April Snowball Fight

Along the boulevard of our home covering the grass were piles of snow. Knee high snow in April. It remained from an April Fool’s storm. It covered our front yard, too. Enough snow that Michael picked some up, rolled it into a ball, and declared war when he threw it at my head.

He laughed. He said, “I can’t believe you didn’t move for that.”

I realized I hadn’t seen him laugh for a while. And it had been never—not once all winter—that we played in the snow. Michael has been my husband for thirteen years. A lull in the laughter department is most likely part of life together.

I rolled up my own ball, threw it at his chest, missed. I bent over to make another snowball. And was hit as I stood back up.

“It’s like you moved right into it,” Michael said. All right. Game on.

I tossed my ball of snow at his center. He moved to the side, out of its path.

Damn. I felt like a klutz.

Our daughters laughed, too, at the sight of their parents playing. They sided with their dad to take me out. Melisandra led the platoon by rolling balls and feeding them to Michael, one after the other. Reece and Corrigan threw little balls that landed at my feet.

I was on my own. A team of one. I tried to repress any memory of me being picked last for the kickball team.

I rolled a ball, threw it. Michael moved to the left. I rolled another ball, threw it. He tilted to the right as the snow flew past his ear. My cuddly, beer-drinking nerd moved like a ninja.

“I will help you, Mama,” said Corrigan. She handed me a bucket she had retrieved from the garage and readied with snow. A little pity never hurts.

I chased Michael down the sidewalk. I grabbed snow, threw it. Grabbed. Threw. Grabbed. Threw. I missed every shot. We were out of breath. We were laughing. And it was fun to laugh together in front of our girls. They have seen us argue. They have seen us hug. But have they seen us laugh, even play, like this enough?

I ran faster. I got close enough. I reached in the bucket for my last snowball. Boom. Right in the back.

 

Inspired by the letter V (as in vignette or short literary sketch) in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. Scroll past the social media button to share a snowball fight story or to comment on this post.