Snowball Fight

MARISSA

“Look Mommy, I can make snow angels!” Annie called out excitedly. She flung her little body onto the ground and started demonstrating before I could say a word about it.

Luckily, she had the hood up on her coat and unless she went completely crazy, she wouldn’t get her clothes beneath it wet. “I see, baby. Well done! That’s a perfect snow angel.”

She beamed up at me, rolling over to repeat her movements on an untouched patch of grass next to the first angel. I laughed, happy that I was getting to see how much she enjoyed the snow.

Denise, Annie and I had decided to take a walk in one of Boston’s massive parks after a light snow had fallen. Snow was still a novelty to Annie and if I were being completely honest with myself, it made me feel slightly excited too.

“You guys have been here nearly a year, you’d think she’d be used to the snow by now,” Denise commented, smiling as she watched Annie’s antics on the ground.

“Nah, we arrived toward the end of winter last year. She didn’t get to see this bit,” I told her. “Besides, even that light snow earlier was way more than we ever got in Texas. This is still new to both of us.”

“I guess,” Denise shrugged. “I wish I could say the same, but it doesn’t excite me anymore. It did when I first arrived, but that was five years ago now. The only thing that excites me about snow now is knowing it will come to an end.”

“But if it ends,” I said, batting my lashes innocently. “Then how will we have snowball fights?”

Annie chose that second to release the snowball she’d been working on, hitting Denise on her upper arm. Compacted snow exploded all over her coat and scarf, reducing Annie to a fit of giggles. “Aunty Dee! I got you!”

“I see that, squirt.” She started working on brushing the ice off, but then gave up and dropped to her haunches to start forming a snowball of her own. “But, this means war. I hope you know what you just got yourself into.”

Annie squealed with laughter and ran to duck behind me as Denise launched the ball in her direction. Before I really had time to realize what was happening, Denise and Annie were in a full blown snowball fight.

Neither of them were compacting the balls enough to hurt, and with the negligible amount of snow on the ground, it wasn’t like they could make them huge. When one of Annie’s balls hit me on the calf, I joined in. “Oh, now you’ve gone and done it, baby girl! Be prepared.”

Snowballs flew around me for the next fifteen minutes, until we were all laughing too hard to keep at it. Denise threw her hands up in the air first. “I surrender, I surrender. You’re the snowflake queen today, Annie.”

“I won,” Annie yelled, her eyes wide with excitement as she zoomed around us with her arms flung open. “I won.”

Denise elbowed me lightly as Annie ran circles around us. “Do you happen to have anything on you we can give her as a prize?”

“Nope, she’ll have to take a hug,” I winked, but Denise nodded her understanding. When Annie ran up to us, we both sank to our knees and gently tackled her back to the ground as we hugged her.

Her laughter rang out in the cool air, breaking the silence that hung like a veil around us. I supposed it was too cold for most people to be out taking a walk in the park. We weren’t most people, though. Our walk was far from over. All three of us enjoyed walking in the park, come rain, snow or shine.

Annie took off at a run towards a play area right ahead of us, calling out over her shoulder. “Mommy, I’ll be just over there.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Stay where we can see you.” Denise and I strolled up to the playground, watching as Annie tried gripping a low bar, wearing mittens.

Denise turned to me, narrowing her eyes slightly in thought. “You know, I don’t think you’ve ever told me why you moved out here in the first place. I realized it earlier when you talked about how you never had snow in Texas and so all this was still new to you.”

“I haven’t told you?” I asked, feigning disbelief. “I’m sure I have.”

There wasn’t much I didn’t tell Denise about, but that story was going to have to wait. Denise shook her head, just as I knew she would since I’d always diverted the topic when it used to come up after we first met. “We just wanted a fresh start.”

The generic answer was the same one I always gave when pushed. “It was time. I got an opportunity here and I took it.”