It came from the north, swirling down the country on a gentle wind, the first Ada had ever seen. Only once before in living memory had it snowed in that part of the country; the night of Ava’s birth. She knew the story well, her mother was fond of recounting it when she was in a nostalgic mood. Repetition had carved it into something fixed and immovable, her voice rising and falling in the same places, the order of the words unvarying, a song with no room for improvisation. “The first flake fell at the moment my waters broke, little sparrow, and by the time you came from between my legs the world was wrapped in a pale shroud. Everyone else in the village was outside, marvelling at the white flakes that swirled down from a heavy grey sky, blinking against the gale. You sobbed along with the wind for hours, little sparrow, and I despaired of ever taming the storm in your heart.” Later, after Ava married, her mother would add on a final line, “until Tomas tamed it for me.” Then laughter would rasp from her aged throat, scratching the air.
        But Ava did not feel tamed that morning, as she stood outside her house, face lifted to the sky, wind stirring the soft feathers of hair that lay against her cheeks. The snowflakes landed on her face, cool and gentle against her skin, melting into droplets of water that ran down her neck and inside her blouse. Her skin was cold, but she did not feel chilled. The wildness of the wind, pushing against her body, warmed her somehow. She stood out there for hours, still as a statue, the snow settling through her hair and in the folds of her clothing, until Tomas arrived home from work. He hurried her inside and put her in front of the fire, complaining about the lack of dinner, changing her clothes, towelling her hair, while she sat, unresisting. The wind had blown the steadiness from her heart and the slowness from her mind, but she could feel them creeping back with the warmth of the fire. The heat of their bed, later that night, suffocated her; as Tomas kneaded her flesh with his rough hands, his lips hot on her throat, her skin longed for the cool touch of the snow that whirled outside the window. Her hair lay in damp feathers against the back of her neck, and the wind sang to her all night long.
        The next day Ava waited for an hour after Tomas left for work, and then went out herself. The ground was softened with snow, the edges of everything blurred, a landscape of purity and perfection. She took a few steps through it. The sight of her black boots against the pale ground displeased her, and so she took them off and left them by the side of the path. It was cold, but exhilaratingly so, and the north wind was again blowing through her, trembling at her heart, setting her free. She walked down the lane behind their house, past the factory, past the school, past the supermarket. The white of the buildings looked dirty against the pale sky, heavy with snow. Flakes began to fall just as she reached the river. The flurries of white filled her vision, she could feel their movement catching at her limbs, trying to pull her into their dance. Spiralling, twisting, drifting, floating, she opened her mouth to catch them, tried to grab them with her hands. Her bare feet were deliciously cold, the skin on her face and hands seemed more alive than the rest of her, snow settling through the soft feathers of her hair. She began to take off her clothes, piece by piece, dropping them on the ground beside her where they were quickly covered. She had a sense of rightness, of belonging, a feeling of homecoming and at the same time of release. She wheeled and dipped and spun with the snow for hours, until she fell, exhausted, and even then it caught her in soft and white embrace, and lay a blanket over her, and covered her, and kept her safe.
        They didn’t find her until three days later, when the snows began to melt away. She was next to the swollen brown torrent of the river, a little heap of muddied limbs and feathers, bones jutting through her white skin, eyes staring straight up to the sky, a smile on her face.