I just had one of those chapters that practically wrote itself. I decided to be bold and share it with you. Please be aware that it is raw and completely unedited so please overlook any blunders. (I already found a couple just glancing through it.) It may come out quite differently in the final product but, it was fun to write and I hope that it is fun to read. Enjoy.
Oh yeah, if you aren't one of the few who have read the first book - spoiler alert!
Chapter
34 – On a Sled and a Prayer
Freezing air in my face. Snow blasted up from the front of the sled
and showered on me. Fingers, almost numb,
gripped the edge of the orange plastic.
Until… a lump on the hillside sent me airborne. What goes up must come down. I came down on my face.
Ten inches of snow prevented any
injury beyond the drastic lowering of the temperature of my skin. I picked myself up and ran after the sled
that continued down the hill.
I didn’t see her coming but I heard
her. “WATCH OUT!!” Hannah barreled by within two inches of my heels.
I fell back in the snow and only
just managed to get up and out of the way of Bill sliding out of control on his
little red plastic saucer. Neither Bill nor Hannah made it to the bottom of the
hill before wiping out. We were on one
of the big hills on my grandparent’s farm.
Bill had invited himself when I told him by text that morning that I was
going to go sledding on the farm. Mom had
brought us out in the cute ute, trying out the all-wheel drive for the first
time.
“You need to make a path for the
sleds to follow.” Grandpa shouted up
from the bottom of the hill with a snow shovel in hand. We walked down to him. “Trample down the snow where you want the
sleds to go. I’ll build up a snow bank
down here, so you don’t fly into the creek.”
“Your granddad’s pretty smart for
an old guy.”
“Who you callin’ old, Bill?” Grandpa tossed a snow ball at Bill. It hit him in the chest splattering snow into
his face.
“Oh, it’s on, old man.” Bill became a snow throwing machine, diving
for the ground and grabbing handful after handful of snow, crushing the snow
into a ball and throwing it in a single smooth motion.
Grandpa wasn’t as fast, but he had
strategy. He ducked behind a pile of
snow he had already started to build and lobbed snow bombs in Bill’s direction. Hannah joined forces with him and soon I was being
targeted too.
Something you should know about
Asperger’s is that it enables us to concentrate on something to the exclusion
of everything else. In moments, I was
strategizing how to decimate our “enemy.”
As inexperienced as I was at snowball fights, I soon had a winning
strategy as I moved to flank Hannah and Grandpa.
That focus that helps me sometimes
makes it hard to know when to stop. One
of my snowballs nailed Hannah right in the face. Most people would stop and let her
recover. My mind was in video game mode
and kicked up the action to win the battle.
Bad idea. After hitting her three
more times in the back of the head, Grandpa had to stand in front of her and
yell stop.
That triggered what hadn’t happened
to me since the attack. Defense
mode. I froze. You would think I would apologize but my mind
went into that horrible loop. Why did I do that? That was stupid. I can’t face them. I can’t.
I plopped back in the snow and started rocking, hiding my face in my icy
gloved hands. The world disappeared.
I’m not sure what the others did
during that time. I'm not even sure how
long I tuned out. When I looked out from
my gloves, Grandpa stood a couple feet in front of my talking to Bill and
Hannah. I think he was explaining my
reaction.
I snapped out of it pretty quickly
then. “I'm okay.” I got up and stepped around Grandpa to face
Hannah. “I, I’m sorry. I get…”
“You don’t need to apologize.” Hannah put her hand on my arm. “I understand. Or at least I want to understand.” She switched on a big grin. “I’m a tough chick. I can handle your… unique qualities.”
I stood there speechless. Could she actually understand? Even if she could, was it fair to her to have
to put up with that in me?
Before I could think to say
anything, she said, “Let’s get this sled run built.”
Stunned, I stood as Bill passed
close by me. “She’s a keeper,” he
whispered in my ear.
Yes, she was, but would I be able
to keep her?
I would end this chapter there, but I gotta tell you, that was some of the best sledding ever. Once we had the path made and run over a few
times, I swear we set some land speed records for sledding. We all came away freezing on the outside but
warm with joy on the inside. That was a
good thing since the next few weeks would be less than fun.
