Thaw

With a plaid woollen blanket around her shoulders, Marla stared out of the bedroom window. Outside, as far as the eye could see was a blanket of white pinned down by a dull grey sky. And yet, there it was...the sound that had got her out of the bed in the first place, faint but persistent. Marla saw a small hole in the snow drift that had come up to the windowsill that winter. She knew now what the sound was. Moving her eyes upward, she saw the next drop of water ready to fall from the roof's edge.

Spring.

It was something she had looked forward to in the past, but now she didn't know if she wanted time to stand still or to push forward. Just that very word sent a shudder through her whole being. In the past, she had her husband and child to rejoice in the first snowdrop; the first blades of grass struggling through the deep, heavy snow; the creeks and rivers swelling with the icy thaw. Now, without them she was lost.

Sam and Danny had been her whole life. She had readily moved from North Carolina to the wilds of Alaska for the love of her life. Their son Danny, was the joy of them both. Marla hadn't regretted a single day or moment of her life until they were no longer around. Now there was no-one to sit and roast marshmallows by the fire with, no-one to accompany her through the summer meadows sprinkled with mountain cornflowers, no-one to wake up with.

Marla sighed, misting up the cold window pane. Silently and slowly she turned away from the bleak view and sat back on the bed, smoothing the bed-covers as if she were soothing a baby. The Grandfather clock in the hallway ticked loudly and insistently in the stillness, as if to remind her that she could not stop time. Spring was coming. Maybe now, once the snows had gone, she would be able to recover her husband and child and bring them home for burial.