A Year Without Snow

-18-

Saturday, 23rd October 2004

The first thing that I was aware of, that day, was a weight on my forehead.

Confused I lifted my hand to the place where the pressure was applied and was even more confused when my hand heated something soft. Until I realized it was an arm.

"Bryson." I groaned and threw his arm from off my face, turning around on the floor.

"What?" He weakly asked and I felt him turn around as well, and once again his arm hit me, this time on the neck.

"Au! Bryson, stop hitting me!" I said massaging my neck where he had hit me."Sorry." He mumbled an apology. And everything went quiet once again for a few moments, and so I felt myself fall back into the darkness of sleep. When suddenly a gasp bought me back to light. "Daisy! Look!" Bryson shouted and I quickly sat straight on the floor.

I looked at him and saw that he was eagerly pointing towards the small window that stood high on the wall of the basement.

"Is that...?" I begun to ask but soon realized what it was and happiness took over me. "Yes!"That day we ran outside, like any other kid in Oak Hollow. So we jumped and ran in the snow amongst the other kid in our neighborhood.

I and Bryson fell into the front lawn like it was a soft bed with a clean white sheet, throwing snow at each other, and soon his mother and father would also come out accompanied by their oldest daughter who looked drowsy from sleep, but all sacrifices were made for the snow. Soon after my grandma and mother joined us as well, the older women carrying a camera and making and me and Bryson pose for a photograph on the middle of the snow.

On the same day, tents were set on the town hall and the whole of Oak Hollow attempted the festivities. Smiling and laughing, they came and went, as if somehow the white snow would drown all of their problems. And right then I believed it, as we found our school's friends and together we ran around like tomorrow was not to come. For that night, I believed. We believed, that no problem was ever big enough to reach our untouchable bubble provided by the snow and by everyone around us, protecting us somehow, with human heat. If ever was a time I believed in magic it had to be that one. And if ever was a time I believed in humanity it had to have been that night as well.

Still not sure how that festivities had started, I understood, why they existed. It was not about simple weather conditions. It was about people. The people of Oak Hollow and everything that they symbolized as a community. In the next years, I would share opinions with Bianca about the smallness of our town and the constant stillness of it. But every time the Snow Festival came along I was reminded of the greatness and warmth that it provided, making me wonder what would happen if the snow one year decided not to come. But I would quickly dismiss the idea.

At the end of the day, it was Oak Hollow, nothing ever changed.

And like always, time would prove me wrong.