“What’s wrong, Sweetie?” asked Mom.

Becky didn’t move from her slumped position at the kitchen table. “I don’t know what to pick.”

“For what?”

“Miss Gable gave us a stupid assignment for art class.”

“But you love art class and you draw such pretty pictures. What’s the problem?”

“She wants us to draw something, but it has to have a pattern. The only thing I can think of is Tic-Tac-Toe, but I can’t hand that in. Even a baby could draw that.”

“How about if you take Chester out to play in the yard while I’m making dinner? I’ll help you think of some ideas after we eat.”

Becky put on her snow pants, boots, and jacket. “Here, Chester!” Chester came barreling into the room, nearly knocking Becky over. Becky steadied herself. “Out? You wanna go out, boy?”

Chester barked, then lunged at the door, his tail thumping repeatedly against Becky’s arm. “Okay, okay, let me get my gloves on.”

Chester wiggled his backside, pawed at the door, and whimpered. Becky reached for the doorknob and tried to pull it open. “Chester, move!” Chester barked, then pushed his snout through the narrow gap now present between the door and the frame. He forced the door open, scrambled down the stairs, then raced around the yard, leaping through the snow.

After making several snow angels, Becky began building a snowman. She never got past the base, because Chester kept crashing into it, smashing it into chunks of formed snow.

Chester zipped past Becky, knocking her to the ground. “Chester! Bad boy!” Chester was too busy snapping snowflakes out of the air to pay attention to Becky. When she saw what he was doing, she giggled. “Silly dog! Snowflakes aren’t food.”

Holding out her hands, she watched as the delicate snowflakes floated through the air and landed on her gloves. She wanted to get a good look at them, but they melted too quickly.

Becky clomped through the snow, up the stairs, and into the kitchen. “Mom, can I borrow your phone? I need to take a picture. I’ll bring it right back.”

After dinner, Mom cleared the table and handed Becky her sketchbook and pencil. “You want some help with your project now?”

“First, can I show you the snowflake pictures I took?”

Mom scrolled through the photos. “These are really pretty. What’s this one?”

“Oh, that’s Chester’s ear. He kept jumping on me.”

“Chester, bad boy!” said Mom. Chester looked up from his nap, then went back to dreaming about snowflakes and bacon.

“Are snowflakes patterns?” asked Becky.

Dad chimed in. “Actually, snowflakes are ice crystals, which, by definition, are patterns. You see, a drop of cold water in the air attaches to a particle of dust or pollen, which forms the primary crystal. As it falls to the ground, water vapor freezes onto it. That creates more crystals, which form the arms. Because the pattern is based on the molecular structure of the water, snowflakes always form in a six-armed pattern.”

Becky looked at Mom, bewildered. Mom smiled and said, “Yes, snowflakes are patterns.”

Becky fiddled with her pencil. “But Miss Gable said a pattern is one thing repeating. All the snowflakes I saw looked different.”

Dad picked up Mom’s phone. “That’s true. If you draw several of the snowflakes from your photos, then you won’t have a pattern because they’re not the same.” He pointed to one of the snowflake photos. “But each individual snowflake has a unique pattern. That’s because the atmospheric conditions affect all six of the arms as the snowflake falls. So, the crystals in each arm will be identical.”

Becky looked at Mom again. Dad laughed. “Sorry. What can I say? I like science. Anyway, if you draw only one snowflake, then you have a pattern that repeats across all six arms. That should work for your assignment.”

Becky spent the evening carefully sketching out an intricate six-armed snowflake. When she finished, she skipped into the living room. She held out her drawing and said, “Look!”

“That’s beautiful!” said Mom.

Dad took the sketch and studied it. “Excellent detail. Well done. Now you just need to give it a title and sign it.”

Becky thought for a few moments. “I know! I’ll call it Chester’s Favorite Snack!”

__________

Did you know? A Six-Armed Sketch won 1st Place in Level 2 of the FaithWriters’ Weekly Writing Challenge. It also placed 4th among the Editor’s Choice Winners (all levels).

__________

April Wenzel writes family-friendly fiction. She is a multi-story FaithWriters Challenge winner. Her readers often describe her work as sweet, intriguing, funny, and surprising. April firmly believes that her most valuable and joy-filled roles are wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. Read her full bio at aprilwenzel.com/about.

Copyright © 2025 by April Wenzel. All rights reserved.

No part of this story may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, places, events, and incidents in this book are the product of the author’s imagination.