by Nicholas Nikolov

Created on: January 13, 2009

I silently stood on top of the icy-snow capped peak located behind my schools portables, near the edge of the scarcely steep gigantic mountain; the front half of my black boots were hanging off the edge. My frigidly numb freezing frost-bitten bloody fingers; because during recess I was involved in a snowball fight which escalated into a fist fight; along with my hands, my face too felt the frozen winds piercing painful needles pricking me.

My squinting eyes were blurred by the dripping icicles teetering from the tips of my eyelashes; unable to view the bottom of this dangerous steep mountain, but I understood that the river that used to flow vigorously a short couple months ago, now the river is frozen and the trees hardly visible due to the snowstorm.

My arms painfully hurting from carrying the weight of my wonderful new wooden sled; I being terribly terrified of what hazardous possibilities that could occur when I plunge down the mountain, prevented me from immediately going through with it. That was until I decided to defeat the doubtful fears in my mind and placed my sled between my legs and sat down upon my sled; edge slightly closer to the edge as I began to count 1-2-3

Strangely, as I made the final push before the dissention, something, though I could not explain what it was, prevented me from sliding down the slippery icy steep mountain on the first attempt, so I tried again. And the second time was unsuccessful as well. So, the third try I told myself that I would for sure do it this time around; and wouldn't you know it, I suddenly found myself sliding down the mountain with immense speed as the sensation was utterly invigorating feeling the speed of my wooden sled shredding through the soft snow.

Unfastening control of the handles of my sled, while zooming down the mountain in a zigzag pattern of destruction brought danger to the lives not just my own, but for the other people there too as it was a chain reaction of harm: a black fury squirrel shredded through the white fluffy snow and tauntingly stood directly in front of my path; with its back toward me while nibbling on an acorn. Not wanting to hit the defenseless animal I swerved to the right, but I did not see the thick branch protruding from the ground, thereby causing me to flip over as I rolled down the mountain. I uncontrollably crashed into two innocent children. When we reached the bottom of the mountain, I apologized to the other kids as they cried in pain and ran to their parents; while my parents were worried as my mother shouted "Niki, Kak si be mamintse!"? And my dad came down to see how I was as my brother laughed at my pain.

"Mamo, I am fine!" I shouted while grudgingly climbed up the hill and continued playing with my brother and our friends. Considering the high-risk of breaking a bone or worse dieing that day on the hill, both of us and our friends persistently slid down the hill the rest of the day, until the sun was setting.

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