Tales From The Town #139: Cold Conversation

“Winter’s rubbish,” Claire said. “I mean, look!” She stamped her boots down in the muddy puddle under the swing, which was frozen so completely she didn’t splash anyone with mud even slightly. “See? Awful!”

“I thought you liked the cold?” Tina said. “You’ve been wanting it to snow all week.”

“Only so we wouldn’t have to school,” Claire said. “Cold without snow’s totally pointless.”

“You’re’re’re to-to-totally pointlessssssssssss,” Ethel said, her teeth chattering so hard her insult didn’t upset Claire at all.

“Wntrsthbst,” Daniel said from beneath two scarfs, three hats, and a hood, “Nwntrycnsallthstrsnthsk!”

“Shut up about stars, Daniel,” Claire said. “It’s not even night time.”

“You’re’re’re’re’re no-no-no-no-not even night-ti-ti-ti-ti-time,” Ethel said, over the course of several minutes, by which time the sun had set and also it had started to snow.

“Snow’s rubbish,” Claire said. “What’s the point of snow on a Saturday?”

__________

Notes:

1. Written on December 1st, 2023

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

If you like the things you've read here please consider subscribing to my patreon or my ko-fi.

Patreon subscribers get not just early access to content and also the occasional gift, but also my eternal gratitude. Which I'm not sure is very useful, but is certainly very real.

(Ko-fi contributors probably only get the gratitude I'm afraid, but please get in touch if you want more).

Thank you!

Tales From The Town #51: Puddles

Sudden sun for a whole weekend marks the unexpected end of this long unceasing winter, and by Monday morning, all that remains of this entire season’s crop of snow are puddles dotted here and there on the street and in the road. And when the children walk to school, one by one, beneath the gleeful stamping of their boots, they too will soon be gone.

__________

Notes:

1. Written between June 9th and June 15th, 2021

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

Tales From The Town #47: Winter

A Winter’s Day

“It’s cold,” said Tina.

“It’s really cold,” said Claire.

“It’s too cold,” said Ethel.

Daniel’s teeth chattered and his face went blue.

“I told you all it wasn’t the weather for ice cream,” Agnes said with a sigh, as she paid the ice cream van driver and ushered the children back inside.

A Winter’s Night

Sixteen hours of dark, and all of it silent. Softly floating snow making rainbows as it falls, the colour of moonlight, the colour of streetlights, the colour of headlights, the colour of fairy lights put up for Christmas and never taken down.

Three months later and they still don’t look out of place. Winter deadens time like snow swallows sound. Purgatorial beauty.

__________

Notes:

1. Written on June 11th, 2021
2. A sequel to Tales From The Town #15: Summer

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

Tales From The Town #38: The Frozen Sea

Above The Frozen Sea

The sea was frozen from the shore to somewhere beyond the horizon, as far out as anyone dared to tread. The whole town came out to see. It was like a dream. In years to come no one would be believed when they spoke of it.

Some walked timidly on the ice, some ran, slid, spun, others still skated up and down, around and around, pirouettes and arabesques, smiles to the crowd, kisses, applause.

Behind a wave of ice, out beyond the headland, in a world entirely of their own, Oya and Anna slid into each others arms. Nothing could keep them apart.

The Frozen Sea Itself

Not flat like a frozen lake, but undulating, like the gently rolling curves of some furrowed hillside. The ice groans and creaks, moans and sighs. But it does not move.

The philosophers amongst us wonder, Is a wave still a wave when it’s been frozen in place?

Below The Frozen Sea

For a mermaid there is no loneliness like days spent swimming beneath frozen seas. The footsteps above sound like explosions from some distant war, the scrape of skates against ice like tortured screams.

The sea itself seems smaller, darker, the sky now a roof, the sun as dull as the moon, her home reduced from its limitless splendour to this dismal claustrophobic cave.

The mermaid sings and sings, weeps and wails, but no one can hear. On days like today, not even the gulls return her calls.

___________

Notes:

1. Written between May 14th and May 25th, 2021

__________

Support An Accumulation Of Things

Tales From The Town #37: A Simple Winter Scene

There was a fox sleeping on the swing. Footsteps in the snow. A brittle sky about to crack. Wisps of breath like smoke. A dragon without wings.

That was the whole of the scene. There was no need for anything more.

___________

Notes:

1. Written between the 23rd and the 25th of May, 2021

__________