Thatcher

On January 1st, 1973, I turned 10 years old. I woke up in my bed, looked at the morning light that came in through my bedroom, and noticed it was snowing outside. A thick blanket of it was covering every field, every house, every barn, every tree, and every inch of air I could see. It was like I could see for miles. I always had this small childhood suspicion that I was king of everything when it snowed, and everything made sense when the sky was white for as far as I could see. It was as if this was life, simple and fit, the way it was supposed to be. 1

Then I remember thinking how old I had gotten. To the day, I had lived a decade, and my accomplishments were many, but they were little and petty. I walked over from the bed to the window sill and sat on my knees, resting my arms and chin on the sill, looking at the flakes up closely. I was 8 years from being a full grown man, and I had done nothing but play board games and gone to school for around 6 years. Surely life was greater than this, and as soon as I thought this thought, I felt a grinning feeling inside of me. 2

I jumped up from the floor and ran into the hall, stopping short of the stairs to listen to any sounds that may be sounding inside the house. The parents were still asleep and this only made the grinning man inside of me grow wide eyes of anxiousness. Still in my pajamas, I ran downstairs, grabbed my jacket, pulled on my socks, shoved my feet into my boots, swung the door open, and ran out into the snow. I looked up, and I could feel the snowflakes land on my face. My eyes felt so cold and vulnerable to the careless flakes that were falling around them. 3

As my head faced the heavens, I heard a distant sound. A scraping sound, and I looked in its direction. I spotted a small, long black spot among the white abyss of my neighborhood. It looked like a distant neighbor scraping snow off of his walkway, and the grinning man inside of me filled my arms and legs, and I ran straight in his direction. As I crossed the road, I spotted a pair of lights coming in my direction, but I knew I could beat it, and I did. A small white van nearly skimmed the back of my jacket, and I felt alive, so alive that all I could do was keep running towards the far away neighbor who was growing wider and taller by the second. 4

As I continued to run towards him he seemed to have heard my thundering feet, and looked in my direction. I then realized it was a woman, a young woman and the most beautiful woman I have seen in my long childhood. She dropped her snow shovel and I jumped right on top of her, both of us landing in the snow, her hood fell back revealing her auburn hair, and with every instinct in me, I kissed her. I kissed her with all my might, and enjoyed every short second of it. It was the most exhilarating and pure feeling I had yet experienced. Her voice sounded in a surprised moan, and she pushed me off of her, and I fell into the foot high snow beside her. She looked at me with large surprised eyes, and I looked back at her, half grinning, panting from all the running I’d done to get there. After a short moment of me looking at her beautiful eyes and pretty freckled skin, she smirked her soft lips and breathed out a strong and innocent laugh, and I let out the huge grin that was in me for nearly 10 minutes now, and said to her “Happy Birthday”, and ran straight home, looking at the white and rolling hills of farmland that surrounded me. I remember thinking that I had finally started living, and boy was it good. 5