Snow Shoveling - Kathy

 Show Shoveling

Onomatopoeia  and winter - 10 minute write

Scrape, thud, scrape, thud…”This snow shovel sucks!” Bobby frowned, pausing to rest his arms,  looking up to the gray sky catching flakes in his eyelashes which caused him to blink and look away.  His mother’s silhouette waved a thumbs-up signal behind the living room picture window signaling him to keep going. He smiled back and  nodded pretending to be enthusiastic so as not to disappoint her.  This was going to take forever, and then he’d have to do it all over again if this snow kept up.  

Early December snows rarely fell this far south, but this Oklahoma storm roared in from Colorado dumping over 6 inches overnight and seemed determined to keep at it all day.  If the driveway wasn’t shoveled, their car would become trapped in the garage locking them in for perhaps days.  Oklahoma City was poorly prepared to clear snow packed roads, especially in the suburbs. This snow was heavy, making shoveling necessary and exhausting. 

Scrape, thud, scrape, thud… Bobby began once again the unending work of shoveling. His shovel scraped along the concrete until it could hold no more, and then he’d dump the load on the side leaving a chunky pile along both sides of the drive.  Seventeen steps, scraping, then thud, a new pile added to the growing hills.  

Billy finished the last row and a grin snuck its way to his frozen face.  He wiggled his numb fingers and toes, stretched his back and looked back at the smooth finish in front of him.  

“Billy…Billy!” He heard his mom call from the front door.  “Come in for some hot chocolate and cookies!”

Billy dropped the shovel by the door with a clang, knowing he’d be repeating the job soon and headed in to warm up and enjoy some hot chocolate and his mom’s famous raisin oatmeal cookies.