Flash Nano 18 No Snow

 

It hasn't snowed for 213 days...

Alice hated Florida. Her husband Tom had accepted a teaching post at the University of Miami. He’d been rejected by six other universities, so there was no way she could say, “Don’t take it.”

Instead she packed up their things, quit her job working in the graphic department of a Boston ad agency.

Her parents were thrilled. They lived near the university. She used to joke that her father's, who was raised in Northern Maine, first words were, “When are we moving to Florida?" Her parents would visit her in Boston summers, but when a few leaves changed color and fell, they rushed back to Miami.

It was now April. While her husband and parents reveled in the warm days, wearing shorts, Alice fantasized turtle necks under sweaters, a fire in her fireplace, the Boston T where she didn’t have to drive everywhere. That they had to buy a car annoyed her.

She knew she was out of step with most people. Her father had often called her a misfit when she was young that she didn’t like what other kids liked.

Daily she checked the weather forecasts for Boston. She marked the number of days when she was without snow. There was 213 days ( a very early dusting) 170 days was Boston’s first blizzard, then 169, 162, 155. For each storm she painted a snow scene.

“You really need to get over this homesickness,” her parents said while Tom said, “Shape up.”

She barely survived the heat in July. Rather than not like going from air conditioned building to air conditioned car, she was grateful for it.

In August, a hurricane took the roof off her parents’ home. A tree fell on Tom’s car, although hers survived.

For the first time Tom thought maybe they might think of going north. He started sending out resumes, working contacts. Her old company would take her back. Her replacement had left.

They were part of the wave of U-Haul trucks that descended on Boston every September driven by the students at the many colleges. They would house sit for a professor friend of Tom’s. The man would be on sabbatical in Bath, England for a year. The house came with an adorable dog and Alice could picture them playing in the snow during the winter.

She was where she belonged.