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An Angel in the Snow
An Angel in the Snow
The sirens blare, lights flash, and Rose is not moving. Thomas looks at her with wetted eyes. She is splayed out in the snow like one of the snow angels she used to love to make. Rose’s always pristine golden hair is spread out on the ground behind her like a halo, furthering her appearance as a heavenly being.
This isn’t my fault, Thomas tells himself. Yet the more he tries to reassure himself about his innocence, the more the words taste like a lie in his mouth. Thomas and Rose had been sledding on the large hill by their home all day when the accident happened. The snow which had been a fluffy powder when it fell last week was now little more than sheets of ice, melting during the day only to freeze again at night. The conditions were not the best for sledding, but Thomas had not cared. He begged his big sister, Rose, day in and day out to sled with him, and after two long days of his beseeching, she had finally acquiesced. Thomas had dragged Rose up the large hill by their home upon which a ramp had been fashioned out of a pile of snow. That ramp and the jump it promised had been calling to Thomas every day since some neighborhood kids had erected it.
Looking at the event from the present, the descent down the hill went by in a blur. Thomas and Rose accelerated towards the ramp at a frightening face, yet all Thomas felt was the icy wind biting at his face. Fear and adrenaline built up within Thomas as they neared their destination. The sled went off the ramp, and in an instant, Thomas was weightless; he was flying. A feeling of bliss was all he felt for an instant. Then, the ground began to get closer. The frigid earth was approaching rapidly, racing toward Thomas. Only a single thought repeated throughout his head ad nauseum, THIS WAS A MISTAKE!
Thomas hit the cold ground with the force of a NASCAR crashing into a safety barrier. He heard a great tearing sound like a great sheet of cloth being hewn in two. A sudden pain shot through Thomas as he slid across the icy terrain. After skidding across the ground for a few seconds, Thomas felt a strange warmth emanating from his left knee. Delicately, he lifted his leg and nearly fainted from what he saw. His snowpants had been completely ripped off at the thigh and his left knee was oozing blood. Averting his eyes to not make himself sick, Thomas looked back toward the ramp. There, near the sled he had been thrown off during the landing, Thomas saw his sister.
Putting aside his pain, Thomas shakily stood up and trudged towards Rose, who was laying eerily still on the ground. He had called out to her yet received no response. Once Thomas had made it over to Rose, he knew his sister was not well. Rose’s eyes were open, and she was looking up, staring at the sky with unseeing eyes. Unease grew within Thomas, and he ran to get help. He ran so fast that his injured knee screamed out for him to stop. He ran so fast that his eyes began to water from the biting cold. He ran so fast that he could not feel his feet touch the earth anymore as he flew towards the nearest house to call 911.
The ambulance found Thomas at his sister’s side when they arrived. One of the paramedics checked his knee while the other felt Rose’s neck for pulse. He turned towards the other EMT and gave a solemn shake of his head. Thomas did not know how to feel. His heart sank into his gut as he processed a thousand emotions running through his mind at once. The rest of the world fell away as Thomas looked upon his sister’s face; peaceful like an angel, now returned to its heavenly home.
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This piece was inspired by the anxiety I have felt when playing with my siblings outside in the snow. The image of one of them injured or worse in the snow was so seared into my mind that I needed to put it into words.