Icy Temperament

Ice cream in the summertime sounds like a nice idea until you give it to a toddler. My daughter’s face was covered in vanilla streaks and her brand-new clothes were sticky and stained. It took me several napkins to get her cleaned up and by the time I was done, she gave me that signature smile that she knew would get her out of trouble. And once again, it worked.

“Look how fast my boat is going, mommy!” my son, Dawson, shouted. “It’s going faster than Daniel’s!”

His older brother looked quite displeased with that statement but kept his eyes focused on the race, nonetheless. All week long, the boys had been wanting to go to the park to race paper boats. They had recently seen an old photograph of their father and his brother racing boats when they were children and immediately got to work making their own.

“Looks like Daniel might be catching up to you!” my husband teased Dawson as a gust of wind propelled Daniel’s boat forward. Lottie had been laughing in my arms for a while now as she watched her brothers. The sight filled my chest with warmth as a smile of contentment stretched across my face.

The breeze was picking up even more now and the sun had disappeared behind some clouds. I was beyond thankful as I approached the lake, thinking about how few and far between these moments of nice weather were in Florida.

“I win! I win!” Daniel bragged as his boat crossed between the two rocks they used as a finish line.

“Yeah, only because of the wind!” Dawson said, pouting.

“It’s time for lunch, boys. Come on,” I said as I led them over to the picnic tables. Nick took a turn holding our daughter as we all sat down to eat.

The boys hurriedly ate their sandwiches and chips, hoping to get back to the lake as soon as possible. Lottie started laughing again as Daniel dropped a chip and a nearby squirrel took it. The wind picked up once more and I wrapped my arms around myself. I had heard that the weather was supposed to be in the nineties, but it sure didn’t feel like it. The sun was still gone and everyone at the table began to shiver.

“What in the world do you think is up with the weather?” Nick asked me.

“Do you think a storm is coming through? I should probably go to the car and get Lottie’s blanket in case this wind persists.”

“I’ll go grab it and maybe an umbrella for if it starts raining. You stay here with the boys,” Nick said as he handed Lottie over to me. As he ran off, she began to whimper.

“It’s ok, Lottie. Daddy will be right back,” I cooed, hoping my tone would calm her down. It proved to be unsuccessful when she started to cry.

“Can we go play now, Mom?” Daniel asked impatiently.

“Yes, go ahead but be careful.”

Now Lottie was really upset as the boys hurried off. The wind blew even stronger than before and I began to worry.

Before I could call the boys back over to me, I noticed that something very strange had begun to fall from the sky. My eyes widened and my mouth fell open. Was I seeing things?

Snowflakes began to cascade down and land all around us. Lottie had finally stopped crying and was trying to squirm out of my arms.

“Snow mommy, snow!” she said, giggling.

I was very concerned now. Having it snow at all in Florida was weird enough- but now, in the middle of July?

The snow seemed to have stopped as my sons ran towards me.

“Mom did you see it snow? It was so cool!” Daniel shrieked in excitement.

Dawson was racing to keep up with him when he tripped and fell on the damp ground. He began to cry as I worriedly sped towards him. Seeing him cry made Lottie upset again.

As I consoled my children, I noticed it had begun to snow even harder. Instead of returning with the blanket, I saw Nick driving towards us in our minivan. He must have also sensed something was very wrong, as he motioned us to get in.

When I had made sure that all the kids were in safely, we drove off. The boys were in the backseat talking animatedly about the snow, but Nick and I were far too stunned to say anything.

By the time we returned home, the snow had once again stopped. I turned on the news to see what they were saying about the weird weather, and every local station was covering it. None of them had any answers, though. No one seemed to know what was causing this nature-defying summertime snow.

I spent nearly an hour talking on the phone with my sister, speculating what could be behind it. She listed off a number of different conspiracy theories that I merely laughed off. I was fairly sure aliens were not the reason.

I stepped outside to see what the weather was like now and it felt just like any other summer day.

“Weird, isn’t it?” Nick inquired behind me.

“Yeah, it feels like a completely normal afternoon in July- as if the snow from earlier never happened. There’s no evidence of it even having happened except for the news talking about it. Look, even the ground is dry!” I exclaimed with bewilderment.

“I wonder if this has ever happened before?”

“I don’t know, but maybe we’re overthinking it. Perhaps every now and then, freak weather just happens,” I shrugged, though I didn’t entirely believe what I was saying. Nevertheless, I went back inside the house and went into Lottie’s room.

She was watching her favorite movie, not even noticing that I had come in. As I watched her, I suddenly felt like the wind was knocked out of me. I got this visceral gut feeling that turned my blood to ice and put my stomach in knots. Earlier at the park, the wind seemed to blow in sync with Lottie’s laughter. The more she laughed, the stronger it blew.

Then when Nick had run off to get her blanket and she started crying, the snow first began to fall. As soon as she stopped, so did the snow. She got upset again after Dawson had fallen down and the snow fell even harder than before. She was calm on the ride home and the snow had gone away completely since.

Could all of this just be chalked up to coincidence? Was I losing my mind? I contemplated all of the possibilities when I suddenly heard Lottie begin to whimper.

I looked at the TV and saw that her movie was at the part where a family’s puppy had run away from home. She began to cry softly as the little girl tried to search the house for him.

As I pulled her into my arms to comfort her, a lone snowflake fluttered down from the ceiling and landed on my nose. The weather outside the window, remained sunny.