Julius woke up on time, 6:51, on the dot, but there was no alarm. He had known this the night before, specifically not setting the alarm for himself, but despite it all, his internal clock had woken him up. It was his favorite feeling, waking up but being able to snuggle back in bed. Julius grabbed his blanket and pulled it over his head, hiding from the light pouring through the space between his blinds. After 10 minutes that felt like 30, he sprung out of bed, unable to fall back asleep.

He went to his closet and pulled out a monkey onesie, the one he had requested for Halloween in place of a real costume, figuring he could get more use out of it. He slipped it on, the stretchy material around the arm and leg holes fitting him perfectly, but the entirety was at least a size too big. When he flipped the hood on, the cartoon-y monkey head covered his entire face.

Slowly, he inched his door open, trying his hardest to prevent it from squeaking. With the same amount of caution, he tip-toed passed his parents’ room. It was a Snow Day after all, and as much as he wanted them to get up and make him a nice, big breakfast, he knew they would be angry if he interrupted their sleep.

He made his way downstairs to find his sister, Talia, lying on the couch, reading a book.

“I thought you’d still be sleeping,” Julius said to her.

“Shh,” she warned, pointing up to signal that they should keep quiet. “Do you wanna go outside with me?” she asked.

Julius nodded, and Talia motioned for him to follow, guiding him to the door, opening the door a little, showing her little brother the world outside. They were close, the two of them.  They thought of each other as partners in crime. They knew each other’s boundaries, and just how far to push. Without talking, they knew best how to annoy their older brother, Julius supplying an annoying antagonism while Talia lied about what happened to the parents. They cared for each other deeply, though neither would verbally admit it. When Julius was younger and scared of sleeping alone, he would camp out in Talia’s room. She would stay up for him, waiting to turn off the lights till she knew he was asleep.

It was pristine, a city block of untouched snow. They both knew that by the day’s end, the snow would be slushy, brown, and pushed to the edge of the sidewalk. Talia put on her coat, hat, and gloves, and handed him the same. She stuck a post-it note to the door and slipped out, motioning for her brother to do the same. “If we aren’t back yet, we’re playing outside,” the note read.

He went outside to join his sister. The time was theirs. No parents, no older brother, no school. They had a short time for complete freedom, and they were going to use every moment to its fullest. After closing the door, he was met with a snowball to the face. He fell over, laughing as he landed in the snow. He lay where he landed, feeling the snow fall on his face, melting and running down to the back of his neck. He stood up, the water running down his back, before once again falling back into the snow, deciding to make snow angels. As he landed on the ground, he could tell something was different. No longer was the snow a pillow, but more of a thin linen. He could tell the snow was melting. He looked out to the road, and how gross, grey snow was being piled up on the sides of the street. He saw people begin to leave their houses, dumping salt over the snow, leaving only a small slush where fresh snow once lay. He called to his sister, who was working on creating tiny snowmen on the roofs of cars, and he ran over to help her. Together, they could create something wonderful, something that couldn’t be completed by one of them alone in the time they had.

They spent the next hour playing in the snow together, continuing to create snowmen, eventually foregoing their snowman army in place of a larger snowman in front of their home.

Only two hours later, and the two of them were tired out. They made their way back inside, taking off their wet coats and snow-packed gloves and laying them out on the floor. Julius took off his boots and rushed himself to the couch, cuddling himself in the fuzzy folds on his onesie, eventually falling asleep in front of an open fire.

This was the last time they would be able to play like this. When the next snow day hit two years later, Julius once again woke up with a sense of childlike joy. He slipped on the onesie and went downstairs to seek Talia, to recreate the fun they once found, but he saw nothing on that couch. Talia was in her room, catching up on the hours of sleep she had lost since starting high school. When she did wake up, and the snow had begun to melt, she picked up her pencil instead of her gloves and worked to catch up on a mountain of work rather than make an army of snowmen. Julius tried playing in the snow by himself that year. He knew it wasn’t the same.

A year later, there was another snow day. Julius woke up at 9:34 and looked out the window before falling back asleep. The onesie hung in the closet.