Snow Day in Toronto

Santiago had been living in Toronto for exactly three weeks when the snow came. His family had moved from Bogota in January, which, as his father now admitted, had not been the best idea. In Bogota it rained a lot and it was often cool, but Santiago had never seen snow in his life.

On Tuesday night, while they were eating dinner, the weather report on the radio warned about a big storm. His mother looked worried, but Santiago was too excited to sleep. He kept getting up to look out of the window. At midnight, small white flakes were falling slowly under the streetlights. When he woke up at seven, the whole street had disappeared under a thick white blanket.

"Schools are closed today," his mother said, reading a message on her phone. "It's a snow day." Santiago didn't know what a snow day was, but it sounded wonderful. He put on two sweaters, his new boots, a hat, a scarf and the thick gloves his aunt had sent from Canada before the move, and he ran outside.

The cold hit his face like a wall. It was minus fifteen degrees and the wind was still blowing hard. His parents were already in the driveway with two shovels, trying to dig out the car. They had been shoveling for half an hour and they had only cleared a small path.

Next door, a girl about his age was rolling a huge ball of snow. "Hey! Do you want to help?" she shouted. "I'm building a fort." Her name was Priya, and she had lived on this street all her life. She showed Santiago how to pack the snow with his hands so that the walls would be strong. By eleven o'clock, the fort had two walls, a door and a window, and Santiago couldn't feel his fingers anymore.

At lunchtime, his mother called them inside and made hot chocolate. Santiago told her everything he had learned: that you should never eat yellow snow, that the plows come at night, and that Priya's class was going to have a snowball fight on Thursday. "So, do you like Canada now?" his father asked, rubbing his aching back. Santiago looked out of the window at the fort, which was already covered with fresh snow. "I think so," he said. "But I still miss arepas."