Near Death By Ice

After a festive Xmas of a shivering breeze of winter, it was in the new year in the middle of January, as kids were still of school until the end of the month. On one silvery, shivery snowy day as the snow blanketed the lands far and wide chewing the underfoot of everyone around passing by on a frosty Sunday. At a local village nearby where a steep large hill was present, there was also a large grotesque pond about as wide size of a football field but rather shaped and sloped in one large, bizarre oval, the children accompanied by their parents along with other teenage socialising around friends, were enjoying sledging down the hill. At least groups of twenty or more people were already there, giving it a whirl and expecting the bumps and sprays of the white raindrops of the snowflakes sprayed side by side.

I was with a friend named Llyod, we were both so eager to trail down the track of the hill and wanted to zoom down so fast like skeleton sledders at the Olympics. Reckless I know, but we are both so competitive with each other as he beat me in the last few winters, and I was so determined to break the streak this time.

“You ready to be beaten again Joe?” he said so competitively with such cheek.

“Not this time” I joked back to Llyod, as we both prepared to mount our sledges just after there was enough space to mark our racing line positions downhill as soon as everyone else cleared out the way.

We knew how to sledge as we enjoyed it and only got the chance to do so every wintery season but was also a warning further downhill, where the huge pond was adjacent in front about fifteen yards away and how deep it was in about twelve feet in freezing conditions. The sign said to sledge down cautiously and stop in time before reaching the large pond. Everybody else did so cautiously with their children as other teens did so, but me and Llyod often felt we knew what we were doing as we went rather fast before but just managing to avoid be lured in by the slippery snow and ice rear view in front where the pond was. We would be fine; we’ve never swerved in the deep pond ever and it was all frozen up after all.

We prepared at the moment and then after the count of three, we sprinted down the slope, snowy brisk hill. We frankly skyrocketed down the hill of race car speeds surge through the snow as very few acknowledged how fast we glided quite worryingly as others simply ignored thinking we were typical teens showing of frantically.

Me and Llyod almost ignored the fact that how fast we sprinted downhill as we were both focused on beating each other and making sure we raced carefully down the track without bashing into any other sledders nearby.

At the very moment I was now in front, I felt like I was now going to beat Llyod with only seconds away, we paced on so fast that we did not even see or regard the frozen pond which now looked as though it was going to consume us like heading towards a low streamed, icy tsunami.

Llyod then forced himself to use both feet to press down to brake firmly skidding and sliding almost in a never end.

“Joe careful” he said with great raspy warning until he ended up rolling over the snow. Me however, I ended up skidding and sliding so fast without much time to think and so stubbornly eager to win the race, in a spilt second, I had to stamp my feet on the snow to brake so rigidly. I tried to press my feet down so flat and hard, I could feel the force and thrust reaching to the inside of my socks of brisky ice of the snow trying to give me frost bite to my heels. It was too late though I would now be swerving and sliding on the frozen icy pond.

All of a sudden, my sledge was surging through the icy pond that fast I was virtually canoeing across the pond, fearing the ice may break and that I would fall in to suffer drowning or hyperthermia. My heart began to pump faster as the feeling now tipped as it was in my mouth, with a trailing chill crawling through my blood veins now in panic mode. My face in a desperate, disturbing shellshock so alarmed I thought I was going to my death. Amazingly I was sledging along, the ice managed to stay affirm without and cracks to break and evolve as it was frozen solid almost like a glass, glacial, thin clear wall as I was beginning to slow down to reach the other side of the large frozen pond.

Until oddly and eccentric moment occurred as though the whole world paused in slow motion. “Is a dimension occurring in my surroundings? I thought to myself especially in the fact that I was still sliding and sledging towards the frozen pond. Even the sound and the atmosphere went into an uncomfortable silence strangely without conclusions.

The slow motion of all reality continued, as I noticed teenagers about my age along the thin ice of the pond. Some stood still looking and others sat on old sledges on top of the icy mirroring ground of the pond that uncommonly supported their weights without the frozen pond dragging them to the icy aqua hell.

Their appearances and facial expressions rather motionlessly as though they were lost or depressed, they seemed sad, unwanted, and afflicted from the world, they even seemed to be unnoticed. Strangely their appearances looked pale as everything else from behind them could be seen right in front of them to be so easily looked right through.

They appeared to be ghosts from my perspective in the moment whilst I was still sledging on the ice in slow motion as time may have been consuming everything else of the outside world. I then finally realised, these were once young people who were alive once before, they sledged on this hill sliding and skidding on the ice and then plummeted in the icy water of the pond, presumably drowned, or suffering from hyperthermia from the freezing water.

The most disturbing part was when they all began to lift their heads, now noticing me sliding along as they all gave me sad expressions of sorrow and regret, wishing that they never made the mistakes of their lives that took it from them over silly, irresponsible, reckless sledding of danger in towards the lake. I regret this now entirely, I should never have sledded down so fast, daringly, and irresponsibly making the same mistakes they did.

Until reality snapped back in giving a real good smack across the face and a kick up the backside, I now ended up sledging to the other side of the pond, nudging and bashing into the slushy thickness of the bouldering snow along with the slippery footpath pavement adjacent to the pond.

I escaped with minor bruises on my back and a slight scratch to my right leg, my friend Llyod came rushing to the other side of the lake to check I was ok, which I assured him.

In the aftermath I told him all about what I saw when sliding and sledding across, but he laughed it off and didn’t believe as nor did anyone else. At least now I learnt my lesson and knew better next time, what I saw with those ghostly teenagers who once did what I did across the pond freaked me out with much disturbance and left me with nightmares thereafter. I must have been lucky though, but I still felt haunted and uncheerful, like I never wanted to go sledging again on that hill with the pond, I never forgot either.