Creative Corner – “Light” by Stephanie Alpizar

The wind was howling, screaming in her ears; it was deafening. Her light shawl was wrapped tightly around her fragile, boney body, doing little more that nothing to protect her from the cutting air. Her feet were clad in sopping wet cloth that would be a sad definition of shoes. She could feel her weak knees wobbling as she took shaky steps forward. She could feel the burning frostbite knowing at her fingers and toes. The howling wind was too loud to hear the clattering of her teeth, but she felt them every time, her skull pounded with the impact. Her eyelids were barely open, protecting as much of her eyes as they could against the soft snow that felt like needles on her bare face. The cold scraped up and down her throat and lungs, making each breath a horrid form of torture. She was almost done, there was nothing left. She imagined that burrowing under the snow like a wolf for warmth would be better than fighting the raging storm. Tears turned to ice on her cheeks, a harsh, rasping laugh escaped her mouth as she contemplated just sitting still and complacent, waiting for the inclement weather to take everything from her, even her life. She hadn’t realized that she’d stopped walking, and suddenly laying down and taking a nap seemed like a good idea. She looked up one last time at the pitch-blackness around her, wondering how anyone could be strong enough to reach the oasis at the base of the mountain. Just as she began to truly think her odds were low to non-existent, she saw a flicker of light, whether it was a trick of the mind or a true miracle, she didn’t know. It didn’t go away, even when she stared at it. Before she realized it had happened, she found herself trudging forwards again. While it made no sense to her, after having decidedly given up, she felt a smile stretching her frozen face. There was light, no matter how small or far away; there was light. And she would reach it.