Writing Samples

Short Stories by Jon Raasch


And, in the end, they became as abominable as the snowman they loved.

In the twelfth century a group of leftists broke away from the lax Icelandic church and formed their own religion. In the heart of Reykjavik they constructed a snowman idol measuring two stories in height. Its head was made from the snow on a rooftop, which was rolled and dropped very carefully onto the two other balls. They worshipped this craven icon, adorning it with a vast array of precious metals and gems. And it never melted, preserved perennially by the cold climate and its huge size, it could resist the mild Icelandic summers. Over the years the base was fortified, and new snowballs became new, taller heads atop the body that only grew. Buildings had to grow taller to drop snowballs higher and higher. The worshippers ran out of gold, so mines were expanded. Preparations were made to drop a final, supra-ultimate head. It would make the snowman taller than God. The snow was fresh on the new rooftop as they formed and rolled a ball to the roof's edge. They heaved, and it fell as planned, right onto the snowman's body. But they had miscalculated. The snowman's midsection buckled. The top collapsed, raining massive snowballs from miles above the city. They crushed the buildings and soon melted to flood and cover the entire island. The only survivors swam to a nearby island named Atlantis. They killed its occupants, renamed it Iceland, and never passed knowledge of the snowman to their children.

2004