Snow Day

It snows in Florida. Contest entry.

“Suzy?”

“Yeah, babe,” Suzy answered from the hotel room bed, where she reclined in blissful languor. She looked over to where her husband Alex stood by the window, looking out into the Florida morning.

“Where are we?”

“Um, we’re in a hotel?” she asked, confused.

“I meant which city and state.”

“We’re in Fort Lauderdale Florida, on our honeymoon. Did you not know that?”

“Oh, I knew it, but if we’re in Florida, then why is it snowing?”

“Wait, what?” She jumped out of bed and ran to his side, keeping his body in front of her naked one as she peered over his shoulder. It was indeed snowing. Huge white flakes were floating down, settling on the streets, cars and palm trees.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she said.

“Kidding you? Trust me, as epic as a prank like this would be, I’m sure not capable of pulling it off.”

“We were supposed to go to the beach today!”

“Yeah, I don’t see that happening, unless you want to build snowmen instead of sand castles.”

“Great, now what do we do?”

“Well, there is the obvious,” Alex said, turning and glancing meaningfully at the bed.

“Yes, but we just got done doing the obvious, and impressive as your stamina is, I think it’s obvious we’re going to have to wait awhile.”

“Yes, there is that,” he said with a sigh. “We could get dressed and go out and laugh at the native Floridians slipping in the snow. That might be fun.”

“Really? You think that would be fun?”

“Remember, I’m German on my mother’s side, and we did invent the word schadenfreude. Along with gas chambers of course, which does make a weird kind of sense.”

“Do you know how lucky you are you found a girl who gets your oddball sense of humor?”

“Incredibly lucky,” he said, taking her into his arms. “I remind myself of that every day.”

“Good. Keep doing it. In the meantime, by all means, let’s go out and play in the snow on our honeymoon.”

Naturally, they did not have anything approaching winter clothes, but they did at least have tennis shoes to give them some traction. They went down to the lobby, to find several people staring outside. They all seemed to be in a similar state of disbelief.

“We came from Michigan to get away from this,” one man said. He was standing next to a woman who appeared to be his wife. There were two grade school children standing in front of them. “Instead, it followed us here.”

“So, it’s your fault? Alex said with a grin.

“Could be,” the man said, smiling back.

Outside a good inch of snow blanketed everything. They saw a few people attempting to walk. They moved with exaggerated care, grabbing onto the sides of buildings or parked cars to keep from slipping.

One car making a left hand turn onto the street from an intersection and just kept turning. It ended up stuck sideways in the middle of the road, completely blocking it. They could see the driver throw his hands up in despair.

“Okay, I think we northerners need to lend a hand,” Alex said. “These poor pathetic Florida people clearly have no clue.”

“I don’t suppose you have anything like a shovel in this hotel, do you?” Suzy asked the clerk behind the desk. The clerk just shrugged. “Thought so.”

They headed out into the snow, walked carefully up to the car and managed to calm the driver. Giving careful directions, they were able to get him pulled over to the side of the road. The car was pointed the wrong way, but it was at least out of the way. By this time, they were all wet and cold and they trooped back into the hotel and went into the restaurant to dry off.

“Okay, not exactly what we planned,” Alex said as he sat at a table and sipped hot chocolate. “Still, it has been an interesting morning.”

“Isn’t that a Chinese curse?” Suzy asked, as she sipped her coffee. “May you live in interesting times.”

“Yeah, I think so. Well, it could be worse,” At that point, the power went out. Everyone in the restaurant groaned, and Suzi glared at him.

“You just had to say that, didn’t you?”

“Sorry,” he said, holding up his hands in mock despair. “You’d think a state with all the hurricanes Florida has would have a power grid that could handle a little snow.”

“Clearly it doesn't.”

“Luckily we’re on the second floor, so it’s not too bad a climb up the stairs. We won’t be able to do much with the power out, but there’s always the obvious.”

“Yes, there is that,” Suzi said with a grin. They headed upstairs to do the obvious.