When Hell Freezes Over

When Josh emerged from bed that morning, he hadn’t any idea what a good story this day would be, if there would be a future to tell it to. Walking to school, he counted the cracks in the pavement, 44 total. After eating his breakfast rations, he put his mask back on and went to class. It was a perfectly normal morning to accompany a perfectly normal day.

The bell rang, triggering the pre-recorded announcements. ‘Good morning students of Oakville High School! Today is Wednesday July sixth, 2118. It is 106 degrees and cloudy…’

“As usual,” someone bellowed from the crowded classroom. Josh looked up from the heavily vandalized table he was staring at to see what his fellow student was yelling about.

“The weather is the same every day! Why do they need to remind us of that on the announcements? It’s not like anything ever changes!” The students murmured in agreement. 

“Alright, settle down,” their teacher, Mr. Mark, said, a little louder than necessary. “Today we will be covering chapters 8 and 9, so get out your readers. For those of you that don’t know, chapters 8 and 9 explain a typical life for someone 100 years ago, when it still rained and snowed and the average daily temperature in the state of Washington was closer to sixty degrees. Your time starts now.”

Josh turned on his reader and went to chapter 8. It was filled with pictures of green trees and smiling faces. About halfway through the text there was a video of this beautiful white powder falling from the sky. The trees and ground were drowning in pure white fluff. The caption under the video read, ‘snow was formed when water in the sky reached a temperature lower than 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and became heavy enough to fall.’

Josh raised his hand.

“Yes?” Mr. Mark said in acknowledgment to the curious student.

“Is it possible for it to snow now? Even though it’s much warmer than it used to be?”

“No, Josh. You see, ice melts when the air around it is even 34 degrees, that’s why Greenland had to be evacuated during the heat flash of 2075 when all of the glaciers melted! It hasn’t been cooler than 85 degrees in over fifty years. Snow at this point would be a sign of the End. We don't want that.”

“Good point Mr. Mark. Thank you for answering my question,” Josh said, even through his disappointment. If only there would be a day when he saw snow!

Josh thought about snow all through classes 2, where they had a debate about whether or not the pollution coming from the ration distribution center was making an impact on our health, 3, where Josh wished he could go home (he found biology quite boring), and even during lunch. When he was walking to class 4 through the outdoor hall, he felt a chill. Turning around, he saw a cloud, different than the usual smoky haze. This cloud was white and fluffy, almost like the clouds he saw in the video earlier! Forgetting about the chill, he ran inside enthusiastically to tell Mr. Mark of his discovery. 

“That’s very interesting Josh, but I’m afraid you must’ve imagined it. We just don’t have precipitation clouds around here anymore.”

“I know what I saw! Do you think it might rain? Or even snow?” Mr. Mark looked at Josh solemnly and shook his head.

“It just isn’t possible,” but the young teacher eyed the classroom thermometer as Josh dismissed himself, praying that it was broken. “It’s not possible,” he tried again to convince himself, he said it again and again until he was yelling, as if yelling would make it true. “IT’S NOT POSSIBLE! IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!” But as he was trying to convince himself that their world was safe, the thermometer crept lower and lower, slowly but surely.

Josh jogged to get to class 4 before the bell rang, but was still tardy. The class was language studies, his least favorite. He lazily looked at the table, trying to decipher some of the words written when he heard a quiet and scared sounding ‘good lord,’ come from their teacher. He jerked his head up to see her staring out the window. Josh looked out the window to see fluffy, white clouds. Without asking to be excused, he grabbed his book bag and ran outside.

To Josh’s surprise, when he got outside the hair on his arms stood up and tiny bumps formed on his skin. Was it...cold? He grabbed his reader and checked the thermometer, which read 70 degrees Fahrenheit in bold black letters. To his horror and utter delight, the numbers continued to go down.

68 degrees Fahrenheit

61 degrees Fahrenheit 

59 degrees Fahrenheit 

And lower and lower they went. 

As the other students started to notice the strange clouds, more and more of them and staff alike piled into the courtyard. There were yells, cries, and lots of confused children as they felt cold for the first time.

Mr. Mark stayed in his classroom staring at the thermometer, nearly driving himself insane. “It’s just not possible! It’s statistically and rationally impossible!” He reasoned with himself. “It must be broken.” The thermometer read 30 degrees Fahrenheit in the same lettering as Josh's reader, and it was then that he noticed the congregation outside. To his horror, Mr. Mark went to the courtyard to find that the thermometer was not indeed incorrect. 

Josh was looking up at the clouds that seemed to hypnotize the schoolyard. Everyone was now silent. The only noise was a few horrified gasps as one singular piece of cloud floated from the heavens and landed on Josh’s outstretched hand. He smiled.

“It’s a snowflake!”  the ecstatic student whispered to himself. He gazed at this tiny miracle as it melted in his palm, and more and more pieces of fluff fell from the sky. 

It was snowing! The flakes continued to grow, and when the teachers deemed it too cold to stay out, the children were ushered back to the classrooms to watch this long lost phenomenon from inside. Josh was the last to leave, frozen in time by the beauty around him. It was so perfectly quiet, and the cold biting at his exposed skin was exhilarating. He tried to talk himself into going inside, but something was keeping him from it. Almost as if the snow was speaking to him. He stayed and stayed until the ice seemed to creep into his head and take over his thoughts.

From the window, the students of Oakville High School watched as their world was transformed in a flurry of colorless beauty. In Mr. Mark’s empty classroom he watched the snow fall, terrified, as he repeated his new mantra. “It’s not possible, it’s not possible, IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!” 

Everybody was so captivated by this unexpected revelation that they didn’t seem to notice the thermostat creeping down at an alarming rate.

26 degrees Fahrenheit 

20 degrees Fahrenheit 

11 degrees Fahrenheit 

-3 degrees Fahrenheit…