Every inch covered in white.

A blizzard outside of my window.

The trees pointing at me, as the wind pushes there frozen branches towards me. Roads, streets, lanes and avenues frozen as an ice skating rink. A waterfall of icicles down the side of the house. The cold wind shaking the ground as I fall to my feet.

The quiet…the wind has stopped I rise back up.

Everyone does.

 

The Polar Vortex Type of Warm

For some strange reason

Only on snowy days

The cold makes your heart warm

 

They say no two snowflakes look the same. This was my exact thought as I stared out the window into the gloom. I had gotten out of bed, out of the warmth and comfort of the blankets that enveloped me, to check the time. My roommate had long gone to sleep, and her gentle snores floated out from under the door. I turned back to the window. “Where could you be?” I muttered to myself. I thought about him, his small, pointy ears and grayish-white fur that smelled like soap. We had adopted him on a night like this, when the wind sang songs through the cold, bare woods and kicked up a powdery drift of snow, creating a whirlwind. We had smuggled him into our small apartment, our hushed voices bouncing off the walls. He had meowed and yelped so loudly that we had to feed him treats until he quieted down. I remember laughing hard as he scurried around the room trying to get used to the tiled floors, while my roommate held me down to stop me from waking the entire building. I remember glancing at the snow that day, whispering into his furry pelt, “We’ll call you Snowflake.”

 

This all came back to me, hitting me like in a tidal wave of emotions, and I touched my face, noticing how wet it had gotten from the tears. I gave the window another long look, before sighing and climbing into bed.

 

My roommate woke me up early the next morning, gently placing a cup of hot cocoa in my cold hands. We sat there, unmoving, watching our little marshmallows bob up and down in our chocolatey drinks like ice floating in the ocean. After a while of unbearable silence, she turned to me and smiled weakly. “ I know what you’re thinking, she whispered hesitantly. She watched me for a while, and when I didn’t respond, she shifted and sighed. “It’s snowing,” I replied. “Just like that day.” I turned to her, but just as I did something flashed in my peripheral vision. I saw my roommate’s eyes widen. She touched my shoulder, and I knew she had seen it too. Quick as a cheetah, I dashed to the foyer and slipped my coat on. My roommate called my name as she followed me to the door. “I’ll be back I promise,” I insisted. She parted her lips as if to say something, as if to protest, but I cut her off with a tight hug. “See you soon,” I said, turning away quickly before she could read my expression. I dashed out into the snow, bursting into the clearing behind our apartment. I spun around, my heart racing and my breath hiccuping. Nothing. I whirled  towards the trees, trying to calm my nerves as my eyes darted back and forth, searching.  Still nothing. I called out. Silence greeted my cry. I slumped forward into the snow, dejected. Suddenly, I saw him. A full grown male cat with fur just like Snowflake’s. It had been a month since Snowflake had run away into the woods, and something had told me that wasn’t the last time I’d see him. I knew it now. I stood there, taking in the cat’s features. His pelt looked as beautiful and as shiny as ever. The wind picked up again, this time with a faint hint of Dove soap. “Snow?” I called, listening as his nickname echoed across the open field. I watched as the male cat turned towards me, his ears perking up, nose twitching. He stared at me, and it seemed that his eyes held the entire galaxy. I breathed, awestruck. His paw hovered above the ground. Then he turned promptly and left me in the snow. I sat there for a while, thinking about how snowflakes are truly, very unique things.

 

The problem was they liked the cold.

 

When it was cold, they could put on their warm clothes that were soft and colorful. They could drink hot cocoa and eat warm cookies. The snow outside made for a perfect backdrop for Instagram photos, with nothing cluttering the background. They could fall asleep, holding hands, by the fireplace with their snowy hats covering their eyes and their polka-dot coats covering their chests.

 

They liked the cold, because now, they could be close together, and no one would question a thing. They liked the cold, because then they had each other’s warmth.

 

The problem was, for nine months out of the year, it wasn’t cold enough.

 

And those nine months were when they needed each other the most.

 

When it was warm, they had to wear school uniforms that put them in boxes they didn’t choose. They had to drink chocolate milk and eat Oreos at separate ends of the lunchroom. The grass outside made for a cluttered backdrop of people pointing fingers and calling names. They could not fall asleep, holding hands, by the bookcase with their sun hats covering their eyes and their tight, dark sweaters covering their chests.

 

They liked the cold, because only then, they could be close together, without anyone questioning anything. They liked the cold, because then they had each other.

The problem was they liked the snow. Always running about and us being repeatedly soaked was the worst. When they finally came inside they threw us on the hard wooden floor while they go drink some hot cocoa freshly brewed by their mother. As I watch shivering on the floor their dog lopes over stepping on me as he goes. I peek over at my brother who’s not faring too well either. I can see him trying to hold his breath to no surprise, after all who enjoys being carelessly tossed onto the rim of a garbage can? I shift my attention back over to the family, it look likes they have almost finished up their hot cocoa which can mean two things. Either I am going to be put on to go back outside in the miserable cold or I will be placed in the incredibly comfortable washer. “Seriously,” I think as I watch the kids come charging toward me “you have got to be kidding me.” As I am pulled onto their little sweaty hands I gaze longingly at where I wish I was… THE WASHER.

It was a cold, dreary, snowy night.

 

A single cabin loomed in the darkness of the snow-coated field, smoke calmly puffing out of its stout, stony chimney. The cabin was constructed primarily of wood and stone, with terracotta roof tiles. It had been owned by the same family for over two hundred years, and its single inhabitant, the oldest surviving member of the family, had lived in it since he retired fifteen years ago. He had been given the name Nathaniel at birth, but now preferred the appellation Alex. The inside of the cabin was quite spartan, with just a bed, desk, chair, and a few lamps to keep the one-room dwelling lit. In addition, Alex had embellished the cabin with a small charcoal stove for cooking his sustenance as well as keeping him warm. The cabin had running water, as well as a miniscule bathroom and shower.

 

The cabin had been outfitted with electricity and heat by its previous inhabitants, Alex’s maternal uncle and aunt. He made use of all these amenities as best he could, for the snowstorm could not have come at a worse time. Alex had been planning to insulate the roof that day, but it was much too cold outdoors to do so. So, to keep warm, he had to wear so many layers that he could easily be mistaken for a man twice his size in height– as well as width. He also kept a stack of candles and dry foods under his desk in the case of a power outage. A fireplace and stack of logs would act as a backup in case the heating system failed. He was prepared for any situation the blizzard could throw at him.

 

He was about to watch his favorite television show before bed when he suddenly heard a faint thudding noise in the distance. He paused, warily, and listened for a few seconds.

 

thud thud THUD THUD thud thud…

 

Presumably that was just some pipes in the cabin creaking, Alex thought. He quickly dismissed the incident and resumed his activities. Two minutes into the show’s daily episode, he heard the noise, this time much louder.

 

…thud THUD THUD THUD THUD thud…

 

He noticed that the noise repeated itself every two seconds, akin to the ominous gait of a large animal or beast. What in the world was that? he pondered.

 

…THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD…

 

The noise became louder and louder with each passing moment. Knowing he had to investigate, Alex pulling three hats over his head and two gloves on each hand. What could it be? Alex’s heart raced. Bigfoot? That doesn’t exist. A human? No, they wouldn’t make that noise. A werewolf? Heh, those are mythical creatures; they can’t exist. Minotaur? Probably not; the last known half-man, half-bull creature was killed on ancient Crete. He began to sweat with anxiety. Alex decided that looking outside would be the only recourse for him.

 

He poked his head outside the door and saw nothing. He cautiously stepped outside the cabin and still saw nothing of note, despite the gale-force winds whipping everything on the ground up into the air. He relaxed a moment. It was nothing.

 

…THUD THUD THUD.

 

Alex wheeled around, panicked, and saw a pair of white, furry feet standing in the snow in front of him. In fact, he could only see the feet and shins of the being in front of him. He slowly looked up until his eyes met another set of eyes. It was the creature that was making the thudding noise. Alex stared at it in wonder, his jaw loosely hanging open. He was prepared for any situation except this one. It took a full minute to dawn on him that he was face-to-face with a Yeti.

 

A short scream pierced the darkness, and the wind resumed its incessant howl.

 

Legend has it that Alex was never heard from again.

 I wake up.

And run to my window it’s snowing cows? I rub my eyes, it’s snowing! I run to my moms room and I jump on her till she wakes up, “he’s back, what, let me get my dress” she says.

“no no, it’s a snow day!

My dad divorced. My mom always thinks he’s coming home when I surprise her. “oh dang it, but still fun.” My mom says as she gets out of bed.

We run to the hill with our sleds, there’s a big amount of people there, I don’t even see where I’m going! “ I know a much bigger hill,” my mom says.

Today is going to be the best snow day!

 

They say no two snowflakes are the same. Once one melts, it’s gone forever. You can’t see its pattern anymore. You lost your chance at what it could have brought you. But yesterday, I read a report saying that there are in fact only thirty-five different shapes of snowflakes. And another one. So maybe snowflakes aren’t unique. Maybe if one melts, another, exactly the same, snowflake will take its place. At least I hope so. Uniqueness is scary. It’s encouraging, but it’s terrifying. If you screw up, or die, or something, then what only you could have done is lost forever. And if you lose someone else, then you’ll never, ever, find anyone like them again.

“You know, I read somewhere that there are only thirty-five different kinds of snowflakes,” I say to my best friend, Ava, as she packs the last of her shirts in the pink and blue suitcase she’s used since she was ten.

“Really?” she asks, glancing out the window. The snow is coming down pretty hard now. I remember how we used to think snowflakes were tiny clouds, and would spend hours theorizing about how they could’ve gotten so small.

“Yeah, weird right?”

“I guess.” Ava shrugs, and kneels down to zip her suitcase shut. “But it was always kind of unrealistic. I mean, there’s probably been trillions of snowflakes and there are so many patterns the world can make.”

“So you think it would be possible to find do snowflakes that are exactly the same?”

“Yeah. Bella, you brought it up, what do you think?”

“Do you remember how we used to think snowflakes were tiny clouds?” I ask suddenly. Ava smiles fondly.

“Definitely,” she sighs. “We would talk about it over hot chocolate-”

“-with exactly seven marshmallows,” I finish with her. She waits for me to say something else, but I can’t. Because even if I find another friend just like Ava, we still couldn’t share the memories that Ava and I share. A few moments pass before I realize that Ava is still waiting for me to say something.

“You okay?” she asks, looking at me with concerned eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“We’ll still talk, Bell,” she says, as she figures out what’s wrong.

“You’ll be in Iowa.”

“They have phones in Iowa,” she assures me, stopping what she was doing and walking over to me.

“How would you know? You’ve never seen a house in Iowa before,” I retort, only half joking.

“My Dad’s job is at a marketing company. I’m pretty sure they’ll have phones. Are we really talking about this? Bella, you said we were okay.” She doesn’t look angry, she looks hurt. She did tell me, three months ago. We were having a sleepover, and while we were playing Boggle she told me that her Dad had found this great job in Iowa, and she would have to move. At first I had thought that it was a temporary thing, but she carefully told me that it was permanent. Forever. The snowflake was melting, and there would be nothing left. I had sat there like an idiot, as plans for High School graduations and Sweet Sixteens flew up the basement steps and out the window.

“When I told you that, three months seemed like thirty years,” I tell her. “You leave tomorrow.”

“Well, maybe the roads will be blocked,” she offers awkwardly.

“How are you so okay? You told me we were like sisters. I’ve known you since I was born! Now you’re leaving, and I’m the only one getting upset!” I yell. She’s never been upset. Not once. She was conciliatory, she was regretful, she was so many amazing things… but she was never upset.

“Because I lost the argument!” she yells back, “I fought like hell, I yelled at my Dad so many times. But in the end, if you have to leave, being upset about it doesn’t help. It’s like a snowflake, if it’s going to melt, it melts, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it!” The silence hangs in the air, and we both end up looking out the window.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I don’t want our relationship to end on a fight. I’m okay with her going to Iowa, and she’s right.

“I am too… I’m gonna miss you a lot, okay? Like, a lot.”

“I’m gonna miss you, too.”

“You never answered my question,” Ava states.

“What?”

“I told you I think that you can find two snowflakes that are exactly the same, and I asked you what you think. You never answered.”

“Right. I don’t know… I think you can, scientifically. But… like the idea of no two things being the exact same, conceptually, you know? Because if you can find one snowflake that exactly like another snowflake, then why value the first snowflake?”

“Bella, I don’t think anyone values snowflakes. They’re frozen water, and in order to see their patterns at all you have to use a microscope,” Ava jokes.

“You know what I mean,” I retort, hitting her arm playfully.

“Yeah,” she pauses, “I do.” I look at my watch. Way past dinner time.

“I got to get back to my house,” I say apologetically.

“Why don’t you stay over? The movers don’t come until, like, eleven. We can have one last night playing Boggle in the basement,” Ava offers.

“That sounds great.” I quickly call my Mom, inform her of my plans, and then follow Ava down to her basement.

“Why would anyone even bother studying if snowflakes are unique or not?” Ava wonders. “They’re snowflakes.”

I nod, smiling. “Good point.”

Deep in Supercat’s bunker, the two heroes looked at the snow. The snow was getting through the west fortifications. They were almost out of food. They had to go to a trading post at the bottom of the mountain, but their machines were out of fuel, so they had to go down by foot. They were fighting over who would go down. They had no idea about the danger that was breaking the west fortifications…

Suddenly, an alert rang out. Someone was infiltrating the west fortifications! The security screen flashed on. A picture of some sort indomitable snowman that was lumbering through and smashing the sealed doors. Catbots were out of control running towards it since they had very low fuel. The indomitable snowman smashed the catbots to pieces. Smash! Bang! Crush! With big fat claws, the
snowman smashed the second door. “Smushy!” Supercat said. They got on to their speedbikes and zoomed toward the snowman. But the snowman was nowhere to be found. They zoomed outside to the west fortifications. They zoomed outside to the balcony and looked at the catcannon. They peered out with their binoculars.

“Look!” Supercat said.

Superdog said, “What are you talking about, I can’t see anything!”

Supercat was getting frustrated. He put a flare inside the cannon, pointed the cannon at the snowman and fired so that the red flare would light the snowman so that Superdog could see.

“That’s better,” said Superdog. They jumped into a spider shaped vehicle with an open compartment where they could sit and drive.

“This is the only vehicle that has enough fuel to get down half of this mountain” said Supercat. Then he pointed to a map. The halfway mark is bordered by a little garage where we could put the
spider vehicle.

“Alright,” said Superdog, doubtfully.

Soon, they were crawling down the mountain. Superdog said to Supercat, “UGH, THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW IN MY FACE!” he yelled through the wind. Suddenly, the spiderlegs of the spider vehicle tripped over a roof. SMASH! They had tripped over the roof of a garage. “We still have enough fuel to go down some more of the mountain” said Superdog, looking at the controls.

Supercat snapped back “Where will your favorite vehicle stay while we trek down the rest of the mountain!” Then, without a word, Superdog was piloting the spider into the garage. Suddenly, a cobweb brushed Supercat’s face. “Oh come on,” said Supercat. Then they got into their winter clothes and started out.

Suddenly Superdog bumped into something furry. “Ouch! Ouch! Huh? Tell me who you are,” snapped Supercat to the snow in front of Superdog.

“Or I’ll unleash my supersonic sorrow wave!!!” Superdog said to the snow in front of him “And I’ll melt you to pieces with my anger fire!” The creature started down the mountain.

“Stop!” they both shouted. Trip! Oops! They fell onto the ground. They brushed the snow off of themselves and ran down the mountain. Slip! Smash! They slipped on black ice. They ran down the mountain. They tripped on an old soap box, and the soap box suddenly turned into a toboggan for them. Swish! They went down the mountain cleanly and smashed into the trading post. They slipped past the trading post, brought down a telephone pole and bumped into that something furry again.

“You bother me,” said Supercat. Then, he unleashed his supersonic sorrow wave. Superdog couldn’t unleash his fire mouth because he
didn’t have enough sleep. The something furry revealed himself to be…the Indomitable Snowman! Superdog was so mad that his fire mouth turned on anyway. The two heroes used their powers to defeat the snowman, but the snowman got away.

“After him!” said Supercat. As they jumped into the soapbox, suddenly Superdog sat on something. He lifted it up. It was a soap
grenade! He threw the soap grenade at the moving piece of snow, a.k.a. the Indomitable Snowman. Smush! “You are no longer indomitable!” said Superdog.

“Oh yes I am” said the Snowman as he lumbered away with his hands on his eyes because he had gotten wet soap all over his eyes.

“After him anyway!” said Supercat looking at the disappointed Superdog. Swish! Swoosh! As they zoomed across the Himalayas.

“There!” said Superdog, taking out his binoculars.

“Somehow he’s shrunk! We can shrink, too!” said Supercat, taking out one of his gadgets. “How small is he?” he asked Superdog.

“About 60 centimeters” he said.

Supercat pressed a button that said 60 centimeters.

“Bzzzzzz!” said the machine.

Then it shot out a bluish lightning that hit them both and then they shrunk into the soapbox. “Oh no!” said Supercat. “We forgot to hold the box so that we can shrink with it.”

“Get us back,” said Superdog, not impressed with the machine. Supercat pressed a button that said Normal. “Alrightly let’s try again,” said Superdog. They demolished a lamppost as they swished along. They held the soapbox and then they pressed 60 centimeters on the gadget. Suddenly, they were zapped and then they turned really small. The soapbox did too. They spotted the snowman. Then, Supercat grabbed a grappling hook and shot it at
the snowman’s elbow. Then, Supercat pressed Go, too. And Superdog grabbed Supercat. Zoom! They shot toward the snowman. The snowman turned around just to see the heroes bump into him. Supercat who had gotten very hurt in the
process yelled, “Why did you have to do that to me?” He yelled, letting out a super sorrow wave. The Indomitable Snowman staggered back. Superdog got so mad that his friend had been hurt that he shot out his biggest fireball. Smash! Boom! Crash! Smush.

The snowman lumbered away. “After him!” the two heroes said at once, jumping into the soapbox. They rammed into him. Suddenly,
the Indomitable Snowman turned into a snowman shaped like him. Supercat’s supersorrow soundwave blasted the whole snowman apart.

“There” they said, smacking their hands. “Let’s go” they said. They went into an abandoned car and drove onto the road. As they drove they were talking about where it had come from.

“Well,” Superdog said, “there is an old shaftway that we haven’t checked out since the last 16 years.”

“That’s it,” said Supercat. “And it’s also near the west fortifications.” “No one ever goes to the west fortifications,” said Superdog
knowledgeably. Supercat wasn’t surprised since he had been wandering the bunker for a year now. Suddenly they halted to a stop. They stopped in front of the trading post.

“Let’s go inside the trading post,” said Superdog, who wanted one of their products, which was beef jerky. Supercat was looking forward to the catnip. Supercat smacked his lips.

Anyway, Supercat said, that was the main reason they had been going down the mountain. They bought some gas and all of the supplies they needed, and then they went to the spider vehicle which was inside the old garage. They started up the mountain with the spider vehicle. They got back to the bunker, they cemented over the shaft that hadn’t been explored, went through the main door, ate their beef jerky and catnip, relaxed in the tub for a while and finally, went to bed.

The end.