"Of all the...! Damn it!"
I slipped on a small patch of ice as I walked into the house, smacking my head painfully on the door, but sort of recovering before I fell.
"Jack, hon, is that you?" My mother calls from the next room, sounding a little concerned.
Rubbing my forehead, I called back, grumbling. "Yeah, isn't it always?"
She was smiling at me as she came into the room, drying her hands on her apron. "I suppose so, these days."
'These days', huh? Yeah, this was the one year I had with my mother alone. It was hard, but life always was. Money was scarce, and I was the only one able to supply it. I frowned, hoping she would never know how I got it. This year neither dad nor Jill were here, both leaving without a second glance back to go after bigger and better things.
"So where were you this time?" She interrupted my thoughts again, a small look of disappointment coming across her face as I masked my thoughts before she could intrude upon them again.
I smiled and raised a finger to my lips. "My little secret."
"Did you see? It's snowing!" She was so innocent; I often wondered how she came to marry such a cruel man as my father.
Shaking like a dog, I made it briefly snow in the living room where we stood, some flakes of it landing in her pale, pale bangs. "I might have noticed it was snowing, yeah."
"Isn't it wonderful!" She cried, taking the things from my arms, setting them down, and pulling me back outside into it.
"What are you up to?" I said watching her spin in it and smile.
"My little secret." She imitated my earlier action of secrecy. I watched her run over the bank giggling like a child.
"Mom?" Hands stuffed into the pockets of my trench, I walked over to the peak of it. Suddenly, a white blur covered all of my vision and stung my face when a ball of snow hit my face. I laughed, bending down to grab a handful and fling it back.
Oh but she was way too fast, and dodged it, launching another assault at me. I ducked and rolled, finally hitting her with two of them. My mother laughed and fell back with a plop. We played like that for hours, doing everything that you were supposed to do that was fun with the white stuff.
"This is the first time it's snowed on Centra since the Lunar Cry, you know." My mother stated blissfully in her bathrobe, clutching a small steaming mug containing hot chocolate.
The only response I could give was a sneeze that made my whole body jump with the action.
We laughed for the last time that year, not even knowing that this would lead to the sickness that would pain her for months, before it finally killed her. I had tried every medicine known to man to try to help her, but it was futile in the end, taking the most important thing from me.
Now everytime I see snow, I curse it and welcome it, remembering her laugh.