Snow globe

Short story inspired by the work of Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz (http://www.martin-munoz.com).

A malicious sparkle lit up the snowman’s beady eyes when he noticed the man had finally realized where he was.

 

The man had walked for a long time in the thick, heavy, humid and freezing snow. He had fought against violent and stinging winds blown by the massive storm for hours. He had not wanted to succumb to the tiring fatigue that threatened to send him into a hypothermic coma from which he could never wake up. He had kept on going, listening to the sound of his chattering teeth, trapped in an eternal shiver that shook him with painful tremors, torturing his frozen muscles with every involuntary spasm.

 

The snowman giggled while scrutinizing the discouraged face of the poor man who was slowly turning whiter then the thick snow sticking to his clothes.

 

The man was starting to understand, to his unfailing horror, while the snowman was enjoying the moment, that he had walked around in circles for the last painful hours, in the eternal storm of a snow globe, his footsteps disappearing under the undying blustery weather, his face whipped by biting snowflakes. With a heavy heart, tears freezing on his cheeks cracked by the bitter cold, the man approached the thin partition. Helpless and weak, he lifted up a hand with fingers blackened by the menacing grips of the cold, delicately pressed it against the glass as if scared he would shatter it, he then let his head heavily fall down on his chest, his heart pounding with cold despair. And while the snowman kept giggling of satisfaction, enjoying the fact that he was not the only prisoner of this glass globe anymore,  the man let himself slowly slip against the smooth glass of the snow globe, closing his eyes and letting the snow swallow him whole under a blanket of cold white crystals.

Author's Note

It is pretty much the middle of summer. It might feel odd to be reading a short story depicting a bitter winter, but a snowglobe doesn't always just exist in winter.

I always found those little globes quite interesting; not the manufactured touristy ones but the pretty ones. Like those of Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz (http://www.martin-munoz.com/); unlike the happy snowglobes that often represent fantastical, magical and dreamy settings like castles and princes and princesses, the globes Martin and Muñoz create explore a darker place of the imagination world, where the fictional characters are not always nice and where the fantastical creatures seem strangely menacing.

It was those globes that inspired this short short story. I let my mind drift in the darker corners of the two artists' imagery and brought to life a similar setting where nothing is quite pretty about the particular snow globe.

Hope you enjoy a little shiver in the midst of a beautiful summer...

Reviews

[SilentVerses]

Beautifully sorrowful idea, such menacing and mischievous images that snarl through the snowman, which society sees as a joyful symbol, and the man, forever encased in the winter of entrapment, desperate for an escape bitten by frostbite weaving for himself a lonely tune of isolation, a pawn in the grip of something he cannot change, like your words they perfectly contrast the hurt with the beautiful way in which they weave a haunting story. Well written.