Light n' Fluffy
Most of the time Shinji found school to be somewhat boring, but yesterday he had been rapt with attention. They were learning about snow. Or, more broadly, they were learning about weather patterns and the influence of the second impact on the climate. But it was the snow which really fascinated Shinji. He had seen pictures of snow and even the occasional movie, but he had never experienced it.
Usually within ten minutes of the start of Shinji's first class, heads were on desks and about a quarter of the class was sleeping peacefully, lulled by the monotonous sound of their teacher's voice. Yesterday everyone had stayed awake on account of the beautiful slides of crystalline snowflakes their teacher had remembered to bring in. As he talked about crystal structure and weather patterns, Shinji's teacher flicked through the many different forms which snowflakes could take. Shinji was amazed by the enormous variety which he saw on the slides. For the rest of the day the beautiful snowflakes stayed in his mind and they were the last thing he thought about before he fell asleep.
******
Snow! He pressed his face against the glass of his bedroom window in order to see it better. The fluffy white flakes were drifting slowly downward and had covered most of the small patch of grass near the parking lot. He abandoned the project he had been working on at his desk and ran to the closet to find his coat and gloves. After several minutes of searching he found what he was looking for. The dark blue coat and gloves were a little musty from sitting in the closet for a long time, but he pulled them on anyway. He stuffed himself into the coat and gloves and hurried outside.
When he reached the bottom of the apartment stairs he gazed in wonder at the pure white world around him. His breath came out in clouds and he breathed slowly and watched the white mist fade into the cold air. The way the snow covered everything gave the whole world a new, fresh look, even the concrete sidewalks and the metallic cars. In fact, the dusting of snow on top of the tan concrete reminded Shinji strongly of freshly baked sugar cookies.
In addition to the snow on the ground, there were long icicles hanging from the cars and the fence near the parking lot. Their muted glittering caught Shinji's eye and he walked slowly towards them as he tried to catch snowflakes with his gloved hands. His shoes made muffled sounds as he worked his way across the small patch of grass to the frozen fence.
Once he arrived at the fence, he reached out to touch one of the dangling icicles. He must have used too much force or the icicles were more delicate than they appeared because as soon as he touched it, the icicle dropped to the ground with a muffled clink. The musical noise amused him and he reached out to break off another icicle. Clink. He smiled and ran his hand down the entire row of icicles. Clinkclinkclinkclinkclinkclink. For a while he amused himself with breaking off every icicle he could find near him.
After the icicles were gone he decided he would try making a snowman. He made the base with a sphere of snow and placed the third and second spheres on top of the first one. The eyes he made with two small rocks he found on the ground and he made the mouth by carving a thin line with his smallest finger. The nose was a little harder. When he had seen pictures of children making snowmen, the snowmen often had carrots for their noses, but Shinji was quite sure that Misato would not have something as healthy as a carrot in her refrigerator. After thoughtfully looking at the materials around him, he picked up one of the icicles he had broken off and used that as a nose. After he placed the icicle, he stepped back to admire his work.
One side of the snowman's head looked a little larger than the other side so he broke off a chunk of snow to make the head more even. He was about to throw the snow to the ground when he realized that he had never tasted snow before. He dubiously held the chunk of snow close to his eyes. It should just taste like water, right? Or maybe since it was frozen it would taste like the shaved ice he had one time in the summer. He eagerly jammed the piece of snow into his mouth expecting a cool, crisp flavor.
Instead, the taste of the snow reminded him of cotton. He took the rest of the chunk out of his mouth and tossed it to the ground. Maybe his glove had made the snow taste odd. He took one glove off and reached down for a fresh scoop of snow. He tasted it and wrinkled his nose in dismay when this piece tasted like the first one. For several minutes he tasted snow from various locations around him, but all the pieces had that same strange taste. He decided to try one last piece, but as he brought the snow close to his face it tickled his nose and he sneezed and woke up.
He blinked in confusion for a moment as he realized that the snow was just a dream. Unfortunately the taste was not. Scattered about his bed were pieces of stuffing. He sighed as he realized that he had been trying to eat his pillow.
