Alex used his thick, ice-crusted glove to wipe away the small trickle of mucus dripping out of his red nose, and the swipe made his already freezing face even colder. But with a few more pats, he stepped back and admired his own work which had consumed the past two hours. He smiled with pride and ignored the frigid breeze whirling around him and his sculpture, glimmering in the moonlight.
Seven inches of early December snow had fallen all evening and was just now tapering off. Out of that blanket of snow, he had formed the figure of a beautiful woman kneeling down on the ground. Alex had taken special care to give her the smoothest surface possible along his skin, but he was particularly pleased with the tiny grooves he had meticulously carved down her hair to make it appear more realistic. His decision to put aside his college homework to work on his snow art in the small, isolated field behind his dormitory had been a good idea after all, he concluded.
Looking at the gigantic breasts he had formed on her torso, however, he realized that he had let his fantasies get the better of him. For a second, he considered shaving some snow off her disproportionate bosoms but feared he would inadvertently ruin the stability of the artwork. He thought he felt a vibrating buzz in his pocket, which would be strange since it was after midnight, but he pulled out his cell phone only to see no new messages or calls from anyone after all.
Replacing the phone back in his pocket, all he needed to do now was add the final touch he had been saving for this occasion. Weeks ago, Alex had been browsing through a local pawn shop when he found a black, silk top hat with a red ribbon and flower for only two dollars. Even though the hat was noticeably frayed around the rim, he loved how the fabric seemed to sparkle with a shimmering rainbow of colors when he tilted it in the light. Now that his artwork was complete, he wiped the snow off the rim and proudly placed the hat on the head of his snow-woman with a deep and victorious exhalation.
Suddenly a powerful gust of wind blew around him biting at his exposed skin, and he put his gloves over his face and head to protect him from the abrasive snow pelting him. He was afraid he was going to lose the hat he had just put on her, but even though a nearby tree was severely bent and he had to tightly hold the knit hat on his head to keep it from blowing away, the top hat on the sculpture did not appear to move at all. Snow continued to fill the air and soon he had difficulty seeing anything beyond the tornado of snowflakes that hammered into him. He bent over and pulled his hood over his head to protect himself from the freezing onslaught.
After only half a minute, the stormy winds dissipated just as quickly as they had begun. Alex brushed off the layer of snow that had already caked onto his jacket. Nothing in the area appeared to have been affected; the trees looked exactly the same and he could still see all his footprints in the snow as though the snowstorm had never occurred.
As soon as he saw his sculpture, however, his breathing stopped and his heartbeat felt like a jackhammer in his chest. The snow woman he had built was moving; in fact, she was getting off the ground and standing up. She was slowly stretching her arms and hands in front of her as though she were inspecting his craftsmanship.
She looked up at him and her smile grew wider. "Hello there! Thank you for building me!" She looked down at her massive chest and as her snowy hands glided around her humongous mounds, tiny ice crystals flaked off and drifted away. "And thank you for these too!"
"You... you..." Alex opened his mouth to talk to her, but his brain was an incoherent swirl of questions and shock. "How... you... I don't... what..."
"Let me introduce myself," she said as she politely ignored his stuttering. She lightly touched two fingers on the rim of her hat and bowed slightly "My name is Frosteen."
.
"Frostee... you mean, Frosty? Like Frosty the Snowman?"
"No, not Frosty! FrosTEEN!!" She said with obvious exasperation before muttering to herself, "That goddamn prick hired some schmucks to write ONE song about him and he STILL gets all the attention!"
"But how are you... you... I mean..." Alex stammered, "That was just a made up story, so how...?"
Her face softened into a patient smile like a parent watching an infant struggle to understand the alphabet. "No, it's not made up. It's... Just think of me as a visitor to this dimension,"
She stretched out an arm and admired the curves of her tricep and elbow as Alex asked, "Like a ghost who lives in a hat?"
"Not really. My species is a form of coalesced essence that exists across multiple dimensions. Those of us who venture out through the multiverse use a native object which allows us to synchronize our quantum structure to that particular..." She tapered off when she saw the confusion on his face and then smiled with only a hint of condescension. "Sure, like a ghost who lives in a hat." Her head swiveled around and examined the surroundings, "Where am I?"
"Madison Tech," he said proudly, but then saw it was now her turn to look confused. "It's a university in the United States... uh, and that's located on...."
"I know where we are!" she scoffed. "This isn't my first visit to your world." She looked around at the immediate area and inquired, "So where is everyone?"
"Everyone?"
"It's a snowy night on a college campus! Aren't you out here with your friends? Having snowball fights? Tackling each other? Where are all your friends?" Her head cocked to the side as her snowy brow furrowed, even though she didn't sound particularly surprised to find him alone.
His head drooped down a little as he tried to ignore the sounds of laughter wafting from the main square. "I'm a freshman, so I... I haven't made a lot of friends yet." His wavering voice was feeble while she looked at him curiously. He could hear how pitiful he sounded, so he quickly added, "I mean, I've met some people. And I like them. I'm just..." Listening to himself speak, he didn't believe what he was saying either. Then he remembered why he came outside. "I always build a snowman on the first snowy night of the season. I've been doing that since I was in middle school."