Snow Night

Wynn was nocturnal. There was no explaining it, there was no changing it, it's just the way he was. His internal clock was rewound so that he stayed awake during the night, and slept all day. Which meant there were so many things kids his age experienced that he'd only ever heard of in the past tense.

As his alarm woke him up bright and early at 7:00pm, he pulled back the black velvet curtains to see a familiar sight. It was as if the thick white oceans had engulfed the entire monochrome neighborhood. Ice crystals hung from power lines, branches, and window panes like the teeth of terrible monsters. All that powder, shimmering in the moonlight sucked all the sound out of the air, and he only heard the ominous heavy winds brushing the glass of his window. It was once again a snow day. 

Of course the concept of snow falling was nothing new to Wynn. He knew the winters were particularly harsh in Nova Scotia. But the idea of what the “snow Day” represented to all of his other peers was almost mythic to him. That of scary stories and legends passed down from his mother to him. A day of debauchery. Of skipping school. To take advantage of the earth’s harsh elements for a few fleeting moments, and create art and memories out of it. The only thing Wynn could ever see were the remnants of those activities in the white wasteland outside his window. 

From there he could see 2 white statues glaring at him. One, 3 houses down, had its stick-arm fall off, and He could just barely make out its mitten embedded in the snow. Possibly to be lost forever. 4 Houses in the other direction, someone had made a small round building in their front yard. “How could walls of ice contain any warmth?” He could see a few footprints and imprints of kid’s whole bodies on the floor all over, which were slowly fading under the steadily falling flakes. Most of the snow on the road turned black from the cars that passed by, and someone had left their sleigh outside by mistake. He wondered if it was used on the hill down the street, like he had seen on TV. “What was so fun about something so dangerous?” He wondered. And did he ever want to find out? 

Soon his mother entered is room to help him get ready for the evening. She took him to the bathroom and gave him a bath that was hotter than normal. He wondered if he was getting too old for his mother to bathe him. But to her, she could only stay awake for so long to spend time with her son. So she tried to make all of those moments count. 

He heard her yawn through a smile as she scrubbed him. “Yawn”. Wynn hated those. And he hated that word. “Yawn”. That’s what he was called by all the hateful students at school before he was pulled from there to study at home. He didn’t remember much from that time, but he remembered that name. Most students did not even know his real name. Only “Yawn”. He could not help it. He couldn’t even stay awake long enough to finish a class. But he was marked with it. Every yawn he uttered in the day, or his mother at night, was merely another reminder that he was different. 

As if he needed more. It showed all over his face. He hated what he saw in the mirror. His pale skin, his black hair, his large eyes which reflected light like a dogs. They would only allow him to see in black & white. He’d never see the world the way his mother saw it, and inspired her wondrous portraits. As she brushed his teeth, he thought the only thing missing were fangs. He was a freak. An animal. No one wanted him outside. So why should he ever step out there again? 

His mother took him downstairs, his breakfast already on the table, and she prepared his lessons at the computer desk. The only way Wynn envied the other children was that they supposedly took the day off from school on days of such heavy weather as this. But his education was at home, so he could not escape. She left only lamps and candles on to protect his sensitive eyes. Once she was sure he had everything he needed, she kissed him on the head, and left to go to bed. And once again, Wynn was left alone. 

Hours went by as Wynn slowly progressed in his studies. The recorded training modules were somewhat helpful, but he still struggled with math. All the numbers and patterns he had to memorize overwhelmed him, and he was never allowed to click back to the previous page to rewrite what he might have missed. Reading and writing were what he found the most redundant. He could already do those better than most, so what more did he have to learn? He only ever found joy in these modules when they would play a “bill Nye the Science Guy” video, but even that seemed to have been off of the table that evening. The rapid pace, the difficulty, and the annoying voice on the computer were truly vexing Wynn, so he decided to take a break from them, and take what notes he could from the textbook. 

The book was so boring and tedious, he could barely stand to finish a full page let alone the chapter. He was liable to fall asleep before the sun even flickered. But then a sound pulled him away from the book. He looked around the empty dark house. The quiet was eerie, but normal for him. Then the sound came again. Louder. Some distant thump, from somewhere outside. He dropped his book and tentatively moved towards his window. He peeled back the curtains and scanned his neighborhood. For a moment he saw nothing. Then in the distance, he discovered some figure. Tall and bulky, underneath the shade of a great pine tree. It had two white glowing eyes piercing through the shadows. He could swear he could see it breathing. He could hear his heart pounding. His breath quickened. He just knew it could see him. He feared if he looked away, it would come and snatch him out of his home and devour him whole. 

He was snapped out of it when he heard a ringing from his computer. He shut the curtains and heaved until he was calm. He tried to tell himself it was nothing. “A trick of the light” as his father would say. Although his mother would say it was… at least he was safe indoors. 

He went to his computer to see what the beeping was about. It was a request for a video chat, from Lily. The girl who showed him his first sunrise. The only one who would call him a friend. Even at the risk of her parent’s disapproval. 

He answered the call, to see her face and frizzled silver hair alit in a dark room. “Hi Wynn.” She said softly.  

“Lily. Why are you up? won’t you be in trouble if your parents caught you talking to me?” 

“Yeah, that’s why I waited so long to call you. They’re real heavy sleepers. So whatchu doing?” 

“(sigh) School.” 

“What? You don’t get a day… a night off on a snow night?” 

“No. mom says this stuff is important. Besides I don’t care about all the snow day stuff.” 

“What!? Snow days are so much fun. There’s snow angles, snowmen, snowball fights, sledding, igloos, ooh! And writing your name with pee in the snow.” 

“Ew! That’s gross! Wait. you do that?” 

“Yep.” 

“Um, but… I- I thought girls… you know.” 

Lily leaned into the camera and whispered. “I use an old toilet paper roll, with some tin foil.” 

The children tried to muffle their laughter as to not wake their parents. 

Lily yawned, and Wynn cringed. “Come on, Wynn. come outside with me. I’ll show you how to do everything. I think I accidentally left my sled outside.” 

“No lily. It’s too late for you, and really cold. And I need to do my homework.” 

“Ooh, sounds like someone’s scared.” 

“I’m not scared.” 

“You are too.” 

“I am not.” 

“Are too. Wynn’s a big chicken. (Cluck cluck cluck)” 

“Hey you’d be scared if you heard the stories my mom tells me.” 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” 

“Oh I don’t know if you’re ready to hear them.” 

I am too. Come on, Tell… (Yawn) Tell me the worst one.” 

Wynn always felt guilty when she stayed awake for so long for his sake. But he thought if she felt a little scared too, then maybe he would feel a little better about how he felt that night.

“Well, my mom says there’s this really scary monster in the woods, that stays asleep until it snows. She called it the Chenoo. It’s a 10 foot tall hairy snow monster that eats people. It was a person who died and was brought back through evil magic. It got bigger if it got angry. It was so hungry it chewed it’s lips off. It’s scream was so scary, you’d die if you heard it. And she says it has a lump of ice in it’s stomach. So if you wanna beat it, you have to make it throw up the ice. But there is nothing it won’t eat.” 

Her head began to fall, so she fluttered her eyes and shook her head to stay awake. “Is that it?” 

Wynn was severely let down by that reaction. “Well yeah.” 

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” 

“Well… I don’t know. But mom says it doesn’t matter too much if it’s real. It’s more about what the monster means. If people are really good or something.” 

She began to nod off and yawned again. 

“(sigh) Lily please go to bed. If you fall asleep here, and your dad finds you here in the morning, you’ll really be in trouble.” 

“Ok. Look, it’s going to be snowing a lot this week. Will you please promise you’ll come outside with me if I go to bed now? I haven’t seen you in person in so long.” 

He knew she was right about that. He didn’t like the snow, but he wanted to see her just as much as she did. He also knew this was a rare experience, and that she would never let him forget it if he let her down. “Ok. I Promise.” 

“Thank you. Good night, and good day Wynn.” And Lily signed off. 

Wynn thought about continuing his studies, but just sat there lost in thought. The silence creeped in around him. He felt the presence of the specter looming in the snow. Was he really such a coward? Was he rally so afraid of a monster that may not have existed? Or perhaps was he just afraid of himself? He wished he had an ounce of Lily’s bravery. She would do anything for her friends. So why shouldn’t he? He knew what he had to do. He bundled up in his thickest coat, boots, hat, gloves, and scarf, and approached his front door. He took one last deep breath, before turning the knob, opening the door, and taking his first tentative step into the great white unknown. 

The first bitter gust of the cold air hit him in his face, and sent a shiver down his whole body. He saw his own breath leave him like steam with each exhale. The quiet and the emptiness Made it seem like time stopped and he was the last person in the world. Each, step in the snow, every sway of a branch, everything touched by the wind, each sound was amplified in ways he’d never experienced. The ground was soft, and it molded to his feet, like it invited him out there. 

He turned his head and saw it again. That large figure of the Chenoo, still looming in the shadows with those piercing white eyes. He almost turned and ran back inside, but he went out there for a reason. He continued towards it slowly. It made no sound, making him more aware of his rapid breathing. Those eyes followed him with each step. He got as close as he dared. Staying in the light of a streetlamp. The monster stood strong, barely making any movement as it breathed. Wynn shook and he shuddered, unable to stand as sternly. But he would not let fear control him anymore. He figured if he scared it hard enough, it would run away, or vomit the ice inside of it’s stomach. So Wynn straightened his legs, clenched his fist, shut his eyes, inhaled as deeply as he could, and he released the loudest and hardest scream he possibly could. 

Then the beast fanned it’s furry arms and sent powdery snow flying everywhere. Wynn panicked and slipped onto his back, blinded by the snow. He breathed fast and sat up, wiping the snow out of his eyes. He saw the beast still standing where it stood. But upon further inspection, he saw it was no beast at all. Rather, it was only a large bush, wrapped in Christmas lights, most of which were covered by the thick snow. Supposedly they came in all different colors, but he could only see them in bright white. 

"Huh", He Thought. "It really was a trick of the light." Wynn sighed in relief, and fell back into the soft patch of snow. When he was some what relaxed, he opened his eyes, and trailed a small flake of snow falling from the sky. It dropped right onto the tip of his nose, disappearing like a cold drop of water. It… tickled. And he laughed. His laughter grew. He’d never been that happy. Wynn's very first snow night, and he was not eaten or injured. This snow tickled every part of him as he made a snow angel. He rolled, threw and danced in the snow that night until his glee was sated. 

The End