There was great response to the first NHWP Monthly Writing Post Challenge. Thank you and congratulations to all who submitted. We are pleased to announce that member Michael J. Brien has won the February, 2021 Challenge for his entry, “Toro,” (which happens to be a snowblower brand – nice touch, Michael!). We are happy to share this submission with you.

Toro

by Michael J. Brien

She pulled up the blinds and saw that a light snow had fallen through the night and settled like Goose Down over the driveway. His car was gone. His words taken with him along with the stench of dirty socks and underwear. She stirred a spoonful of instant coffee into her mug and stared out the kitchen window, her eyes edging along the road as far as the intersection.

Rinsing the cup, she pulled on her jacket, boots and gloves and opened the door to the garage, stepping into the cold bay. He had taught her to use the snowblower last winter and she hated it and him, the way the wheels spun in the snow, or forgetting to aim the chute to blow the snow away from the house instead of at the windows, but she got the hang of it and soon the heft of it in her hands felt steady and good. The weight of something that she could push. She lifted the garage door, set the throttle, turned the key and began to walk forward with it realizing in the first taste of the windswept snow that she had finally walked away from him.