Because it Snowed

I was just planning to get a bit of ramen and print a to-do list for study abroad. Yep, that was all. I walked down the hallway to Tina's end of South, down the stairs and across the ten meters that seperates South from Center, where our computer lab and Mizzou market are. Such a short distance that I was wearing sandals and a thin shirt.

And I saw the snow - the fabulous, beautiful snow, wafting down like flakes almost too perfect to be real, almost more like the soapy snowflakes used in all those New York true love chickflicks. It flew fast when I wasn't focused on it's dance through the air - slowed as I turned my gaze to the thousands of tiny flakes, lit up by the lamps they passed mid-flight until they almost resembled sparks, a golden sea of sparks. The wind was blowing them here and there, and the flakes were so light, such dry snow, that they allowed it and formed and unformed drifts with every passing moment.

I ran back to my dorm, across the courtyard even, letting the snow come up over my sandals. Then up to my room and I pulled on proper socks, snowboots, a sweatjacket a scarf, and my coat. Nothing too warm - no hat or gloves - I wasn't planning on an expedition, just a bit of a walk. I set off and called Zahra on the phone. We chatted about random things as I passed Dobbs, Stankowski. Then Ju called and I told her I was walking in the snow. She said she wanted to walk with me, but she was too far away. Too bad.

You're not that far, I said, now you just live off of Hitt Street. I'll meet you at the Physics Building. Come on! :D She agreed. I ran across campus in ten minutes, crunching delightful fresh snow and cautiously fording a road glazed with dark ice over black asphalt, slick and perilous. I passed a crowded bus stop full of miserable people waiting, and two or three other people. It was almost ten thirty, so campus was totally shutting down, and we few stragglers shot each other exasperated, empathetic smiles as we dashed here and there.

I met Ju at Physics Building and we decided to head for the woods near the veterinary school. We got a bit cold and doubted ourselves a bit on the way, but Baja was open so we stopped there and ate a few fish tacos and banana-chocolate quesadillas, felt stronger, and continued. Baja is the last point of true civilization, so from there we were by and large alone. We raced down slippery sidewalks without taking our feet off the ground, spelled our names by dragging feet, took silly pictures, made snow angles, giggled.

At length we reached the woods, decided the normal descent was a bit perilous in the weather, and chose the slippery but shorter and safer route into the little wooded valley. We took a few more pictures there, I enjoyed the familiar sight of the snow covered forest. It's never totally dark there, with the low hanging clouds and the lights of campus reflecting onto it. We could see everything clearly, even take bad pictures without flash if our hands were steady.

As we got quite cold and thought about heading back, Ju got a phone call and spoke in Thai. Ju asked me where we were, and, not knowing who she was talking to, and also forgetting the name of the path, I answered, "In the woods!" Ju laughed and finished her conversation before telling me, "That was Prite. He wanted to join us but he didn't know where we were."

I was embarrassed! We decided to call Prite again, both because we wanted him to join us, and because we wanted rides back home. I called Prite, but his phone ran out of batteries partway through hello. I asked Ju if anyone else was at home, and we called Ju's roommate Kim. Kim didn't answer, so we thought we'd reached a dead-end. Then Kim called us back, and Prite came on the phone, and I explained where we were. Prite said he knew the place, knew the mule barn at least, and would go there but was afraid about meeting up since he wouldn't have a phone.

"We're in the parking lot," I said. "You can't miss us."

Then, thinking he would come quickly in the car and that we were a decent ways down the path into the woods, I told Ju to take her time, and I was going to sprint ahead to intercept Prite. I ran up and out of the woods, across the mule barn lot and to the hill. I decided to go up to the top of the hill, in case Prite was confused about which lot was the lower one. If he drove down to the lower lot, I would see him and be able to run down easily.

I waited a long time. At length Ju emerged from the forest - I could just make out a vague pink shape moving across the lot and gaining substance through the snowfall. I waited at the top of the hill and she at the bottom. The minutes ticked on and I started to feel cold. I tried to take shelter from the wind and snow behind a tree, but the wind seemed to rush at me regardless of my angle. It was beautiful beside the tree, though, with the whole ground seeming to twinkle and change as the wind blew the snow about, and the branches of the tree shook. To stay warm, Ju and I started dancing crazily.

I turned and saw someone running towards me. As the person came closer I realized it was Prite. I laughed at him as soon as he recognized me, and ran down the hill as fast as I could. If the hill had been even a bit steeper I would have tripped and fallen, especially with all the snow, but I knew more or less what I could handle and enjoyed the crazy feeling of running down it with my feet rarely touching the ground, almost flying. Prite ran down too, straight behind me. I threw myself into a turn as I reached the bottom of the hill and Ju, landing fairly gracefully given my history, and Prite yelled, "I can't stop!!" and ran straight into Ju.

Then we greeted each other properly - it had been a while since Prite and I had seen each other. Then Prite said, "I'm so tired! I ran all the way here from Ju's house!"

"What do you mean? You didn't bring your car?"

"No!"

"But that's why we invited you!"

"WHAT?!?!"

Oh well. We walked into the forest again, took a few more pictures and I made fun of Prite for running like a fairy prince and we argued about the appropriateness of the simile. We went mostly downhill and it became apparent that Ju's boots were not up to the task. After she slipped for the fourth time, and we'd gone far enough anyway, we decided to go back. But uphill was much worse, and eventually I took up the lead and occasionally gave Ju a bit of a push, while Prite occasionally took her hand and led her up hill. We took the rockier road back up to the parking lot because it gave more of a foothold. It was midnight by now but we could still see as clear as dawn or dusk.

We walked back to Ju's house on deserted neighborhood roads that were shining white. The only tracks in them were Prite's from running to meet us. We felt we owned the city. We ran ahead and stopped and slid across the slippery streets, took pictures of shadows, made funny faces at the two cars which passed by.

Still it felt good to reach a warm house. We took off our shoes and entered, ate seaweed, and Thai food so spicy that my body protested at the violent changes in temperature I had subjected it to that day, but it was delicious too, and afterwards a strange tea-like beverage that tasted like nothing other than hot, liquified fig - and that was a good thing. We laughed and talked and joked for another half hour.

Prite and I went out to his car but the doors were frozen shut, so we took a kettle of hot water and went back out. I told Prite I felt like we were about to act out a scene from Ranma, carrying that kettle around, and he pretended to pour it exactly right. He asked whether it would turn me into a boy. I said maybe not - maybe a panda or a raccoon or something instead.

I warned Prite that pouring hot water wasn't always the best fix for a frozen shut car, but he poured the kettle over the doors anyway, and sure enough we had just enough time to open the doors before the hot water froze back onto the windows. Prite scraped the front and back windshields just well enough and we drove slowly on the empty roads back to South hall.

I love college.