Gabriella clumsily shaved sheets of ice in wobbling tessellations. Her skating skills weren't fine-tuned, but she enjoyed it just the same - the prickly snow flurries stinging her skin and the warmth in her chest followed by the cold hum of frostbite nipping at her fingertips. Her grandma's singing that barely resembled Christmas tunes incessantly whispered in her ears but she didn’t mind. Instead, she kept lumbering along to the beat of her grandma’s tone-deaf singing. She loved pushing against the ice in time to her notes, getting farther with each beat. She felt fulfilled tiring in the moonlight, scraping towards the brightness.
Suddenly, light stung her eyes. Her eyelids blossomed with the red of incandescence bleeding through her skin. Her skates hugged the edge of a fissure, sending her flying. With a swift crack, her spine grated against the ice. Her breath was stolen, leaving her sputtering and heaving for air. She groaned, struggling to see with bright white spots stubbornly blocking her vision. Blurrily adjusting to the new setting, Gabriella took in the warmth of the light post above. Aching back to the ice, her bruised spine was soothed by the cool touch of clinging snow. Snowflakes whirled in the spotlight, dancing around each other in seemingly alive coordination. Soft against the pitch-dark night, they joyously twirled in spirals around her. Their reflections give them a holographic sheen. A small flake melted on her nose, dripping down the cracks of her skin. She held the little constellations in her palm, tracing the sputtering patterns.
She could imagine her grandma singing her blue melodies, enveloping her in warm light, stroking her hair with worn hands. She sang along, a smile creeping onto her face. Together they laughed and admired the cascading snowflakes. She stuck her tongue out, savoring the tasteless droplets.
Gabriella cusped her knee, bracing herself to stand up. As she righted herself, her legs struggled not to give. At last, she continued her blundering dance across her snow globe.