“IT’S SNOWING!” shouted Johnny Watson when he woke up on the first day of winter holiday. He shot out of bed and tugged off his pajamas and quickly replaced them with clothes better fitted for outdoor play. After quickly grabbing a banana for breakfast he jetted into the winter wonderland that was his front yard. For hours upon hours he frolicked about his house making snow angels, shaking trees to watch the gentle glide of the snow as it made its way to the Earth and finding icicles to end the lives of by-standing squirrels and rabbits with. After tiring of self-entertainment, Johnny decided to call upon Maddy McKinnely, his next-door neighbor and pal, despite their five-year age difference.

After walking the quarter-mile to his singular neighbor’s home, Johnny made several sharp raps on the McKinnely’s front door and a small, frail girl exploded from the house wearing gloves and a sweater. With an excited shriek the two jumped over the stairs leading to the front porch and raced each other to the farthest oak tree. Panting, Johnny won the race and started rapidly jerking his arms and legs in an awkward victory dance. Maddy hated losing. She slinked behind a mammoth bush and slowly constructed a massive snowball. Once the snowball had been acutely formed Maddy sprung up from the snow covered ground and threw the ball, causing snow to smack and scatter across Johnny’s face. Maddy erupted into hysterical laughter, but Johnny was not amused.

Johnny quickly dashed behind the oak tree and also formed a snowball. With the swift throw he had so perfected pitching for his little league team he hurled the ball at his neighbor’s arm. Maddy omitted a quick sob and asked Johnny to stop. Defying the young girl’s wishes he once again concealed himself from sight behind the immense tree. In his haste to construct the snowball he did not notice the dense, petite, rugged stone embedded within the snow. As he crept out from behind the bush, he forcefully flung the snow towards his young friend as she was turning around. A short yelp was heard before a loud thud as Maddy hit the ground. Johnny sprinted towards her to see what had happened.

When Johnny reached Maddy’s limp side, he frantically began to call her name repetitively, longing to hear her high-pitched, mouse-like voice scream a phrase such as “GET OFF OF ME!” or a whimper something similar to “Why’d you hit me so hard?” He heard nothing. He stuttered down to an awkward position by her side to check for a pulse and he felt nothing. With lots of care, he flipped the girl over to see a bloody mess of snow, hair and rock hidden beneath her right ear. The boy took a deep breath and began to cry.

After many uninterrupted minutes of convulsive bawling, Johnny decided he must hide the girl to ensure the continuation of what he found to be a perfectly average lifestyle. He hastefully began to construct ideas of places to stow the lifeless, mangled being. Originally he planned to dig a hole, but he soon realized the up-churned snow would soon give away his hiding spot. He then thought of the many crevices in the trees that seemed to be the perfect size and shape to stow a forty-pound midget of an eight-year old girl’s corpse. He then thought of the hundreds of animals who would force her out in order to create their own homes. After several more minutes of ponder he decided on what was, in his opinion, the perfect scheme.

Johnny carefully lifted the girl, she felt very light in his beefy, muscular arms. At a moderately quick speed he treaded through the snow into a forest densely populated by pine trees. He noticed the trail of footprints he was leaving behind himself and was momentarily glad they existed for he knew he must once again make his way out of the forest. He would cover them later. Once he had made his way to what seemed to be about a mile into the woods, he carefully placed the girl on the ground. He searched for the pocketknife that he was trained in Scouts to always keep in his back left pocket and grasped the metal with his fingerprint-free glove. For a final time he searched for a pulse within the corpse but once again he felt no warm blood flowing within the veins. He then gently removed her clothing, placing it below her and began to sever her appendages from the rest of the body. With cautious, strong motions Johnny tore through the lifeless flesh of Maddy McKinnely, placing the meat-like masses unto her garments once sawn off her body. A slow flow of deep red blood seeped into the frilly pink sweater the once bubbly carcass once wore. Once he finished the mutilation, he rounded-up the chunks of bones, blood and flesh into one pile atop of the now blood stained jacket he had worn during the severing of tissues. He then calmly cleaned of the silvery knife and replaced it in his back left pocket.

Admiring the neatness of his disgusting and unjust task, Johnny spent several minutes simply standing before once again engaging in his time consuming and tedious plan. He then removed his gloves and replaced them with that of the dead girl’s, hand-discomfort was a small risk compared to arrest. He made a snowball similar to the one he had used to kill the girl and grabbed a chunky piece of bone and stomach and squeezed into the compressed orbicular snow. He added more snow to the ball, this time cramming in larger objects such as halves of hands and ankles. After repeating this process several times, he removed the gloves and began to cover the snowman with snow so perfect one may have mistaken it as powdered sugar. He then took the enormous, round object and placed it squarely between four large pine trees.
Within the hour he had created two more balls, using the same process, one about the size of his own head, which he created first because it contained the remaining portions of flesh, and the other roughly the size of a beach ball, containing the articles of clothing once owned by the adorable, small girl and his own jacket and gloves. He placed the beach ball-like gore filled snow mass on the already standing sphere. He then placed the smallest of the balls atop of that. He then took three deep breaths and imagined it was an ordinary day and he was making a snowman as he would by himself for the lack of something better to do. He set out on a hunt for two perfect sticks. Trotting about the area he eventually stumbled upon a barren willow tree whose branches had many finger-like qualities. He quickly snapped off two of the graying limp boughs and raced to place them on his creation. He positioned the branches very precisely within the globes of sinew and organs.
Shortly after, Johnny discovered eight of the ideal ebony colored stones to create a beautiful face for his friend made of snow. He anxiously placed the rocks to represent two eyes and a frowning mouth.
“A smile shows much too much happiness for such an occasion,” he thought to himself.
He removed his scarf from his own self and set it upon the snowman and gazed upon its size and wonder. It was, he thought, one of his best. A silent tear began to trickle down his cheek before he caught it with his tongue. He turned aback and snapped a cluster of needles from a pine tree. He began to perfectly retrace his steps to his home, erasing his footprints within the six-inch snow. Once he exited the forest he made his way home. His knew how worried his mother would be considering how close it was too dark. When he finally found his way to his welcoming abode, he stamped out his shoes and let out a cheerful, “Hey Ma, what’s for supper?”
“You’re favorite, beef stew.” Answered his mother in a sarcastic tone, as she looked up her expression turning from happy to threatening. “By the way, what took you so long and where the in the Sam Heck are the gloves I just bought you?” Johnny was relieved by her dismissal of the missing jacket.
“I was making a snowman with the McKinnely girl, you know how she likes me, and she insisted he must have gloves so his hands wouldn’t grow too cold. I guess his comforts more important than mine.” He said followed by a cold, weak laugh.
“Well okay, but you better be careful and come in on time tomorrow.” Johnny nodded in agreement. “So did that cute little McKinnely thing help you at all with the snow man?” asked Johnny’s mother.
“Yeah, actually most of it was her.”