#2 - Nikki Smith

9. Reunited at Last

            We took off for France in late January. The first thing I noticed when we arrived back in France was the cold. It was freezing cold compared to anything I have experienced thus far, especially in Brazil. In fact, I could feel it the instant we landed and the heat within the airplane turned off. All the other passengers were wearing thick, longer clothing, which I hadn't really bothered to observe although I normally would make this kind of observation. It was super obvious now. I almost immediately started shivering.

"I almost forgot about the cold," Sylvia barely managed to say through her shivers. "There were no long-sleeved clothes in Brazil anyway." We were all wearing T-shirts and shorts. This weather is like what Russia's winters were supposed to be like. I looked outside the airplane's window and was mesmerized. There was a thin layer of white precipitation across the ground. "Is... is that snow? I've read about that. It's so... beautiful." I was shivering while talking.

Anna put her arm on my shoulder and gave me a hug. "Yes, it is snow, and it's very beautiful." Her embrace was very warm. For a moment, I stopped shivering.

A random older gentleman overheard our conversation. "First time outside of Brazil? The snow is beautiful, but you're going to get sick if you don't get a coat," he said giving us a smile. My defensive instincts kicked in at first. I almost dove at him to take him down, but I hesitated and looked for signs of danger coming from the man. I didn't notice anything particularly dangerous about this man, but you can never be too careful. I also didn't want to create a scene and attract the attention of the police if I didn't have to.

I looked at him skeptically at first, but I gave him a friendly smile after a couple of moments. I didn't exactly answer his first question, but I did respond by saying, "It is very cold. I'm not used to it."

"There's a store in the airport called Monop. They will sell warm clothing like coats and jeans. It's going to be expensive, but I wouldn't recommend leaving the airport without something thicker on your backs," he said.

Anna said, "Thank you. We appreciate the help-"

I think she had more to say, but I interrupted her and asked, "What's it feel like?" I looked outside at the snow.

That's something you couldn't exactly "research." No matter how much I had researched snow, there were no words that could fully describe the actual feeling of putting snow in your hands. I was dying of the anticipation of feeling snow. Of experiencing it.

He smiled and said, "You'll just have to find that one out for yourself." With that, he started exiting the plane. I was mesmerized by the snow but still shivering.

"Let's go find some coats," Anna said. "And let's hurry before we all freeze!"

We first exchanged what cash we had into euros, and I withdrew a bunch of money from an ATM as well. I had created a proxy bank system back in Rio de Janeiro. This was a 'public' bank that you could access with the correct information. It was much more vulnerable and open to hacking than my offline account. It didn't have all my available funds, but it was very convenient for me to quickly acquire money while out in the real world. I just hoped that there weren't many hackers out there. My new public account would still be very difficult to hack.

We found the store called Monop. This seemed like it was an expensive store. Even with stealing over a million Real from Eduardo, we weren't going to be living this kind of lifestyle for very long without additional income. I was also only used to buying things for myself and Nolan. There was eight of us right now. Once we purchased some clothes, we were ready to begin this short but valuable chapter in our lives.