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 Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:32 pm
The entire park, from the ground to the trees to the benches to the gleaming, icy enchanted castle that had once been a climbing gym, was covered in a thick layer of snow. Nahuel was both enthralled and terrified by the wondrous stuff that was both soft as a pillow and cold as ice. He greatly suspected he was more of a warm weather cat, and so watched with some suspicion as his mother attempted to demonstrate a "snow angel" to him by lying on her back in the white stuff and flailing around like she was under attack.
Eshaa had been trying to engage Nahuel in the joys of snow days for the entire duration of their walk to the park, but it hadn't worked yet. Anything that involved lying down in the snow didn't seem to entice the jaguar child, and he didn't totally grasp the concept of snowball fighting. The alien woman got up, pursed her lips, and looked around the park, at a lack for something to do.
There was something odd a few yards away - a misshapen mound of snow with two sticks and a carrot poking out of it. It must have been the abandoned project of some neighborhood kids. Oh well, it would be theirs now!
"Hey Nahuel!" she said, catching her son's attention. "Want to build a snowman?"
Nahuel pondered the suggestion. A man made of snow? Did it talk? Did it walk? Could you even build a person, out of snow no less? "How?" he asked, following her gaze to look at the carrot and the sticks. Those seemed out of place. Eshaa was already on her way over to them, so he followed.
"Well, first we roll a big ball of snow for the base..."
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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:41 pm
"BUT I DON'T WANT TO!" Came a loud piercing shrill from across the snow covered play ground. A young child dawned in a pink snow suit clung desperately to a dangling swing. Her little hands had a death grip upon the plastic seat as a older woman was trying to drag her away. This woman had a look on her face that said she was tired. Tired of the park, tired of the child, tired and emotionally drained.
"Belinda... It's time to give someone else a chance on the swing. You made the other kids wait long enough... Now let go, we can go sledding." Though the last time they attempted to go sledding, Ballentine pushed the girl down the large bumpy hill, the sled fell over and Belinda barely made it out of a larger kids path... Regardless, she chased that kid down the hill and popped his inner tube, but still... Today was a trial and the woman wanted a nice warm bath after this day in the cold.
Giving one last tug, Ballentine freed the swing to the mercy of awaiting children as she carried a kicking and screaming Belinda like a sac of potatoes over her shoulder. A small pat was given to the girls bottom, words unheard by anyone's ears but Belinda's muttered and the child froze in her tantrum then collapsed in defeat.
Though as the pair began to cross the park, and just so happened to pass that unfit to be called a snowman, snowman. Belinda had a new fire spark inside. "OOOH! OH! OOOOOOOH!" She now could pass off as a monkey, though was as slippery as a seal in her snow suit and within seconds was free and running towards the mound of snow. "SNOWMAAAAN!"
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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:59 pm
Nahuel looked up from the ball of snow that his mother was intently explaining how to shape and spotted a howling pink blur barreling across the field towards them. What was it doing? What was it? Furthermore, was it going to stop?
"Mom!" he shrieked, tugging the sleeve of Eshaa's jacket. "Look!"
"We're almost done with the base!" said Eshaa, not looking and continuing to pat snow into place. Nahuel, panicked by his mother's nonchalance, continued to watch the blur and cling to her arm. It made no sign of intending to slow down.
"Mom!" he shrieked again, trying to get her attention.
No, the blur was definitely not stopping. Nahuel made a mad dive behind his mother to get out of the way.
"What are you going on about?" Eshaa asked, looking down at him. Well, at least he had gotten down into the snow, which was the most he'd done with it all day. Nahuel pointed, and she looked.
"Oh." said Eshaa, "She should be careful. It's slippery out here."
Nahuel cautiously peered over the base of the snowman.
"I think she's gonna crash," he said.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:20 am
The pink blur did stop, however. The child had managed to slip on a sheet of ice and tumbled down the remainder of the hill before she came to a stop only feet form the unformed snowman. Standing to shake off the snow, the child soon turned to the adult and grinned.
"SNOWMAN!" She screamed in joy, hands thrown into the air as she moved to run around the base. "We gotta adds more snow to make it a BIGGER snowman! Then we put on that magic hat and it'll come to life! THEN THEN! Oh! We can climb on it and go destroy the city like Godzira! Dun dun dun dun!"
Surely she was a ball of energy, already grabbing up snow to pat it into the forming man. She'd pause though after a few snowball additions to look at the mother and child, a frown forming on her face. "Dun just stand there! Make him bigger!" A little foot stomped on the ground as she demanded the action, waiting for them to comply.
In the mean time Ballentine managed to catch up to the girl, panting and all but collapsing on the ground. "B... Belinda... Don't run off like that!" She ordered, having to sit down in the snow. This child was too much for her sometimes.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:37 pm
Eshaa laughed good-naturedly and continued to pat snow onto the growing base. Nahuel, however, was rather happy that the girl had not crashed and a bit amazed by all she was saying.
"What's a Godzira?" he asked excitedly, piling snow on in his clumsy toddler sort of way that mostly just resulted in covering the entire front of his jacket with snow. But he was helping, right, right?
Magic hat? He didn't have a magic hat... but he had a super-awesome hat that Doctor Jones gave him! And Doctor Jones was like, a retired action hero slash adventurer slash monster slayer slash bad guy smasher, so the hat had to be magic, right? Since it had gone on so many adventures, maybe some adventure had rubbed off on it!
He patted the out-of-season fedora with a mitten-wrapped hand and proclaimed, "I got a magic hat right here!"
Eshaa looked over at the woman panting in the snow and commiserated. There should have been a support group for mothers of overly energetic children. "Hi!" she called, and then, motioning to the girl in the pink snowsuit, "Is this your daughter?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:46 am
Was it her child? Well that was a stupid question to the older woman. She wasn't a creepy adult trying to abduct the kid. "Yes... " She answered, smiling softly. "This is my daughter Belinda. I apologize for her rather energetic behavior."
Belinda just smiled at the boy, "GOOD! Now mush it with snow sois we can get its bigger and better! Den we can put on that hat and get him to be ALIVE!" She explained, grabbing more wands of snow to pat into the forming snow man.
"And Godzira is a big lizzard dino man thing that goes STOMP STOMP STOMP," and as she said each word, her little feet stomped into the snow. "He protects da city from the bad bug guys but destroys da city too! It's Funny!"
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Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:45 pm
"What do we do when it's alive?" asked Nahuel, wide-eyed as he continued to build up the snowman. "Izzit gonna be like Godzira? An' destroy stuff?" That wasn't so cool. Monsters were neat, but not when they were evil!
"I don't wanna build a bad snowman," he said, clutching his hat. If it was going to mutate hideously, it was staying on his head.
Eshaa laughed and shook her head. "You don't need to apologize," she laughed. "I know how it goes."
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:21 am
Belinda paused, a ball of snow in her hands. Would he be like Godzilla? How did she know? He wasn't alive yet, but destroying stuff would be cool! "Prolly." She muttered, slapping on that handful of snow before she began to roll up another one.
"'Cause he'll be abodiminal." She totally butchered the word, though it made sense to her. "An abodiminal snowman! He'll go 'graaawr' 'n smash stuffs with his snown, 'n shoot lazer beans out of his eyes, 'n eat little kids like us!" Yep, what an imagination this one had.
Ballentine just gave a nod to the other adult. "Ah... well hopefully she'll get along with him, though she can be a bit intimidating." She warned, "I hope your kid isn't to skittish."
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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:09 pm
Wide-eyed, Nahuel scooted a bit back from the snowman. He watched Belinda warily and wondered if she was, perhaps, a Bad Guy, like the Nazis in Indiana Jones. She sure wasn't talking like a good guy! He whimpered and took stock of the situation. What would Indiana Jones do? (WWIJD?)
Indiana Jones would probably do something daring and bold and TOTALLY ACTION HERO. Following this logic, Nahuel continued to ball up snow as he considered his options. Mom always told him not to throw things, but if this girl really was a villain, she had to be stopped!
He stood up, hoisted the snowball in his chubby baby palms, and chucked at at her as hard as he could.
Eshaa spotted the movement out of the corner of her eye and turned around to see the ball of snow go flying.
"Nahuel!" she scolded, at his side in his instant. "We do not throw things."
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