Excerpt from ‘Snow & Dog’
‘It’s probably best if we go on our hands and knees. That way we won’t fall through.
‘What?
‘Like this.
‘Oh, okay.
Three people were creeping across the snow that was probably four or five feet deep and frozen on top. It was hard to tell how far the ground was from the surface. They were making their way towards the river, having recently walked through a rather villagy street of the city they were in. They were making their way to the river because the photographer from France was taking pictures.
Looking out across the river, it was hard to tell where it ended and the other bank began. The river itself had been frozen for about four months, many said it was frozen to the bottom. ‘They’ll probably have to blow it up’ one old lady on the street had said. There was a lot of snow on the river. It didn’t look like a river at all, just more snow. It was white and white and white. The sky was a little bit gray.
The girl tried to stand up and her foot sank about two feet into the snow. She laughed and looked at the other two. She pulled her foot out and her boot was stuck and her legging was covered in snow. She steadied herself on the shoulder of the boy in order to brush off the snow and put her boot back on. Then she pointed towards the river.
‘See? Nothing.
The boy and the photographer nodded silently.
Near the river the snow had become hard enough to walk on. They stood up and started walking north along what would normally be the bank, back in the direction of town. The girl walked fastest and the photographer walked behind her. The boy tried to take a picture of the whiteness on his camera phone. It didn’t turn out so well.
He walked faster to catch up with the other two. In the meantime the photographer had started taking pictures of some trees. His camera would click maybe once a minute. Slow.
The boy looked at the girl and she was already looking at him. Then she turned her head away and looked at the river. Then she looked at the ground.
‘Do you like this place?
‘Yeah, it’s beautiful. I can’t believe I live here and I’ve never seen this.
‘I know lots of places like this one. I can take you there.
The camera clicked behind them.
‘I want to take you more places like this, but alone.
‘Why alone?
‘So it will be just us.
She looked at him when she told him she said it would be just them. He looked at her and then he looked away. Then she walked over and put her head on his shoulder. She breathed two or three times and the cloud of her breath mixed with his and became a larger breath cloud.
‘You know I like you.
‘I know.
‘You don’t want to be with me?
‘I can’t
‘Why not?
‘You know.
She kissed him and he let her. She looked at him again, kissed him again. He turned towards where the photographer had been.
The photographer had walked farther north without their noticing. A dog came out of the forest and started barking at him. The photographer backed up and looked at the other two. They ran up to him and looked at the dog. The girl looked at the dog closely.
‘It’s a girl, it probably just has puppies somewhere. Just keep walking and she’ll leave us alone.
They walked and the dog kept barking. They were silent and the dog’s barks were very loud. The boy felt very nervous. The girl did not feel nervous but she was a little sad. The photographer thought he took one or two really good pictures. Then the dog went away once they had walked far enough.
Photo: Helen Stuhr-Rommereim (site)
