My Little Blue Sled
Bundled like the pickle in a turkey and cheese sub…everything warm except my nose, I Pull my little blue sled behind me by the shoe string from daddy's old boots. I wear 4 pairs of socks…2 pairs on my feet and 2 pairs on my hands… which are substituting for my gloves, who must've made other plans today.
I keep my toboggan covered head lowered against the fresh morning snow and blinding,reflected sunbeams and lean into the steep, snow covered hill and climb to the top. I step into boot tracks of various size following the unwritten laws of the sledding hill. I Pack snow up to make a block to keep my sled in place as I gracelessly drop my bulk on top,with a whoosh of powdery snow. Large flakes begin to fall again,lazy and meandering here and there as they settle with their fellows on the ground. I watch one snowflake,intricate as lace and glinting “sos” signals to the sun. “Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!” I wonder if I can recall the signal…for my inevitable landing at the bottom of the hill.
Alright,time for the 7 seconds of adrenaline induced fun and fright , sandwiched between 10 minutes of the freezing,laboring climb and landing, before the dreaded climb back up the hill again.
I can feel the sweat I worked up in my trudge uphill beginning to evaporate and turn into a chill. Ready?! I rock forward,then backward, wiggle a bit too remove my block of snow….and…Whoooosh! Downhill i go in a dash,following the path made in the tightly packed snow by many similar trips. The frigid wind stings my red cheeks as mucus leaks out of my nose in the way of indifferent and unselfconscious children since time immemorial. When my teeth begin to ache from the cold wind I realize I am smiling,eyes closed,open mouthed and uncaring about the snot running across my face and into my mouth. Later, after I've had a warm bath and have clean dry pajamas on, my face and lips will be a rosy shade of red, shiny, chapped and sore. But for now…i am delightfully numb.
My stomach does a flip and my hat blows off before i hit the snow packed mound made by many small,mitten covered hands just for this purpose. Future architects, carpenters, and vehicle crash test engineers have begun their careers in just such a simple fashion.
My little blue sled smacks into the snow break and bounces off,coming to a stop. The world seems to freeze for that instant and I've never heard anything as silent again. Then the nervous,excited laughter breaks free!
When I go home,after hours in the cold and enough trips up and down the hill to travel to the north pole, after I've shucked of my snow pelted winter gear, now laying in a puddle of melted snow in the mud room, after easing my reddened and tingling body into the warm bath my mother drew, after my trip into the depths of the ocean in a submarine, after dressing in my dinosaur pajamas that have shrunk over the past two years so that a third of my bare legs poke from the pants, after savoring a bowl of chicken noodle soup made by the master chef, Mrs. Campbell,after brushing my teeth and climbing under the cozy quilt Aunt Kathy made for me with the green and white geometric shapes that make me dizzy when i look at them too long, after closing my eyes…I can still feel the flip my stomach performed and the wind on my face as i slid down the hill on my little blue sled.
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