by Anonymous
The first drops ricochet against the windowpane. Thick heavy globs
of water splash on the pavement. Heavy clouds loom dark now,
getting darker as the sun goes down. The rain picks up harder,
faster. The bullets sting as they pierce the grass blades below.
Puddles form in the dirt; dark reflections of the angry faces look
upward to return their gaze. The rain is loud as the water splashes in
the puddles and suddenly without warning the conductor guides the
weather into a decrescendo from forte past the mezzos down to the
p in stop, a beat, the pp in stopped. At the lowest volume the
orchestra is capable of, spheres turn to six sided stars and they fall
much slower to match the sound. Tiny specks: one mote of dust
wrapped in ice, these followed by fat clusters of snow come down
from the clouds above. The snow falls in the puddle and melts. The
snow falls on the bare branch of the boxelder and sticks. Snow
clumped together melting midair reforming combining clutching on
for dear life falls faster now with the added weight. The once green
grass turns white and the sound of the city is becoming increasingly
muffled as the snow cakes the ground and dulls the roaring of
passing engines. The sound holds quick and falls, having lost all
momentum, all speed. Refuse continues to spew from above upon
the city. The flakes are falling faster and more frequently.
A boy sticks out his tongue and looks up; a snowflake lands on his
eyelash. He squeals and jumps and throws a snowball at his sister.
She screams for help and runs back inside tracking snow soon to
melt that will wet the den carpet. Across the street, a seven month
old puppy tip toes out of a house, carefully sniffing, eyeballing his
surroundings. Not trusting it, not sure if he wants to continue, trying
to decide if it’s safe out there. Noise from the television, ‘three
inches and counting. Major road closures as the city’s infrastructure
struggles -’ a car drives down the street but after applying brakes
slides 7 feet before the tires catch the ground and slow the car to a
stop. Taking a moment to recover its senses, the puppy inches
forward, testing. ‘Amazing,’ a man says to his neighbor, ‘haven’t seen
anything like this in I-don’t-know-how-long.’ ‘Let me think, since Oh
Two, huh?’ the neighbor replies, wearing his brand new winter boots
bought many winters ago, ‘and what a perfect day for snow.’