Phoebe and the Melting Snow

Phoebe and the Melting Snow
By: Julianne Chen
Phoebe had always loved the snow. She loved it for all of the nine years of her life, even when she was a baby. No one else understood why she loved it so much. To other people, snow was useless, cold and boring. But Phoebe disagreed. The snow was beautiful to her. It highlighted the natural beauty of the world. The world seemed to glow with life.

At least, for Phoebe.

Some people really hated snow. They hated it so much that they wanted to change the temperature of the world so that it would never snow again. It was called "global warming". Phoebe hated it.

"What would anyone have against snow?" Phoebe thought to herself that night, "It's wonderful! And besides, why would anyone hurt the planet? What did the planet ever do to them? It's our home!"

That night, Phoebe went to bed with these thoughts plaguing her mind.
~~~~~
Phoebe and her mother were watching the morning news on the tv. The news was devastating. According to the weatherman, this snowstorm would be the last snowstorm. Not of the year. Not of the season, but forever. Phoebe was miserable. This would be the last time she would see her beloved snow.

"So they've done it," Phoebe sobbed to her mother, "They have finally made it too warm for snow. Global warming has prevailed and we have failed to stop it."

Phoebe's mother was an anti-snow person. She was one of the many people who hated snow and never understood why Phoebe loved it so much.

"Ugh, Phoebe," scoffed her mother, "Look on the bright side, you will never be cold again. We will never feel the chill again."

Phoebe could practically feel the tears welling up in her eyes. No snow. Forever.

"Fine," groaned Phoebe's mom, "You can go outside and play in the snow. You can go say goodbye to your precious snow."

This raised Phoebe's spirits just a little. She loved playing in the snow. But nothing would raise her spirits now that she knew that snow would be gone for good.

After her meal, Phoebe put on her jacket and winter gear. She wore a blue jacket with many pockets.

Not even playing in the snow seemed to cheer her up. She would have cried, but it was much too cold for tears. And besides, her tears would melt the snow.

Phoebe wasn't allowed to eat snowflakes anymore. She had been, once upon a time. When she was four. It tasted so different. But an interesting kind of different. It tasted like nature, refreshing water and ice pops, all at the same time. Now, the snow was too toxic to eat. Phoebe hated the government officials who never even tried to help the environment.

"Phoebe!" cried a voice. It was her best friend Jack. "I heard the news. We need to do something!"

"It's too late!" protested Phoebe. The tears had come now. "There is nothing we can do anymore! The earth is warm and there is no going back."

"Well," Jack suggested, "Maybe we can't fix the environment. But we can savor the good things in life."

"What are you suggesting, Jack?" Phoebe asked.

"Let's stuff some snow into our freezers!" Jack announced. "Imagine the fame and fortune we would earn. Imagine the newspaper article! 'Local kids have the last natural snowball'!"

Phoebe laughed. But she didn't care about fame or fortune. She would just be happy having snow. She would tend to it every day to make sure it never became ice.

Jack continued, "Of course, we'd have to put it in your freezer. Your freezer is bigger. And my parents need all the freezer space. They love frozen food."

"Let's do it," Phoebe said.

The two children started stuffing their pockets with snow. It was an unpleasant experience, wearing a cold jacket. Jack shivered, but Phoebe wasn't going to let anything stop her from saving the snow.

After about five minutes, Jack was almost pale with cold. He sneezed.

Like all moms, Jack's mom had magic mom senses. She ran over to Jack.

"Jack!" she gasped. "I can't believe you! Why would you stuff snow into your jacket?! Ugh, now you're going to catch a cold! Come on, we are going home!"

"NOOO!" Jack screamed. "Phoebe!! Continue the mission! AVENGE ME!!!"

"Jack!" his mother chidded. "You aren't dead. You don't need any avenging."

Phoebe knew that Jack's mother would soon sense that she too had snow inside her jacket. She took off running.

"I shall avenge you, Jack!!" Phoebe screamed as she ran off.

Jack's mother sighed, "Kids these days. Always going off to avenge their friends when they aren't even dead. And Phoebe didn't even come in the right direction! I'm right here!"

But Phoebe had other plans to avenge Jack. She wasn't going to avenge Jack by prying him from his mother's arms. She was going to complete the mission. And she needed to do it fast. The snow was melting, and quickly.

The snow in her jacket was thawing. Her jacket pockets were wet and everything seemed to get warm. In a moment of panic, Phoebe grabbed the last snowball that she could find.

She hopped onto a horse-pulled carriage. They were called Taxi-corns. Phoebe always thought that name was dumb, but today she was glad they exsisted.

Phoebe yelled, "Giddyup!" the horse and set off. She guided the horse to the direction of her house. The snowball was melting.

In a few more moments of panic, she grabbed snow off of branches. She grabbed as much snow as she could.

The horse stopped. She was home. She was about to open the door when she heard someone scream.

"STOP! Thief!"

Phoebe stopped. She could have sworn that she didn't steal anything. All she had was her snowball.

"MY CARRIAGE!"

So that's what she forgot. She forgot to ask permission to use the carriage and she forgot to pay. She couldn't worry about that now. Her snowball was melting. She opened the door.

She frantically ran around her house, desperately searching for the freezer. At last, she had found it. It hadn't even taken her fifteen seconds to find it, but when you had the last snowball in your hands, it felt much longer. She shoved it into the freezer. But as she shoved it into the freezer, it broke apart and fell onto the floor. And it melted, like all her hopes and dreams.

She knelt and wept. She had failed. She couldn't believe it. The last snowball, gone.
~~~~~
Phoebe woke up in cold sweats. She had a vague feeling that she dreamt about something.

She went to eat breakfast, but accidentally opened the freezer instead of the fridge. And she saw it. A snowball. All of the details of her dream had come rushing back to her.

"Mom! Why do we have a snowball in the freezer?" Phoebe asked.

"Well," said her mother, "the local grocery store was selling snowballs. I thought you might have wanted one."

Phoebe chuckled. Even through all of their disagreements about snow, her mother really did care about her.

After breakfast, Phoebe went to call Jack.

"Jack!" she said, "You'd never believe the dream I had!"

"I bet my dream was way weirder!" replied Jack. "So you see, yesterday I read this book called Saved by Jules C. Maria and I had this dream about being chased around by killer gummy bears...."

Phoebe tuned out. She opened her computer and searched up "how to help prevent global warming". Phoebe decided that she wasn't going to just grump around about global warming, but she was going to do everything she could to try to do something about it.