FICTION
THE SUNNY SNOW WORDS TCD ILLUSTRATION TBWA\ANG
A
s he sat up in bed in the early hours of a chilly
“Skye, this is so much more exciting than Father Christmas. Look
December night all young Benny could see
out the window,” he squealed.
was the moonlight hitting his nightstand. Rubbing his eyes, he then noticed creepy
After quickly explaining what they were looking at, they
looking shadows along the wooden flooring
both put their trainers on, they obviously weren’t equipped
of his bedroom. He wondered where the shadows were
with the right footwear for snowy weather, and hurried
coming from so he quietly crawled out of bed, extra
outside to build their first ever snowman.
carefully so as to not wake his little sister Skyler, and decided to peak out the window.
Benny ran all around his neighbourhood, knocking on each and every door. Waking the old, the young and even
He tiptoed closer to the sill and he couldn’t believe his
the angry, but as soon as they opened their doors their frowns
eyes. It seemed as though the sky was falling down and the
turned to grins as they realised what all the racket was about.
neighbourhood streets were now covered in fluffy white clouds. “It’s snowing, it’s snowing,” Benny shouted, as he ran down ‘How is this even possible?’ Benny thought.
the street, his tiny feet digging deeper into the snow as he headed back towards his sister.
Not wanting to wake Skyler from her dreams, but desperately needing reassurance that he was in fact not dreaming, he ran out
All the neighbours gathered round and watched the kids
of his bedroom and down the stairs to find his father wide awake
build all different kinds of snowmen. Some of the adults
with a beaming smile across his face.
even joined in on the fun. As the night quickly drew to a close, the happy children made their way back to bed after
‘Why is he smiling, this can’t be good,’ he said to himself.
a warm shower and a mug of hot chocolate.
“Benny, get over here and look at the snow, it’s been going all
The next morning, Benny woke up ready for another eventful
night. Isn’t it wonderful?” he said. “This is once in a lifetime son.”
day of building snowmen and making snow angels. He excitedly dressed himself in his warmest clothes and
You see, Benny’s father was not all wrong. It never snows in
skipped merrily down the stairs. As he opened the front
sunny Malta and in fact, Benny remembered wearing shorts and
door, he was shocked to see that all the snow had melted and
a short-sleeved shirt to last year’s Christmas lunch.
the streets were now covered in a slushy black ice.
He had to wake his sleeping sister. Actually, he had to wake
“How can this be?” he asked out loud to no-one in particular.
all his friends. He ran back upstairs, jumped on little Skyler’s bed, who woke excitedly thinking Father Christmas had
“This is Malta after all Benny,” said his grumpy
come early.
neighbour dressed in a tank top, shorts and flip flops.
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