It came early that year. I hadn’t even found my winter boots yet. They were buried somewhere in the hall closet. I was so used to wearing my old brown shoes that I hadn’t even thought about soon needing snow boots.

            “Look out the window,” I called to Mom. It was a Saturday and no school. 

            “Yippee!!”

            Overnight four two six inches of snow had accumulated. I wanted to go outside so bad but the snow was too deep for my old brown shoes. It would be ankle deep the minute I stepped out the door, but what would it hurt. My brown shoes had been in mud and rain and soaked more than once.

            “First your boots first, Nancy,” my mother firmly told me. “You can’t go out in those shoes.”

            I couldn’t take time to hunt for boots buried at the bottom of the closet all summer. I would put my coat on, go outside, and just make one snowball. Mom was busy fixing our breakfast and I would quickly sneak outside, make a snowball, and run right back into the house.

             I could say, “Hey, everyone. I made the very first snowball of the season, and it was fun…”

            Quietly getting my coat on, I carefully opened the front door and walked out bravely in my old brown shoes. Sure enough, my ankles sank into the deep snow on the porch. I picked up a handful of snow and pressed it into a ball. I hadn’t bothered to look for my mittens yet either.

            “Oh, Wow!” I said to myself, “This is colder than I thought.” My hands in a minute or two felt numb and my ankles and toes felt even colder. I stepped out of the snow with one foot and shook of the snow. Then I lifted the other foot. My toes and ankles felt numb in spite of only being outside for a few minutes. The snow covered my old brown shoes and sox.

            “Nancy, get in this house now!” my Mother ordered when she discovered where I was.

            I was glad to come inside and peel off the half frozen sox. What a stupid thing for me to do just for the sake of making the first snowball of the season. I wouldn’t admit it to anyone though.

            Once inside, I took off my wet brown shoes, with great difficulty peeled off the soggy sox, and set them on the register to dry out. I replaced them with my furry warm slippers and listened to my Mother’s lecture.

            “Nancy, she said…” “ Oh, yes," I thought, "I was in for it.”

copyright 2009 by Marilyn Murphree