Reaching for White

i don’t know quite how to feel about the cold . i do know i dream of other places and of the world inside a snowflake . * from the movie ’an affair to remember’

Audra stepped onto the cement patio, the bitter wind scraping past her bare arms. She shuddered as her hair was whipped furiously around her plump cheeks, and smiled. The cold was something she could live without, but the snow, the snow was something else. It had coated the dirt road in front of her home and danced along the barks of the sycamore trees decorating her front and back yard. She laughed, turning to go back to the house so she could shove her feet haphazardly into a pair of fur boots.

The childish giggle that fell from her lips littered the air, and Audra lifted her arms acceptingly. She was hardly dressed for the weather but she couldn’t be bothered to care. The white skimpy dress she wore was meant for something else, another place, but that was no longer about to happen. The tights sticking to her thighs were torn in spots, the skin between the holes scraped and bruised. Her hair was a thick clot of auburn tangles, and for a moment they covered any imperfections and gave her the appearance of one who was free.

Audra was hardly free. If one were to look close enough they would see the dark patches all along her upper arms, and throat. They would see the torn skin just below her lower lip, and her swollen left eye. They would see that Audra was in fact not perfect; she was certainly not free.

A single snowflake landed on the tip of Audra’s nose and she smiled, wincing as the wound below her lip reopened and a trail of blood made its way down her chin. She opened her eyes, crossing them in order to look at the snowflake. If it hadn’t melted in almost an instant, she would’ve thought it looked like a crystal; unbreakable.

She wondered if it were true; or at least if Dr. Seuss’ stories were true. Could there really be a world in a snowflake? She wished it were, if it were possible she would transport herself into the snowflake live there and be happy. Because a world like that had to be happy. 

A world in constant ice, in constant white fluff. It had to be perfect. She closed her eyes again, letting her legs fold beneath her so that she could lay her frail skin in the melting ice. The touch had her aching but she couldn’t bring herself to move. If only there were a way to escape; to live inside a snowflake.

Audra lifted her arms to the sky, and reached for the white fluff. She reached towards the heaven, and the clouds. She reached for anything that would take her. The cold had her collapsing in on herself. Shaking, her body bled out into the snow, the heat leaving her until she turned blue. Her lips white as ice. 

White cotton snow covered her skin; burying her. She was hidden from the world, just a small bump in the road. Wheels solidified her choice as they cascaded over the ice sculpture on the road. For a brief moment, she found herself in a snowflake, in a place different than this. In a place of white.

Author's Note

Determine how you will. This piece made the good fiction list on Project FIction.

Reviews

[GTVile]

That was excellent. I really liked how you took the last moments and made them so full of rapture. Someone comes to the end of a journey, hopeful that the next destination is going to be someplace actually worth the terrible road to get there. I really enjoyed this.

[KAREN]

Loved it! She must have been abused, love how you let the snow bury and she finally was inside her snow flake! The imagery was great!!

[smalltownsympathies]

You are a fantastic writer! what beautiful images and descriptions! I don't have anything to critic, I enjoyed this immensely!