The Genie Made of Snow

Once upon a time:

A completely ordinary boy was building a snowman. It was a rather frigid day, and he was feeling cold already. He wanted to go inside, but the snowman seemed to want to be made.

He grabbed the snow and packed it into a small ball, then pushed it around in the snow. The ball gradually became bigger and bigger, until it was big enough to make the base of a snowman.

Then, he repeated the process, making the other two balls gradually smaller, with the top ball having hardly the same substance as the base. Then he stacked them up on top of each other.

Smiling, the boy gave the snowman the traditional carrot nose, and he then used two buttons on the bottom two stacks to replicate buttons on a coat. He also gave it a mouth, and two eyes, all made out of black ember buttons.

The boy gave the newly made snowman a big smile.


The next morning, he went outside to let the dog out. He was wandering around the yard, while the dog did his thing in the pen. It was another frigid, below zero morning. The boy sighed, and fog came seemingly out of his mouth.

He was about to walk back into the house, when suddenly, a voice cried out: "Hello."

The boy froze. Where did this voice come from? No one was in the yard. Was there a trespasser?

His heart began thumping wildly, as a million possiblities went through his mind. Escaped prisoner? Runaway?

No, he told himself. Why would a person with ill intent say anything without need?

He turned around, shaking it off thinking he was imagining things.

Then he saw the snowman. It's mouth moved as it said again, "Hello."

The boy's mouth dropped as wide open as it could. "Uh, Mr. Snowman, is it you - talking?" OK honestly, he could be hallucinating...

"I sure hope it's me. What do you want, little boy?"

Funny. The snowman's talking, and he was speechless.

"What is your name, little one?"

"Oh, I'm Johnie."

"Well Johnie," the snowman stopped to smile a little. "I hope we could be good friends. Is there anything you want?"

"Anything that I want? Um... I guess that I've always wanted the Captain America figurine. All my friends have it in school, and my parents didn't get it for me for Christmas."

"Granted." Suddenly, a brand new Captain America action figure materialized on the ground.

"COOL!!!"

"It makes me happy to bring smiles to children's faces." The snowman's voice sounded quite gentle. "There is no limit to the things you could ask for."

"Wowzies! My friends want to go ice skating this weekend. Can I have a pair of ice skates?"

"Sure." Just then, a pair of ice skates came into the boy's field of vision.

"You really can get me anything that I want, huh?"

"As long as it is not harmful to your health, or outside of the line of reason. Don't ask for the moon please. Once, in another universe, someone asked for that. It did NOT turn out well."

"Gotcha." The boy looked down to his toes. "Well, I gotta get going. I got school."