The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel

Author:Ann Howard Creel [Creel, Ann Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780143119951
Google: ywBezgAACAAJ
Amazon: 0143119958
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2001-08-15T07:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

In 1944, the winter came quietly. Instead of raging storms, we had heavy, silent snowfalls that covered the dry grasses and the overturned fields with miles of powder.

One of the reasons untouched snow is so breathtaking is that it‘s, by nature, so fleeting. Even the act of making those first tracks mars it; then on the warmer days in between storms, it gets icy, later slushy, then eventually melts away. But on those mornings when it spreads away, velvety white and sparkling, nothing’s finer.

During my childhood, often my family would drive up into the Rockies after the first storm, and there we found ourselves quite alone, as most of the tourists were long gone by that time. We explored the quiet roads back in the days before the bans were placed on pleasure driving. We listened to empty echoes, trudged down roads and out into meadows, seeking out the deer and elk herds that would have to survive the winter season most likely with little food. On Berthoud Pass, we strapped on oak skis to glide down the slopes. And for once, I excelled in something other than studies, and my sisters did not. My father, who skied better than us all, would take off, fast-gliding down the slopes, and only I could come close to keeping up with him. I remember how he would look back over his shoulder at me as I tried to gain on him, and he’d shout out, “Bravo, girl!”

On the morning after about a foot of new snow had fallen, I bundled into my coat and stepped out on the porch. Winter on the plains came as a surprise to me. Our previously bare fields now spread out like a linen cloth on a table sprinkled with sugar. The sun had already burned the clouds away, but the air had yet to begin to warm. Each of my breaths did a smoky dance show before me. All was so silent I could hear the soft whisk of a sparrow hawk as it circled overhead.

Ray came outside to join me. He slurped loudly on his coffee and disturbed the silence. Looking out at the snow, I asked him, “Are you finished with your work now?”

He took another loud sip. “I got plenty of other things that need tending to besides the fields.” He gestured beyond the porch. “This snow’ll melt off. Usually before Christmastime comes, we’ll get some warm days and even some rain.”

I still hadn’t adjusted to all the talk of weather. Even women and children often discussed the changing conditions of the high prairie at long length. After church, in the town, over supper, and in the stores, it was the favorite topic of conversation of everyone around me.

Ray pointed down the roadway that ran between fields, the same one where I had first met Rose and Lorelei. “I got to grade the ruts out of that road before the ground freezes. Then I need to work on the fences.”

I looked back at the snow.

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