Weasel, Part 3

I remember that night that I laid in my bed awake for some time thinking of the day. A actually just about a span of five minuets not really the whole day. It was just from the start of lunch until the time when Weasel ran from me. I replayed the whole scene in my head so many times trying to figure out what she was thinking and as well as to find anything that I had said that could have been wrong or in some way offensive to her. With the amount of times that I had replayed the scene so far the only thing that I could see was, well, nothing. I just couldn't see it.
I remembered as well as I could the scene and I even went to the fact of what I might have done that I did not notice which was the most terrifying thing. I could have done anything without my knowledge. I shivered just thinking about it.
The next day I woke to find my yard covered in pure white. It looked like a white cloud had fallen and covered the whole neighbor hood, with the exception of the streets which were still black. You could almost paint the picture by getting a white sheet of paper and putting a straight black streak through the middle.
As a child I loved snow, mostly because if we got enough of it we would be off of school, but on that day I really didn't want to be off of school. I wanted to see Weasel. But there had to have been two feet of the stuff out in my yard. Then my mom walked into my room with what was usually good news.
"Alright no school." She walked out and I just waited. It seemed like there was no way that I would see Weasel but as I have said before I was slow as a child and my mind didn't reach very far in the fact that I never could find away around anything unless it was almost right in front of my face, and that sometimes means literal. And on that day it was literal.
I went outside to play in the snow with all the crap that parents made me wear, kids don't question it just wear it, and she walked by. She was wearing something different for a change, well kind of. She was wearing a black heavy jacket and the same blue toboggan. She was still wearing the same jeans and shoes but as she walked closer over to me I saw that she was still wearing the striped jacket under the other black one. It was a North Face jacket that had been increasingly popular over the striped jacket that I had seen her wear everyday since I had met her, which had only been what three days at the time?
At first I didn't really notice that I she was walking towards me until she was right at my face. It was then that I noticed that she was walking up to me and then I got nervous. With all that time that I had been thinking about what I was going to say to her when I finally got to talk to her I just realized that I hadn't actually had anything planned to say. What could I say? She had kissed me, sort of, then just ran off. I wasn't mad at her but I had questions.
"Hey," she said softly when she had finally stopped walking.
"Uh, hey," and again I felt like a fool with how much crap I was wearing. Compared to what I was wearing, she was wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts, metaphorically speaking.
"I'm sorry for, you know, what I did yesterday. I didn't mean anything by it."
"Oh well, it's okay." It seemed like I could never say anything right. Then there was a moment of silence where we both thought of how to say whatever we had in mind next. To tell the truth I was waiting her to speak first in order not to continue to kill myself in how foolish I was. There was a few things that I wanted to say but I couldn't phrase it right in my head.
"So why are you dressed like, like that?"
"Oh this," I looked down at the huge jacket I was wearing. "My mom is kind of protective of me." Weasel looked down at her clothes and scratched her arms. I was about to ask her about her scratching her arms but I chickened out. I was so stupid. she didn't say anything for a few moments and I stared blankly at her. I remember in detail everything around me. The wind was blowing in a quiet whisper in unison with the soft sounds of other children off to the far right of me playing in the snow. then there was that slight sound of Weasel scratching her arms. The sound of her jacket rubbing against her arm.
The awkwardness of the situation slowly rose with each passing second. She didn't say anything but she started to shuffle her feet back and forth in the snow when she stopped rubbing her arms. I began moving awkwardly as well, I crossed my arms and put one of my legs across the other. It seemed like an hour before I finally decided to speak.
"So, what do you have planned for the rest of your day off?" Not a bad question and if I was lucky it might start a longer conversation or maybe get her to start talking again. Key phrase is if I was lucky.
"Um, nothing." I was unlucky. She didn't even ask me what I had planned? I mean most people did, right? Of course Weasel wasn't like most people. She was... different, but in a good way. I guess.
I was getting a little nervous but then she stopped shuffling her feet and didn't reach to scratch her arms. I guess that she was either getting nervous or she was either getting more comfortable. Both of those answers could either be good or bad.
"Do you like snow?" She asked. She was so random, kind of. I mean the question kind of fit but I wouldn't have thought of that at the moment.
"Yeah I guess. It is annoying after a while since we get it so much." I answered.
"I've never seen snow." She replied. then she started looking around at the snow covered ground and houses with white roofs. Being as native and as young as I was, the thought of a kid my age not ever seeing the sight of snow puzzled me. I used to love snow as a child and I had seen it often. So when Weasel told me that she had never seen snow before I almost felt sad for her, even though I was always getting on myself about being foolish.
My thoughts of sadness for her didn't last long because Weasel, believe it or not, began to speak.
"What do you do in the snow? It doesn't seem that fun." The question, at least to me was quite obvious. "Its so cold."
"Well, now that you mention it I don't really know. I guess I just kind of.... well play." when I finished my sentence Weasel looked at me in such a strange way.
"Well, what do you mean play? Like what do you play?" I didn't really know. When I looked back at other times that I went out in the snow, the only thing that I did was walk around. It sounds boring but it was entertaining to me considering that I didn't really have anything to do. During the week at school I didn't do much besides do homework. I didn't have many friends so when I had days that I was off of school I spent it inside doing something for my mom or dad and on occasion I walked. I would just walk to the school and back but I did that over and over until I decided that I was tired. During my walks I would think. There was anything particularly that I thought about just things that happened to be on my mind. It was odd, I know, but I enjoyed it for the most part.
"Well, I.... walk."
"You walk?" Weasel replied almost sarcastically.
"Uh, yeah." She looked quizzically at me for a long moment. It was almost a disapproving look or something. I couldn't really describe the look. It was a mix of so many emotions disapproval, confusion, and intrigue. But the thing about Gabriela was that sometimes what I thought might have been one emotion could have been the total opposite. Just like in that situation.
"then are you going for a walk now?" Well considering I didn't have anything else planned for myself, I decided that it would be good for me to go on a walk with her. I was curious about her. she intrigued me and I was eager to learn abut her.
"Uh, yeah." Silence followed. I couldn't tell if Weasel was waiting for something or if she was trying to think of something to say. Her face was impassive, unreadable. But that wasn't saying much. I wasn't very good at reading faces when I was young. to tell the truth I'm not that good at in now but that is another subject.
The almost ominous silence continued for long moments. The wind blew the trees making the snow slowly fall in a white, powdery cloud. In the distance the sound of kids and teenagers playing in the snow grew louder as more and more people joined in the symphony of voices. Then a split second crack! came from a nearby tree's weakened branches as one finally gave into the weight of the snow. Another gust of wind came blowing the snow off the trees. I listened to the sounds of the winter snow as the bitter breeze flowed like a stream at me. That was when, at last, Weasel spoke.
"Well? Aren't you gonna start walking?" Weasel questioned. Every time that she spoke I had to question the motive of it. she was so blunt and yet she didn't mean to be. She was just naturally like that. Even her tone was just a natural thing. She couldn't really help that she sounded annoyed of angered at anything you said. Yes, this at times did cause simple problems for me in our friendship, no relationship, that were easily fixed. And yes, there were times where she actually sounded pleased with something or her face held the expression of gratification. she wasn't always look like she hated everything. that would be ridiculous.
"Oh, uh," You see my question was simply this, was she wanting me to leave her and go on a walk or just to ask her something. and if she wanted me to ask her something what did she want me to ask her? She baffled me and now I think that that was one of the things that attracted me to her. That and many, many other things. "Yeah, I guess I am." I finished.
I stood for another short moment of hesitation then I slowly moved one foot forward. After I didn't see anything from her cacographic face I took another cautious step, then another, and another until finally I began walking down my snow eclipsed driveway and then onto the ice ridden sidewalk that lead to the school and towards Weasel's house. I walked slowly and trained my ears to search for any little sound that would announce that Weasel was following me. I walked slowly and carefully making sure that I was not making any noise as I walked.
After a few minuets there was nothing. The only sounds were the belittling sound of the kids playing and of the soft, bitterly cold wind but that was all. I stopped on the ice and listened more carefully but it was to no avail. Then I shuffled my feet and turned myself around, and with my surprise, I found Weasel walking directly behind me. Her face almost touching mine as I turned around.
For a few seconds my heart raced and I was paralyzed even though I knew that it was in fact Gabriela that was following me. But still I could not hold back my scream.
"AHHHHH!" I only wish I could have seen how completely and utterly foolish my face looked then. It must have been terrifying for Weasel to make such a disgusted face she made once I stopped my shriek of terror. That also could have been for how loud my scream was. It rang out over the trees making even the birds fly away as if I was in some sort of Hollywood film.
the moments that followed were silent. The kids voices ceased to make noise and the wind seemed to stop as if it was frightened as I had been. You may know the feeling when your brother or sister had jumped out from behind the door of your room as you walked in not expecting anything of the sort. You could almost say that that was what I felt. Almost. I can almost positively say that what I experienced was a little more terrifying. think that your brother or sister had deep, dark circles under their eyes that gave them that depressed or solemn look and then have the rest of their face be completely straight faced. That may not be as scary as you think but wait until one day that you see the face of someone like Weasel. You will be surprised.
Anyway, let us continue with the rest of the story.
Once I had finally calmed down and Weasel's face returned to her normal state of equanimity I explained quickly, "sorry I didn't know it was you."
"It's fine," Weasel responded looking down to the white ground. she thought it was her fault that I scream and she felt bad for it even though it wasn't a big deal. She was always that way. she thought that everything was her fault and that everything was a big deal. Now that all of these circumstances have past that I am informing you about, it is so painfully obvious of why she did what she did. And I wish I had talked to her about it earlier than I did. Maybe some of the events wouldn't have happened. But that was all a fantasy.
Then, knowing that she wasn't going to reply and that I was going to fall into another cycle of awkwardness, I walked on. My feet crunched the snow as my steps fell to the frozen ground. the wind blew softly again and slowly I began hearing the children shouting again. It was almost peaceful.
With every step I took I also heard an echoing step behind me. It was light, barely crunching the snow, but loud enough that I could hear it. I knew what she was doing. she was purposefully making noise so that I didn't scare her, or rather, so she didn't scare me. Even then she was looking out for me. But the ext event was the most shocking thing.
As I came close to Weasel's house I heard something. It was like a scraping sound, metal against metal, or ice. the sound grew and grew. Then there was a sequence of events that came into play. The first was the sight of a black silhouette that was down at the end of the street. It seemed to be a car that was down the street and was moving quite fast. In fact it looked like it was moving down the street towards me. Then I hear someone yell something. I couldn't make out what it was saying but I figured that it was talking to me. So I turned around and looked for the voice. Weasel was standing there with her mouth open like she was the one yelling but I still didn't understand. That was when I turned back around and looked back at the car. It was surprisingly close. Like almost about one hundred or so feet from me. Next, there was a pressure against my shoulder. It was pushing me away from the road and towards the snow covered grass. I hit the ground with a "umph" as wheels screeched followed by another "umph." At first I moved my head back and forth then I finally saw a shape beside me. I didn't know who it was and I couldn't really make out what the shape was but it looked similar to a person. That person was laying in the snow beside me unmoving.
Black circles filled my eyes and I slowly fell asleep.

Author's Note

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