Wonder

“Hey sweetie, wake up. Come and look outside.” Kate gently tried to wake 5-year-old Ariana who was sleeping cocooned in a fluffy blanket.

She stirred after a pause, muttering incoherently. A slimy track of drool had made its way from the corner of her mouth to her chin. Katie tutted, took a couple of tissue paper from the nightstand and wiped it off. Ariana’s eyelashes fluttered.

“I know you are awake, young lady.” Katie said in a stern voice, “enough with the theatrics.”

Ariana giggled and sat up, brushing aside her hair. “Mom, what’s theeatriks?” She asked, having difficulty in pronouncing the word.

“Being dramatic.”

Ariana frowned, looking at her blanket. She seemed to be in deep thought as she tried to process what being dramatic had to do with her waking up. Seeing this, Katie smiled, “Aren’t you going to ask me why I woke you up early?”

“Why did you wake me?”

“It’s snowing!”

“What’s that?”

“I will show you. But you must get your warm clothes on. It’s cold outside. You will get sick.” Ariana got out of bed and started to put her gloves, hat, coat, socks and boots with assistance from her mom. After finishing, they walked outside to the living room where a large window opened to the lawn. The ground was currently covered in snow and more of it was falling from the grey sky—light and gentle. Ariana gasped and ran outside, jumping on the tips of her toes in the snow.

“Mom, is this snow? I love it! It’s so soft!” Ariana declared, scooping fistfuls of snow and throwing them upwards so they came floating down to finally settle on her hair and clothes.

“Let’s make snow angels.”

“We can make snow angels! Wow! Do you think they will let me try their wings?”

“Not really. But we can use our arms to fly.”

Ariana’s eyes bulged with excitement.

“Copy what I do.” Katie said, laying down in the snow and starting to move her arms up and down and her legs back and forth.

Ariana took the same position and started to clumsily move her limbs, copying her mother. She looked at the sky with squinted eyes as snowflakes brushed her face. She opened her mouth, sticking out her tongue and tried to catch snowflakes.

“Do it a little faster now!” Katie instructed, picking up speed. Ariana did the same, moving her limbs quickly. Even though she was still on the ground, she could pretend she was flying. And this certainly felt a lot like flying to her. Her mom really knew the solution to every problem.

“We are flying, honey! Move your arms and legs faster so we can do some loop de loops in the air. But be careful, don’t get too close to the sun. HIP HIP!”

Ariana moved her limbs faster than before, giggling, pure joy spilling out of her.

“HURRAY!”

“Look, I spot some angels.” Katie exclaimed, pointing at the sky, “Let’s call for them. Ahoy! AHOY ANGELS!”

“Ahoy!!” Ariana cried out.

“Oh no! We have lost them. That’s okay. I know something else that attracts angels.”

“You do! Tell me!” Ariana sat up speedily at this revelation and looked at her mother in wonder. Katie sat up too and leaned towards her daughter. Ariana sensed the secrecy and felt proud that her mom would trust her with a secret as divine as this. The air between them grew tense, the silence pulsing with the electricity of anticipation.

“A snowman!” Katie whispered, finally spilling the secret. It passed between them like a living, breathing entity. Ariana looked at her mom with stars in her eyes.

“Wow.” She whispered with a content sigh.

“Let’s make one, shall we?” Katie said, standing up and offering Ariana her hand.

“Wait! I thought they were real people!” Ariana pouted, took her mom’s hand and stood up.

“Oh, but they are. Why on Earth shouldn’t they be real?!”

“Let’s make one then!” Ariana exclaimed, high spirits and faith in magic restored.

“That’s the spirit! Come on! Bring some clothes for the snowman. I will start making its body.”

“Okay!”

With that, Ariana raced inside to do some scavenger hunting while her mom gathered piles of snow in one place using a shovel from the shed in the corner of the lawn.

In no time, Ariana was back, her cheeks and nose flushed and her face glowing. She dumped the clothes near the window leading inside and started to help her mother by scooping fistfuls of snow and piling it up while her mom gave the snowman its round shape that it was so well known for.

It took 3 hours of hard work to finish the snowman. Ariana took two pebbles and a carrot to make the snowman's eyes and nose. She took the clothes she had brought and clothed the snowman in them.

“Yay! We did it!” Ariana cried out, high-fiving her mother.

“Yes, we did. Now we have to wait for the angels to get here.” Katie said, patting Ariana’s head. The latter squealed and clasped her hands together, “I can’t wait! I want to thank them for the good things they do.”

“That’s kind of you, honey. They will love how thoughtful you are.”

Ariana beamed.

“We can make s’mores while we wait for them.”

“Samores?” Ariana asked, trying to pronounce it the way her mom had.

Katie smiled, “Yes! S’mores. No ‘a’ in it. S’mores.”

“S’MORES! But what are they?”

“They are a special treat that Santa eats at the North Pole himself.”

“Let’s make them then!”

“Let’s go inside first and get the supplies. Then we will go make a fire in the fire pit.”

They both stepped inside. Katie went into the kitchen and started to gather what would be needed to make ‘Santa’s special treat’. From the kitchen, she heard her daugh2ter saying s’mores over and over. She was rolling the ‘r’ each time trying to magic the flavor of the treat out of thin air and taste it on her tongue.

Katie smiled, an ache in her heart. A good ache. She felt so thankful for her daughter. Despite the initial difficulties after having Ariana, she had fought, survived and look where they were now. In a warm, welcoming house celebrating their first (snowy) winter. They had initially lived in Hawaii where the sun would beat down on them every day. In winter there was hardly any change except on the mountain peaks. But they hadn’t had any experience of winters on the Hawaiian mountain tops as circumstances had kept them confined to the low grounds.

Brushing her thoughts aside, Katie went outside to find Ariana sitting by the window. Her face was pressed to the glass, watching out for incoming angels.

“Ari dear, come on outside.”

Ariana turned away and followed her mom out to the fire pit on the veranda located on the side of the house. The 5-year-old had started chanting s’mores again in excitement.

5 minutes later, Ariana was looking in awe at the fire that her mom had conjured out of thin air. She looked admiringly at her mother. My mom is a magician! She’s a genius. My mom is a genius!

Katie passed a stick with a marshmallow stuck on top to Ariana and made one for herself. She then showed Ariana how to rotate the stick so the fire wouldn’t burn the marshmallow. Ariana burned the first few but eventually got the hang of it after which her mom demonstrated how to make the s’mores. There were giggles and laughter as they roasted marshmallows and assembled them with chocolate and graham crackers, eating them one after another.

Soon they had wiped out everything and they were sitting next to each other in a comfortable silence looking at the stars starting to peek out as night fell. The fire had burned out, leaving behind a few glowing, red-hot embers.

Ariana had started snoring, her head on Katie’s lap. It grew too cold to sit outside so Katie gently moved Ariana’s head aside. She stood up and took her daughter in her arms. She went inside and tucked her in her bed.

Katie had always tried her best to keep the magic of life alive for her daughter and she herself had learned so much from Ariana. She had learned how charming a child’s inquisitiveness and curiosity was and how much wonder they showed while learning about new things. But the most important thing Ariana had taught her was that one should keep their childlike wonder in adulthood too. Because life was certainly sweet and happy if one enjoyed and took pleasure in the little things that life had to offer.