Snow. by Terry Kuder III (electronic book reader .txt) 📕

first started. He even turned the TV. down so as to not disturb her slumber. "What woke you up?" he asked.
"Your stupid laugh." she replied smiling lightly.
"Oh, is that so?" he chuckled.
"Yeah. I mean, how is a woman supposed to sleep when there's some maniac outside making snow angels and laughing as if no one is around?"
"Beats me." He shrugged.
"Well, now I'm awake."
"Looks like it." He grabbed a handful of snow without her seeing, raised his hand above her head, and dropped the ice on her. She didn't attempt to shake the snow out of her hair. She just lowered her eyes in a sort of "Did you really just do that?" manner. He laughed as if to answer, "Why, yes. I believe I just did." He started scampering away from her arms, preparing himself for her retaliation. As he got up, she scooped a handful, packed it, and threw it in his direction. He dodged it, laughing as he did. "Missed!" he yelled as another ball sped towards him. It hit him directly in the face. She pointed and laughed.
"Not that time."
"Come here, you." he said racing after her. She screamed and began running. He grabbed her around the waist, picking her up, and twirling her around as she yelled.
"Let me go, you beast!"
"Beast, eh?" He continued to spin her around until he knew she couldn't take anymore. He slowed down and placed her down lightly standing back to watch as she tried to regain her balance. She fell over in the snow. It exploded into a cloud of flakes around her, gliding downwards. Despite all of the obstacles that were now behind him...here was now. It was this very moment. This moment of tremendous joy, of sanctified peace, of childish antics, and complete freedom.
"That was cheating!" she finally mustered after catching her breath.
"Oh and ambushing me while I was deep in thought wasn't?" he retorted.
"No." she said shyly.
"How so?"
"Because you woke me up and you shouldn't have been thinking in the first place."
"And you shouldn't have woken up a bear in hibernation if you weren't prepared for the consequences."
She thought this idea over. "You're not a bear. Matter of fact, you're far from being a bear. You're more like a....hmmmm....."
"Don't you say it."
"....a...ferret!"
"Why you..." he ran towards her but she was already flinging snow in his direction. One after another hit him in a cloud of puff. Here was now. Here was everything that there had brought him to. Here was having all the obstacles that there had given him behind him. Here was her. He caught up with her as she held a snowball above her head prepared to throw it. She smiled evilly as if to say "I dare you to take a step closer." He just looked down at her feeble self and smiled. She squinted her eyes thinking that he was up to something.
"Why'd you stop?" she asked.
"I was just thinking...." he started just as he was hit with the snowball.
"What did I tell you about that?" she laughed.
He didn't wipe the snow off, he didn't go after her. He just stood there and started laughing. Here was everything that he dreamed. Everything that he had written about in stories, but only expected them to stay on the pages that he wrote. Here was the dreams that he had. The dreams that he knew were only nightmares because they were never real. The dreams of having someone such as her, playful, cheerful, and full of life. He looked behind her and saw the snow capped mountains as the sun shined brightly on them painting them with an orange tint. A snowflake descended and landed on his nose. He was almost surprised by it considering that the sun was still out. He looked up and saw the clouds closing back, preparing the earth for another bombardment. He could almost feel the land tense up beneath his feet. Then another snowflake came down and another and another. One after the other they glided down like men in parachutes. He stared down at her now wondering what her thoughts were. She just looked up watching the snow come down as well. She watched one glide down in front of him but stopped her stare when it went pass his face.
"Hey there." she smiled shyly again.
"Hey." he returned the smile.
She got up, grabbed his hand, and started pulling. "I want to show you something. Come with me." He nearly hesitated, but finally let her tug at him. She took him to the edge of the woods where she let go of his hand. He followed naturally watching her run ahead a little bit. The snow danced around her lightly as she twirled around causing disturbances in their gliding patterns. Everything had become brighter despite the gray clouds that hovered above. Was this the cause of her presence alone? He wouldn't doubt it. He noticed how much his countenance had improved when she arrived. It was as if she had a certain charm to the way nature reacted. He watched silently as she danced thinking about how beautiful she was. How her auburn hair fell down, how her lips parted, how her eyes glistened a bright sparkling blue, how her face beamed when she smiled. All of this was perfect in every aspect of her. She stared back at him, piercing through his soul, uncovering all of his thoughts, all of his dreams. With just a single stare, he was lost. He followed the footsteps she had engraved in the snow, wondering where she was taking him, wondering how she had this trance over him. She disappeared into the thickets of the pines just beyond his view.
"Where are you taking me?" he asked. She didn't respond. He could hear her humming a tune. It seemed to be off in the distance, fading almost. In the background he heard a truck pull up. "Hey, I'll be right back, ok?" he said. He didn't hear a response and he didn't wait for one. He figure she would wait for him, hiding herself among the leaves, waiting to attack him when he returned. He ran up to the house and saw Emily emerge from her truck. Emily was a good friend of his, always stopping by to see how he was doing. They had been the best of friends for a little over ten years. He could hardly believe that she had driven through the thick snow in order to visit him today.
"Hey, Em!" he hollered from across the yard.
"Hey! What are you doing out here?"
"Oh, I just playing around in the snow."
"I see that." she raised an eyebrow at him. "You want to help me with these groceries?" she asked after a short moment.
"Oh, sure. You know, you don't have to keep buying me food. I can get my own." he said grabbing a bag from the bed of the truck.
"Really, it's no problem." She looked at him strangely. They reached the kitchen and she laid the bags on the table. "Dear...just out of curiosity, was there anyone else you were playing with a minute ago?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Who was it?"
"Come on, Em. You know who."
"Was it her?"
"Yeah." he said smoothly. "Is there a problem?"
Time seem to have stood still. She couldn't believe what she was hearing again. She sighed, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and started to talk. He began putting up the groceries in the cabinets.
"Dear....you....you know she's not real, right?"
He paused and turned slightly. "Excuse me?" He said incredulously.
"She's...she's not real....she's" she mustered up the courage to say the next two words with a lump in her throat. "...she's....gone."
"Wha....H...how could you say something like that?" His back was towards her. He looked down at the ground, clinching his fists. The phrase hit him hard. The tears began to swell. He was prepared for the next statement knowing that whatever were to come out of his best friend's mouth would be inevitably true.
"We've been through this so many times now. She's been gone for the last five years. You've been imagining her again, haven't you?"
"No. She....sh...she was here. I was playing with her. In the snow. Right out there in the lawn." He pointed as if the gesture would make her understand. "We...we...were right there. You can go look. There's two sets of footprints out there. There's....there is mine....and then....and then there’s hers. They're out there. Go look!" The tears were coming down now, flooding his cheeks, not leaving a single area untouched of their dampness. "Come!" He grabbed Emily's hand and pulled her outside. He began calling out her name as he walked down the steps. He yelled and hollered, but no reply was returned. He drug Emily to where he and her were playing, looked down, and only saw what he had done. There was only one set of footprints there. Only his. He ran into the forest where she had taken him, moving branches out of the way in order to find some sort of remains of her existence. The only things within the forest were his footprints and those had stopped where he had heard Emily pulled up. Beyond that there was nothing.
"Oh, sweetheart." Emily started. She took a deep breath. "I know it's been hard for you to handle, but you'll get through this." She wrapped her arms around him and began guiding him back to the house. "You see, it's been hard for you to handle and so, lately, you have been conjuring her up in your mind. You think she's around when she's not and I know....I know you can get through this. I believe in you." She took him up the stairs and back into the house, sitting him down at the table. He slumped over in the chair, hanging his head down. After a couple of moments Emily broke the silence. "Are you alright, dear?"
He looked up at her, with the tears coming down his face, leaking uncontrollably. His lower lip quivered, and mucus was running down his nose. "Whe....where...is she?" He blubbered. "Where did....did she go?" he sniffled "and why...why did she leave me?" The tears continued and wouldn't stop. This happened every time. It was the reason why Emily had to buy his groceries. He couldn't be trusted outside with the general public. Not if he was imagining people who weren't there. What were to happen if people caught him talking to himself? They would have locked him up and thrown away the key if he introduced them to her. That was something that she couldn't allow. So, for four years now, she had been living with him, making sure that he stayed contained in the house. At times, he was aware that his sanity had slipped, but other times he refused to believe it.