It was the first snow of the season, fluffy cotton balls drifting steadily to the ground, forming a blanket of powder on the steely gray street. Alexy stared wide-eyed at the world outside her apartment window. She remembered how just one short year ago her dad had run into her room with a smile as bright as hers. He'd clumsily bundled her up, thrown on his coat and hoisted her onto his shoulders to run downstairs and out the door where they'd play in the snow. At the memory, her sapphire eyes glassed over, and she quickly wiped the pools away with her thin sleeve. She had to go outside. Timidly, she peeked into the living room where her mother was out cold on the couch. Her thin brown hair was knotted beneath her and her dry, cracked hand held a tall bottle with a thin neck. There was no way Alexy could wake her up, and even if she could, she wouldn't be allowed outside.
Considering it good luck, Alexy unnecessarily crept toward the coat rack, trying to avoid the spots where she knew the wood creaked under her light weight. She bundled up and slipped out the door, and down the stairs. Outside, snow swirled around her, she felt like an ice princess. She hope snowflakes were catching in her hair so she could look like one too. Already there were a few inches accumulated, enough so that Alexy made small but deep prints with her boots, too tight from years of use. Her father had promised to get her new ones for Christmas, but never got the chance. As she skipped around, she wondered what they would've looked like. Blue, like her eyes maybe? Green to match her coat? Or plain white, so she might have invisible feet? As the reflection on the snow began to gleam less, Alexy started thinking about all the things she and her dad could do this year. In a daze, she imagined the fun they would have. Maybe they could go sledding on the hill in the park? Or maybe he could teach her to ice skate-she'd always wanted to learn after seeing how pretty people looked doing it. Maybe she really could be an ice princess! Oh, but that was too expensive. Sledding would still be fun, though. The snow had started beating down, and almost a half hour after sunset, Alexy realized she didn't know where her apartment building was. She couldn't see very well, and with snow up to her knees, she wasn't going far fast. After walking a bit the way she thought she'd come, she spotted the store next to where she lived. Relieved, she trudged as quickly as she could up to the large brick building and reached into her pocket for her key... the one she always left in her pocket so she wouldn't forget it when she went out... the one her dad had copied for her in Home Depot and painted purple... her hand grasped air. Panicked, she checked all of her other pockets. She threw off her coat and checked her sweatshirt. Not there either. Crying she threw herself into the snow, digging for her key. She must've dropped it, but where? Her hands and face were bright red, and they stung. Hse began banging on the door with her scrawny arms. She screamed until her throat was raw and finally fell back into the snow, shivering and gasping and crying. None of this would've happened if her father were there. "Where are you?" she screamed. She didn't mean the key.
At around one in the morning, a 45 year old hand, dry, cracked hand dropped a beer bottle to the old wood floor with a thud. The owner of the hand stirred and groggily sat up, running a hand through her thin, knotted brown hair. When had she fallen asleep? She looked at the bottle by her feet and pondered no further. She was hungry. She wondered what Alexy had eaten, not that there was much to choose from. Lumbering across the room, she roughly opened the door to her daughter's bedroom. There was no small frame breathing beneath the blanket. Confused, she checked her bedroom and the bathroom, then noticed that the small green coat was missing from the coat rack. She ripped open the door and after tripping down the stairs, stepped outside to discover a child's body on the front step. She brushed thick, chocolate-brown hair aside to reveal sapphire eyes that had frozen over. With a blank expression, the woman took the child and the coat upstairs and laid her on the floor, hugging the coat. The one thing she'd remotely cared about... The woman put the body in a black garbage bag and slung it over her shoulder. A few blocks down, in an alley, she threw the bag into a dumpster. Once the lid clanged shut, she crossed the street coming back the way she'd come. Dazed, she didn't see the plow coming. The driver couldn't see her through the thick snow. The snow that fell endlessly...
