Snowfall

Emma

Emma wakes to the sound of something hitting her window with a soft splush. She jolts upright in bed, disoriented for a minute by the unfamiliar surroundings. Oh, right, Jamie’s room, she remembers foggily. Glancing at the red numbers of the alarm clock on the nightstand Emma falls back down on the bed, dictating 8:30 A.M. too early to get up while on vacation, and covers her head with the blankets.

Splush.

Emma groans, reluctant to leave her cozy haven to go see what it is hitting the window. Hoping whatever it is will stop on its own she turns around to face the opposite wall and attempts to doze for a little while longer.

Splush.

“Go away,” she grumbles. Another splush is her answer as if the source of the noise can hear her. With a heavy sigh Emma uncovers her head and stares at the window waiting for the sound again.

Something white hits the window, making the irritating noise that woke her, and breaks up on impact into little flakes. Emma sits up in bed again. Was that…a snowball?

She gets up, the wooden floor cold beneath her bare feet, and slowly walks over to the window suspiciously. Glancing out at the front yard, Emma is just in time to see another snowball flying through the air, causing her to jump a little when it hits the glass. She scans the yard looking for who could have thrown it but no one is there.

“What in the world is going…,” her words fade when she realizes what she is staring at and her eyes widen in awe. Every tree branch, every roof, every car, every inch of the ground, is covered in snow that glistens in the sunlight like diamonds. “Oh, wow….”

“Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma!” someone yells as running feet stomp up the stairs. Emma turns just as her door slams open. Jamie runs up to her, wearing jeans, boots, and a thick green jacket, and yanks on her arm. “Come on, Emma. Come on! We gotta go!”

“Go?” she says with a laugh. “Go where?”

“Outside to see Ja-I mean the snow! We gotta go see the snow! It’s you’re first time, right?” She nods as she allows the boy to drag her towards the door but Aunt Marcy stops him in the doorway holding Sophie in her arms, who’s also wearing winter clothes.

“She can’t really go out like that, now can she, Jamie?” Aunt Marcy asks, her brown pony tail swaying as she shakes her head at the silly thought. “Let her get dressed first.”

Jamie nods reluctantly and Aunt Marcy puts Sophie down. The two kids go downstairs to wait for Emma.

“Sorry about that. He’s more rambunctious than usual this morning.”

Emma laughs. “That’s okay. Guess I better get dressed in a hurry.”

Aunt Marcy looks at her apologetically. “Are you really okay going outside to play with them for a bit? I’d go myself, but I have to do chores around the house today. And they do seem really particular that you go with them.”

“It fine. I don’t mind. But could you just…,” Emma lets the sentence hang as her mind drifts to her mother lying downstairs and her face falls again.

Aunt Marcy’s brown eyes soften. “I think both of your parents are still asleep, but don’t worry. I’ll look after things for you.”

The corners of Emma’s mouth tilt up slightly as she reaches for her hairbrush sitting on the dresser. “Thanks.”

---

Stepping onto the snow for the first time, the light crunch it makes beneath her boots, is like a dream. Emma knew it would happen eventually, Christmas is only two weeks away, it’s the heart of the winter season in Burgess even though it is not technically winter yet, but she still could not imagine ever seeing something so beautiful in her life.

An impossible dream.

“Thank you, Jack Frost,” Emma whispers quietly as her two little cousins race out into the yard and start to gather up snow in their hands.

“Come on, Emma,” Jamie calls. “Help us make a snowman!”

Emma grins as she goes to him and helps roll a ball of snow on the ground to build up the base. I’m making my first snowman!

Once the body is done they contemplate on how to decorate him. Sophie goes and asks her mom for a carrot for the nose, Jamie scrounges up some Fruit Loops for the eyes and mouth, and Emma sacrifices my scarf.

“You better take good care of this scarf, Mr. Snowman.”

“Jack! Jack! Jack!” Sophie squeals while looking at the air right above the snowman. Jamie tries to shush his sister for some reason but Emma just shrugs it off.

“Alright, you better take good care of this scarf, Jack. My mom crocheted this for me herself. I will clobber the crap out of you if you mess it up.”

Splush.

A snowball blindsides Emma right in the face, the icy frost biting into her skin, but then her heart starts to feel lighter and an unsolicited smile warms her face.

“Okay, which one of you threw that?”

“Neither of us did,” Jamie says nonchalantly. “It was Jack Frost.”

That sends Emma for a loop. Okay, didn’t expect that one. But he’s still young enough to believe in all of that fairy tale stuff, right? Although I have been asking him to grant wishes myself lately.

She shakes it off, bends down, and scoops up a nice sized snowball. “Sure, don’t take the blame yourself. But it won’t help. I know it was you Jamie Bennett!” Emma throws the snowball, perfectly aimed for his head, but he ducks at the last minute.

“Come on, Soph. Me, you, and Jack against Emma!” Jamie throws another snowball at Emma but she hides behind Jack the Snowman for cover. Sophie tries her best to make a snowball but all her little hands manage to do is scatter a bunch of snow right in front of her. This still doesn’t stop her from chasing Emma around the yard while trying to splash her with the flurries.

“No fair! I’m out numbered!” Emma dodges another one of Jamie’s throws, but then a snowball appears out of nowhere and pegs her in the face again.

“Nice one, Jack!” Jamie cheers.

How did he do that? That ball came from in front of me. She turns around to face Jamie and Sophie, eying them warily.

Splush.

Another snowball hits her in the back of the head.

Emma whirls around, brushing snow out of her hair. “Who did that?”

“Jack Frost did,” Jamie says.

Splush.

She’s hit again, this time from the side. The children haven’t moved an inch.

“Seriously, who’s doing that?”

“I told you. It’s Jack Frost.”

“But Jack Frost doesn’t exist…does…he?” Snowballs don’t just appear out of thin air, and yet these were. And it wasn’t supposed to snow this weekend, and yet it had because she had asked Jack Frost to make it snow. Emma has always wanted magic to exist in the world, her mother told her to hold on to that dream as best she could, but she never really thought….

A rose made completely out of ice forms in the air in front of Emma. She reaches out a shaky hand and grasps the stem delicately.

“Jack…Frost…?”

Emma’s eyes widen to saucers and her jaw drops as a pale hand appears holding the stem just millimeters above her own hand. Her eyes slowly follow the connecting limbs: Lithe arms and chest covered in a hoodie almost the same shade of blue as her coat. Long, athletic legs wearing ratted pants connected to bare feet. Up to a grinning face, pale, ice-blue eyes, and snowy hair.

“Jack Frost.”