"Y'know," Jason said, "
moments like this are bliss for me somehow. It's not a joyful bliss though, if that makes sense. It's like every emotion that I'm capable of is gathered up in
the pit of my stomach. It doesn't feel good particularly, or bad for that matter, but
it feels real, and that's..." He searched for the word. "
rare."
He walked out into the field a little way, looking toward the forest. Sara followed him,
trying to make her feet fit perfectly inside his footprints. It was a game she had played since she was a child, following her father back up the driveway, watching him drag the
sled behind him. She shook the memories away. In the center of the field, Jason stopped, and stood
quietly, the collar of his jacket turned up for that little extra warmth. His eyes moved slowly as he watched the flakes drift down through the moonlight. Sara stood beside him,
silent. Jason tilted his head back to the sky and closed his eyes. He felt his weight begin to shift backwards, and didn't fight it. He allowed his body to fall, arcing down through space, and landing with a soft thud and a puff of white in the fresh snow. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes. Sara was bending over him.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey."
"You know, from this angle,
the snow looks like stars. It's like the whole universe is crumbling apart, and
the stars aren't really flaming gases and nuclear reactions at all. The physicists had it all wrong. They're just tiny ice
crystals, falling into my eyes."
Sara sat down in the snow next to him. "You always were quite the poet."
"Nah.
I never wrote a decent poem in my life. I just have
a knack for sounding poetic."
"I see."
Jason turned his head in the snow and looked over at the car. The wheel that wasn't on the ground was turning slowly.
"Think we'll get that out tonight?" He asked, smiling a little.
"I kind of doubt it."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." He turned his head back toward the sky. "
Do you think we'll get pnuemonia and die?"
"No, we're only about a mile from your house, and the snow's not that deep."
"Damn."
"Speaking of which," Sara said, "shouldn't we start walking soon?"
"Yeah. Just let me lie here for a few more minutes."
"Okay, sure."
"A few more minutes..." he said, and closed his eyes.