Pure As Snow

[Story in booklet]

Under the cold weight of snow, the earth will finally hibernate. It is the miracle of winter. Flakes fall as if they were sent to pause time before the seasons begin again. Some are clumsy, some are graceful, but each knows its landing place on the earth. 
The only movement here is that of a young woman searching through the braided pine branches for an opening. Her white dress is camouflaged against the snow. Lost in this dream chamber, she moves through the white powder, running her hands through it to awaken her memory.

Parting the branches, she follows an open path cleared before her, swerving its way to a stone bridge adorned with icicles. Someone is waiting for her there, a gray figure, a stranger, watching her through the shower of white between them. They are uncertain of why they have come but they both long to be here. Although she cannot recognize his face, she knows him somehow. As they stand together, a single ray of light grows from behind, wrapping them in its warmth until they dissipate into it. When she awakes, a cloud of winter air still floats above her. It was just a dream again.

On this morning, a man awakes from the same dream, one that reoccurred so often that he felt incomplete without it at times. It haunted him. When his eyes closed, her face still appeared before him, but not one that he could recognize.

His oldest memory was of being an infant sitting before his family, unable to speak or walk on his own. He cried for days and nights, his small fists clenched, until one day he couldn’t remember why he was so sad anymore. Along with the other children, he learned to laugh and run again. This became his new life, and everything before then seemed no longer his.

The man watches swelling clouds from his window and cannot help but anticipate the arrival of something today. Bodies bustle their way past him as he sits outdoors, but they are like shadows murmuring to one another. They float by unnoticed as his eyes only fall upon a young woman, dressed in white, who stands behind the crowd. He feels comforted, almost relieved by the sight of her, and longs to be near her.

Their eyes lock, a strange longing glance that could not be severed by anything at that moment. Her eyes are like two deep wells of stories, perhaps one he may have heard before. They appear dewy, prepared to overflow.

In the distance, church bells ring. The humming noise and motion of the world seep back in to disturb their peace. If she is a mirage, she will disappear soon, he thinks. But she remains there, motionless. This time is not a dream.

With a final glance at him, the woman slowly vanishes into the sea of bodies. A steady downpour of snow ripples in the wind until he cannot see anything but the movement of white. Chaotic, like a surge of emotion, and yet pure, white, and delicate, the snowstorm remains an enigma to him. As he tastes the snowfall, he sees a single ray of light piercing through a cloud, and he cannot help but smile.