Sam Malley ’25 - Blinded by Winter’s Innocence

“But what about my son?! That’s my son!” she yelled as the guard held her back on the train.

Another guard moved in and pried Zoey off of Max and shoved her into the car with his mom.

“Max!” she kept yelling between sobs as she tried to fight to get away from the car. “Max!”

“Zoey!” Max yelled as he still struggled against the guard. “Get off me!” he said as he yanked away from the guard, but the guard kept his grip tight on his shoulders. No matter how much Max struggled, the guard was unmoving.

The guards near the doors pushed Zoey and his mom into the car one last time before the doors closed, but that didn’t stop either of them from trying to get to Max. He heard his name through muffled shouts from Zoey and his mom, and Zoey was banging on the doors to open.

They were about to take off soon, and Max had to do something, anything, to get to them. He struggled harder to get out of the guard’s grip and it worked for a second, but then the guard held him back again by putting his arm around Max’s neck.

Suddenly, everything around him slowed and became muffled. The last thing he saw was their faces, their expressions, yet again. They both had tears streaming down their faces, and his mom held onto Zoey through a hug while Zoey was still banging on the doors for them to open.

And then they were gone.

The train sped past him and off to a much safer place than where he was now, and he watched it leave without him in disbelief.

He hadn’t felt the guard let go of him or slink away to wherever he was going off to. Nor did he notice the crowd behind him slowly dissipate with sad murmurs.

He felt his shoulders slump. His eyes widened as his mouth fell open, his bottom lip trembling. Tears rolled down his face as he scoffed in disbelief at what just happened. A million different thoughts started racing through his mind right then, but they all asked the same question.

Now what?

Blinded By Winter’s Innocence

by Sam Malley ’25

Making men of snow While the homeless freeze and cry Do the children know?