Tender

Cold. Unbearably, chillingly cold, it was as if I was buried under a mound of snow. The bench I sat on was layered with thin white frost, spreading out in all directions even on the pavement below and around it. The crystallized water showed a perfect lattice pattern, a series of crosses spreading out from the center of the ice like a silk woven decoration. Running my tender fingers upon it caused a temporary numbness, it was not excruciatingly cold but the ice still sent hibernal shocks through my fingers into my body, causing me to suddenly shiver and clutch the sides of my body tightly. My breath came out as vapor, the air instantly condensing and turning into colorless mist in the night. Nobody was around, I was left to a silent solitude as the glacial atmosphere continued to get colder, I was now rubbing my body, hoping to drive out the frost but to no avail, I was still shivering. I felt helpless, I had nowhere to go, nowhere to stay and nowhere to confine myself within except for the gelid expanse of the street, yet in this weather, I might as well be dead. Miniature tufts of snow started to fall from the night sky like hiemal stars, slowly floating down towards the Earth to cover it, embrace it with an icy, white coat. Still shaking, I lay down on my side, admiring the environment, lights hung up on houses, streetlights illuminating the gloomy streets, acting like lighthouses in the darkness of the little town. Slowly, the shivering slowed down, each snowflake seemed to fall slower and slower, until finally, forgetting the cold, the frost l fell into a consolation of darkness, a good nights sleep.

Aaron Wilson