5 Snow Ball

Sarimah bobbled down the stairs and out the door. She skidded slightly on the icy pavement outside. Izzy was waiting at the end of the driveway for their walk to school.

Sarimah felt like she was ready to climb Mount Everest. Her puffy, dark grey coat with the red lining had a collar that hid her face. She had to keep pushing her scarf away from her eyes, but her slippery black mitts made it impossible to grip anything.

Her winter boots felt two sizes too big. Her bulky snow pants made a loud whip-whip sound as she walked. It had to be 15 degrees below zero, but she was sweating under all her layers. Sarimah tried reaching up to scratch her head under her toque. But that was just as hard as adjusting her scarf.

“You look warm,” Izzy said with a smile. “But you’re going to have trouble playing snow soccer in that outfit.”

Sarimah tried to move her scarf, toque and hood away from her ears. She tried to move the scarf away from her mouth as best she could. But it had frozen from her breath and she could only push it down a little.

“Will we play snow soccer today?” she finally said around her scarf.

“Yeah, probably. It’s like a tradition or something. We play kickball when it rains and soccer when it snows.”

“What happens if the ball gets cold?” she asked.

“When the ball gets cold, it loses its bounce. We just kick it a little harder. It’s a great workout for your legs.”

Sarimah couldn’t hear much except their boots crunching the roadside snow. “In Syria, there would be no school in this weather. If we got weather like this.”

“We call those snow days! It has to snow a lot more than this for us to get a snow day here.”

When they rounded the last corner to school, Sarimah’s eyes widened. In front of her, dozens of kids were slipping and sliding in the playground.

About ten kids were playing street hockey. She laughed when she heard little girls yelling, “Tag, you’re frozen.”

“When do they use those things on their feet?” she asked Izzy, pointing to the hockey players.

“You mean skates? We have to build the outdoor rink first,” she said. “We usually do that just before Christmas, when it’s colder.”

“But it is cold now!”

Brandt appeared out of nowhere. He slid toward them, kicking up a wall of snow. “Hey, Sarimah, is it cold enough for you?”

“Yes. It is cold enough for me.”

Izzy and Brandt began laughing. Sarimah couldn’t help but smile, too, although she wasn’t sure why.

The first bell sounded and they started toward the school. Sarimah glanced over at the soccer field. A thick blanket of snow covered it.

“Do you play soccer at lunch break?” Sarimah asked her friends.

“Of course,” Brandt said. “We’ll get some more people and have an even bigger game today.”

Playing soccer in the snow was all Sarimah could think about during her morning classes. When it was finally noon, she grabbed her lunch from her locker and met Izzy in the cafeteria.

“How has your morning been?” Izzy asked.

“Good,” Sarimah said. “What do you do in the winter?”

Izzy peeled open a yogurt container and grabbed a spoon.

“Lots of different things,” she said, as she stirred. “Like I said this morning, we can’t let snow stop us, or we’d never get anything done.”

“Do you still go outside to play?”

“Of course. We can go out now and you’ll see. Nothing changes.”

“Can we play soccer in the snow?”

Izzy smiled. “How about right after we eat?”

They wolfed down their sandwiches and tossed out their recyclables before heading back to their locker. Sarimah put on her snow pants, hat, scarf, jacket, mitts and boots. She followed Izzy to the soccer field. Kids had already packed down the snow in some places. The packed-down area in front of the goal nearest to the school was almost pure ice. But Sarimah could see that other parts of the field were untouched.

Sarimah was stunned to see the same group of kids from the day before playing soccer in the snow. She shook her head. She didn’t know how anyone could play soccer on snow and ice. She glanced down at her boots and tried to imagine running in them. How could she kick a ball with them?

Brandt came out of the school from a different door. He was carrying a ball. He tried to roll it to Sarimah, but it wobbled and bounced on the uneven surface. She stopped it, and realized she wasn’t going to be able to do anything with it, wearing all her winter clothes.

She tried to flick the ball with her toe, but her boots were so big she just scuffed it forward.

Izzy ran up and took a shot on goal. She hit it hard, and banged it right to Seamus, who was the goal-keeper. Seamus grabbed the ball with both hands. He punted it high in the air toward the left wing.

Sarimah watched as the ball sailed high. Then it started to fall. It was as if the ball was made of stone and someone had dropped it from outer space. Sarimah expected it to bounce high and roll down the field, but instead it hit a patch of deep, soft snow.

Poof.

Only the top half of the ball was showing. It looked like the yolk of a fried egg. Kids scrambled for it, but the snow was thick and they could only lurch a step at a time. Brandt got to it first, and kicked it loose from its icy trap. He sent it back up to Izzy, who passed it back to Sarimah. Brandt rejoined them, huffing and puffing.

“Izzy, me and Sarimah will play on this side, with Seamus in goal,” Brandt said. “Everyone else is on the other team.”

“Wait, we’re playing, too.”

Sarimah looked behind her to see Tamsen and Kaelynn running up.

“Is your knee better?” Izzy asked Tamsen.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Plus, I didn’t like how the last game ended.”

“All right, we have a game now,” Brandt said. “Tamsen and Kaelynn can go on that team, but we get Derek.”

Sarimah stood in the back of the group, but she heard what they were saying. She knew Tamsen was back to prove something to her.

Tamsen was wearing a short winter coat with boots that seemed half the size of Sarimah’s. Sarimah watched how easily she was able to walk through the snow.

She can run in those boots much easier than I can in mine, Sarimah thought.

The kids scattered and Sarimah found herself with the ball at centre field. She wasn’t sure how it was going to work. It was a big field, with just seven players per side. There would be a lot of running in the deep snow.

Sarimah tapped the ball to Brandt and the game began. He passed it back to Izzy in midfield and then went for a run. Sarimah tried to support Izzy and find some open space for a return pass.

Tamsen charged at Izzy, looking to block a pass or create a turnover.

Sarimah saw what was happening and called for the ball. She pumped her legs hard, but her boots slipped on the ice and snow. She felt like she had forgotten how to run. It was like a bad dream in which she was running as fast as she could but not going anywhere.

“Izzy, over here,” she tried to yell. But her scarf muffled her words.

Izzy poked the ball back toward Brandt and they moved up the field. Sarimah turned to run into the space. But by the time she found any grip, the defence had won the ball. Sarimah was sweating under her scarf.

It went on like that for another five minutes. The ball would go over her, around her and through her. It went over her a lot. Sarimah felt like they were playing tennis, and she was the net. She was the shortest player on the field and she couldn’t jump very high wearing boots.

Sarimah had barely touched the ball when the bell sounded. She thought the other kids looked like pro snow soccer players compared to her. She was exhausted and — worst of all — Tamsen’s team had won 3-2.

“Looks like Canada won that one,” Tamsen said.

Kaelynn snickered, but Sarimah wasn’t laughing.

“Yes, it is hard to play in these,” Sarimah said, lifting up her right boot. “I’m used to playing with no shoes at all.” But she thought, I will be better in summer. They will see.