Jacuzzi in the Snow
Snow falls like shooting stars as I zoom through space. I blink as a flake hits my eye, and smile. Kingly pine trees scrape the night sky, holding out arms coated in white bouquets of snow, eclipsed by black branches. Returning my craning neck to a comfortable position, I sink deeper into the curve of my jacuzzi throne, letting my ice cold back submerge into contrasting tea-hot water. Snowflakes sting my exposed skin, a painful pleasure.
My love’s arms find their way around my icy shoulders. The soft slide of skin brushes my legs, my knees, the backs of my hands. The snow nibbles my face as he presses tender rose petal kisses into the crease of my neck. We float, the liquid moving us like debris in the waves of an ocean, a hot ocean. Steam engine clouds cast a haze on the golden patio lights and fill our deep inhales as the war between ice and fire wage across my body—disappearing, reshaping around my extremities as I move up and down, in and out of the bubbling soup pot in the crisp winter air.
Jets send bubbles sputtering in flatulent bursts to the vibrating surface of the water, humming as they massage my toes. We giggle. Our fingers have aged to raisins and our lips changed to a purplish hue. Our shoes have gathered a layer of powdered sugar, and one is toppled on its side where I flung it off before jumping into our watery sanctuary. I right it before shoving my dripping foot into its now-soggy flannel lining. They slosh as I hurriedly wrap a towel about myself and duck-waddle towards the cabin door, bellowing wails of chilly complaints.
Just as I reach the steps, however, I stop. The stillness grips me, sound trapped, absorbed in the stoic, sleeping darkness. The trees are without a whisper or bend. The only thing that moves are the snow and my heart, which beats slow in my chest. I am no longer cold. I sigh, my breath wisping away in a ghost of steam. Oh, if only all humankind could know the peace of a winter wood at night.
My man sprints past me in his dripping bathing suit, breaking the silence and wringing from me a smile. He beckons me inside, where warmth wins the war.
