Behind The Snowman

Emily stood behind the huge, friendly plastic snowman beside the snowcone stand, peeping out from behind it at the gathered crowd with wide, frightened eyes. She hoped they hadn't spotted her.

A nerd in an anime T-shirt glanced her way. She ducked back behind the snowman, startled, and knocked on the side of the wooden snowcone stand. A hatch opened in the wall.

"Hey," said Tara, peering out. "You know I'm busy, right?"

"I know," said Emily, meekly. "I was just wondering, please, if it's not too much trouble, if my outfit might just possibly be ready yet."

"Oh," said Tara. "No."

"Um. How long do you think it might possibly take?"

The hatch slid shut again. Emily looked down at herself. She was beginning to feel just a tiny bit nervous. Of course, there was no way she could have kept all her icy clothes on. So she'd taken them off and given them to Tara, to dry out. But now she was beginning to wonder if that had been the very best idea in the whole entire world.

She looked up at the snowman. It was inflatable, bobbing back and forth in the breeze. She envied its big carefree smile. The snowman didn't have to worry about being naked. Anyway, he had a hat and a scarf. That was more than she had.

The hatch opened again.

"Here," said Tara, handing her a hose. Emily eyed it doubtfully. It looked like the syrup hose, only much bigger.

"What is it?" she said.

"Hold it for a moment. And don't let go of it, no matter what happens, okay?"

"Um, Tara," said Emily. "About my new outfit..."

"Emily," said Tara, severely, "I'm doing you a big, big favour, all right? The new outfit is great. It's my favourite outfit. Giving it to you means I can't go out dancing in it later. And going out dancing is my very favourite thing. So really, Emily, you should think about what your clumsiness is costing me. I have to miss out on dancing just because you can't stop getting ice in your clothes."

"Oh," said Emily, meekly. "I didn't realise. I'm so sorry."

"That's okay," said Tara. "We girls are all in this together. But it means you have to absolutely promise not to let go of the hose, okay?"

"I promise."

"Good," said Tara. "Hold it just like that, so it's pointing at your face, okay?"

"Okay."

Tara reached back and twisted a few nozzles. Instantly, the hose began to squirt pink syrup into Emily's waiting face. It bucked and writhed as the pressure increased, jerking in her hands, playing up and down her body. It squirted blue syrup all over her breasts, green syrup down her belly and purple syrup between her legs. By the time it finished squirting, she was completely covered from head to toe with sticky, sweet syrup in every possible flavour.

Wordlessly, she handed the hose back to Tara, who took it and disappeared from view. The hatch slammed shut again.

Emily looked down at herself.

She was stark naked, out in the open air and decorated with syrup. There were trees behind her, a snowcone stand next to her, and a snowman before her, shielding her from the crowd. She'd been in less awkward situations. There were butterflies in her stomach, reminding her just how close she was to all those teens waiting patiently outside.

Gosh. She was naked. She really was.

Still, as long as she had her snowman, there was nothing to worry about.

There was a bang. And the inflatable snowman popped like the huge balloon it was, exploding into a thousand pieces and vanishing completely from the world.

Emily looked over at the crowd. The crowd looked back at her.

"Eeeeeeeeeek!"