Fiction Friday - The Blizzard

Trey woke to light streaming in the window. He sat up in a flash. Sunlight! He tentatively lifted the edge of the curtain, as if seeing it would destroy the illusion. It didn't. A bright light was glowing, even through the frost crystals around the edges of the window. Rising, he flung open the drapes and stared out at the thick, white blanket covering the world in smothering cold, and blinding him in the morning light.

How long had it been? It was the winter storm to break all the records. Two days ago, he'd stopped watching the news and weather because it was all just more of the same and he was getting depressed.

As he watched out the window, Trey saw John across the street, emerge from his front door in just a bathrobe, hugging it tight to himself, but grinning broadly. Trey knocked on his window and caught John's eye, waving and gesturing to wait a minute. He grabbed his own terry robe and pulled the belt tight over his flannel pajama bottoms. 

Trey pushed his storm door open through the inches of snow that had blown across the porch up to the door. The cold took his breath away, and he tugged the robe tighter, yelping at the frigid air. John heard him and laughed from across the street. "Haha! So glad I live on the sunny side of the street!" John was standing in a halo of bright light, and icicles had formed on the edge of his porch as the early sun warmed the snow and ice above.

"You don't look that warm, but... SUN, huh?" Trey twisted his mouth furiously, trying to thaw the mucus that had frozen inside his nostrils.

"Oh yeah. We survived."

John turned and grabbed the shovel that had resided just inside the door for the past couple weeks, he pushed a path to the edge of the porch. The action helped warm him a little. At the edge of the porch, he realized how cold his feet were in his slippers, and decided to stop there for now.

"Hey, John, any word from Larry?" Larry was an older man who lived two doors down from John and Linda. It was a nice neighborhood and people generally checked on each other.

"I think Marv checked in on him the other day."

Trey's next door neighbor emerged and nodded at the two, before calling a "See you after coffee!" and ducking back inside.

"Yeah, me too, John. Enjoy the sunny side. I'm gonna get dressed and start shoveling."

Hours later, Trey and his neighbor met shoveling sidewalks from opposite ends. "Whew! It might be colder than Hoth out here, but I have worked up a sweat!" 

"You know what? Hang tight," said Trey as he hurried back along his shoveled path and into his house. Moments later he re-emerged with a sixpack of beer. He returned to his neighbor, leaning on his shovel, popped the tab on one and handed it over. He opened one for himself and stuck the others down in the three-feet of snow walling them into their spot on the sidewalk.

As John headed back to his porch, Trey called over, "Hey! If you can get across the street, I've got a beer with your name on it!"

"The perfect cure for cabin fever!" He turned his snow blower at a right angle and plowed through the mound of snow to meet his friends. As he popped his beer, he invited the others over for later. "Linda is stir-crazy. She has been baking whenever she can. You guys have to come over tonight and give purpose to her baking, or the boys and I are going to be FAT before spring!"

All the friends agreed to come over, and as the cold started seeping through their thick down coats, now that they were standing still, they parted ways until that night.


It's FICTION FRIDAY!
Every Friday, a new flash fiction story, inspired by reader comments, when possible. Feel free to leave a prompt for future use in the comments below.
Today's story was inspired by the prompt "Blizzard" given by Liz A. at "Laws of Gravity" on last week's Fiction Post. (For some reason I can't drop in links here today. Sorry!)