Love in a snow globe

Enjoying a peaceful winter morning, Marni accepts an invitation from her handsome neighbor, Jann, to try Swedish meatballs

- -Wendel James Potter

The bright cardinal, its red cap visible high up on a snow-dusted pine branch, put a smile on Marni's lips and a sparkle in her tender hazel eyes. "Good morning!" Marni's greeting to the bird crackled in the frosty, crisp air. She put a gloved hand to her mouth.

"Whoops!" she laughed, looking around to see if anybody had heard.

It was still very early, on a brisk Saturday morning, and not a soul was to be seen on Marni's block. Cars were either tucked away in garages, or covered with snow in driveways. Her snow boots made the only tracks on the sidewalk.

Marni liked that. She liked being alone like a trailblazer in the fresh snow, even invisible to the sun, which couldn't quite break through the shelf of gray clouds along the eastern horizon. It was kind of like being inside a snow globe.

Alone, but not lonely.

Marni had a good job, plenty of friends and her black and white kitty, who was always at the door to greet her when she came home from work, and would be there later when she returned from her walk in the snowscape. Could life even get any better for a young woman who was reaching her goals, one by one?

"Marni! How about a cup of hot coffee?"

Though Marni didn't spot him at first, the high-low contour of Jann Persson's Swedish accent gave him away.