the treetops.
"Turzovské Jazero lake," Balthazar said when they landed down. Kaško started to shiver once again.
"Don't worry, Kaško, we'll be here with you," Maxík reassured his friend and put on his skates together with Majka.
"I'm a bit scared, restless, and I'm getting short of breath," Kaško said in a strange voice, "so many ghosts are coming here, and I'm supposed to play?"
"Only one thing will help here," said the smiling Balthazar firmly. He snapped, and a fire was already burning on the ground, with a small metal teapot on top of it. Balthazar picked it up, made a small hole at the edge of the lake and scooped up the water. By the time he returned, the hole had begun to turn to solid ice.
"What are you doing?" Majka asked curiously.
"This wasn't just any lake," Balthazar put the teapot on fire.
"And what was that? A miracle lake?" Maxík pulled back a little from the lake.
"This was a famous spa," Balthazar continued, putting some needles into the teapot, "this is how they treated breathing problems and people who were very, very nervous," he laughed broadly and poured the tea into the mug. He handed it to Kaško.
He took a drink. One sip, then another, and he ultimately drank the whole cup.
As soon as he finished it, a smile like Balthazar's spread on his face.
"I suppose you come here often for tea?" Maxík asked cheerfully.
"Not just for a cup of tea, but also to swim and to drink good water. And if you tasted coffee from this water… it’s so delicious," Balthazar gushed.
"I can already manage it!"
They turned towards the lake and there Kaško clumsily tried to skate. He was not very good at it, but he was very happy that he had been skating for five minutes and had not fallen on his ghostly ass yet.
"Wait, we'll help you a bit," Balthazar winked at Maxík and pointed to the bag he'd brought.
Maxík opened it. There were three hockey sticks and several coloured pucks.
They chose hockey sticks and a beige puck. They gave one stick to Kaško. He had it more as a crutch, but he managed to hit the puck and the net a few times.
And since it was a ghostly ice rink, there were no boards around, but a spell that returned all the pucks that wanted to jump to the shore, back to the ice. Both Maxík and Majka liked that very much.
The boys were playing hockey and trying to teach Kaško how to skate.
During that time Majka found a place behind the goal nets and tried various pirouettes, jumps, and all sorts of skate dance creations.
"Look, guys!" shouted Majka, and performed a beautiful jump with a small turn.
"Beautiful, fabulous, unreal," the boys shouted and clapped.
"And look at me," Kaško shouted, skating with his stick against the net, and hit! There it was. Kaško's first goal.
"Gooooooaaal. I knew you would do it," Balthazar was dancing happily on his skates.
"I'm proud of you, buddy," Maxík tapped his stick on the ice. That's how real hockey players clap when someone manages to make a play or score a goal.
"It is not good enough for playing in the game, but tomorrow we can skate together," said Kaško.
"Exactly," Majka smiled, "and I can start teaching you how to figure skate."
They were playing and skating for a while when the first guests started to be arriving.
Ghosts, young and old, occupied all the seats in the stands. Even the animals came out of the forest. The bear even had a big cheerleading glove, which a tourist lost when he saw it.
Suddenly, two teams of ghosts in strange jerseys ran onto the ice. Each player had a different colour jersey, without a number but each with a different picture.
"Please, Balthazar, how do you know who's playing who?" Maxík didn't understand.
"But it's clear. One team has pictures painted on their jerseys in warm colours and the other in cold colours," Balthazar fumed, "can't you see that?"
Balthazar introduced Maxík and Majka at the beginning of the match as people who see them and like them and will never give away their secrets. All the ghosts just nodded that they were happy and allowed Maxík and Majka to play and sing the ghost anthem that Kaško had taught them at the beginning of the match.
It was an incredible experience. Maxík was probably crying with happiness for the first time during the applause and Majka, who was singing on skates, was slowly going back and forth while singing and at the end she showed some of her wonderful jumps.
And then the game was on. The ghosts were cheering, whistling, shouting, and the children were sitting with Kaško.
"I'm terribly proud of you," whispered Kaško in their ears.
At home, Maxík hung two flags of hockey teams above his bed and Majka got a diploma for the most beautifully performed figure skating jump at the ghost hockey game. Balthazar gave it to her when leaving.
Kaško just thought:
"I don't have to be on the best team and want to beat everybody. The main thing is to enjoy what I'm doing."
He sipped the tea from the Turzovské Jazero lake that Balthazar had given him in a thermos flask, smiled broadly, and skated away down the frozen street.
