Ben, the snowman, was excited. It was that time of the year again. In a few minutes, he will be meeting his close friend, Ken, another snowman, after a long time, a year precisely. He kept scanning the horizon to spot any form that looked like his friend’s. He set his shawl right, adjusted his cap and made sure his pipe was in the right, jaunty angle. He kept looking around when he spotted a fallen branch that looked familiar. Recognition struck him as he noticed some kids throwing snowballs down the street. He remembered…

It was 3 years ago. Ben had met Ken just that year and they were going around in the night for a spot of fun. They couldn’t move during the day, as someone spotting them moving could cause their destruction. When everything was quiet in the night, and the fresh snow was bright, they met to exchange notes on the day and to talk late into the night. That night, they were just going around when Ken, dressed in an old shirt and shawl given to him by a kid down the street, with a cap set at a jaunty angle and the pipe to the left of his mouth, spotted the dead branch and suggested something to Ben, who was attired in a similar fashion, except that his pipe was to the right of his mouth. Ben nodded and took up the branch while Ken made up a huge pile of snowballs next to him. The rules were simple: A snowball disintegrating before it fell onto the ground or going into a house was out, a snowball hitting the trees was a run and it hitting the windows or the doors of the houses was a sixer, and you would get another chance at batting if you hit the dogs.

A slight breeze woke him up from the reverie and he looked around once again to see if his friend was anywhere close. He was slightly disappointed, but he decided to wait longer. After all, he had nothing to do. He brushed the snow off his front. He didn’t want his friend thinking he’s grown fatter this year!! The branch again…

To decide who was to throw and who was to bat, they tossed a coin which Ben found on the streets some time back. Ken had fought for the coin then, claiming it should belong to him as he spotted it first. Ben shut him up with “finders-keepers” and this irritated Ken a lot. Ben won the toss and elected to bat. Soon, snowballs were raining all over the neighborhood. Ben was a good batsnowman indeed!! He kept playing for a long time, when Ken packed a loose slush ball and let loose. Ben, with his usual ferocity, blasted it, only to find the snowball disintegrate within seconds. He was out!! He knew Ken had cheated, but he let go, as he had made a huge score and he wanted to throw too! He made a large pile of snowballs and started throwing them to Ken, who also was proving to be a worthy batsnowman. He got 8 dogs in a row, breaking the previous record set by Ben (of course!!).

The lights at the nearest house went off, when he realized it was very late indeed. Those people never slept before 11 PM and as it was festive season, it was sure to be later than that. He strained his eyes to catch any glimpse of another snowman, but to no avail. He wondered…

They played for a long time, setting new records and conferring awards and front pages of sports magazines on themselves. An abrupt movement stopped both of them, and they saw from the corner of their eyes an early jogger run toward them. He stopped close to Ben and lit up a cigarette. He smoked with great contentment and as he finished, flicked the burning tip onto Ben and went his way. Ben started to melt, as the heat from the cigarette end was too much to bear. It started burning a deep hole in his body. He shouted for help, only to see Ken rooted to his spot. “Give me the coin” Ken said, with an eerie smile on his face “And I shall help you”. Ben started losing a lot of water as another early jogger went by. He saw the cigarette and stamped on it, putting an end to it. Ben then limped over to Ken and said”I am very disappointed with you, my friend. I expected you to value our friendship more than this coin.” Ken apologized profusely saying, greed overshadowed his thought process and he will never ever behave that way again.

More snow started to fall and Ben got worked up trying to brush the snow off his front. The lights at the nearby houses were going off too. He searched…

Things were cold between them ever since, but they remained friends solely because of Ben’s untiring effort to rekindle their friendship. Ben still had the coin, and even though Ken tried asking for it nicely, Ben never parted with it. Ben never took the coin out when Ken was around as he saw that gleam of greed in Ken’s eyes as soon as he saw the coin.

“Ah, someone’s arriving” thought Ben,” wish this could be Ken.” As the figure came closer, Ben rejoiced on seeing his old friend’s form and shouted out to him. Ken looked at him, smiled and started crossing the road, when out of nowhere, a car dashed down the street, knocking Ken off his feet. The car didn’t even stop, leaving Ben dazed. He shook off all the confusion, and rushed across the street, only to see Ken losing water as fast as he had ever seen. He picked him up, packed some snow into Ken’s body to stem the bleeding and rushed to the hospital.

The doctor looked at the injury, drew some water and shouted to the nurse “2 pints 5 ppm water, Stat!!” The nurse shuffled back a few minutes later, reporting that 5 ppm water was unavailable. Ben, overhearing this, signed up saying his was the same water group and he was ready to give water. The doctor immediately tested him for ACDS (Acquired Chlorine Deficiency Syndrome) and MBL (Mosquito Breeding Levels). Ben was wheeled into the operation theatre, where they started transfusing water into Ken. The bleeding didn’t stem even after 2 pints’ supply of water. So, they started searching all over the city to find some more, but to no avail. Ben overheard the doctors and the nurses whispering that it was a lost case, and they left the room, one by one. Ben looked at Ken, who was going into a comatose. There was just one thing left for Ben to do. He started crying into the vessel leading to Ken’s IV lines.

The doctors came back, only to see an empty bed instead of Ben. They saw the vessel leading to Ken’s IV lines full of water. Within a few moments, Ken came around and looked around for Ben. He was shocked by the doctors’ recital of what happened and trembling, looked towards Ben’s bed. In sheets of bright white linen, amidst the folds lay a solitary, reddish-brown round coin.