Aida woke up the next morning just to realize that the worst snowstorm of the season was over. Hearing the whooshing sounds of the wind outside the window, she let her soul cross over the pane and wander into the streets. Black-branched trees of similar size sprouted from a sea of white. A few meters further was the Hudson River dotted with beautiful white boats that had been hibernating since the winter started. Seagulls and pigeons flapped their wings in the morning sun rays as if they were celebrating the surreal pure, pristine, and calm earth below them. Along the river were flocks of brown-feathered geese swimming to their home in the muddy pond nearby, chattering away the iciness snaking around them.
Aida swirled in the frosty air, her feet spinning her slender body, and she felt as if she were taking the whole universe into her little fingers, her soft black hair, her pink lips, and every of her blood vessels. After a countless number of rounds, Aida stopped, her eyes rested on the glittering surface of the lake, then she crouched down and touched the snowflakes on a pile right where she stood, rubbing a few with her two fingers and putting some others on her tongue. It was crisp. It tasted like mineral. For the first time in her life, she started to love the snow, or this snow to be exact. In a flash when the last flake melted in her mouth, the snow of twenty years ago flooded back into Aida’s mind, like millions of pieces of a shattered iceberg stabbing every neuron of her fragile brain and numbing her already vulnerable senses. Fat tears trickled down her blushing cheeks. She took a deep breath and exhaled through her mouth, the thin curls of steam squirming and diffusing into the cold air as fast as her soul traversed back into her room.
“I brought you some hot chocolate, honey,” Dave, her husband, spoke in his usual warm comforting voice as he walked into the room, one hand carrying her favorite mug they bought during their third honeymoon in England a few years ago, another his huge coffee cup. She turned around, tugging her long hair into the big purple woolen scarf and taking the home-made gift on top of which was a thick layer of whipping cream. Dave never failed to feel what she needed at the right moment. She wrapped her hands around the mug, inhaled deeply, dipped her lips in the white snowy sweet foam and gave Dave a kiss, a long wet creamy kiss – her thank-you.
Taking a sip of dark rich chocolate, she danced her fingers on the windowpane misted with frost, to be joined by Dave’s a few seconds later. In front and far away, the white glittering wavy blanket endlessly stretched until it immersed in the slightly blue sky.
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When is the last time you let your senses feel the snow so your soul is warmed up? When is the last time you let the snow heal your pain? When is the last time both your presence and your mind are with your loved ones in cold days so your life is misted with wonders? However busy you are, don’t miss enjoying snow days! Be Aida.