heavy heavy snow

heavy heavy snow

fiction
edward w pritchard

I was rushing through the old industrial district of town. It had been over twenty years since I had been here, before. The element of danger inherent in this bad neighborhood was no longer present to me. I climbed and slid over stalled cars, half buried buses and incapacitated buildings and stores as I rushed along battling the drifted snow.

I had to get to where the young girl was. I didn't know why. The snow was an obstacle to my progress but worse was not knowing where to go although I moved forward with purpose despite the snow. The inhabitants of this section of town were oblivious to me. I moved through their labors digging out cars from the snow piles or struggling with stalled buses and complaining passengers. I moved invisibly through the deep snow; to them at least.

I tried several futile things to move faster in the deep deep snow. Near a run down factory I stood on a heavy iron pair of wheels connected by a rusty axle; I was approaching a steep decent as I ran the narrow roads through this area. I considered standing on the axle and balancing faster down the hills through here. Later  I looked for pieces of discarded wood to use as skis. For once in my life I didn't considered rules or consequences, I took or used anything that would facilitate me accomplishing my secret purposes.

At last I rushed into a small apartment in a seedy neighborhood. The door was wide open and the wind was driving the falling snow across the floors of the living room and kitchen where the people stood. A pretty young girl tilted her head to a kiss a young man. I watched intently. Most of the people there were indifferent to the kissing couple and no one noticed me. I walked in and through the crowd. The movement and habits of the girl kissing the young man were infinitely intimately familiar to me.

The young man was myself. Walking back invisibly into the snow I asked the man at the door " where do I go next" . He took no notice of me so I continued to walk directionless through the ancient industrial district of the city. Later I began to see more and more troops entering the area.
end