The wind stung my cheek as I stepped from the warm hallway of the dormitory. Frost had settled on the tips of the trees, not yet melted by the sunlight that would soon make its way over the four-story building. I sighed, equally melancholic for winter’s impending departure yet delighted as my breath puffed out like white smoke from an invisible pipe.

I caught movement from the corner of my vision and the librarian from the east library came into view, huddled inward with nose and chin buried in a red knit scarf.

“Hello Ms. Destin!” I waved both hands in the air, smiling as I hurried my steps toward her.

She mumbled a hello through the thick fabric and shrugged her shoulders in apology for the muffled speech.

I brushed my hand through the air in dismissal and smiled at her again. “Mind if I walk with you? I’m headed toward the library now, in fact.”

She nodded, eyes scrunching as she smiled from behind her cover.

We came upon the east library just as the sun reached the front steps, turning the cool-colored stone into a brilliant yellow. Coming this early to the library was my favorite. Hardly any other student was there and I often was able to finish my schoolwork by the time the wave of students came rolling in from the first round of classes beginning at 8 am.

I finished my research for my anthology paper before anyone else had made it to the library so I decided to peruse the shelves for another book. I had recently tried reading a book recommended to me by one of the girls living in my dormitory, but after the sixth use of the word, “throbbing,” I figured reading it a seventh wouldn’t improve the story overmuch.

I dragged my fingertips across the spines of the books as I passed through the nonfiction section towards the fantasy/science-fiction section. Each shelf was labeled with a different colored sign indicating the genre. After no luck in fantasy/sci-fi, I moved to the romance shelf where I found the same series from which the novel I’d been reading came. I chuckled to myself as the cover of each displayed a couple immersed waste-deep in water, one staring off toward whatever lay just beyond the spine while the other gazed longingly at the one half-dressed.

“While it might not be my cup of tea, it most certainly is someone else’s,” I silently reminded myself, putting the retrieved book back on the shelf. I finally made my way to the historical fiction section where I swiftly found dozens of novels I hadn’t yet read, but vowed to the moment I returned to my dorm.

I pushed past the crowd of students exiting their 8 am classes and walked toward my dorm hall as quickly as I could without running into anyone. I was about to open the front door of the dormitory when I noticed a patch of frost that had yet to melt below the front left window. The grass remained dark with moisture and I reached out instinctively, brushing the wetness with my finger before laying my palm flat against the dirt below. I felt the last bit of frost melt against my warm palm then stood up, staring at my glistening red hand. I had just destroyed winter’s final claim on the earth. What would I achieve tomorrow?