What Was That Noise?

     "Shhhhh."  "Can you hear that noise?"  The sky was pitch black with just a sliver of the new moon visible.  The stars were sparkling overhead but it was barely enough light to see your hand in front of your face.  I had heard the sound while I walked over to the cabin where the kids were, a slight crinkle, trinkle, high-pitched sound. 

     "What is it mom?"  The kids waited for an answer and were amazed when they were told it was the sound of ice forming on the nearby lake.  "How can ice make that noise?"

     I answered the kids truthfully, "I have no idea, but isn’t it cool?"  I don’t think I have ever heard a more unique sound than what I heard that evening.  It was like a million little crystals being stirred ever so slightly in a delicate wine glass.  The music was beautiful and mysterious and I wished I had a recorder so I could share it with everyone. 

     I have heard the sounds of ice before, but never like this.  Usually the ice moans, burps, creaks, and cracks as it forms.  It will even sound like a shotgun going off. 

     On that magical evening the noise the ice was making gave me goosebumps on my skin.  I could only imagine how such a sound would be created, and as I drifted off to sleep I could picture millions of ice fairies fluttering above the water’s surface blowing cold, crystallized air from their mouths to form the ice below.