Page 38 of When the Snowman Whispered
My head pulsed with insanity. I knew that my reality was much colder and darker than what I was willing to expose on social media.
“Faith, we have the night.”
“Leave me alone!” Terrified, I raced back into the house.
Chapter 8
Faith
N
ight came.
I sat outside.
And, they didn’t come alive.
I sat there waiting and nothing happened.
Minutes passed and then a few hours.
They remained frozen and unmoving.
Be patient. Be patient.
Pulling out my phone and scanning a few Facebook posts here and there, I gulped my wine and wondered how many people I’d have to unfriend that evening. With the election ending in doom, everyone suddenly had a political science degree. Everyone now had the ability to prophesize the oncoming of the apocalypse.
Everyone now hated everyone else.
Social media had turned into a virus, addicting and infecting us all. Even as I waited for those mystical snow creatures, good or evil, to come alive, I couldn’t put my damn phone down.
But then what else could I do? I’d been going over and over in my head what I’d say to the snow creatures, but nothing sounded logical. How could anything be logical in such an illogical situation?
Hey, guys. Sorry, you’re in jail, but I’m afraid of you. And when I’m scared of things, I want to lock them up. I’m an American. This is the American way. We could talk about it, but in the end, I’m just not comfortable with you snow people walking around my property. You’re different. I don’t think God made you. In fact, I think you might be evil.
After unfriending three people—a past school mate writinglolas he posted a violent video of four Black guys beating a white woman, my old neighbor who declared that all poor people were ignorant hicks or criminals who should not vote, and my cousin who did a two-paragraph post on how the Bible said that gay people were going to hell.
By the time I saw all those, I didn’t even care about liking theMerry Christmasposts.
What’s so Merry about it?
Meanwhile, the snow people still hadn’t moved.
They remained stiff and frozen.
And, it pissed me off.
Either come alive and move around, scaring the shit out of me, or stay stiff for the rest of this winter. Pick one and be consistent!
That unyielding pressure pushed inside my head.
What would I do if the snowman didn’t come alive? What would happen the next night and the next? What if they waited for my daughters to return?
I had to think about something else and get all of this out of my head.
This is crazy, but then the world is crazy and like everyone keeps saying, I’m crazy.
Daniel’s scent still filled the yard. Even as the fire pit burned logs and delivered its alluring fragrance of burnt wood into the air. Three empty bottles of wine lay next to the pit. I’d rolled another joint and finished it within minutes.
