Someone other than the police.
Someone other than the police.
Those fuckers laughed all the way back to their patrol car.
Shelley Pauls
It started this morning, when I woke up to ten inches of snow on the ground.
The storm came out of nowhere.
Thanks to global warming, its been warm and sunny around here lately.
I honestly thought wed be able to get away without a drop of snow the whole winter.
But then it all hit at once.
I wouldnt have even bothered to step outside if it wasnt for my dog.
He needed to use the bathroom, which meant I needed to shovel a path.
I had a large, heavy-duty shovel, but it didnt help.
Clearing out the snow was useless.
Whenever I felt like I was making progress, the snow would pile up again.
He timidly joined me outside, but after a few minutes, he was loving it.
He pounced around, leaving circles of paw prints throughout the yard.
He dug his nose into the ground, turning his whole snout white.
I rolled up a snowball to see what he would do.
As I should have guessed, he tried to eat it.
Then I rolled up a larger one.
Without really planning it, I built a snowman and a snow dog.
Then I snapped a selfie of us in front of it.
Got lots of likes on Instagram.
I expected the snow to clear up within the next few hours, but it only got heavier.
The weirdest part was, instead of getting covered over by snow, my creations only grew bigger.
They nearly towered over my fence.
They also looked like theyd moved a few inches, but I figured it mustve been an illusion.
The next time I let the dog outside, I wasnt brave enough to join him in the cold.
I was already in my pajamas, sipping cocoa.
But I heard him yelp instead.
I assumed hed gotten frightened by a branch snapped by snow or a whistling gust of wind.
I opened the door to let him inside and he came in, tail between his legs, whimpering.
There were slashes across his back.
It mustve been a fucking raccoon.
Thankfully, the scratches werent deep, so I cleaned him up and fed him treats.
There were blood drops on the snow.
They led up to the snowman.
To his stick hand with four wooden fingers poking out.
Like he had done the attacking.
It was a ridiculous thought.
It made me feel a little bit better, so I kept going.
I knocked off its buttons.
I bashed in its stomach.
I kicked a hole through its bottom.
I only stopped once something sharp dug into my leg.
I stumbled forward and fell into the snow, shivering.
When I looked down, my ankle was bleeding.
