Day Twenty-one

(For more information on my 'April Challenge' see HERE)

(106)ALOUISHA SLEEPS

A blanket of snow. Like it is something comforting. Like you could pull it over you and  snuggle up and sleep. And on the long walk home that’s what happened. The cold got to Alouisha. All she wanted to do was sleep, so she lay down and felt strangely warm.

(107)JOSH HEARS IT ON THE CAR RADIO

It was forecast. Blind blizzards and wind driven snow. The police gave out warnings not to travel unless the journey was absolutely necessary, and even then not to travel. It was on the radio. Josh was stuck in his car. Four days thinking it was the cold end of things.

(108)SNOW WORRIES

It was like an extra holiday for the kids. Sledges and igloos and outsize snowmen. I was worried about the cupboards and if we’d have enough to get us through. The roads were shut and the village shop was empty and they said there was more snow on the way.

(109)NEW

White as white ever was. So white it was like being blind. And the snow falling in thick feathery flakes and the wind whipping it into aerial ballet, like a shaken snow globe and everything spinning. And the world made new again and clean as if we could start over.

(110)ALOUISHA DOES NOT WAKE

They found her when the snow thawed and the white cleared from the hills and colour came back to the world. She was curled up under a tree. Like she was asleep. Like you could wake her by calling her name or touching her shoulder. Peaceful is what she looked.