The Big Freeze ~ 5 minute freewrite

My fingertips tapped the edge of the table. The cold glass pricking my skin, reminding me that I wasn't the only thing inside this tiny house that was cold.

It had been four hours since he had left. Our wall clock clicked each second as they went by reminding me that there wasn't much time left. He needed to come home soon or it would be too late.

We hadn't been prepared as we should have been, with all the death that we had seen this year, we should have been prepared, but we were just distracted. Now the Big Freeze was here, and were caught with our pants down. A deep chuckle dug into my belly. We used to use that phrase, but it never held any actual weight. It wasn't until we moved here that we found out what deadlines meant, and they were literal.

I could see my breath more clearly now with each exhale, and I shivered. I tugged the blanket around my shoulders tighter, and considered taking off all my layers underneath...I had seen it in a movie once, but the thought made me even colder.

The temperature in the house had to be below freezing now. He needed to get back soon. I stared bleakly at the boarded up fireplace, and imagined what it would have been like long ago to start it up. To feel the heat lick my face, again something I had only ever seen in a movie. My eyes shifted to the device that was intended to keep us warm, it was guaranteed to never fail, to never needed a replacement piece, but like most things, the scientists that ran our country lied. Making fires had become illegal, natural gas had become illegal, electricity was too expensive, and all we had was this machinary that broke right before our eyes last night.

Tom had decided first thing this morning that he would make the trek to our nearest neighbor and take the pieces we needed to fix ours. They had passed away last spring, and wouldn't be needing it. The only problem was they were two miles away, and the with the Big Freeze here, it was well below zero outside.

I stood up and began to pace the small distance between the table and the front door, looking out the window at each pass. The sun was beginning to set, and he said he would be back before sundown. As I made my way back to the table, the sound of the doorknob sent a jolt to my heart. With a huge smile on his face, and frozen snow and ice in his thick beard, Tom emerged a bag full of clanking metal.

"You ready to warm up?" he asked.

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