Remembering Angels "What's an angel, Daddy?" "Well, sweetie, I'm not sure exactly. Some sort of mythical creature with wings." "And they looked like that?" The little girl peered down at the hollow made in the snow by her father. He had lain on his back in the snow and then swiped his arms and legs back and forth to make the impression of wings and a gown. It didn't look like anything much, but it was sort of fascinating in its simplicity. It was so fragile, it took all her might to keep herself from going over and squooshing the sides of it in and ruining it. That would be fun, but Daddy might get upset. "I suppose they looked something like that," he answered her. "I think they glowed too. Um, halon? hollow? HALO! that's it. They had a glowing ring around the head called a halo." He went over and drew a ring with his finger in the snow where the angel's head was. Angels were kind of interesting, but not that interesting. "What's that over there?" The girl pointed to three large balls of snow stacked vertically. "That's a snowman." "Do snowmans have halos too?" "No," he chuckled (for some reason), "but they have carrots for noses and coal for eyes." The little girl wasn't sure, but she thought her father might be teasing her. How could a carrot be a nose? And how could eyes be anything but eyes? She started to ask him but then she noticed the snow had started falling from the sky again. "Like this, Daddy. Like this!" She stuck her tongue out as far as possible to catch the flakes on it. Her father followed her, weaving crazily with his tongue stuck out and making slobbery noises. She felt herself starting to get the giggles. She turned around and put her hands on her hips to show him she was serious. "You make it too hard to hold out my tongue if I'm laughing. Now stop it!" "Stop what?" slobber-slobber, gurgle-gurgle. That was it! She scream-giggled as she flew at him with her arms flailing. He dodged her easily and ran to the left. She chased him as he ran behind the snowman for cover. She ran around and around the snowman trying to catch him as he continued his silly noises. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a carrot sticking out. Well, what do you know! She was distracted for a second, but then remembered she had a lesson she needed to teach her dad. He was on the other side of the snowman, peaking around the sides at her with his tongue out. He wasn't trying to catch the snow pieces. He wasn't trying to catch them at all. He was sticking his tongue out at her! She went for the surprise attack and pushed with all her might against the middle ball of the snowman. There was a crunching noise as the snowman came apart and tumbled toward her dad. He jumped back and looked startled. Ha! that got him. His tongue wasn't sticking out now. A voice in the distance shouted. "Hey! That was ours. We paid for it. You can't just knock it down. Get your own ticket." The little girl looked over to see two boys running toward them. "Run, Daddy, run!" she squeeled. Her father scooped her up and ran with her in his arms. Her dad was big. He could run faster than anyone. She watched as the boys behind them stopped, bent down and started crushing snow into fist-sized balls and then throw them at them. She didn't know you could do that. Neat! Some of the snowballs splashed against the trees around them, but none of them hit her or her dad. He was too fast. Then, without warning the buzzer sounded. "Awww," she moaned. She heard the boys echo her disappointment and looked over to see them drop their snowballs and head for the exit. Her father started walking that way too. "Do we have to?" she asked, trying not to sound too whiney. "We can come back and do it again later," he assured her. "And build a snowman?" "If it's not too much more," he said as he put her down at the exit tunnel. A pretty-smelling lady took their coats as they went through the tunnel. "Thank you for visiting the WinterDome," she said. "You're welcome," the little girl said. Her dad always taught her to be polite, and that meant saying "you're welcome" when other people said "thank you." Her dad gave the lady their check and she handed them back their face masks. Her dad handed hers down to her and put his own on. She remembered to pull down the UV shield before they went out. "Let's do the TreeDome next," she said. "You always want to go there," her dad whined very nasally. He was being silly again. "That's because I'm the best tree climber in the world." He grabbed her and swung her up to sit atop his broad shoulders. She spread her arms out and drank in the dizzying height. It felt just like when she climbed trees in the TreeDome. Except . . . things were greener in there.