Snowfall

I stood in the middle of the road, listening. We were the only ones in the dark, me and that lonely street light. It cast a pale yellow light behind me, flickering every now and then as if it was tired of burning and was wishing I'd get the hell away from it so it could go to sleep. But I kept standing there, my back against the light so it wouldn't disturb me too much. We stood there together, a tired street light and an odd little girl, alone in the dark.

The clouds were hanging low and covered the stars, but I wasn't there to watch the stars that night. Stars are there everyday, but first snowfall comes only once a year. It wasn't a proper snowfall, at least that's what everyone else would tell you -It didn't last long, and it was too cold for proper snowflakes, it was merely raining tiny spheres of snow. But I'm not too picky, I lost that luxury a long time ago.

The little spheres stole light from the gaze of the street light, which seemed to make it flicker even more, perhaps out of anger since it now had to work twice as hard. It all looked rather beautiful, I'm sure -The snowfall wrapping the world in an icy mist, momentarily hiding us from the demands of reality. Stopping time so we could be free just for a moment. But unfortunately the street light wasn't interested in being free, it just wanted to sleep already, and I was there to listen, not to watch.

Frost had covered the fallen leaves, making them cold and stiff even though they weren't completely frozen yet. The little spheres fell from the sky, creating a quiet rustle as they landed on the leaves all around us. It sounded like a rainstick right when you start to upend it. I let myself get lost in that sound, forgetting the world around me and travelling to a place where things were better, like they used to be.

The street light had had enough, and made sure I knew it by going on and off very demandingly. I sighed a little and slowly opened my eyes. The snowfall was quieting down, and the rustle was becoming too subtle to be heard. I had stolen too much time already, but I couldn't resist opening a small rift and letting a few snow spirits into this dark world. They shot out like tiny rockets, sprinting around me and under the street light with such joy that even the grumpy street light couldn't help to feel a bit more uplifted. One of them even landed on my nose for a moment, it's butterfly wings gently beating the cold air.

I watched the playing spirits, a small smile pushing it's way on to my face, then turned away from the street light again. "You can go to sleep now," I said to it as I started to walk away. It flickered a goodbye to me, but stayed on for a moment longer, letting the spirits race around the edges of it's gaze. The light grew slowly dimmer then, as the street light decided it was high time to get some sleep, and was soon gone. The snow spirits played for a moment longer, shining with a pale white glow, before they vanished with the last of the falling snow.