5/3/2008

I've been going through some of my old computer files, trying to clear up some space and I came across this file. I wrote it for my Freshman McBride class in the style of The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.

A Winter’s Day

Snow never comes to Georgia. In Jonesboro, at 14136 Briarbay St., I sit in the living room, listening to weather reports on the radio while Mama cleans the kitchen. The biggest snowstorm in twenty years has hit the west coast, the weatherman says. But will it snow here? Will I ever get to go sledding or make snow angels or snowmen, like I’ve read about? No. Because snow never comes to Georgia.

Michael and Peter, my twin older brothers who always gang up on me and are inseparable, burst through the doorway. They have just gotten back from school. I do not go to school because I am too young. Next year, Mama says, you will be old enough and I will teach you at home. But next year is so far away. I have already learned how to read. Mama says I am smart, but if I am so smart why can I not start school now?

Michael and Peter shiver, trying to warm up. It is really cold out there, Peter says. Yes, Michael echoes, maybe it will snow. I laugh. Haven’t I been waiting for snow ever since September? It is January and snow still has not come. How can Michael think it will come now? I have given up hoping for snow.

After dinner, Daddy reads to us from the Bible. Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. When he tucks me into bed and hears my prayers, I am tempted to pray for snow. But isn’t that what I have prayed for for the last five months? No, I will not get my hopes up.

I am woken by a banging on my door. Get up, Naomi, my brothers are shouting. Shouldn’t they be at school by now? I am confused but I get up anyway. Michael and Peter drag me outside, still in my pajamas. Look, they shout, look!

I am blinded by the glittering beauty of my neighborhood because it has snowed. Daddy says there is more ice than snow. I do not care. I run outside in my bare feet only to quickly run back inside. Mama and Daddy laugh at my expression. A bit cold, is it, Daddy says. Come on, says Mama, I will help get your clothes on to go outside.

While I am getting dressed, Daddy pulls out Mama’s pizza pans. Look, he says, we can use these as sleds to ride down the hill by our house. Mama gives him a funny look, but then nods her head. Michael and Peter each grab a pan and run out, but I am scared to go down the hill. Here, honey, Daddy says, ride down on my lap.

Safe and secure in my daddy’s arms I ride down the huge hill. It is the most exciting thing I have ever experienced. I soon gather up enough courage to go down myself, again and again and again. My brothers and I spend the whole day sledding ad playing in the snow.

That night, it is Mama’s turn to listen to my prayers. I thank God for the snow that He has given even though I didn’t have faith. It will probably be gone tomorrow. The sun has been shining all day, but I am still happy.

Maybe someday I will live somewhere where it snows all the time and I will be able to make lots of snowmen and snow angels. I will spend the entire winter playing in the snow. Maybe. But for tonight, it is enough to know that snow came to Georgia.