Charlotte sighed as she sat on the wooden gate that opened up into Georgina's extensive stable yard and paddock area. The musk of horses and haylage lingered in the otherwise crisp, clean air. She pushed her scarf further up around her neck as she observed the scene around her. It was beautiful, magical, unlike anything she had ever seen before in her life. It was so clean. It was untouched but for her own footprints and a few others that had been made in the early hours by the workers. It was all a pure white; innocent despite its coldness. It was soft yet at the same time hard to touch. Charlotte finally had her first glimpse of snow.
Stupid really; she was Scottish, she should have seen snow... she should have seen ice. But she was only Scottish because she was born there, because her Mum was. In her heart she was South African. Her nationality was South African. She considered herself South African. Yes, she was proud, ever so proud of her Scottish heritage but that was all it was. She'd never lived there – well not any time she could remember anyway. She didn't have any form of accent – not even a light twang that with one trip could come raging back. She'd lived and grown up in the sunny plains of Africa. Experienced the true extremities of weather, from merciless storms to blistering heat, she'd experienced it. She was thankful to her Mum for that. She couldn't imagine life over here, without Africa, without wild animals, without such beautiful culture, weather and people. Everything here was tiny, everything there was huge.
"Charlotte?"
Charlotte looked up and saw her Mum, all wrapped up like an Eskimo from the north pole making her way over to her. She smiled and jumped down off the gate, meeting her Mum half way.
"What you doing out here? You'll be freezing!" Alice said though no scold or tone was to her voice.
"It's snow Mum, I've never seen it." Charlotte explained as Alice wrapped an arm around her, "It's all so... magical in a sense."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked her softly as she stopped by a wall, picking up a bit of snow in her gloved hand and squashing it into a ball.
"It's all peaceful and quiet. Snow brings that." Charlotte commented, "Usually everything is hectic, rushed and the weather just creates a dirty diversion in some way shape or form. Yet when it snows, it stops all that doesn't it? Everything gets done quicker because people either want to escape to the warmth or enjoy it whilst it lasts. Despite the fact everyone still runs round like headless chickens, it's quieter because people see the accidents that rushing causes and all these people decide against it. It brings everything to a standstill... no fighting, no arguing, no rushing and most of all everyone comes together."
Alice shocked by how deep her daughter thought gave her a gentle squeeze. In so many ways Charlotte was right. Although she was young and didn't understand the full adult world and how hard it was on the country and its people for everything to stand still, her daughter made a lot of sense. Snow did bring about a change in society. People moaned about it yes, but it made everything quieter and everyone seemed so much happier.
"Though if they think this is bad they should try one of our storms!" Charlotte added causing Alice to laugh.
"Aye, they should." Alice chuckled kissing her daughter gently on the crown of her head, "Come on, inside, we'll get some breakfast then we'll make a snowman? You can find someone else to pelt with snowballs!"
"Georgina?" Charlotte asked excitedly.
"Number one target darling daughter." Alice winked as both mother and daughter began to laugh, making their way into Georgina's warm, festive home.
(x)
A mess. That's all Caroline could see as she wandered into her room... with her husband plonked quite neatly in the middle of that mess. She rolled her eyes.
"CAROLINE! I could still be wrapping your presents... though I'm not." Dup said waving his arms around manically.
"If that's your idea of wrapping we have issues. Anders, I told you not to wrap all the presents!" Caroline scolded him.
"I've hidden yours! So don't try saying they all need re-wrapping cos you won't see your present."
"They don't need re-wrapping Anders they simply need wrapping!" Caroline exclaimed, "Look at the state of them!"
It was true, they were all quite a mess and certainly not neat. Bits of paper were strewed all around the room, cello tape occupied every inch of Dup, the bed and most of the presents. Tags were hanging limply off the terribly wrapped, peeking presents and bows were stuck everywhere except on the presents.
"Why don't we do it together?" Caroline suggested taking a seat on the bed and glancing at the presents. Dup simply nodded with a grunt – Caroline smiled, she'd take that as a yes!
A/N – Short chapter but added a bit of Cupe in!
