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Out of Season (13) : One would think that winter would be dismal and gray, and after each snowfall there's a hefty dose of white covering up the world. Except, all winter bright patches of wildflowers begin sprouting straight through the frost--as if spring has decided to push its way into winter a few months early. Blues, pinks, yellows, and purples bloom in vivid clusters, warming the landscape with bursts of color that look impossibly alive against the cold. The flowers behave exactly like their normal spring counterparts--soft petals, gentle fragrance, and even suitable for tea or simple crafts. They’re simply appearing far too early. Whether it’s a harmless anomaly or a sign of something stirring beneath the seasons, the sudden blossoms bring an unexpected beauty to the winter chill.
Backdated to January 1, 2026
The start of a new year had dawned, no warmer on this New Year's than the previous. Not much colder, either, though the summers were getting hotter, which seemed to be how global warming worked. Colder, nastier winters, combined with hotter, muggier summers. Frankly, Khaz could do with a more temperate climate...though, from what he'd heard, most temperate climates tended toward cool and clammy, or hot and muggy. High levels of air moisture seemed non-optional, though at least most of these options came with coasts, so he could go swimming. Assuming he didn't freeze to death first. Yeah. No. No real winning when it came to climate.
He sighed as he kept walking. The halal grocery store he'd swing by for a few extra groceries was closed this morning, in respect for the fact that most people weren't open, but the big name supermarkets were open. So nothing in the way of traditional Lebanese cooking tonight, but the tradeoff was that his mother had suggested they do something else for dinner tonight...and then left the final choice up to Khaz. Keesh had agreed to meet up with him to help him pick out some ingredients, and help spot what looked fresh, if he was buying any fresh produce, so that was a plus.
He almost didn't notice the flowers coming up between a snowy crack in the pavement until he almost trod on them. Glancing down, the teen was startled to note that, underneath his feet were a few bright pink blossoms peeking shyly up through the frost.
And those blossoms weren't the only one. Impossibly, other spring wildflowers bloomed in a wide array of colors, baby blues, lavenders, rich violets, subtle blushing pinks, deep roses, and sunny yellows pushed up through the snow and frost in the park beside the sidewalk, seeming to care not a button for the cold temperatures. Khaz had heard that some flowers grew from bulbs, and would sprout and even bloom in the winter snow, but they were supposed to do so as the snow was melting, after the snowdrops began blooming, and, according to his Aunt Shams, snowdrops weren't due to bloom for another month to a month and a half, and most of the bulb flowers would begin to bloom closer to early March, with peak occurring right around Easter.
Besides, these didn't look like the bulbs Aunt Shams grew, these looked like wildflowers that bloomed on the hillsides and in the woods after the last snows had melted. What...?
The teenager shook his head, but the flowers didn't disappear.
Slowly, an idea occurred to him. His mother and aunt both liked flowers, though each in their own ways. He was meeting up with his cousin at the supermarket. He could gather some of the wildflowers into two small bouquets, give one to Keesh to give to her mother, and keep one to give to his. It would be a lovely little surprise to start the new year. Khaz grinned, and began picking wildflowers, humming softly, bundling them up and binding them together into two little bouquets with a couple of spare rubber bands he found in his jacket pocket.
It wasn't particularly special, and it wasn't something he'd done for his mother in a very long time, or even his aunt. But it would be a fun little way to liven up their moods in the austere cold of winter.
