I felt Jack roughly shaking me a second before his bellow hit my ear, “GET UP! It snowed and we don’t have to go to school. I want to go outside.”
Battling the urge to pummel him, I rubbed my eyes and stumbled groggily to the window to see for myself. My barely opened eyes were instantly blinded by the bright glare off the fresh fallen snow. When my eyes adjusted, I was fully awake and saw everything was covered in a thick blanket of white. We definitely had to get out there and make the most of our free day by enjoying the first glorious snow of the season. I hurriedly ran to get dressed, so we didn’t waste another minute.
Much to our dismay, as we ran through the kitchen, Mom stopped us and insisted we eat breakfast. We both inhaled a bowl of steaming-instant oats before continuing to the sun porch to get our winter gear on.
It seemed like it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to put on all the hot-bulky layers. Mom made us wear itchy long johns and multiple insulated shirts underneath our snowsuits. I had gotten a new purple suit this year and couldn’t wait to get out there to break it in, but at this rate, the snow will be melted. We put double socks on inside our boots, but right before we slipped into our jackets, gloves, and scarfs to run out the door into a waiting snowdrift, the worst thing happened. I had to tinkle. Mom knew as soon as she saw my face what was wrong.
Sighing, she leaned down to untie my boots and then began peeling the layers off starting with my beautiful snowsuit. She turned to do the same to Jack, and he started throwing a huge temper tantrum.
“Why do I have to get undressed? I don’t need to go. I want to play in the snow NOW!” he cried, stomping his foot.
Mom very calmly told him if he didn’t calm down, he wouldn’t be allowed to go out at all, and if he didn’t try to wee right now, he wouldn’t be allowed to go back outside if he came in to wee later. He pouted but didn’t fight her after that.
When we finished, Mom bundled us up again. She gave us our gloves, wrapped us with scarves until just our eyes peeked out, and let us loose. As soon as I stepped outside, the frigid-winter cold hit me, but I didn’t let it slow me down. Snow was always best on the first day before muddy boots trample it, turning it mushy brown. Plus, this was the best kind of snow. Not the fluffy-feather pillow type, but the pack-into-a-firm ball type. It was the also the sort that was perfect for building a snowman, which was what we wanted to do first.
We ran to the wide-open front lawn by the pine tree and began forming two tightly packed snowballs. We rolled them around the yard to make them bigger and left a mess of swerving, crisscrossing loops. Jack worked on the middle, while I did the bottom part. When I thought both were big enough, we positioned my section in the middle of the yard, and then carefully lifted Jack’s piece on top of it. I left him to roll a head while I ran off to find decorations.
When I got back, Jack was ready to stack the head, but I said we should decorate it first. For eyes and a nose, I had dug through the snow under the old walnut tree to find pieces of old shells. I had also quietly opened the porch’s screen door and gotten one of Dad’s John Deere caps. At the last moment, Jack ran to the barn and returned with a piece of straw to put in our snowman’s mouth to chew on, and that was the perfect finishing touch for our snowman’s head.
Standing on my tippy toes, I could lift it just high enough to put it in place. After adding a few twigs for arms and pinecones donated by our neighboring pine tree, our snowman was done. When we stepped back for a look, Jack and I agreed: he was perfect.
Looking for more fun, we ran to the backyard to see what else we could do in our icy playground. The first things we saw were ENORMOUS icicles hanging from the clothesline poles. I knew we had to get these big shiny bits of pointed glass now because they would be drippy by afternoon. Going to the nearest pole, I hit a few as hard as I could. With a loud CRACK, they broke off and fell into the snow.
The icicles made great swords for an epic battle between Jack and me. When we hit them together, the ice broke into huge chunks. It was also fun to suck on them like Freezer Pops in summer. The ice was so cold, but my warm tongue would quickly make it start to melt.
Right then, we heard a truck coming down our long, rock driveway. That could only mean one thing, Dad was home from his chores. Now he could take us sledding! I raced Jack to the shed to grab our wooden red flyer and haul it back to the garage. To my amazement, Dad already had the red three-wheeler out. How had he known? We hadn’t even asked yet. Maybe that’s why he came home early.
He looked at us and sighed heavily, “I suppose I have to take you both sledding now. I’m headed to the pasture across the field to check some water tanks, so I guess you can come. Then I’ll drop you at Mom’s while I finish.”
This was almost better than sledding. At Grandma’s house, she would give us hot chocolate and let us watch The Price is Right. We pulled our sled excitedly to the back of the three-wheeler, and Dad tied it to the hitch.
“I’m not going to go fast, but you need to hold tight. Jack, sit in front of your sister and hold onto her. Don’t let go. She’s going to have ahold of the sled.”
Jack sat between my knees and wrapped his arms around my legs. Dad had trusted me with the important job of making sure we didn’t fall off, so I gripped the edges of the sled as tightly as I could with all my eight and three-fourth year-old strength. He slowly sped up across the field until the sled was gliding smoothly over the snow. Every bump sent us hopping on the hard, wood sled, but I held on tight. Jack tried to bury his face in my snowsuit to keep it from getting hit with snow flying from the tires, but I had no protection. The cold breeze bit our faces as well, but these were simply parts of our winter theme park ride.
The snow in our yard was nothing compared to what we saw on the other side of the field. The drifts in the ditches were taller than me, and Jack could surely have disappeared in one. While Dad went off to break the ice covering the cow tanks, he and I clambered to the top of the biggest snow mound we could find and started to run along the solid embankment. The snow had been packed so tight by the wind it crunched under my boots, and Jack’s small feet barely left a dent.
We thought it would be fun to build a tunnel through the snow like an earthworm in the garden. Sliding down the drift like the huge slide at the fair, we chose a spot and began digging. Jack and I were scooping out handful after handful of snow, but it looked like we weren’t making a dent. At one point, I even tried taking my gloves off, so I could use my fingers better. Bad idea. The snow quickly turned my hands into frozen blocks of ice.
We had finally got our tunnel big enough for me to get inside if I scrunched up real tight, or for Jack to sit comfortably by the time Dad got back. I tried not to laugh at his funny clown face. His nose and cheeks were bright red, and he had snow in his mustache. Dad really should’ve covered his face. Maybe I needed to give him my scarf?
“Come on. I have to get you two to Mom’s, so I can finish. I already strapped your sled to the back rack. You’re both riding with me.”
I couldn’t wait to get to Grandma’s where it was warm. Cocoa and something to eat sounded good right now, too. My stomach had already started to growl. Dad lifted Jack up in front, and I climbed up behind him. My arms gripped his jacket and off we went. It was much faster than the sled ride. I had to squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face in dad’s back to protect them from the sting of the wind. Boy was I glad I hadn’t given Dad my scarf!
When we got to Grandma’s, she was waiting for us on her porch to help us strip off our snow crusted boots and clothes. Before we put on dry things, she rubbed us each down with a warm towel, straight from the dryer. The porch wasn’t heated, so I was colder standing there in my underwear than I had been outside! As soon as I got dressed, I ran inside to warm myself in front of the ginormous metal furnace. Jack was already there wrapped in a wool blanket. We stayed huddled together until Grandma brought us each a steaming cup of cocoa with marshmallows.
The first sip of the sweet chocolate burned my tongue, but I didn’t care. I could feel its soothing warmth all the way down. It was wonderful! Jack was loudly slurping his and started yawning soon after he emptied his mug.
“Don’t you want to eat something, Jack?”
Jerking his head up from his chest, he shook it once before slowly lowering it again. Grandma gently lifted him up and carried him to her bed.
Feeling my eyelids growing heavy as well, I laid my head on my blanket for just a minute. I planned to get up when Grandma returned and have a sandwich, but that didn’t happen. Later, I sorta remember someone placing a soft, stuffed animal in my arms, but it didn’t fully wake me up. I just figured Grandma must have remembered what I liked at naptime.
When I woke, I opened my eyes and saw the back of a small, shaggy head attached to a hairy-curled body in front of me. Sitting up, I immediately noticed hooves. It wasn’t a stuffed animal after all. Lying next to me under MY blanket was a sleeping calf.
“GRANDMA!” I called frantically.
“SHHH. Don’t get him riled up again,” Dad said sitting up from the La-Z-Boy by the stove.
“Why is this inside and what is it doing under my blanket?”
“His mom left him in the snow. He was freezing. You were warm. Say hello to your new bucket calf.”
“I wanted a cat.”
“Well, this is all you get. Meet Buster.”
Glaring at my dad, I stuck out my bottom lip and stared at the sleeping pile next to me.
His little body was jet black, but he had a white spot on the end of his rosy-pink nose. He was laying on his spindly legs, but I could see one of them had a white stripe above the black hoof. There was a puff of hair on the end of his tail and his ears stuck out like Jack’s. I had to admit, he was kinda cute.
Suddenly, his head moved and the little nose turned towards me, revealing large ebony eyes behind long fluttering lashes. We sat and stared at each other for what seemed like hours. All thoughts of a cat slowly disappeared. Buster. My Buster. On a cold, blustery snow day, I felt a fire light in my heart.
Author: Katie Yusuf
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