An Elderly Woman Warned Me Not To Touch The Snow—The Next Morning, I Understood Why

tote bag to my chest like a shield. Outside the frosted windows, a blizzard was turning the world into a chaotic blur of white and gray. December had been especially cruel that year—not just the weather, but everything underneath it, the cold that had nothing to do with temperature.

Ahead of me, right at the register, an elderly woman in a faded shawl continue reading …