Someplace I'd never see my breath

 

The heat leaving my body felt like a slow leak in a tire.  I knew it was happening, but I also knew that winter wasn’t about to be stopped just by wishing it.  Cold weather was setting in and I’d just have to get used to piling on extra clothes and keep rubbing my hands together in an attempt to keep them warm.

 

My favorite times were when my mother would bake something in the oven.  She thought I enjoyed her cooking, but the truth was, the warmth from the oven drew me in like a magnet and held me there until she complained I was getting underfoot.  “Go play someplace else.”  I’d reluctantly head back out into some other room of the house.  No matter which room I chose, I could see my breath.  I hated winter.

 

I never had any desire to build a snowman, or a fort out of snow, or lay down and make a snow angle.  Outside anything was not for me, and when it came time to ride the bus to school, I’d always sit in the back.  Even though the exhaust really stunk up the back seats of the bus, it was a warm exhaust.

 

My preference would be to live on a planet that didn’t rotate.  The same side of the planet would always face the sun, and that’s where my house would be.  Always warm, all the time.  I could even leave the doors and windows open.  The same temperature inside and out.  Iced tea would take the place of hot coffee and fly swatters would take the place of mittens.