It was the first snowfall of the year. Riley Poole had been up late last night, working on his computer, and had been able to witness the first thick flakes falling down in the dead quiet of his neighbourhood. He sat back in his chair and stretched, watching the snow fall. It was four in the morning. Riley stood up and walked across his kitchen floor, his socked feet barely making a sound. He popped open the tiny window above his sink,and stuck his hand out a few inches. He grinned while he watched a few flakes swirl around his outstretched fingers, before melting on his warm skin.
He returned to his laptop, but found his concentration focussed more on the snow outside, then the work on his laptop. He found himself staring out the window every few minutes. He closed the lid to his laptop, thinking about his thick blankets on his warm bed. He decided that he wanted to enjoy the snow while it was still fresh and beautiful. In a few hours, it would be grey and marked with bootprints. Some of it would melt into a nasty sludge.
Riley put on his hightops and winter jacket, taking out his wooly mitts and hat buried deep in his winter pockets. Locking the door to his apartment, Riley walked down the two sets of stairs, and exited the building. He could see the large snowflakes illuminated in the streetlights' beams, still going strong.
There was a playground down the block from his apartment building. A plastic yellow twirly slide, a set of swings, and a rusted monkeybars sat beside the soccer field. Riley made a beeline for the swings, quickly brushing off the layer of snow before holding the metal chains with his mitts, and hoisting himself up onto the seat.
His neighbourhood was normally so busy, with people up at all hours of the night. He could hear the partygoers under his window cursing and hollering when they'd had too much to drink. He'd learn to block out the sounds of their antics with a decent set of headphones.
Right now, he thought, it was perfect. There was no noise whatsoever. The streets were completely devoid of tire tracks or traffic. Riley smiled, sticking his tongue out of his mouth like a bratty child. He deftly caught a snowflake. Riley gently pushed the swing with his pyjama-clad legs, not putting much of an effort into it. He stayed there for an what seemed like an hour.
He was tired, and he had alot of work to complete tomorrow. Riley yawned, jumping off the swings. He had to get to bed. He wanted to stay in the park forever. To stay in that moment forever - just sitting in silence and watching the snow falling. But people would be getting up in a few hours. He knew it was time to go back home, get some sleep.
Riley lay his mitts and hat on the radiator beside his hightops, and hung his jacket on the hook. It was nearly dawn when he finally crawled into bed, tucking the blankets up to his chin. He was asleep within a few minutes.