The Snowflake Collector

By FREI

"The snowflakes tumbling from the skies like clumsy, half-frozen bumble bees out of a freezer up in the cloud."

The Snowflake Collector is about a man who lives alone at the end of a valley and finds a way of creating something that turns out to be indescribably beautiful while giving him purpose.

It's one of several stories that will feature in EDEN by FREI – a concept narrative in the here and now about the where, the wherefore & forever.

EDEN sets out from the simple, oft-posed, question: what do you say or do if, halfway through your life, you happen to bump into your younger self? It then goes off on wildly tangential meanders of observation and ponderages on meaning before reaching any sort of conclusion. (Though it does reach some sort of conclusion...)

I will publish The Snowflake Collector here in instalments, as it materialises. To follow EDEN go to http://EDENbyFREI.net and use any of the options on the 'About' page.

Enjoy.

Here is a short video clip with an excerpt from The Snowflake Collector

 

  • 370 reads

The Snowflake Collector – 10: George

By FREI on Wed, 06 Jan 2016

How can I trap a snowflake and pat myself on the back, when I haven’t but caught it and barely scraped the surface of understanding what a snowflake truly is?
Other Fiction
Story
Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 1: Barely the End of October

By FREI on Thu, 29 Oct 2015

"The snowflakes tumbling from the skies like clumsy, half-frozen bumble bees out of a freezer up in the cloud."
Other Fiction
Story
Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 2: His Task Would Be Immense

By FREI on Fri, 30 Oct 2015

"What didn’t appeal to him was the thought of giving his snowflakes numbers. Numbers, he felt, when they are not being used for elegant thinking, are not poetic, certainly not poetic enough to record snowflakes."
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 3: 'I Need to Know How to Collect Snowflakes'

By FREI on Sat, 31 Oct 2015

He had never before given any thought to the possibility that he might one day determine to collect snowflakes and thus become The Snowflake Collector, but now that he had done so – as certain and as irrevocable as if it had been set in stone, and yet, of course, from a wider, much longer perspective, as transient too – he felt compelled to research the matter, in detail.
Other Fiction
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 4: And He Had Many Memories

By FREI on Tue, 03 Nov 2015

‘It’s really easy,’ Yanosh said after just a few minutes of such contemplative silence, during which, The Snowflake Collector noted with some delight, it had started gently snowing again outside already...
Other Fiction
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 5: He Had Abandoned the Notion of 'Hurry'

By FREI on Sun, 08 Nov 2015

His heart leapt at the sight, because he knew that this was the day, that the hour had come, that the convergence of all things leading up to now had finally made this Now possible, and real.
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 6: A Snowflake Not Unlike Him

By FREI on Sun, 15 Nov 2015

He put Ferdinand in his pocket and, still not having eaten anything, made his way down to the inn on the edge of the hamlet, an hour or so from his hut, and there introduced him – holding out his still unwashed, bloodied hand – to Yanosh.
Other Fiction
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 7: Every Day Brought New Gifts Now

By FREI on Fri, 27 Nov 2015

With nothing else occupying his mind and little else making demands on his time, he soon perfected his technique and sharpened his eye for the snowflakes that wanted to be part of his life now, did not reject his invitation.
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Certificate U
Cherry

The Snowflake Collector – 8: It Was, in Every Imaginable Sense, a Disaster

By FREI on Wed, 16 Dec 2015

Tears ran down The Snowflake Collector’s face and fell on the cold folded hands in his lap and he felt he was already dead.
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 9: So as Not to Chase Away its Wonder

By FREI on Fri, 25 Dec 2015

Most days, he barely made it onto the bench outside his hut, and since he had no appetite, he didn’t eat, and as he didn’t eat he grew gaunt, and the listlessness in his heart turned the skin that hung off his bones grey and painted his spirit all bleak.
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 11: He Was, Now More Than Ever, His Own Man

By FREI on Sat, 23 Jan 2016

And as The Snowflake Collector honed his technique, he became not only better at what he was doing, he slowly developed into an expert at snowflake collecting and beyond an expert he became a master at it; he began to understand these snowflakes as they spoke to him in their silent presence, and he learnt to absorb and to internalise their essence.
Other Fiction
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Certificate U

The Snowflake Collector – 12: There Was Nothing Now But the Snow

By FREI on Sat, 13 Feb 2016

He knew, The Snowflake Collector, that snowflakes had many dimensions – seven at least he could think of, but probably more – and he could see these dimensions clearly and distinctly in his mind’s eye even though he knew he would never be able to see them with his physical eye, nor represent them visually, nor show them to Yanosh, or anyone else.
Other Fiction
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Certificate U