Snow swirled down out of the wintry sky with a quiet majesty.
The snow storm had been going strong for three days and showed no sign of slowing the steady production of its fragile and unique snowflakes that drifted towards Earth in a mad spiral to lay on top or along side their multitude of kith and kin already resting upon the heavily covered ground.
The tall fragrant cedar boughs in the forest, just a few hundred feet from the two story log cabin that lay nestled in a clearing, bore a layer of snow which gave them the festive air of being dressed up and waiting for Christmas. In fact the whole view outside the huge bay window resembled a scene taken from a old fashioned Christmas card. Fir, pine, hemlock and spruce each were covered with snow and looked just as Christmas-y as the cedar.
The sound of a snowfall is just beyond the human ability to hear. We sense there is a sound that we’re missing , which is why we view a snowfall as a reverent and magical occasion. Especially when it happens near Christmas.
The lone occupant of the log cabin, however, was not in the holiday mood.
She sat upon the soft pillows that cushioned the window seat in the bay window and stared unseeingly out of it as tears streaming down her pale cheeks. Despair and Pain were her only companions now. Joy and Gladness had not come around to see her for quite some time. She didn’t see the beauty in the snow; instead she saw Winter - dark, cold and empty of the flowers and hope of spring.
Chapter 2
Thanksgiving has passed by a week ago. She had not celebrated it in her traditional style. She didn’t even watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which she usually watched faithfully each year as it kicked off the Christmas season with Santa and his sleigh riding down the street at the parades end. That part of the parade was her favorite part. Christmas had always been her favorite holiday. Not this year.
This year she didn’t want to be reminded of the toys that would have been eagerly anticipated as they waited so coy and mysterious in their bright and colorful wrappings under the tree. She didn’t want to be reminded of all the trees that she and Jim had dressed up in Christmas finery over there in that perfect corner, right by the fireplace. She didn’t want to be reminded that she would be alone at Christmas, just as she had been alone at Thanksgiving.
In October, when the moon has flown high in the sky and the air smelled of wood fires, ghosts, witches and Halloween candied apples - after a festive Halloween party at her youngest daughter’s elementary school - her life changed in a blink of a drunken driver’s eye.
She had woken up in the hospital to find herself covered with bandages and surrounded by nurses. The nurses had summoned her doctor, who kindly, gently and sympathetically informed her that Jim and their two little girls, Kimberly and Katherine, had been killed in the automobile accident that had placed her in the hospital.
Her life had been a nightmare from that moment on. She couldn’t sleep, she wasn’t eating and lately the snow was starting to look as a way to escape the nightmare. How simple it would be to walk out into the snow and allow the cold to surround her with its deadly, yet welcome, embrace . How peaceful it sounded to her. What could possibly be worth living for now?
She stared blindly out into the falling snow as darkness slithered through the trees and stretched its long fingers toward the unlighted log cabin. Soon the sun would slip away and sink beneath the horizon giving darkness complete reign once more.
She welcomed the dark, as it fit her mood, yet dreaded it for she would eventually go upstairs to attempt to sleep in the bed; the bed she had shared with Jim and conceived their children in. She knew that it lay empty, cold and waiting for her right now.
The imagery is outstanding, Silver! Too well described! Its damn hot in Tanzania this time of the year, but reading this, I felt a chill! Too great a write!
You actually made me feel shivers in my spine. I love snow. But there's a lot more than snow in this wonderful creative account. Thank you. Love and peace. Regis
Jerry Lowenstein, an octogenarian and a nice guy, has written a fantastic mystery/ suspense novel that takes place just after WW2 on and near Bikini Atoll. He actually witnessed an atomic bomb test. Can you imagine that?
Snow swirled down out of the wintry sky with a quiet majesty.
