Snow

Basking under the sizzling sun and crazy all-night-long dancing under the sky were followed by a flight up north. In three hours, Florida morphed into Vermont. After summer came winter. As I stepped out of the airport, my face twisted into an ugly grimace of anger and bitterness. Shivering, I grabbed some snow from the ground. Despite the painful kisses that my fingers received from this evil white mass, I started pressing it frantically between my hands. Once my perfectly round, tennis-ball-sized snowball was done, I threw it on the ground with all my might while squeaking, “I hate you!”

Birds

As a kid, I had many friends, some of them quite feathery. Often my grandparents’ hens occupied my silly self for the entire day. I would dart up and down the garden, searching for weed. Then, with my finds in a small pail, I would squat and start feeding the hens, one sprig at a time. When lunch was over, I had to make sure that they get their afternoon nap. I would grab a hen, put its head under its wing and start swaying it gently, while singing “Nani-naaa!” Once it was asleep, I would proceed to the next.