The snow fell daintily onto the palm of his hand and abated slowly, the faint smell of dew entering his senses. He looked up at the grey sky as the white flakes descended from it, one falling onto his lips, leaving the delicate taste of coldness behind. Both the sun and the moon were absent, leaving the young man befuddled as to what time it was. His chilled breaths came out as small clouds in the air as little droplets of water condensed out of the gas from his lungs. A large ration of snow discarded from a nearby tree branch.
There was a snow capped bench that came into the man’s view and he shuffled over to it, hands stuffed into his coat pockets. He scraped the snow off of the wooden seat quickly, the snow numbing his fingers, before situating himself onto it. Moments passed before he got impatient and stood once again. The silence of the birds and insects blanketed the park as they remained AWOL in the winter weather.
Agitation passed over the man once again before he felt a large portion of snow strike him in the nape of his neck. He briskly turned around to contemplate his attacker, only to find the woman he’d been anticipating the appearance of. She grinned sheepishly at the man and apologized for her late timing but he brushed it of calmly, masking his nerves.
Finally, after a long moment of silence, the woman led the man further into the park where the snow seemed to be at least ten inches deep. She told him about the history of the park, how a large tree used to sit in the middle of it until a storm knocked it down, leaving nothing but a ragged, lonely stump that clung hopelessly to the ground. The two of them stopped in front of a dark patch of bark peeking out of the snow, which they stood almost knee-deep in.
They took a seat on the cool bark and sat back-to-back, gazing up at the dull sky, still dropping snow onto the chilled earth. Icicles were latched onto tree branches everywhere and the sky began to turn a violet color as the sun finally protruded from the thick nothingness that filled the sky. The snow and ice seemed to sparkle, bringing a magical emotion to the minds of the two adults who rarely felt inspiration anymore.
Beauty spilled out of Mother Nature, who kindly allowed the grown couple a peek at the earth’s true potential allure. The snowfall halted silently, leaving a still picture to admire and awe. This was winter: elegant, charming, and graceful, perhaps even more so than the goddess, Aphrodite, herself; a true Winter Wonderland.