Jackson Pearce - Cold Spell

(1947)

There were plenty of reasons to love winter.

Warm fireplaces. Stews. Christmastime. In her head she listed everything pleasant about the season, yet she still pulled a handmade quilt closer around her body, like a shield that could protect her.

It rarely snowed hereAtlanta usually settled for a motionless, quiet winter, with the sort of cold that crept into her bones and was hard to shake. Before Christmas the cold seemed a necessary price for the holiday, the presents, the celebration. Now in January, still months to go till spring, the weather was hateful. It felt like an enemy bearing down on her, something not to be trusted. Something she should fight.

There were plenty of reasons to love winter, but Dalia did not.

She shivered, let one hand slink out from under the quilt to the end tableit was beaten and dented, one leg steadied with the X volume of an otherwise-missing encyclopedia set. Her fingers fumbled to pick up a penny, which she held over the candle for a moment, till it got just hot enough to burn her fingers. She leaned toward the frostbit window and pressed the penny against it for a moment, then pulled it away. It left a perfect, watery circle, like a ships porthole. She peered out. Was he there?

Wait.

Wait.

There he isat the window on the other side of their apartment buildings courtyard, only a dozen or so feet away but separated by air and cold. A penny pressed to the glass, and then an eye with long lashes looking out. Green, bright, warm, the sort of color that made her think of grass and the sweet-scented Southern heat of August. She smiled, and through the frost she could see his face break into the same expression. He pulled back from the glass for a moment, and then the penny returned. He dragged it along the frost, creating a shapean arrow, pointing up, an unspoken question: Can I come over?

She traced a y for yes with her penny, then leaned away from the window, buried her arms back underneath her quilt. It wouldnt take him long to arrivethe building was shaped like a squared-off U, the bottom of the letter composed of overflowing storage lockers for each floor. It was difficult to cut through those and no fun to walk downstairs, through the courtyard, and back up six flights of stairs, so they usually took a shortcut across the roof, through the garden their parents had planted together ages ago.

He didnt understand why, exactly, she was so reluctant to go outside this time of year, but it didnt matter. He was willing to come to her. They played board games and he made up stories by the fire until her parents began to look between him and the clock sternly. Then hed go home, and shed hold her breath until she saw his face in the window, confirming hed made it through the cold.

Or at least, thats how it used to be.

Now they sat by the fire, a largely untouched board game between them, watching each other, smiling at each other, and recentlyvery recentlyleaning in to kiss each other when Dalias mother wasnt looking. It was terrifying and wonderful, kissing your best friend. Dalia cast a wary eye at her mother folding laundry in the kitchen. Theyd have a moment, a few moments, maybe, when her mother went to put the clothes away.

Dalia smiled and shivered, and this time it wasnt from the cold. She dropped the penny back in its place on the end table and stared at the fire, waiting for him to knock.

A moment passed.

Another.

Another.

She frowned and leaned back toward the window to see if there was another message, if he was trying to get her attentionmaybe his mother wouldnt let him come, or maybe he couldnt find his coat though those things rarely held him up for long. But no, he wasnt there, and the arrow was slowly being devoured by new frost.

Another moment.

Dalia rose, pulled the quilt closer to her body, walked to the door anxiously, and looked out the peephole. The hallway was freshly painted, with shiny new gold knobs on all the doors. No movement, no sign of him

Whatre you doing? her mother asked, raising her voice to be heard over her favorite radio show.

He said he was coming over Dalia started, trying to sound bored, like it was nothing.

Of course, her mother sighed. She liked him well enough, but he made her nervousall boys around Dalia made her nervous, especially poor boys like him. Dalia walked into the kitchen and slumped down at the table, watching her mothers hands grab and fold sweaters, quick and precise. Take away the fabric and her hands would be whirling about, as if she were dancing or casting spells.

The radio sputtered, and static filled the air. Dalias mother groaned and walked to it, popping it on the side a few times. It behaved itself for a moment, but then the static continued, growing louder, till it sounded like wind through the speaker.

It wasnt until her mother looked up and gasped that Dalia realized the wind sound wasnt coming from the radioit was coming from outside. Wind streaked through the buildings courtyard, throwing trash and dead leaves into the air. The windowpanes rattled as if they might shatter, and fingers of cold inched their way across the apartment and into the kitchen, wrapping themselves around Dalias cheeks, neck, and ears.

Look at that, her mother said, walking to the window.

Snow. It was snowing.

Not the thick, fat flakes that were perhaps the only friendly-looking thing winter had to offer. Tiny flakes that whirled around like bits of ash. More and more of them until Dalia could barely see his window across the courtyard. It felt as if they were being buried, even on the sixth floor.

Your poor father. I hope it lets up before he has to walk home, her mother said absently, then returned to the kitchen as if this were nothing. Dalia, however, was certain her heart was stopping.

He could be on the roof, trapped in the storm. There was nowhere to hide up there, nothing but rosebushes and a rickety trellis. Its just snow, its just snow, theres no reason to be scared. Just snow, frozen rain, nothing more.

But even as she tried to calm herself, she grabbed her shoes and yanked them on. She ran for the door, tangling herself in her coat and pulling the quilt around her shoulders. Her mother called at her to stop, but Dalia was already in the hall, feet pounding up the steps. Two floors till the roof, and hed be up there, hed be right by the door. Hed laugh at her for her worry and step inside, and then theyd let their fingers link together as they walked back downstairs. The wind howled; was it growing stronger? It sounded like an animal, like a wild thing that would dash inside and devour her as soon as she opened the roof access door.

She grabbed the knob, winced in preparation, then forced the door open. Snow poured in, knocking her a few steps backward. Dalia gritted her teeth and found her footing, leaning into the wind to step onto the roof. She looked up, ignoring the stinging pain of the air whipping her hair into her eyes. There was the trellis, bits of it breaking free and flying off the buildings edge into the street below. All the empty pots were tipped over, leaving only the rosebushes; the gusts tugged at their empty vines and thorns but couldnt sweep them away. Where was he? She yelled his name, but it was lost in the snow.

He must have turned around and gone back home. She took a few more steps, all the way to the trellis. Yes. Hes gone back home; hes fine. If I can walk through this, however slowly, so can he. He turned around and went home and

A shape, a figure.