Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow (2 page)

A puff of smoke cut right through the snowflakes. In half a blink, I was behind Starwood Park, running beside the overhead train track. The train zoomed by!
Rápido!
But not as fast as my Zapato Power!

As I ran, my speed made so much heat that it pushed the curtain of snow away from me and dried up the ground. I went faster and faster, not feeling cold at all—not even my nose!

The train fell behind me, just like every other day with Zapato Power in my shoes. If someone needed a superhero, Freddie Ramos would be ready. But in the meantime, my guinea pig was waiting for me back at 29G.

When I opened the door, my guinea pig wasn’t the only one waiting.

“Freddie!” Mom frowned. “How come you didn’t come straight home after school?”

“Mom! How come you’re not at your office?”

“WHEET!” Claude the Second stood up in his cage and squealed. He didn’t care who was home first. He wanted his afternoon carrot.

“Everybody canceled because of the storm. We closed the office early.”

“So you get a snow day too!” I said.

Mom stopped frowning. “Sí, mi hijito.” She kissed my forehead. “Let’s have some hot cocoa.”

“Great idea!”

While Mom heated the milk, I took off my purple zapatos. They were as dry as a warm blanket. So were my socks. My friend Mr. Vaslov would be happy to hear this. Just because he invented my super shoes didn’t mean he knew everything about them. Inventions can do unexpected things. That’s why you have to test them. Lucky for me, Mr. Vaslov chose me to be the Zapato Power tester.

We drank our hot cocoa on the couch in front of the television news.

A weatherman was standing beside a snow-covered highway with a microphone.

“It’s a March blizzard,” he said. “Wind gusts of fifty miles per hour are expected as the storm drops almost a foot of snow.”

“A whole foot!” Mom put her hands on her cheeks. “And high winds! This sounds serious!”

I turned away from Mom to wink at Claude the Second, munching on his carrot. With Zapato Power, I could take care of us. But Mom didn’t know my superhero secret. Shoes with super speed and super bounce are the sort of thing moms think are dangerous. And a good superhero doesn’t upset his mom.

“Remember the jigsaw puzzle Uncle Jorge sent me for Christmas?” Mom said.

“The one called Snow Queen?” I asked. “With a thousand pieces?”

“Yes,” Mom answered. “This might be a good time to put it together.”

We settled down at the table with the puzzle. My job was to find all the straight edge pieces for the border. Mom sorted the different colors. That kept us busy until nine o’clock. In between, we ate dinner and watched the snow through the window. We could see it piling up on the ground under the sidewalk lamps. Sometimes it poured out of the sky in a steady stream. Other times, the wind roared like a speeding motorcycle, and snow blew around in crazy circles.

Just before I went to bed, we watched the news again. The reporter was still outside with his microphone, telling people to stay home. Some people do not listen to their own advice.

The next morning, I looked out the window and saw cars completely buried in snow. The street had disappeared beneath a white blanket. So had the sidewalks and the bushes.

“
Qué bonito.
” I whistled. “Wow!” Mom turned on the news. Every school in the city was closed. So were the government offices and most businesses. It was a snow day

“Hooray!” Mom bounced in her blue fuzzy slippers. She was still wearing her nightgown, and her long black hair wasn’t combed.

“What do you want to do?” I asked.

Mom yawned. “
Dormir.
Sleep.”

“Go back to bed, Mom!” I laughed. “Pretend it’s Saturday morning.”

While Mom took off her blue slippers and got under the covers, I put on my purple zapatos. There was a big white world outside I wanted to explore.

But first I had to open my front door. I pushed and pushed with my shoulder. Something was blocking me. It was snow!

“The wind made drifts of two feet in some places,” a voice behind me said. “People can’t get out of their houses.”

I looked back at the television.

The news reporter was talking about how this was the first time in five years we had a big snow in March.

“Get out and enjoy it, kids!” he said.

I opened the window for another way out. That’s when I saw a man in a red hat. It was Mr. Vaslov, my friend who takes care of Starwood Park. He waved a red mitten as he pulled a sled behind him.

“Climb out, Freddie,” he said.

Our apartment is on the first floor. With the snow so high, stepping out of the window was almost as easy as stepping out of a bathtub. Mr. Vaslov helped me onto his sled.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “To my tool shed,” Mr. Vaslov said. “I have a new invention to show you.”

Inside the tool shed, Mr. Vaslov moved some tools off his workbench and asked me to sit down.

“Here you go,” he said, snapping what looked like mini-sleds under my sneakers. “Zapato Snowshoes.”

“Cool!” I said. “What do they do?”

“Let’s go outside and see.” Mr.

Vaslov smiled.

Walking with the snowshoes wasn’t easy. I felt like a duck. “The snow is deep, Freddie,” Mr. Vaslov pointed around Starwood Park. “People can’t get around.”