Word: Rime

 

rime

\ RAHYM \  , noun;

1. A coating of tiny, white, granular ice particles, caused by the rapid freezing of water droplets.

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            It was cold.  Very cold.  The frost the night before had left the ground white.  The grass looked like the art students had gotten to it with white spray paint.  The walkways all had a layer of rime on it, the small ice crystals bunched together so tightly it could almost be mistaken for a solid sheet of ice.  A few students walked down the nearly frozen paths, thin white clouds emerging from their mouths and noses as they tried to keep warm with thick layers of clothing, hot drinks, or walking in tightly packed groups.  All of them though, had to be outside due to classes, and not one of them enjoyed it.  Especially since it was only 8 o’clock in the morning.  There was only one small group of students that was outside without having to go to class.

            “Damn it.  Still no snow.”  Said Mark, one of those oddball students.

            “I could’ve told you that.”  Kevin said bitterly.

            “Well excuse me if it looked like snow from up there.”  Mark said, pointing in the general direction of his fifth floor dorm room. 

            “Come on, there’s no snow, so let’s just go back in.”  Sue, the final member of the little trio, said, her arms held tightly against her body, trying to get as much warmth from the limbs as she could.

            “Seriously man.  I don’t know why you even bother.”  Kevin said.  Mark had gotten both of them up way too early for either of their liking when he had seen the layer of white frost on the ground.  Both of them just wanted to get in out of the cold.  Sue was having a very vivid daydream about a large cup of hot chocolate as well.

            “Oh, there will be snow.  I can feel it.  Besides, nature owes us for last year.”  Mark said, standing there as if the snow didn’t bother him as much as it actually did.  He looked up into the sky and pointed at the looming clouds.  “You hear me!  You owe us big time!”  He shouted, waving his finger to the sky as if he was scolding a child.  His friends just rolled their eyes, too cold to bother doing anything else.  Kevin was seriously considering dragging his friend inside by the ear, but the cold kept him from even taking his hands out of the pockets they had been stuffed into.

            “Why do you even want it to snow so badly?”  Sue asked, “I mean, all it is is water when you get right down to it.  Do you really want to deal with clothes that are both cold and wet?” 

Mark turned sharply in her direction, his eyes locked on hers intensely.  He stormed over to her, leaning in closer than he probably should have.  In any other circumstance, Sue would have backed away.  Now she was just trying to will his body heat over to her.

            “How could you say something like that?”  He said, his words throwing pale clouds in her face, “Snow is the best part of winter.  It’s the only part that makes it worth it.  If winter didn’t have snow, we’d all be living in Florida right now.”  Mark’s defense of snow continued for the better part of five minutes.  Kevin had heard most of it before, but Sue hadn’t known them that long, so she had no idea about how much Mark loved snow.  It was actually quite disturbing in her opinion.

            When he was finally done with his tirade, Mark stomped away and knelt down, running his fingers over the frozen ground.  He muttered to himself about being teased and tormented.  While the other two did have to admit it was kind of funny, it also gave them the chance they needed.  They inched their way towards the doors to the dorm, slowly at first so that Mark wouldn’t notice right away.  Once they felt they had passed outside his line of sight, they turned almost in unison and made a mad dash for the doors and the promise of central heating they held.  By the time Mark stood up, they were already headed up the stairs to their respective rooms. 

            “God damn it guys.”  Mark said to his long absent friends.  He slumped his shoulders and gave up.  He sulked all the way back to his room and collapsed on the bed.  He looked out the window at the cloudy sky, thinking that tomorrow was another day, and another chance.

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Yup, it's winter all right.  Hope everyone's managing to stay warm.  Yeah, I got nothing else, so here's a random picture!