Snow Magic
Saying goodnight to Samuel and Elizabeth was like letting out a last breath of air. The silence that fell had a hint of loneliness to it. The sisters went back into the kitchen, looked at the destruction they had wrought to Cook’s kitchen and sighed in unison. “That’s only the half of it, Em. We’ve got all the dishes in the dumbwaiter from upstairs.” Dez paused, ran her fingers through her hair and said. “Weren’t we going to clean up as we went so we wouldn’t have all this to do?” Em put the kettle for tea. “That was the plan, Dez. We got a start by loading the dishwasher before supper, but we were having too much fun upstairs. Who did win that game of Monopoly? It sounded pretty rowdy!” With a clean dishcloth, Em was washing the stove top and cupboards. She stopped, leaned on the counter and looked around at her sister. “Where are Jeremy and Matt? It’s awfully quiet up there.” As if they had heard her calling their names, the two men burst in the back door, stomping their feet and laughing. “Girls! Come quick! It’s snowing!” Snow on Vancouver Island wasn’t all that unusual in December. It never lasted long and so was treated as the most exciting event of the year. Dez and Em stopped what they were doing, looked at each other. The dishcloths they were using were wrung out and hung on the sink. “We can do this later.” Coats, boots and mitts on, cleaning the kitchen forgotten, they joined the men. “Hurry. It’s coming down pretty steady. Forecast today warned that we’d get a lot of snow but I didn’t believe it. Looks like they were right.”
By the time the four of them got outside, snow had covered the still green lawn, weighed down branches of even the tallest tree and softened sharp edges of fences, rocks and roof. While Em was standing stock still transfixed by the beauty of it all, Dez was patting handfuls of snow, eyeing Matt who was doing the same. Jeremy didn’t know what to do ~ stay with his love, or get in on the snowball fight. His mind made up, he called softly to her. “Em.” No answer. A little louder and more insistent. “Em!” Over her shoulder she said “What is it, Jeremy?” Turning she said “Isn’t it beauti………” Splat. Right in the middle of her forehead. “Jeremy Crawford! Don’t you think you can get away with that.” Scooping up a handful of snow, giving it enough pats to hold the snow together, she fired the snow ball at her husband. He ducked and it caught Matt in the back of the head just as he had lobbed one at Dez.” These so called adults played until exhausted, but didn’t want to go in. Having too much fun, they hadn’t noticed that the snow was coming down heavier and the temperature was dipping. Dez had slipped and fallen into the ever deepening white blanket. Instead of getting up, she looked up, opened her mouth and caught snowflakes on her tongue. “Make a snow angel, Dez! You remember. We used to do that whenever we had snow like this. Here let me make one beside you.” Em lay down beside her sister and they shushed their arms and legs through the snow. “Let’s look.” She pulled her sister to her feet. “It’s not easy getting up without wrecking them, but we did pretty good. Brrrr. I’m getting cold!” Dez, brushing the snow from her coat, shivered and was heading back to the house. She heard Matt call her. “Hey, Dez, look what Jeremy and I have done!” She was ready to ignore him and get into the warmth, but she turned back and saw the two men looking as proud as two peacocks. “Great snowman! But where’s his hat and pipe and……” Matt cut her off. “I know, I know, Here I’ll give him my toque. The snow has covered up any twigs, do you think Cook would get mad if we pulled some bristles from her broom for arms?” Em had already been in the house. She came out with a carrot for his nose. “I dug through Martha’s sewing things and found these two big buttons for eyes. Here’s an old scarf of mine, but I don’t know about the arms.” Jeremy had gone onto the porch, where there was a stack of brush waiting to be dried and burned in the fireplace. “Here’s his arms, Matt. A bit skinny but I’m sure he’ll be ok with them. He hasn’t been much for words. Maybe he’ll come to life after we’ve all gone in.”
~~~~~
The change from children to adults was miraculous. The men rolled up their sleeves and unloaded the dumbwaiter without being asked. The women finished polishing up Cook’s kitchen. Instead of tea, they had hot chocolate covered in marshmallows with just a nip of brandy added. This time the quiet of the kitchen wasn’t tinged with loneliness, but with the togetherness of coming in from the cold, working to restore order and warming with hot chocolate.
No one saw Sarah float out of the upstairs window wearing a shadowy coat and carrying her father’s pipe. As soon as she put it where the Snowman’s mouth should have been, he winked one of his buttoned eyes at her and said ‘Thanks’. Her swing hung cold and lonely on the biggest tree in the yard, the seat puffed with snow. Sarah's ghostly weight barely disturbed the snow flakes. In whispers like the wind brushing the snow around, the two new friends chatted through the night.
“I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas.
It brings people together while time stands still.”
~ Rachel Cohen
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