A Deliquescence

Since the passing of her fiancé, Eva had become detached from the world. Lost.

She had been glad when winter came, the coldness a comfort in her barren world. She had taken to walking through the snow in the evenings. The way it clung to the treads of her boots, making her heavy seemed to match the empty hollow in her heart. She liked the crunch of it too. The way it echoed and mimicked her unrelenting despair.

One late January evening, as the sky filled with the opaque anticipation of impending snow, Eva reached the edge of the frozen lake. Staring at her own reflection, she thought of him. His sloppy smile. His childlike wonder at the world. Their autumn wedding.

The way his arms had felt around her waist – like home.

As she contemplated, a single snowflake landed on her cheek. She touched it instinctively. More followed as the sky relinquished its burden.

Eva watched as her reflection disappeared under the weight of snow.

In that moment, she understood that just as the lake had turned from liquid to solid, from clear to obscured, she too was transforming. Her grief was a natural part of a cycle, like the seasons. The snow would eventually melt, the lake would once again reveal itself, and perhaps, so would she.

As she made her way back, she no longer felt the drag of snow beneath her feet but the caress of winter carrying her forward towards her future.