Ill Fated Sledding Endeavor

The five Henning children trudged up the steep pasture hill just west of the sugar camp. They struggled against the steepness of the hill as well as the ten inches of snow. Twelve-year-old Caleb led the family as he pulled their orange, plastic sled up the hill. Scott and Luke walked on either side of their older brother as Kelsey and Kerry trailed slightly behind. They weren't making very good time, but they hoped the ride down the huge hill would be worth all the trouble. 

Sledding was the favorite winter activity of the Henning clan, followed closely by building snow forts and having snowball fights. However, the children had grown tired of the hill in front of the house. After some debate and discussion, the children had decided to look for a bigger and better hill. They hadn't been satisfied to settle for anything lees than the biggest hill on the farm. So, they found themselves trudging through ten inches of snow to the top of the biggest pasture hill on the entire farm. 

“Man,” Luke gasped. “This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.”

“I know what you mean,” Scott agreed. "It usually takes a lot less time to get to the top of this hill.”

“Well, we usually don't have a reason to climb this hill in the winter,” Caleb reminded his younger brothers. “We don't put the cows out to pasture when there's snow on the ground.”

“Hey,” Lizzy interrupted. “Can we take a little break?”

“Yeah,” Kelsey seconded. “I think we could all use a break.”

“Um, okay,” Caleb nodded as he turned around and sat in the snow.

The other children followed suit and caught their breath as they took in the view beneath them. They had nearly made it to the top of the hill, so the view was quite spectacular. They looked across the valley at the snow covered fields on the opposite side. The gray branches of a large oak tree stood out against the blue horizon as the trunk stood in contrast to the white field behind it. The fence posts of the adjacent pasture stood like sentries around the few wandering, Holstein cows who moseyed around the trees and the clumps of wild rose that spotted the pasture. The crick zig-zagged through the middle of the snowy ground, creating a blackish brown line dividing the pasture roughly in half. Their grandpa's gray barn stood in direct contrast to the blue sky behind it. 

A large, white house stood directly south of the barn. The red, steel roof was partially concealed with a white layer of snow. Every so often, a portion of the snow would slide off the roof, plummeting to the ground creating a plume of fluffy snowflakes that rose up from the ground. The children's grandparents lived in the house trailer right next door to the house, partially concealed by the bare branches of the trees in front. 

“Well,” Caleb ventured after a few moments. “My bottom is getting cold, so I think we should get to the top of this hill, and do this thing!”

A chorus of Yeahs and yes's sounded out as the children pushed themselves up from their frozen hillside thrones. It only took them a few minutes to reach the top of the hill. Caleb turned the sled towards the bottom of the hill and took his place on the front. His feet hung off the sides of the sled and prevented it from beginning it's downward journey prematurely. Scott sat directly behind his older brother. The other three kids followed suit, sitting down on the sled in order of age. Each child wrapped his or her arms around the midsection of the person in front as Caleb tightly gripped the nylon rope which was fastened to the front of the sled.

“Okie dokie,” Caleb announced with some apprehension. “Everybody ready?”

“Yup,” Scott responded as he felt his sister's grip on his chest tighten. “I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be.” 

“Well,” Kerry interrupted. “I'm not sure I'm ready. My bottom is half off.”

“Well,” Caleb replied with a smile. “I guess that means your on sale. Just hold on real tight and you'll be fine.” (Caleb couldn't take credit for this joke. His father had used it just a few days earlier at the dinner table.)

With that, Caleb picked up his feet and the sled slowly began to slide across the frozen tundra. The children quickly picked up speed as their orange rocket flew down the hill. The lightly falling snow brushed across their faces as snow from the ground flew across the front of the sled. The bumps under the snow jarred the children as their sled flew across the ground. Kerry let out a loud squeal about halfway down the hill as she lost her grip on her older brother and slipped off the back of the sled. 

“We lost Kerry!” Kelsey yelled across Scott.

“We'll go back for her when we're done!” Caleb replied. “I can't stop now! We're going too fast!”

The Children were in fact going too fast and they realized it just in time to notice a large pile of snow-covered, locust logs at the bottom of the hill.

“We're going to crash!” Scott yelled over the rushing wind. “We gotta try to steer this thing!”

Caleb and Scott shoved their left hands into the snow attempting to steer the sled, but found that the speed of the craft was too great for their efforts to have the desired effect. Realizing their trouble, they tried the other side to no avail. They each frantically shoved both gloved hands into the snow as they tried to slow their descent. They let their legs slide off the sides of the sled and dug their heels into the snow. This helped a little but then the sled began to twist to the left. The children were relieved until they realized that their trajectory was unchanged. They were going so fast that the reorientation of the sled didn't actually change their direction of travel. The orange death trap was simply sliding towards the log pile sideways.

Realizing that it was too late to stop the inevitable, the four remaining passengers leaned towards the high side of the hill and braced for impact. The sled slammed into the logs with considerable force. The collision threw their bodies against the snow-covered obstruction as they jostled against each other. The four children groaned as their youngest sister slid into them on her slippery snow pants. Everyone, including Kerry, who had experienced only a relatively soft impact against her older siblings, laid groaning in the soft snow. Snow fell softly from the sky, melting on their warm faces as the wind gently teased the strands of hair that had managed to escape from their warm, winter hats.

Eventually, the youngest rolled over on her hands and knees and pushed herself up to her feet.

“Maybe this hill was a bad idea,” she stated as she surveyed the erratic markings left in the snow by the sled. “Are you guys okay?” she finished as she turned to her older siblings.

Nobody answered right away. Luke, having found himself more or less on the top of the sibling heap, rolled off of his brothers and sister and gingerly rose to his feet.

“I guess I'm okay,” he confirmed with uncertainty. “I mostly just hit you guys.”

The remaining children started untangling themselves from each other. One by one, they apprehensively rose to their feet and checked themselves for injuries, each fully expecting to find any number of broken bones. None of them did. Other than what would develop into a few bruises, the children had made it through their ordeal unharmed. They stood at the bottom of the gigantic hill, dumbfounded at the favorability of their situation.

“So,” Caleb began as he took stock of the situation. “Nobody is hurt?”

“I guess not,” Scott replied as everyone in the improvised circle shrugged their shoulders. “Guess we got off pretty lucky this time.”

“I guess so,” Kelsey concurred. “Maybe we should just not try that again.”

All five daredevils nodded their heads in agreement as Scott bent down and grabbed the sled rope. The children silently made their way to the driveway and began the long trek back to the house. Eventually the stunned silence was broken by hopeful daydreams of hot chocolate and maybe a Christmas movie.

“So,” Caleb said, interrupting the beverage discussion. “What are we gonna tell Mom and Dad about what we did this afternoon?”