Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash (9 page)

We settled down at the table with the puzzle. My job was to find all the straight edge pieces for the border. Mom sorted the different colors. That kept us busy until nine o’clock. In between, we ate dinner and watched the snow through the window. We could see it piling up on the ground under the sidewalk lamps. Sometimes it poured out of the sky in a steady stream. Other times, the wind roared like a speeding motorcycle, and snow blew around in crazy circles.

Just before I went to bed, we watched the news again. The reporter was still outside with his microphone, telling people to stay home. Some people do not listen to their own advice.

The next morning, I looked out the window and saw cars completely buried in snow. The street had disappeared beneath a white blanket. So had the sidewalks and the bushes.

“
Qué bonito.
” I whistled. “Wow!” Mom turned on the news. Every school in the city was closed. So were the government offices and most businesses. It was a snow day

“Hooray!” Mom bounced in her blue fuzzy slippers. She was still wearing her nightgown, and her long black hair wasn’t combed.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

Mom yawned. “
Dormir.
Sleep.”

“Go back to bed, Mom!” I laughed. “Pretend it’s Saturday morning.”

While Mom took off her blue slippers and got under the covers, I put on my purple zapatos. There was a big white world outside I wanted to explore.

But first I had to open my front door. I pushed and pushed with my shoulder. Something was blocking me. It was snow!

“The wind made drifts of two feet in some places,” a voice behind me said. “People can’t get out of their houses.”

I looked back at the television.

The news reporter was talking about how this was the first time in five years we had a big snow in March.

“Get out and enjoy it, kids!” he said.

I opened the window for another way out. That’s when I saw a man in a red hat. It was Mr. Vaslov, my friend who takes care of Starwood Park. He waved a red mitten as he pulled a sled behind him.

“Climb out, Freddie,” he said.

Our apartment is on the first floor. With the snow so high, stepping out of the window was almost as easy as stepping out of a bathtub. Mr. Vaslov helped me onto his sled.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “To my tool shed,” Mr. Vaslov said. “I have a new invention to show you.”

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2012 by Jacqueline Jules

Illustrations copyright © 2012 Miguel Benítez

978-1-4804-4962-6

Published in 2012 by Albert Whitman & Company

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