Blizzard

There’s a certain unease that comes from a blizzard. The snow always begins as a light dust. It wafts down from the sky with deceptive ease. It captivates with its gentle and careless swirling. Little by little, the ground is covered, coated in an even, sterile whiteness.

Watching the flakes dance to the ground distracts me from my work. There are pages to write. There are books to read. But the enticement of the winter world is too great. It overcomes my desire to persist. Where blue skies once perched, only gray can be seen. While the ground was once brown and green and black, there is only blinding white. There was no transition. I had been watching intently, but suddenly, it was here.

A bird perched in the branches of a nearby bush, patiently awaiting the end of the storm, but the storm had no desire to relent. The snow fell in batches now. As the ground and the sky had yielded to the onslaught of white, the landscape itself began to fade. There had once been a field outside of my window and trees to fill it, but no longer. Only the close things, the immediate things, remain.

And so, sitting and starting at the disappearance of the world, the unease persists. The bird abandoned its perch, wishing to evade the encroaching shroud. I wondered whether it could escape.

My notebook lay open. Mid-sentence, I had stopped to watch the world fade. A desire welled up within me to continue. I needed to finish my work. Lifting the pen to meet the page, I tried to find the next word, the next letter, anything to revive my efforts. I could only find frustration. Rage. Nothing was finished! I need more time. Nothing was finished, but the words were gone.

The rage diminished as the shroud crept in. The cold numbed my senses, my anger, my unease. I closed my eyes, but there was white there, too. Complete. Unbroken. Except for a small speck in the distance. It grew as I watched, coming steadily closer. It grew until I could discern its form, a darkly-colored bird floating along some unfelt breeze. I watched it come until it passed overhead, and I watched it go as it faded into nothing.