The Nose That Nobody Picked

by David Parkin

  David laughed.

  “How’s the doctor?” said Lauren.

  “Okay,” said David with a little wince. “Very quiet.” He thrust his hands into his pockets. “Though he did create something truly terrible the other day…”

  “Oh no…” groaned Christopher. “What now?”

  “Omelette” grinned David. “He tried to cook me an omelette.” He wrinkled up his nose. “It was horrible … still soft and runny in the middle. A bit like snot.”

  They laughed and looked out on the white fields and frosted trees. David lifted his large nose to the air and sniffed deeply.

  “Snow always smells so fresh and clean to me,” he said. “It makes me think of new beginnings.”

  Christopher gazed around at the brilliant crystal landscape. His friend was right, the world did look new as it shone and glistened, wearing its bright white winter coat.

  “You know what it makes me think of?” said Christopher, reaching down. “Snowball fights!” he shouted and thrust a handful down David’s neck.

  “Oooh, it’s freezing” cried David, wriggling, as Christopher ran off down the hill laughing.

  Lauren smirked at David. “Shall we get him?”

  “I think we should,” replied David.

  Lauren and David sped after Christopher, laughing and throwing snowballs through the crisp air.

  As the children disappeared into the woods, the hill fell silent.

  Once again the world was fresh, quiet and new. The only sign of life were three pairs of footprints, sunk deep into the sparkling snow.

  If, later that day, you were to stumble upon these footprints and decide it might be fun to follow them, through the woods and over the hills, through the bright clean snow, you might find that they could tell a story.

  You would see that sometimes a pair would run ahead and then turn suddenly (you might guess) to send a snowball whizzing through the air.

  Other times you might frown and smile as you try to follow the footprints in and out of the trees, their paths crossing and zigzagging in and around each other so many times that it becomes impossible to tell one from the other.

  But mostly, if you were to follow these footprints, these trails, left by Lauren, Christopher and David in the shining white snow, you would notice that, more often than not … they were together.