Frost

“So this morning, my little sister Rae called me out to the front yard to show me a tiny dead frog in a dull blue bucket. Frozen, dead... eyes iced over with murky rain water. The way it was positioned –body and hind legs buried in the ice, head and front legs poking out –well, I almost thought it was alive. Maybe its heart was still thumping under the ice cold skin. Maybe the frog was trying to wedge his body out of the frozen pool, right then, right there. But, he was dead of course. Poor little guy... probably died long before the rain, body decaying in that little blue bucket before god hung his head in pity and gave the thing a half-assed icy grave.

“I know how you feel, I thought, shivering, watching Rae poke the frog’s ice-encased body with a stick. Its eyes are still open, Rae said. Good, I told her. Let him watch the sky roll along, I thought. Watch the colors change from blue to pink to orange to black, and back again.

“So anyway, later that day I was walking downtown, stopped by Panera and got myself a caramel latte. I was standing at the crosswalk –you know, the one on Cherry and 9^th –when I felt something tighten in my torso. Stopped me right there on the street corner. A couple ran past in white Nikes and matching blue sweat bands. A woman in a flowery hippie shirt, ripped jeans, and neon green rain boots waddled past to cross (I wish I was kidding). But me, I couldn’t move my feet. I looked down, and swear to god, my shoes were icy blocks on the sidewalk.

“I stood there, disbelieving, looking around for help. I tried to call to the hippie woman about a hundred feet ahead of me, but the word got lodged in my throat. I tried again. Help. Even the word was frozen.
“I felt the frost snaking its way up my coiled intestines. The skin on my hands became cobwebbed with cracked ice. My caramel latte was solid. If I could move my hands to touch my face, I’d feel the cheeks hardening, the skin freezing.

“My mouth became a tiny “o” in surprise. My eyes were still open. People passed, glanced for a second at the frozen girl on the street corner as they chatted on their cell phones, before shrugging and crossing the street. One man got off the phone long enough to snap a picture. Help. I watched the streetlights change from green to yellow to red. Green. Yellow, red.”