Dancing Snow
–-:two.
\\.Tennyo
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The frosty wind slammed into her as she walked out of the mall with Darien in tow. Serena clutched Darien's warm little hand and tried to muster her strength to face the winter cold. She really needed to start checking the weather forecast sometime. The sweater, however cozy it was, wasn't enough to keep the arctic breeze at bay.
"Where are we going?" Darien asked.
"We're going to the police station," Serena replied, "They might be able to find your parents."
"Oh, ok," he said, "So how are we getting there?"
"By the subway."
"The subway? What's that?"
"It's an underground train."
"What's a train?"
"It's…" Serena couldn't quite explain, "You'll see."
Fortunately, the subway station was only a block away, so they didn't have to walk far. When they approached the stairs, Serena was amused to see little Darien concentrating so hard on walking down the stairs.
"Do you need any help?"
"No," he said stubbornly, "I got it."
Slowly, but surely, they made it down the steps without too much trouble. After Darien placed his short legs on the concrete floor, he smiled proudly as if he has just climbed Mount Everest.
Serena approached the turnstile and was wondering if she needed to pay two fares when Darien walked right under the turnstile and was on the other side. He looked at her expectedly, waiting for her to come through. Meanwhile, Serena was glancing around the station, hoping what he did wasn't illegal and if it was, hoping no one saw her.
When there weren't any flashing lights or policemen running towards her, Serena shrugged and walked through.
"What now?" Darien asked.
"We ride the subway."
"What's that?"
Serena laughed and patted him on the head. "You'll see in two seconds."
They walked down another flight of stairs and Serena was relieved to find the subway still there.
"That," Serena pointed, "Is a subway."
"Oh… so what does it do?"
"It's going to take us where we need to go."
"Oh… so it's good."
"Yeah, it is."
"What's that smell then?"
Serena scrunched her eyebrows and wondered if she was this curious when she was little. The smell that Darien was referring to was a mixture of body odor and other bodily fluids. However, Serena didn't think Darien would really understand that, so she just gave him her usual answer and brought him towards the subway.
Once they stepped in, Serena was pleased to find out that people gave up their seats for her and Darien. It almost gave her reason to have a child of her own... Naw.
Halfway through the ride, the lights went out. For a moment, Serena shrugged it off. The lights went out all the time. However, when the subway stopped with it, Serena grew worried.
"What's going on?" Darien asked.
Serena looked down, barely able to see his face by the dim emergency lights. "Everything's fine, sweetie. The lights will come back on soon."
The rest of the passengers seemed to think so too, but when five minutes passed and still no lights, everyone began to panic.
"What's happening!" A woman yelled. Dozens of shouts followed soon after as the subway began to shake with too many people running around.
Finally, the P.A. system came on and everyone fell into a dead silence.
"Excuse me ladies and gentlemen," the voice drawled, "We seem to be having some technical difficulties. Please exit through the emergency windows. An operator will escort you to the nearest station. Thank you."
Serena furrowed her eyebrows. What the hell was going on? Good question.
Where the hell was the answer?
Meanwhile, people slowly piled out of the subway and into the tunnel. Luckily, they weren't too far from the last stop, so they didn't have very walk far before they reached the platform and onto the streets.
Once they were above ground again, Serena frowned. She looked around her surroundings and noticed things were still the same. There weren't any people rushing about like the sky was falling. It's funny how when something messed up in your life, no one else ever really noticed.
The main predicament however, was still clutching her hand. Serena looked at the little boy still holding her hand and wondered what she was going to do. Serena searched for the street sign and found that they were actually near her apartment. It was more than twenty city blocks away from the police station. She had already spent the last of her money on Darien's jacket, so she couldn't call for a taxi. And no way in hell was she going to walk that far.
Serena sighed. How in the world did she go from trying to do a good deed by bringing a lost boy to the police station, to him having to go to her apartment?
"So where are we going now?" Darien asked for the third time.
"Home," Serena simply replied.
"My home?"
Not wanting to let him down, Serena said, "Hmm… not quite. Are you bored?"
"Yes!" he jumped up and down, "Are we going to do something fun?"
"Yeah, we just need to walk for a little bit more," she said, "Then we can have fun. Okay?"
"Okay!" Darien exclaimed.
The two walked quickly to Serena's apartment, which was only a block and a half away from the subway station. Once Serena opened the door, she quickly turned on the television in hopes of finding any news on what had just happened in the subway station. Oddly enough, it didn't seem to be working.
Serena frowned and checked her phone; all she got was empty silence. She whipped her cell phone out. There didn't seem to be any service either. Apparently, the city's electricity seemed to be out. Good thing she was loaded with candles, flashlights, and canned foods. The canned foods, Serena was sad to admit, was her only other source of food, besides ice cream that is. It wasn't that she couldn't afford better, which is getting quite close to the truth, it was that she really couldn't cook. Oh well, it would last them for the night.
"So," Serena asked, "What do you want to do?"
Darien shrugged while Serena helped him take his jacket off. "I don't know. What IS there to do?"
"Well what do you do when you're with your friends?"
Darien looked down and rubbed his toe against the floor. "I don't… know."
"What do you mean?"
Darien began to shift his feet nervously. "I don't… think I had any friends."
Serena let that sink in for awhile. How could he not have any friends? Or if he did, how could he not remember them? The innocent boy standing in front of her seemed to be filled with mysteries- none of which she had any clue of solving. No matter though! Her favorite motto was to live life one day at a time. Right now, all she could do was deal with the circumstances that were handed to her. Anything else was just extraneous.
"Well! We could play hide-and-go-seek! That used to be one of my favorite games when I was a child!"
"Yeah! How do you play that?"
"All you have to do is find a hideout while I count to twenty. Then stay there until I find you."
"Ok!" he exclaimed and ran off to find the best hiding spot.
Serena chuckled and began counting. He was so enthusiastic about the tiniest things. He acts as if he had never played a game before.
"…18…19…20! Ready or not, here I come!" Serena went searching for the little munchkin, but found it increasingly difficult to find him.
She looked in all of the closets, which there weren't very much of in her tiny apartment, and searched in all the spots that a six-year-old could hide in. Finally, she opened the cabinet door under the bathroom sink and he jumped out at her.
"Ahh!" she jumped back in surprise.
"You found me!" Darien giggled.
"Yeah," she breathed, "You sure know how to hide!"
"Yeah!" he smiled gallantly, then his eyes widened and he pointed towards the small window in her bathroom. "Look! It's snowing!"
Serena got up and turned towards the window. "Yeah, it is. It's snowing pretty hard actually. From the looks of it, we might have to stay in tomorrow."
"So what are we going to do now?"
"Hold on a minute, I think I should go find my radio. Otherwise, we'll need to go out and buy one before it gets dark."
Serena marched into her messy bedroom, determined to find her long lost portable radio. Luckily, it was underneath her bed along with her other piles of junk. She clicked it on and off, and was dismayed to find that there weren't any batteries left.
"Argh!" Serena groaned, "Looks like we need to go out after all."
Serena helped Darien into his jacket again, mindful not to forget to wear her own. They went to the closest supermarket and found there were crowds of people waiting to buy batteries too. Well, it looked like the news finally traveled.
"Hey! Quit shoving!" a woman yelled, "I was here first!"
"Move over, woman!" a man shouted, "I need these more than you do!"
"Oh yeah? Well let's see if you can handle this!" the woman gathered all of her strength and shoved the man out of the line and onto the ground.
The rest of the people stopped their own shoving and looked at the triumphant woman. A few scattered applauses could be heard here and there, and pretty soon, the whole crowd was in an uproar.
"You go girl!" another woman shouted.
"That's the way to handle them!" said another.
"Yeah! Show him what you're made of!"
Serena, who found herself oddly smiling at the whole scenario, was cheering for the woman. What was even more amusing was seeing the now abashed man apologizing profusely to the woman. The woman just nodded and was shocked when the man gave her his only set of batteries.
"Here," he said, "I'm sorry for being such a jackass."
The crowd gave a collective aww, and some people were nice enough to give the man, and others who were lacking, their extra set of batteries.
The supermarket manager, a short fellow with a balding head had a broom clutched in his hand as if he were going to smash it over someone's head. He was so startled by the event passing before him that he declared, "All the batteries are free! All the batteries are free! Merry Christmas everybody!"
The crowd cheered wildly and patted the manager on his back. Some even picked him up onto their shoulders and marched around the supermarket in a mini Christmas parade.
"Merry Christmas!" the manager shouted above the crowd. The manager, who bore an uncanny resemblance to the elves that Serena saw in her old storybooks, winked at her and tossed her a pack of batteries.
"Thank you!" she replied, "Merry Christmas to you too!"
The manager turned around and looked straight at her. His face seemed to be full of mischief when he said, "No, my dear Serena, Merry Christmas to you."
Serena was confused. How did he… know her name?
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blargh. This was only four lousy pages. I hope the next one's longer. Thanks for reading!
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