Patrice J. Coleman

Blizzard Buddies

They never close St. Bonaventure College when it snows. With the dorms on campus and a number of faculty and staff living in the immediate area, people are pulled to campus as if by some gravitational force. Those who commute are expected to exercise their best judgment, which explains why Denny drove to campus in near white-out conditions.

At 8 a.m. the crackling speaker system in the women’s dorm announced that classes were cancelled for the day. Most residents greeted this news with a cheer and burrowed further beneath the covers. Wide awake and restless, Anna slipped into her parka and boots and wandered along the boulevard that ran between the dorms and Old Main.

The daylight seemed thin and uncertain. Snow continued to fall, blanketing the entire campus in layers of dense, powdery insulation. A snow plow went by, clearing a single lane in the street. A hulking Buick sedan cruised along behind the plow like a parade float, the hood and roof covered in a foot of snow. The front windows were down and two circles had been cleared on the windshield, creating an oversized binocular effect.

The car lunged into the unplowed parking lot, rolling to a stop a few yards from Anna.

A red knitted cap with a white tassel bobbed in the window opening on the passenger side of the car as the door lurched open with a squawk. The driver inched through the open door, back first, placing his red mittened hands on the upper rim of the open car door, then pushing off as though making a luge run.

He landed in the thick cushion of snow with a muffled 'oof.' 

"Snow angel!" he shouted, his arms and legs engaging in a furious horizontal jumping-jack pattern. 

Anna flung herself into the snow beside him, swishing her arms and legs back and forth in wide arcs.

As they staggered to their feet, coughing with laughter and shaking loose the clinging snow, he scanned at the empty street. “Where is everyone?" The words hung in the air, muffled and damp. 

Anna pushed her hair out of her eyes. “They cancelled classes.”

He turned his pale face upward, crying out in dismay. "No! Not today! Not when I was actually almost on time for Sister Mary Adele's Music Theory!” Seconds later he began  catching snowflakes with his tongue, his expression one of pure joy.

Over hot chocolate Denny proclaimed them blizzard buddies and friends for life, but at their ten-year reunion their friendship threatens to close St. Bonaventure College for good.  

(Alumni Affairs)