Dual Sled Experiment

Christa stood over the spread of paperwork that covered the family's kitchen table. Christa was a public relations representative for a chiropractic office in Carrollton and did all of her preparation work for her publicity workshops from the family home. The sound of the slamming back porch door pulled her attention away from the task at hand. She looked up as her youngest daughter walked in through the wooden door that separated the mud room from the kitchen. Kerry, now ten years of age, walked through the kitchen and down the basement stairs. She returned a minute or two later without the heavy outer layers of her wardrobe and greeted her mother. 

 “Whatcha doing, Mommy?”

“I'm just getting my stuff together for that workshop I have to do this weekend,” Christa responded cheerily. “Where is your brother at?”

“He's still outside,” Kerry responded. “He wasn't ready to come in yet, so I just left him.”

The children had been outside playing in the snow. The recent strip mining activity had cleared a new hill for their use just west of the farmhouse. The hill was fairly steep but not as steep or as big as the pasture hill they had avoided for several years since the incident with the log pile. It also provided the added convenience of being visible from the window over the kitchen sink, which was convenient for their mother's supervisory instincts. The kids had all gone sledding together, but one by one they had lost interest and gone their separate ways leaving Scott on the hill alone with five different sleds to choose from. Based on the way things looked from the kitchen, Scott didn't seem to mind. He rotated through the five sleds apparently testing them for performance and comfort, and enjoying the solitude and perspective of the snowy hillside. 

Christa stood at the kitchen sink watching her second son for a moment before returning to her work. Scot sat down on a green plastic sled and pushed off at the top of the hill. About halfway down the hill, the sled began to weave side to side until the young man lost control of it completely. The sled turned sideways and flipped, rolling the teenager down the hill until he slid to a stop in the white snow. He laid in the cold bed for a moment with his arms stretched out on both sides of his torso before rolling to his knees, collecting a sled, and making his way back up the hill. 

“What is he doing?” she questioned as he paused for a moment and grabbed a second sled.

“What are you talking about, mom?” Kerry inquired as she pushed one of the dining room chairs over to the counter. She climbed up on the chair and peered out the window next to her mother as she reached for a towel with which to dry the dishes in the drainer.

“Well,” her mother responded. “He's got another sled. What is he going to do with two sleds at once?”

“Maybe he wants to ride them down like skis,” Kerry responded with uncertainty.

“Don't you guys normally just do that with one sled?” Christa inquired of her youngest.

“Um,” Kerry paused. “Yeah, I guess we do.”

With that, the mother and daughter audience just waited to see what Scott had in mind. The teenager reached the top of the hill with both plastic sleds in tow. He staged the first one at the top of the sledding path. He sat on the green sled and picked up the orange sled. He laid down and held the orange sled over top of himself like a lid. Christa covered her mouth as she stifled her laughter of confusion and anticipation. The improvised sled capsule jerkily began it's descent. This run was somewhat similar to the last in that the sled began to swerve and weave as it gained speed. As was apparently expected, the sled flipped. At this moment, Christa and Kerry both realized the purpose of the top half of the sled pod. The teenager lost the green sled as he flipped, but instead of rolling down the hill as he had before, he found himself on the top of the orange sled. His descent continued, nearly uninterrupted. 

The mother/daughter audience burst into laughter as the teenage boy continued his trip down the snowy hill. However, it didn't take them long to realize there was a small flaw in Scott's plan. Now that he was riding what had originally been the top sled of his improvised sled pod, he was riding down the hill on his stomach and was facing the wrong way. Unfortunately for the young experimenter, he was unable to see where the sled was headed. Christa gasped as it dawned on her that her second son was flying directly towards a tire culvert at the bottom of the hill. (A tire culvert is actually made out of old tires that had been cut apart into two sidewalls and one tread. The tread had been tossed and the sidewalls had been stacked in four foot stacks and banded together creating a heavy, rubber tube that could be used as a culvert.)

The sled weaved and wobbled until it dumped it's passenger just before impact. Scott slammed feet first into the rubber culvert. He laid on his back for a moment and stood to his feet. Christa, having come to the conclusion that her son hadn't sustained any serious injury, threw her head back and joined her youngest daughter in full belly laughter. Her laughter only increased when she saw the exaggerated limp that Scott was employing as a sympathy device as he made his way slowly towards the house.

“Oh my goodness!” Christa gasped in between breaths. “That's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!”

Scott walked into the kitchen in search of sympathy for his supposed injuries and was greeted only with laughter.

“What are you guys laughing about?” he asked, his face twisted by his exaggerated pain.

“We just watched your little stunt with the sleds,” his mother responded as she wiped away tears of laughter. “That was hilarious.”

Scott realized that he wasn't going to find the sympathy that he was looking for, turned on his heel, and limped through the back porch door. He made his way to the crash site and collected all five of the sleds and turned back towards the house.

“Well,” he muttered through his teeth. “Guess I won't be trying that again.”