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Lawson
“I have a confession,” Holly said. “I am terrible at sledding.”
“What?” I laughed. “How can you be terrible at sledding? It’s literally just sitting on something and letting gravity do its work.”
“I have no balance,” she said mockingly defensively. “I fall down almost immediately. It usually means I am only out sledding for ten minutes before I am completely soaked and cold to the bone.”
“Ah well, at least you know I can warm you up.”
The smile on her face was the only response I needed. She turned away, a slight reddening of her cheeks a bit deeper than she could blame on the cold. We tromped through the snow a bit further, heading our way to the shed where I had seen sleds hidden away. The glass pane on the window of the door was frosted over already, but as soon as Holly unlocked it and I opened it up, they were sitting there as if they were on display.
“Did you do this?” she asked, looking at the ten or so heavy plastic sleds lying in the middle of the floor in front of the riding lawn mower.
“Nope,” I said. “They must have fallen off the rack over there. Look, some other stuff fell over here.”
I walked to the rack where I had seen them hanging and pushed it back into place. Some shovels had also fallen but had slid down the wall. I put everything back where it belonged and then grabbed the bottom sled’s rope and pulled. The whole stack came as one, and I grinned as I got them outside.
“We should leave these here for the rest of the guests,” Holly said.
“Except these two,” I said, pulling off the top ones. “Which one do you want? Blue or red?”
“Red,” she said, taking the rope and letting it fall behind her. “Matches my lipstick.”
“Very fashion-forward,” I joked. “Come on, the park isn’t that far. We can walk.”
We dragged the sleds behind us as we made our way into the town square. It was only a couple of blocks, and with traffic nonexistent, we could walk straight through the streets to get there without having to worry about crosswalks.
It felt like the whole town had come out to play. The gleeful shouts of children and adults alike filled the air. and the snow sitting on the tops of the peppermint-wrapped light poles looked festive and cheery. It was coming down still, but in soft, fluffy flakes, nothing that would make it hard to see or difficult to navigate in, but just enough to have that magical quality that only snow can provide.
Somewhere in the world there would be people grumbling about shoveling their driveways or how they had to dig their cars out from under the white stuff. Not in Snowflake Hollow. Everyone came out of their doors in hats and gloves, coats and boots, and carrying sleds, with a childlike ambition to build the greatest of all snowmen.
We walked along the bridge that led to the hill in the center of town, just behind the post office, where the concentration of happily screaming people was at its loudest. We continued walking a little past them until we reached an area of the hill where it was just us for a little while, with no worry of running over little ones or smacking into a tree.
“This looks good,” I said.
“I suppose so,” Holly said.
“Well, I have a confession to make to you, too. Since we’re on the whole truth kick.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I just so happen to be the world’s greatest sledder.”
With that, I tossed the sled down, flung myself onto it, and rode it all the way down. I could hear her surprised laughter above me, which only got louder when the plow of snow that I built up stopped me near the bottom of the hill and I found myself sitting in a mountain of the stuff. I turned back to her, a smile wide on my face, and waved.
“Come on down,” I said.
She shook her head, but I kept gesturing. Eventually, she put her sled down in the snow, just beside where mine had been, and sat down gingerly. Her sled moved about five feet and stopped. She looked up at me with a confused smile and shrugged. I sighed comically and started trudging up the hill.
“You should have gone in the groove I made,” I said when I reached her. “That’s the trick. I patted down that part of the snow for you.”
“Oh,” she said. “See, learning from the master.”
“You have much to learn, young padawan.”
“Star Wars?” she asked. “You are quoting Star Wars at me? Bold move there, Mr. Cool Guy.”
“And you recognized it, so which one of us is the nerd here?” I laughed.
“You are. I recognized it, but you actually let it come out of your mouth.”
“Fair,” I said. “Now you take a turn.”
Holly laid down her sled and looked up at me. It started to fall away from her, and she pulled it back by the string, having to turn it around again and set it down once more, putting her foot in it to stop it from sliding away.
“This seems unsafe,” she said.
“You’ll be fine,” I said. “Do you want me to go down with you?”
She looked down at the sled and then back up at me.
“You think we could both fit on this thing?”
“If you sit in my lap,” I said with a smile.
“Alright,” she said, smiling wide. “I can handle that.”
Laughing, I sat down on the sled, digging my heels in the snow to stop it from taking off on us, and motioned for her to sit down in front of me. As soon as she did, I pulled my legs in around hers and pushed my feet against the wooden front. We took off immediately to the terrified delight of Holly in front of me and the booming laughter coming from my own chest.
We crashed into the mountain of snow that I had kicked up earlier and kept going for several more feet. Tumbling off it, we were both covered in snow and laughing heavily. Holly landed in my arms, and we rolled twice before stopping and settling, her on top of me and my arms around her.
“There,” I said. “Not so bad.”
“Not too bad.” She nodded and leaned in for a kiss. “I am going to need a very warm bath after all this.”
“I have no problem with that. But we have a lot more sledding to do first.”
I hopped to my feet and held out my hand to help her up. She shook her head and took my hand, standing gingerly and grabbing the rope of the sled. I took it from her and helped drag it up the hill, Holly stomping footholds in the snow to keep from falling over and taking a header back down the hill.
As we got to the top of the hill, she decided to take a shot at going down on her own in the groove we had just made. As she zipped down the hill, her giggling howl made the entire experience that much sweeter. Not only was Holly getting into the spirit, she was actively enjoying herself in a way I had a suspicion she hadn’t done in a very long time. As soon as she was safely out of the groove, I sat down on my sled and followed down, gaining a new distance record for the both of us.
I jogged to catch up with her halfway up the hill and noticed a pack of wild children heading our way.
“Looks like our private spot isn’t going to be so private,” she said.
“Good,” I said. “Let the kids have the groove we made. It’s our job as adults to quite literally pave the path for the next generation.”
“Are you sure you are considered an adult?” she asked, sniggering.
“Not entirely. Quite proudly, too.”
“Well, I seemed to have done pretty well for myself on that last one. Why don’t we keep going and see if I can beat your distance?”
“You’re on,” I said.
For the next hour or so, we took turns flying down the hill, slowly moving to the side further and further as more children and young teens took up residence around us. We were nearly at the edge of the hill, where it bled out into the road that wound through it for the golf carts and brave souls who did those electric skateboard things. I knew we couldn’t move any further but was determined to get a little more time in the snow with Holly in before we called it a day.
“Alright,” I said, setting the sled down at the very edge of where I felt like we had a good hill. “We’ve done our service to the future of mankind. This is our spot. We will not be moved.”
Holly laughed.
“I think this is going to go poorly,” she said. “I’ve got more snow inside my boots than there is on the sled.”
“A few more runs,” I said. “Then hot cocoa and the next stop on the snowy wonderland tour.”
“Snowy wonderland tour? Is that a thing I need to buy a ticket for?”
“You already have one comped,” I said, grinning and sidling close to her. “You might know a guy.”
“Is this guy the same one who suggested sledding despite my clear warning that I was terrible at it,” she laughed.
“Maybe. The next thing might be more your speed, though.”
“What? This isn’t?” she asked and dove onto her sled.
It was my turn to laugh in surprise as she made it about halfway down the hill before tumbling head over heels and rolling the rest of the way down it. She stood up, looking around for a moment and then grabbing her hat. As she picked it up, a large clump of snow fell out. Defeated, she looked up at me and shrugged.
“Stay there,” I said. “I’m coming down.”
I hopped onto my sled and went down after her, passing her and heading deep into the park. I could have done something like that much earlier, but I was saving it for now. I wanted to see her face on the last run of the day when I blew far past our record distance.
When the sled stopped, I waited there for a moment and then turned around. Holly was shaking her head and marching toward me, her hat still in her hand and the sled behind her. I stood and waited on her to join me. When she finally got to me, she reached up, kissed me, and removed my hat in one movement. I barely had time to make a sound of surprise when she stuffed her own hat on top of my head, snow cascading down the sides of my face.
“Alright,” I said. “I might have deserved that.”
“So what’s next on the snowy wonderland tour?” she asked cheerfully, as if she hadn’t just stuffed a ton of snow onto my head.
“I thought we might do something a bit gentler. How are you at ice-skating?”
“I can’t be any worse than this,” she said. “Come on. You promised me hot cocoa. We can drop the sleds off at the house and I can change clothes before we go back out.”
“After you,” I said.
We headed back to the bed-and-breakfast, and Holly dipped inside her room while I warmed myself by the fire. I didn’t want to change, mostly because I didn’t want to get out of the clothes I was in for fear that I wouldn’t want to go back out again. But when Holly came down in new clothes and looking festive, I couldn’t bear not to be excited to go out with her again.
