14 September 2012
A rumble. Soft at first but growing louder, and quickly too. I turn. I see it. Wave upon wave of pristine ghostly white snow sliding toward me. I try to run, but I lose my footing on the slippery snowy ground. The inexorable advance of masses of natures purest substance is amazing and terrifying. I try to stand, but the snow has already reached me and is covering my feet, legs, hips. I try again, but it's no use. It's up to my chest, and somehow I manage to turn, realising I'm about to be encased. The snow is up to my neck now, and showing no signs of abating. Getting very cold now, it reaches my head, and soon covers my whole self. Buried, I can feel more snow piling down, but I'm still here, still breathing. Still rumbling, but softer now. The pressure eases, and I realise this avalanche has stopped. I'm still here. How much snow is above me, to the side of me, all around me? I stay still for a moment. Take time to wonder if I can dig, claw my way out. I'll need my strength, but I'm getting ever colder. Going to have to do something soon. There's nothing to use to dig my way out, so it's going to have to be just me and my body. In my mind, I imagine a single snowflake, it's impossible beauty, and how it's weight is so insignificant, yet joined like Gordian knots with its brothers and sisters, it's quite possibly the heaviest thing I've ever known. Enough. Got to get out before I freeze. I have a little space in which to move my legs, and I'm able to slowly bend them so I can crouch. I brace, then flex and push against the incalculable mass bearing down upon my back. I'm in luck. The snow moves. I try again. The snow moves some more, some falling into the space I've left as I begin to stand. Sweat has started to bead on my forehead and a single droplet falls, making a tiny melt hole in the snow under me. How ridiculous to be so warm and yet so cold. I push the thought away. Buoyed by my success, I decide to give it my all. With a guttural cry I stretch, every muscle and sinew straining against the snow, until finally it gives and I stand upright, freed from my erstwhile tomb, throwing out my arms and spraying snow all around me. I catch my breath, and am newly blinded by the expanse of whiteness that surrounds me. I am alive. I am free.
That is the last time I use a broomstick to poke a snowdrift on the porch roof I can tell you...
Snowbound • Opuss № I