baronessekat | 2014 writing challenge

Growing up my parents told me I had an imaginary playmate that only I only ever interacted with in the wintertime. I couldn’t understand why they called him imaginary. I saw him clear as day. I could touch him and the snowballs he threw at me were certainly well constructed and pretty solid. He was my best friend and confidant. He was Jack and he was real.

The adults never understood why I would rejoice with the coming of winter. Why, unlike just about everyone they knew, I delighted in the sight of snow clouds on the horizon. While my parents grumbled about heating bills, and my brother Gi would complain about having to shovel the walk, I would race about looking for my boots and mittens and scarf. They would just give that smile that grownups give little kids when I tried to explain that with the snow, he came back and with the spring he would have to leave. After a while I gave up trying to explain.

Grownups were stupid anyway.

As I got older, he aged as well. From an impish little boy, to the lean and gawky stage of pre-adolescence, to the rakish teen to the far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good man, I watched him grow up with me. His pale blond hair changed lengths depending on the year, but always seemed to have a mind of its own. His deep blue eyes always held a touch of mystery and mischief that I always found appealing. The corner of his mouth was almost always turned up slightly in a smirk.

He was also my first. My first real kiss. The first that I ever gave my heart to. The first I gave my body to. Perhaps that’s why why I could never commit fully to a relationship. I knew that he and I could never be together as others saw a traditional relationship, but that never stopped me from loving him, from wanting him, from comparing all others to him. And if, as I suspected, there might be others in his life as there were mine, I never felt a twinge of jealousy. Screw traditional. I was happy and I didn’t give a damn what others thought.

That was the reason I stood in my backyard, heavy sweater around my shoulders, looking up into the night sky, watching the clouds roll in. I never needed to hear a weather report to know when this day would come each year. I knew. I knew at the age of 5 and I knew now, at the age of 38. Tonight would come the first snows of winter.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The cold of the air and the sharp taste of snow filled my head and I sighed. As the sigh finished, I felt his hands on my shoulders and relaxed into his touch. His strong hands moved down my arms and wrapped around my waist. A small purr escaped my mouth as I felt his cool lips trace along the side of my neck.

“You came,” I whispered.

“You had doubts?” he asked softly, the faint touch of a Germanic accent coloring his voice.

I couldn’t help but shrug. “The kind of year I’ve been having, I no longer assume.” I turned in his arms and wrapped mine around his neck, looking up into those deep blue eyes. “But I am very glad you to see you.” I couldn’t help but notice the slight addition of wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and that there was a touch of silver at this temples intermixed with the blond. If anything, those slight changes made him more appealing to me.

He lifted a hand and touched my cheek, his eyes scanning my face. A frown came to his lips, small but I saw it. “I’m sorry I could not come sooner. Rules are rules.”

I tried to offer a reassuring smile. “I know. After 33 years, I know the rules very well and I know that there are just some you do not and cannot fight or break. Do not trouble yourself. The past is the past. As others of your kind have told me, live for the now.”

He laughed at that. “Yes, we are a very ‘now’ kind of people, aren’t we? But you have to admit, we are a lot of fun. Unlike that angelic crowd you hang out with.”

I smiled. “Don’t knock them, they mean well and do a lot of good. But I don’t want to talk about work. We have 7 months to catch up on.”

“That we do,” he said with a grin as he reached down and scooped me up in his arms. I couldn’t hold back the laugh as he carried me across the yard and into my house.

I don’t care what other people think. To me, the first snow of winter is always the best day of the year.

Topic: first snow