It was in Sarah’s best interest to grab a blanket and snuggle up under the warm flames of her fireplace, but work was eating her alive. It was twenty three degrees and Sarah’s hands were frozen for the entire six months of winter. But she knew that the second that summer was over, winter was going to take over and begin gnawing at her feet.

It was unlike her to be working late at night on Tuesday, because she got off of work at four o’clock. She lived by herself with only three cats. She didn’t leave her house often. Maybe it was the mountain of snow that blocked her door, or it could have possibly been because she wasn’t very social. Winter was a reason to stay inside, but in the summer, everyone wanted to go out and party until the night didn’t exist. Sarah had no desire for this.

“It’s 6:30. Go home, Sarah.” Her coworker, Matthew, liked to barge in on her late hours so that she would go home. Matthew had a weird thing about being surrounded in the office, even though Sarah was on the other side of the building.

“I’m fine. I need the extra cash to buy my mom a new urn. It’s crazy expensive.” She said in a sweet tone.

Matthew sighed. “Yeah, economy’s crazy. But you know how I feel about being in an office with people.”

“Matthew, we work at customer service for a children’s app called ‘Jumpy Jilly.’” Matthew looked at her with pleading eyes. “The one thing I want right now is to be alone. Just reading a book at home, wrapped in Mama’s blanket, staring at her ashes that are sitting right beside my fireplace. It’s a nice way to spend time with my cats. They were Mama’s cats. She loves them.”

Matthew held his forehead in his hands. “Sarah . . . Again with the ‘Mama’ crap?”

Sarah raised her voice, and her Alabama accent started to come out. “You treat me like I’m crazy. I’m not crazy.”

“You aren’t crazy. You’re insane. It’s one thing to be sad about your mother who passed away a couple of years back, but your mom died a decade ago. It’s the only thing you ever talk about. Every day of the week I hear you saying things about her, and you just mutter on about it when no one's even listening. Everyone knows. You are a bit crazy. At first, it was a sad story and everyone felt bad for you, but when you keep telling it, it gets tiring. Martha died of lung cancer when she was thirty-one. You were fifteen. Martha got pregnant at age sixteen. Martha was a crackhead, coke whore, heroin junkie and continued to throw her life away. Martha got kicked out of her house because of her drug problems. Martha only ever saw her daughter, Sarah, once in her life, and that was when she came out of her-”

“Enough! Mama’s life ain’t none of your damn business. She i’n’t even no one’s damn business.”

She went home after that, and instead of grabbing a blanket and snuggling up under the warm flames of her fireplace, Sarah conversed with her cat. “Lester! Lester it’s time to eat, sweetie. Come on, get over here.” As her cat waddled over to her, she started to pour his food in his tray. She sighed. “Ugh. Matthew’s stupid.” The window bursted open, knocking over a vase full of flowers.

“This world only has two seasons. Summer and winter. I heard Daddy tell these amazing stories about two extra seasons! There was one called ‘fall’. And some people say ‘Autumn’. It’s where leaves turn orange and fall off the trees. Isn’t that nice? I heard it gets chilly, but there’s no snow involved! And they only last three months. That sounds amazing.”

Lester continued to eat his food. “The other season was called ‘Spring’. It’s where flowers bloom, and it’s very rainy. I love the rain. I live for rain! It’s an excuse to stay inside. You definitely like the rain, right Lester? Right. Of course I’m right, I’m always right.” She bent down and kissed his furry cheek. “Lester, these seasons don’t exist. They were real thirty years ago. It’s 2049, and winter is too damn cold. How come the scientists haven’t created an invention for making the sun less hot and cold? Summer isn’t that bad, but it’s boiling hot. They should make some sort of device with all that money they have. Oh, maybe they can make the Earth revolve quicker around the sun! See, that sounded smart. Maybe I can make that. Mama would be so proud.”

Sarah’s cat continued to eat his food as if silently judging her in his head. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t make anything. I’m no millionaire. Not like those scientists.” She chuckled. “Where are your sisters? They must be hungry, too.”

A beautiful diamond encrusted urn was stamped unevenly in a magazine. “It’s really nice. It’ll keep Mama’s ashes safe because once you put them in, no one would ever gonna get them out. It’s extremely fragile, though. So I better be careful about not leaving the window open.”

Sarah’s phone buzzed. She got a text from Matthew that said, “hey. Sorry for calling you out. I know how to make it up to you.” She held a grudge after two weeks, but she still wanted to know what he was talking about.

“What are you saying?” She replied.

“Meet me at the Marshall’s on 43rd.”

“Oh, Lester. Boys can be so stupid. But you’re not. Should I go? I’m not gonna go. Maybe I will, I don’t know. He seemed eager. What do you think?” And alas, her cat barely shook his head. “Yeah, you can’t think anything. You’re just a dumb ol’ kitty.”

Sarah dressed in her finest suit. She wore a long pencil skirt and boots, and three layers of coats. She was nuzzled safely in a blue scarf, so that her puffy red nose wouldn’t be discovered by Matthew.

Sarah gazed at the clouds hanging in the sky. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Matthew stood in the corner, lighting a cigarette. Snow began to drizzle on his head, and his cigarette lit up his face. “Damn winter. Want one?”

“Nope. Don’t want to end up like my mother. Because one day my ex-husband might come home to me, as I am laying on the floor, barely alive, with only a bra on. All because of one cig. I’m cancer-free in this lifetime. Thanks, though.”

Matthew rolled his eyes. “No one wants to marry you.”

She snarled at him. “Calm down, crazy, I was kidding,” he said.

“Did you come here to only chastise me and give me cancer? I’ll go right back home. It’s freezing. Mama’s getting lonely. Can we get coffee or something?” Sarah’s face was pale.

“No. I hate coffee. And that’s not why I called you.”

“Then can you please tell me what brought you here? And I seriously need coffee, so I’m just going to go to the shop down the street.” Matthew looked at her. He rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. You don’t have to get anything.”

“I don’t like the smell of coffee. And it’s not only that. People there are just too weird. Damn kids and their damn games. Damn computers and their damn technology. Coffee is warm, and it makes people feel more energetic and happy inside.” Matthew said.

“Matthew. Why did you call me?”

“I love being in the cold. It’s one of the only things I love. I love it so much. It gives me an icy feeling.”

“Um,” Sarah was confused, “okay?”

“I love winter. However, I hate snow more than the world that I live in. I loathe it. I’d like to melt snow and freeze it and keep it in my walk-in-fridge so that I could be cold.”

“That made absolutely no sense.”

    “I don’t hate summer. I don’t hate being warm. What I do hate is walking out into the sun and burning my skin off. It’s annoying.”

“Yes? Oh, right. I called you because you’re weird. I’ve been going through some therapy lately, and I think it’d be cool if we sort of . . . developed a relationship. And today, I’m feeling nice. So I’m gonna go to the cemetery. To visit Ma. So that I could shake out this nice feeling. And I wanted to bring you. Maybe so you could visit your mother.” Matthew’s invitation shocked Sarah.

“I would love to come. But my mom was cremated, so we didn’t have a casket for her. And she died in Alabama. So she would have been buried there.” Matthew looked at the ground. “But I still want to come.”

“Wonderful. I didn’t want to see your mother, anyway. Let’s go, then.”

“Wait!” Sarah chuckled. “You didn’t think I wasn’t gonna drop by home and pick up Mama, did you? Oh, Matthew, you’re so stupid.”

“Great. Now we have to have both our mothers watching us while we have sex in a cemetery.” Sarah’s head jerked up.

“Now wait a minute!”

“What?”

“What was that about having sex in a cemetery? Ain’t no way in hell I’m gonna do that with you!”

“Well what did you think I meant when I said I was feeling nice?” Matthew looked at his watch.

“I ain’t doin’ that until I’m married!” Sarah said.

“Jesus Christ,” Matthew rubbed his forehead. “I almost had sex with a Christian.”

Sarah gasped at his words. She turned around, and slapped him right across the face. Matthew was astonished, and of course his face hurt. Sarah started walking to her car.

“Hey, wait. Sarah, I didn’t mean that!” He grabbed her arm, and Sarah turned around and slapped him again.
“Get away from me! Don’t touch me you filthy animal!” Sarah slapped him a third time, and she jumped into her car and drove all the way home.

 

It was a while since Matthew and Sarah talked to each other. They didn’t speak again after their encounter. Half of the roads were blocked, because another month of winter had gone by and it was only getting colder. The snow was three feet deep, you could probably lose your hand in the wind, and every drop of water was frozen. Sarah had to heat up her faucet because nothing would come out. It was solid.

Since that time, Sarah had earned enough money to buy her $5,000 urn. She used some leftover money from her mother’s funeral, and worked late for three months to get that urn.

“Oh, Mama. This winter’s been cold, but we made it through. Ain’t that the greatest? Just kidding. It’s still not over. I haven’t showered in a week. I may have to go back home and get a good shower. I think it’ll be less cold. Anywho, I got that urn you’ve been buggin’ me about. It’s real nice. Very pretty. I think maybe if I held your ashes above the urn, it would fall in safely.”

And Sarah continued to pour her mother’s ashes into the $5,000 dollar urn. Instead of putting it by the fireplace, she left it at the window sill. That night was a very cold night. It might have been the coldest of all of them. Lester and his sisters sat under the warm flames of the fireplace, while Sarah read a book, snuggled up in a blanket, and watched her mother’s ashes sit still on the window sill. It sure was beautiful. “Lester, Shelly. Where’s that darn kitty? Huh? Where did Cherry go?” Cherry, the youngest cat of all of them, liked to sit by the window sill. She liked the wind and the breeze in her fur, but that was usually when Sarah opened the window. Cherry took it upon herself to push open the window, and let the wind and the breeze blow in her fur.

“Cherry?” As Sarah continued to search for Cherry, she pushed the window open, letting the gust of wind chill the living room. And finally, the greatest act of all winter, a strong wave of wind pulled everything it could into it’s black hole.

 

Including Mama’s urn.