Teen Ink

Snow

The general guzzles food at a quick rate, he is angry at having been made to look foolish by loosing a small clash at the front. He shoves food down his mouth, and then suddenly stops. He gasps, and chokes. The officer watches on. The general staggers to his feet, coughing and spluttering and trying to breath. He looks to the officer for help, but the officer just watches on. Waiting for the ugly rasping sound to stop. The general turns light blue as he chokes on his food, the officer is bored, and he has been waiting for this a long time.
Finally it is over. The officer makes the right calls, and the general’s body is taken away, as is his last meal. The officer does not take the general’s seat; it might still be warm from him. Instead the officer decides to go for a walk across the city.
The weather is cold. The officer walks with his hands in his pockets, looking for something, he doesn’t know what just something. The girl stands at a shop window, only half understanding how she came to be in this city. It was a gypsy family who found her, hiding down a well. She had run blindly though the night, having heard the explosions. She then found the well and out of fear climbed in. The girl had found a dead boy in the night; his cold skin had made her scream.
Wild boy was dead. The girl knew that much. Soldiers had killed him earlier that day. So she was alone. The gypsy family had dropped her here, believing it was her best hope. They had taken pity on the girl, so lost and afraid. They would have taken her on their travels had she not refused to go with them.
The officer sees a girl in a shabby, oversized grey coat standing by a shop window. Her shape was dark against the light coming from the shop. He followed her eyes and found her eyes focused on something unseen. Finally she looked at him, her eyes meeting his before lowering to his uniform. Her eyes are harsh and
green.

“I am General Steven Jameston, who are you? “ The officer was proud to state his name.
“Someone who does not care for army men.” The girl met his eyes again, aggressively this time. Steven did not know what to say, so he continues to stare at the girl.
“In that case, I am Steven Jameston”
“I am Alexandria ,” She smiled slightly, her harsh eyes softening a little.
Across the street the general’s daughter watches them. She had wanted to speak to the officer, just once. Now she did not have the courage. Her mother had left her, for some man she would not name. So now the general’s daughter was alone in her house, with only her dried flowers. That had made her feel old. So the general’s daughter went to the window of her bedroom, waited for a large gust of wind, and let her dried flowers fly away in the wind. They disappeared quickly. She had felt a mixture of relief and loss. She would begin her life again.
The general’s daughter looked up at the sky, and smiled as snowflakes began to fall. She glanced across the street at the officer and the strange girl in they grey coat. The general’s daughter was finally free, she walked away, smiling as the snow began to cover the pavement. Her name was Julia.
The snow covered the charred and twisted villages, covering their black with white. It fell over battlefields and buried the bodies of the soldier boys, the boys whose names have been lost. The snow fell and covered all the land, for snow touches everyone and everything. With the snow came the sweet and gentle silence that snow brings, and across the land people were quiet. For as the snow fell, there was a world untouched by war.