"Lizzie! Wake up!"
I rolled my head to the side and pulled my blankets up over my head to block out the stream of light that came in through the window. Beside me, the mattress moved, and someone grabbed hold of the blanket to try and pull it off my face, but I just gripped it harder.
"Lizzie." The person poked me. "Lizzie." They poked me again.
"Stop it."
"It snowed!"
My eyes snapped open and I pushed the blanket off my face only to be greeted by a grinning William. Part of me wanted to move the blanket back over my face until he stopped smiling like that, it was a little unnerving. William looked like a small child, grinning from ear to eat and bouncing up and down his knees, he had not even brushed his head, but he was fully dressed – albeit a tad haphazardly.
I glanced over to the window, but the curtains blocked any view of the outside and the light streaming into the room was an odd colour. It did not look like usual sunlight and had a slight grey tinge to it, like the sky right before it snowed. William continued to bounce up and down on the bed beside and I pushed my hair off my face and tucked it behind my ears. I had never seen someone so excited at the prospect of snow, but he probably had more opportunities to play in it then we had.
At the orphanage, the only time we ever really got to enjoy the snow was during our recreation time but even then, it would only be for fifteen minutes and most of us were too cold to even care. Matron would not like it if we returned wet from the snow so oftentimes, we just huddled together to try and keep warm. We had never really had the opportunity to enjoy it, but we could always hear those outside our gates. Sometimes, I would peak through a window of the room we were cleaning just to see what they were doing. It did look like fun.
"We can have a snowball fight and build a snowman and everything!" William exclaimed, the grin not leaving his face.
"We can't do any of that until you leave so I can get dressed."
"Right. I knew that." He paused. "Mother left some woollen stockings for you, she says they'll be a lot warmer than the ones you wear."
"I don't doubt that. Go on, out."
William continued to grin at me as he clambered off the bed and ran across the room, closing the door behind him. I sighed and pushed my blanket off my legs. The cold air hit me almost immediately and I recoiled back a little, wanting to disappear back under the blankets until it had warmed up. I crossed the room to the window and moved the curtains the tiniest amount to get a better look at the streets outside.
The roads were covered in a thick, white blanket with carriages struggling to move through it but the children making the most of their snowy morning. They ran around with balls of snow clenched in their fists, throwing it at their unsuspected friends and occasionally their parents. From the window, I watched the snow fly through the air and smacking the back of peoples coats or even hitting them in the face. I did not really understand the appeal of being pelted with flying balls of ice, but I had never tried it before.
I moved away from the window and grabbed the pair of stockings that Mrs Atkinson had left. They were far warmer than my own stockings and I knew they would help a lot more against the cold wind. I pulled them on and slipped my dress over my head, wishing that too were a little warmer but the flimsy material would not magically change overnight. Once dressed, I ran the brush through my hair, left the fabric for the other dress in the corner of my room, and disappeared downstairs.
Downstairs, I could see the snow still falling through the glass panel above the Atkinson's front door. It fell gently to the ground and there appeared to be an awful lot of it despite how calm it seemed. I entered the dining room where William sat in his usual seat, still bouncing up and down with anticipation of getting outside. Mr Atkinson glanced at him on occasion, but he wore a look of amusement rather than annoyance towards his son's behaviour. He had his paper open but did not appear to be reading it.
William ate a fair amount of food on offer in a very short space of time, no doubt too excited to get outside then to chew his food. When he was finished, he just stared at me from the other side of the table until I too had finished eating. With our plates cleared, William looked towards his mother who also wore a bemused look at her son's actions. She knew what he was waiting for her to say but appeared to be taking her time just to see what his reaction would be.
"If you have finished breakfast, the two of you may be excused from the table," she said, fighting a smile.
"Yes!" William almost jumped off his seat.
"Remember, stay close to the house and if you get too cold, come inside. The last thing we need is you catching your death because you were having too much fun."
"I know, we will."
"Good. Go on, off you go."
I climbed off my own chair and followed William out into the hallway where he pulled on a hat, scarf and gloves like a man possessed. He threw my shawl at me along with the warmer clothing I had borrowed the day before and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I no longer felt like I had permanent goosebumps. When we had draped ourselves in all the warm clothing we could find, William opened the door and the two of us stepped outside.
It was like stepping into another world. The dirty streets of London that I had known all my life were suddenly paved in the pristine white powder that did not leave a single space untouched. People had given up trying to ride carriages through the snow since it was falling faster than they could clear a path through it. The children I saw from my window continued to run around and hurl snowballs at one another. Someone had even built a snowman, the same height as me and with mismatched buttons for its eyes.
William did not wait before he started to get involved in the games with the other children. I watched him scope up a handful of snow and throw it towards one of the boys, managing to hit him square on the back of the head. The other boy swore loudly and turned around to face William with his hands also full of snow. Before I could even react, the two of them had engaged themselves in a rather aggressive exchange of snowballs. They darted in and out of the piles of snow and even hit a couple of the other children accidentally; not that they seemed to mind.
I stood watching them, not really knowing if it were my place to get involved, especially as I did not know any of the other children and did not want them to think me strange for suddenly joining in. They did not seem to notice me standing on the path towards the Atkinson's house, they were all too engaged in their games to notice me. Some of the girls screamed when they got hit with snow and a few of the younger ones complained about how cold it was.
"Come on, Lizzie! I need your help!" William called, dodging a snowball as it flew over his head and smashed into the wall behind him.
"I don't think I'm very good at this," I said.
"You cannot be any worse than Mark."
"I heard that!" the boy he was fighting against yelled.
"You were meant to!" William looked at me. "Come on, it's fun."
He smiled and I walked the short distance of the path and through the gate to join them on the streets. I joined William behind a snow pile and watched him gather a handful of snow and hurl it towards Mark, ducking back down before he could get him back. William motioned to the snow on the ground and I scooped up a handful, my glove getting damp almost instantly, and compacted it into a ball.
When Mark had stopped throwing snowballs at our mound, I peered out from behind our snow pile and watched. His head popped up from behind his own pile and before he could throw his snowball, I threw my own and just managed to catch him on the top of the head. Mark yelled when it hit him and beside me, William cheered, looking at me and grinning as he gathered up more snowballs to use.
The three of us engaged in a rather aggressive snowball fight, with William and me managing to hit Mark far more than he hit us. His timing when it came to throwing snowballs and actually managing to hit us was not the greatest and we always hit him the moment his head popped up to throw another ball at us. After a little while, he called over one of the others and we started a new game of two against two. That did not make it any better for Mark and we still ended up hitting him more times than he hit us.
By the time we called time on the game, my glovers were soaked through and snow had also soaked through my stockings and shawl as well. My cheeks were numb from the cold and when I looked over at William, I saw that his cheeks were bright red, as was the tip of his nose. He smiled at me and exhaled a long breath which was visible on the cold air. I did not know how long we had been playing for. It felt like several hours, but it may not have been since time did not feel real.
"We should go in and warm up a little. We can build a snowman this afternoon, I'm starving," William said, rubbing his hands together.
"You're always starving," I said.
"That's true."
He laughed and the two of us walked back up the Atkinson's path towards the house, the sound of snowballs flying still echoed behind us. When William opened the front door, we were instantly hit by a blast of warm air from the fire in the living room. I followed William inside and we both peeled off our wet gloves and scarf, draping them over the guard in front of the fire for them to try. William sank down onto one of the chairs and sighed heavily, I still felt giddy with excitement.
I always thought throwing balls of snow at other people to be a rather stupid thing to do since it could hurt, but after being engaged in a rather aggressive battle, my view of them had changed. It had been the most fun I had ever had, just scooping up handfuls of snow and throwing them as hard as I could at unsuspecting people. When we threw the snowballs, I wished I had the other girls with me to join in on the fun.
It did not feel right for me to be having all this fun with William whilst the other girls were stuck inside completing their chores. I wanted them to be able to enjoy the snow with me and have the same fun that I could have during my time with the Atkinsons. The adoption might have been a good thing for me, but it felt strange to not have Charity or Ethel to share in the fun. If agreeing to be adopted meant leaving my friends behind, then I was not sure I wanted to go through with it.
"First snowball fight. Thoughts?" William asked after a little while.
"Cold. Wet," I said.
He laughed. "But, also the most fun you've ever had, right?"
"Right."
"Maybe we can get Mother and Father to join in with the snowman, although I expect Father would want it to be a business snowman."
"A business snowman?"
"Yes. Waistcoat, top hat, pocket watch, the works. He does nothing by half."
I laughed, the image of a snowman in a waistcoat popping into my head. Next time I could experience a snow day, I wanted my friends to be with me. They needed to experience it with me.
~~~
First Published - December 16th, 2020