Winter Soliloquy

A short story I wrote about Winter :)

Stanley was  a boy who loved sunshine.  He loved Summer, he loved Spring and he loved Autumn.  Sunny days made him happy.  He loved the feel of warmth on his skin, the brilliant blue skies and the fluffy white clouds that would float lazily through.

“Good morning, Stanley!” said his neighbour, Mr. Cricket, who was doing some gardening as Stanley walked past, “Lovely day today, isn’t it? ”

“Yes, Mr. Cricket!” said Stanley, “It is glorious!”

It seemed that this was the trend.  Everyone loved the sunshine and nice warm days.  It made people happy.  He never heard anyone complain about a nice, sunny day.

But as with many good things, it eventually had to come to an end.  As Stanley lived in Australia, when May clicked over to June, Autumn also shifted into Winter.

Days that were once warm and bright, became cold and gloomy. Wind howled, the sky became grey, the days became shorter.  As soon as Winter began, Stanley would start wishing for Spring and the return of sunny days.

“What a miserable day we’re having!” said Mr. Cricket, as he was shivering down the street one day.

“I sure miss Summer!” said Stanley.

And that seemed to be the trend. People grizzled about Winter.  Nobody liked it being dark, cold and wet.

            That was the way it was.

Or so Stanley thought, until one Winter’s day, Stanley met someone who would shatter his preconceived notions.

            One day, when Stanley was doing some bouldering at the local bouldering gym (bouldering is a little bit like rock climbing, but without a harness), and during one of his rests, he was sitting next to a pretty girl with short brown hair.            Stanley decided to strike up a conversation.

            “Freezing today!” he said.

            “Yes, it is cold,” agreed the girl.

            Stanley introduced himself, and found out the girl’s name was Jess.

            “I can’t wait until Winter is over,” said Stanley.

            “I like Winter,” said Jess.

            Stanley paused.

            “What did you say?” he asked.

            “I like Winter,” said Jess, “It’s my favourite season.”

            Stanley was stunned.  He had never heard anyone say that Winter was their favourite season before!

            “Why?” said Stanley.

            “Lots of reasons,” said Jess, “For example, I can exercise a lot and I don’t sweat.  Hot chocolates taste better.  It’s great!”

            Stanley just sat there dumbstruck, as her words slowly permeated into his brain, shaking things up inside.

            “Jess,” said Stanley, “You are the first person who has ever told me that they liked Winter!  This is very inspiring to me.  Hearing you say this, makes me want to try liking Winter as well!”

            Stanley stood up.

            “It was lovely chatting to you, Jess,” said Stanley, “You have possibly changed my life forever.”

            “My pleasure,” said Jess.

            Stanley bid the beautiful maiden farewell and immediately ran home to ponder.

 

            Could he love Winter?  With its darkness, its sharp, biting winds, its heavy rains.

            He kept thinking of Jess.  She loved Winter.  There was hope.

            Stanley continued to ponder and ruminate.

            Many weeks passed.  He never stopped trying, he never gave up hope.  Then one day…

            It was 7:30am on Saturday morning and much of the town was still asleep.  Stanley was walking to the train station on the way to his tai chi class in the city.  As he walked along the road, he suddenly smelt the heavenly aroma of baking bread.  It was lovely!  It put him in a good mood.  He looked up at the sky.  It was grey and stark.  The trees were bare.  The air was cold, and crisp.

            And then he realised something.

This ‘morning’ that he was experiencing, was beautiful.

He looked at everything and began to fall in love…

            With Winter.

            Stanley realised that he was having an extremely pleasant walk to the station.  There was beauty in this scene, and he was noticing it for the first time.  A thought occurred to him.

            Of all the seasons, Winter is the one that is most unique.  Spring, Summer, Autumn, although they each have their own distinct features, there is some crossover where they blend together and have similarities.  Three seasons with varying degrees of warmth.  But not Winter.  Winter is unique.  There is no mistaking a true Winter’s day with any other season.  Winter is the season that does its own thing.  Winter is the season that nobody likes (well nobody that Stanley knew of besides Jess!), yet it still continues to do its own thing.

            And that is when it happened.

            Stanley began to admire Winter!

            Where once there was disdain, there now was appreciation.

            Stanley exhaled and watched the condensation that came out of his mouth.  It felt magical, like he was a fire breathing dragon.  He started skipping along the street, unable to contain his joy and loved the fact that he wasn’t getting the least bit sweaty!

            Winter was beautiful!  He saw it now!

 

            That night, when Stanley got home, he immediately turned on his computer.  He hadn’t even changed out of his clothes yet!  He was on a mission.  He loved Winter now, and wanted to write a blog entry about it.  He wanted to sing out to the world about how Winter was alright!  “Good” even!

            He tapped away and the words flowed forth like water from a burst dam.  When he was finally done, he was exhausted.  He collapsed in front of the computer, face on the keyboard, and fell asleep.

 

That night, in a far off a place no mortal could ever reach, sat two entities.  One was a beautiful Goddess, named Lady Soliloquy, and the other was her friend named Bert.  He was an abominable snowman, but a miniature one, that just came up to hip-height.

Lady Soliloquy, had long silver blonde hair and wore a white tunic with blue trimming.  She was the Goddess of Winter.  She was currently using a laptop computer she had procured from the human world and was browsing some funny animal videos on the internet.

Bert was also using the internet, but he was using a 7-inch tablet, because he was smaller and that was ample size for him.

            “Lady Soliloquy!” Bert called out suddenly, “Come hither!”

            “What is it?” asked Lady Soliloquy, and she came over.

            Bert said nothing, but merely handed her the tablet.  It was opened at a blog entitled “The moment I fell in love with Winter.”

            Lady Soliloquy read the entry and the more she read, the more she smiled, until by the end she was practically bursting with happiness.

            She wiped a tear that had trickled down her cheek.

            “That is wonderful,” said Lady Soliloquy, “It is so nice to be appreciated.”

            Then she handed the tablet back to Bert and glided over to the window, which she swung open, letting in the fresh, night air.

            “What are you doing?” said Bert.

            “I’m going to pay Stanley a visit,” said the Goddess, “I want to thank him personally.”

            “What will you do?”

            “It involves beauty and adventure.”

            “Why don’t you use the door, like normal people?”

            Lady Soliloquy smiled. “Because it is much cooler to fly out of a window.”

            And with that, the Goddess flew out of her palace in the Northern Heavens and flew towards the mortal realm to thank a young boy who had very recently fallen in love with the coldest and to some, the most beautiful season of them all.

Reviews

[sohadtolba]

It is a nice story. I have some comments

You eliminate the 'said' you dont need to mention much
There is no comma before words "who, where, why"
I like how people should be objective in seeing things. How he changed his mind from hating to loving winter was a very marvelous way to explain the concept of using different perspectives. I love all seasons and I see in every season its beauty.. I always choose to look at the bright side of things. I wish others would do so too... Instead of looking at the empty spaces and crying our their luck, they should look at the other benefits or blessing they have got. In everything in life and nature has its own beauty if we just gave it a chance to see well.

Thank you for sharing the story.

[thuaners]

thank you so much for the feedback! :)