Shorter Days

Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is “winter is coming.”

In April, 2024, Phil Yeats published The Body on Karli’s Beach, the third book in his Barrettsport Mysteries, a series of soft-boiled mysteries set in a fictional South Shore Nova Scotia town. For information about these books, and The Road to Environmental Armageddon, his trilogy about the hazards of ignoring human-induced climate change, visit his website: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

 

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Shorter Days

by Phil Yeats

“Why did Miss Jennifer say it was almost winter?” my younger daughter Kate said as she skipped home from play school. “It isn’t at all cold.”

“Because,” I replied, “winter is the time of year when the days are shortest. Do you remember if it was sunny when you got up this morning?”

She stopped, shaking her head. “Dark. So dark Mummy had to wake Jessie and me up.”

“And what about right now? It’s getting dark again.”

“So?”

“What was it like in the summer on your birthday? Was it dark when you woke up in the morning?”

She scrunched up her nose. “No.”

“And after dinner, could you play outside until it was bedtime?”

She pouted, with her hands on her hips. “But winter’s supposed to be cold and snowy.”

“That used to be true, and still is a little colder in winter than summer, but not usually cold enough for snow.”

“But Jessie says she can remember snow. Why can’t we have snow this winter now that I’m big enough to play in it?”

I pondered how I could explain global warming to a four-year-old as she stomped up the stairs to our front door. Inside, she kicked off her sneakers and threw her lightweight jacket on the floor. “If you put your things away properly, I’ll show you something on the computer.”

Kate heaved her lunchbox onto the kitchen counter and came over to the computer. I scrolled through our catalogue of family photos and videos until I found the video of eighteen-month-old Kate in a snowsuit stomping around in the most recent snowfall we’d experienced. I picked her up and placed her on my lap. “There you are playing in the snow.”

“But I don’t remember. I want it to snow this winter so I can make a snowman.”

“I do too, but we can’t be sure.”

“Why not? You said it’s getting dark earlier.”

“Because getting dark earlier and staying light later in summer are caused by the sun and the moon. They never change. Snow is caused by changes in the weather. We never know when we’ll get the kind of weather that will bring us snow.”

She slithered from my lap. “It’s not fair!” she said before stomping off to watch a kid’s program on the television.

I shrugged my shoulders and started preparing dinner for the family.

 

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The Spot Writers:

Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com/

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/