The Snowballs of Hell

Once again it is time for Theme Thursday.  This week the Theme is SNOW.  Yes, as in Let it Snow, Let it Snow...  So go on over and read the Theme Thursday entries at Theme Thursday and link up your own Snow.

There it was finally. They had been sending out warnings, giving updates and predicting it for days. They stood noses pressed to the picture window in the forbidden room. They were risking life and limb being in the there but that was the best place to sit and stare at the Christmas tree and the snow falling in the front yard at the same time. Did you hear that? What was that? Is that momma’s car coming down the street? These were the questions little Gladys kept asking her older siblings. She was just a bit nervous about being in the forbidden room. I mean what if Nurse Meme came home early and caught them in the living room. The room she had forbidden them to enter. The room that the only person brave enough to enter was Trooper Bob and that was only because he carried a gun. Okay truth was he was a little afraid to go in there too.

Buck looked at Gladys and said “relax, pip squeak. Nurse Meme won’t be home for hours and she will never know we were in here because you are going to vacuum after we leave.” Then he turned to Matilda and winked. Gladys looked from one to the other and said “but I wanna go too. You can’t leave me here. I’m gonna tell.” Buck sighed heavily and replied “you’re too little. You’ll get hurt.” Matilda chimed in “yeah besides you’ll just get sick or something and then we will have to come home early.”

Gladys stamped her foot and screamed “I will NOT and I’m gonna tell if you don’t let me come.” Yes Little Gladys could be a real brat when forced. Buck whispered something in Matilda’s ear and she giggled. “Okay brat. You can come but first you have to fix us grilled cheese sandwiches.” Gladys decided that was an easy deal so she headed to the kitchen. She was only seven but if she drug the step stool up to the oven she could reach the knobs.

Gladys took the loaf of Wonder bread and divided out the slices.

 She slathered Parkay Margarine onto the bread then unwrapped a slice of Kraft American processed cheese product and inserted it into the bread. She slid the cooking sheet into the oven, stood on the stool and set it to broil. Now here was the trick, you had to crack the oven open and watch it to make sure they didn’t burn. When the outside got golden she took the oven mitt and a spatula and turned the sandwiches over so that the bright white side was exposed. She completed this task and took the sandwiches to the counter. She removed the crusts and placed them on paper plates. Then she poured some Tang into three Dixie cups and put them on the table. She was a gourmet cook and she was going to announce dinner to her guests.

Gladys stuck her head in the door of the forbidden room but didn’t see Buck or Matilda anywhere. She moved on to the bedrooms and then on into the den where the television was blaring out Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Little Gladys stood in the den with the fire blazing and Burl Ives singing Holly Jolly Christmas. .

She knew they had hoodwinked her. They had used the sandwiches to distract her and they had gone out to the neighborhood snowball fight without her. It wasn’t fair. She knew she wasn’t supposed to go out at night alone but was it really alone if they were already out there?

She was in a quandary. Did she go outside and risk getting grounded or did she stay inside and miss maybe the only snow fall of the year? They had watched the snow start and were waiting for it to collect enough to be able to play war. The snow was now deep enough and all the kids on the block would be converging in the empty lot next to the Varner’s house. She was missing out. What to do? What to do? She did the only thing she knew how to do. She sat down and started crying. They did things like this to her all the time knowing that if she broke the rules she would rat on herself. They also knew that they weren’t supposed to leave her alone.

She started sniffing the snot bubbles back into her nose and wiping her eyes. She wasn’t going to be the one in trouble, THEY would. She could go outside with a clear conscience. She ran to the hall closet and pulled out her coat with the big hood lined with almost fur, she pulled on her goulashes and her left mitten, yes only one. She couldn’t find the other so she put a sock on her right hand and headed out the door. She was going to build a snow man and make a million snow balls and throw them at her siblings. She might even go sledding. Well she would if she had a sled and a hill. She ran out into the front yard where the snow had piled up a quarter of an inch deep and looked into the moonlit night. She breathed in the cold damp air and started down the drive.

Gladys felt her feet sliding out from under her before she could do anything about it. Her equilibrium was off. It was the fake fur lined hood she was sure of it. She reached out to grab on to something but all she grabbed was air. She screamed as her tail bone met the pavement and then her head. She wanted to cry but she had hit so hard it had knocked the breath from her leaving her unable to do anything but gasp for air. That is when she felt something stinging her face. She opened her eyes and saw icy pellets coming down hard.

Gladys sat up and looked around. She could hear the neighborhood kids in the empty lot down the street but she couldn’t see them. That meant they couldn’t see her. She wouldn’t tell them about her fall. She tried to stand up but fell again this time on her knees. She tried again but could not find purchase on the icy concrete drive and ended up flat on her face. Tears began flowing from her eyes and freezing on her cheeks.

She scrambled again trying to stand up and once again she ended up on her knees. The sock on her right hand was wet and her hands were beginning to hurt. She was sure that she had frost bite and would be loosing at least one of her fingers. The knees of her red corduroy pants were soaked and her knees were throbbing. The seat of her pants was wet and her tail bone was wailing. She was miserable. She got up on all fours and began crawling toward the garage. She made it to the doorway and was able to stand up.

Little Gladys stood there for a moment listening to the cries of pain and laughter coming from the empty lot. She could almost make out Buck’s voice yelling for Matilda to take cover. She thought about trying to get out of the drive again then she felt her cold numb hands, her aching butt bone and her stinging knees. She looked at the white dusting of snow on the lawn and at the moon peaking out from behind the cloud. She put her wet sock covered hand and the knob and turned it. She walked into the laundry room leaving behind her a wake of wet frozen clothes. She got into her pajama’s, prepared herself a cup of hot cocoa and grabbed her paper plated cheese sandwich. She marched into the den and sat down in front of the blazing fire and watched Frosty save the day.