The Coldest Day of the Year

  “I’ve never wished to be sweating more than today.” I mumbled to my darling child, Bartholomew, my tabby cat. I trudged my way into my kitchen, checking the thermometer on the wall. -10°C. I don’t think I’d ever seen it so cold. I made my way over to the coffee maker, turning it on. If I was going to make it through the coldest day of the year, I knew I would need some coffee to keep me warm. While the coffee brewed, I leaned on the counter, flinching away once I feel how cold the marble is. I stood in the kitchen, half asleep, the rhythmic drip of the coffee lulling me back to sleep. I jolted awake up to the feeling of fur on my ankle. How could I have forgotten? I leaned down to pet Bartholomew, scratching behind his ear. I watched him head towards his food bowl. “I know, I know. Breakfast time!” I went to his food drawer and grabbed his breakfast. He never took to wet food, so I poured out kibble into his bowl, watching him rush over to vacuum up his food. “You act like I never feed you.” I chuckled, ruffling his fur as he chowed down. I made my way to the window, tightening my housecoat to keep my warmth in. It was snowing, of course. I’d never been gladder to be off work on a day like today. Now, all I had to do was sit in bed and sleep away the cold. All I needed first was to eat breakfast. I made my way over to the pantry, desperate for sustenance. As I took a peek inside, I remembered exactly what I had put off doing the day prior- shopping. Who could blame me though? It had been such a horrific day at work, and there was no way on earth that I was going to go out and deal with the stress of shopping. Though, I had begun to regret that decision. I should’ve checked the weather- why did I not check the weather? I looked out the window, to see the snow still falling. “I really am an idiot, aren’t I?” I mumbled to Bartholomew, who looked up at me and meowed as if to say, “Yes, you are.” I stared back at him. “Ouch, Bart. All I do is love you.” I kneeled to scratch him behind his ears, and he gave me a little purr. “Good boy.” Finally, I trudged my way down the hallway, and into my room. I felt the chill immediately. “Why is it so cold?” I thought to myself. It wasn’t usually this cold in here. Usually, this room was the warmest in the house. It made me worry a bit- was something wrong with the heating? “Please please please don’t say the heating broke…”, I mumbled as I rushed over to the thermometer. I put it on to heat, hoping it might help. I turned the heating up to 20.  While I waited for the house to potentially heat up, I got dressed in as many layers as I possibly could. It was a struggle, as trying to put clothes on while your hands wouldn’t stop shaking was a difficult task. Once I was dressed, I said goodbye to Bartholomew, and headed outside, already shivering with the cold. On top of that, the windshield of my car had frozen over. I mentally cursed the wintertime, stomping back inside to find an old CD or something to scrape the ice off my windshield. Bartolomew meowed at me, clearly not expecting me to be back so soon. I bent down to pet him. “Hiya Bartie.” I straightened up and headed into the kitchen to find something to use to scrape off the ice. I found an old, random ‘Now that’s what I call music’ CD’s, and looked at the back. After deeming it adequately scratched up enough to not play, I brought it back outside, not before giving Bartolomew another pet. I brought it to my car and began to scrape off the ice piece by piece. By the end of it, my hands were bright red, and I was shivering so hard that my teeth were chattering. I finally got into my car and cranked the heat up to the maximum. Once my hands had finally stopped shaking, I was able to drive to the store. I bought enough groceries as my money would allow, and headed back, shivering from the small walk from the store to my car. I did the same as before, sitting in my car waiting until my hands stopped shaking, and then driving back home. I was greeted by Bartie, who nuzzled up against me as I walked in, and the extreme cold in my house. It appeared that the heating was most definitely broken. “H-hi Bartie-boy. Were you g-good while I was g-gone?” My teeth chattered as I spoke. I set the groceries down on my kitchen counter, before kneeling down to give Bartholomew some love. He clearly reveled in the attention, purring at your scratches. “Sorry its so cold Bart-sy. T-though, you probably don’t mind much…” You headed to the thermometer, ready to try and figure out what was going on with the temperature in the house, until you spotted it. Did that say ‘cooling’? You had sworn you put it on to heat, but did you really leave it on cool the entire time? You quickly fixed the mistake, hoping that that was the problem instead of your heating unit being broken. You returned to the kitchen, and unloaded your groceries. Bart stayed with you, meowing at you whenever you put something away as if to say, “Give me attention!”, until you finally would. He continued to follow you as you made yourself some breakfast sausage and toast in a last-ditch attempt to warm you up. Once you had eaten, you decided it was finally the time you had waited for- it was finally time to sit in bed, bundled under the covers until the day was over.