I hear the car start up. Oh crap! I think. How can I skate faster than a car can drive? I call myself names. Stupid I think. Dummy. They are rite about you. You can not plan a head.
I look back over my sholder to see where the car is. And I start to laff. The ice is every where and the car is not going the way Bojan wants it to go. I watch it slide down the drive and across the road and into the ditch at the far side. The drippy nose guy has all ready slipped. He is lying on his back in the drive way.
Maybe I am smarter than I know.
My skates cut into the ice. I zoom along. The road bends to the rite and I follow the bend. I can not see the Newman place any more. There is lite in the sky to my left. And there are street lites every now and then. I pass another car in the ditch and then a truck in the ditch. No one is driving. I keep going. I can do this as long as I have to. I keep my eyes open for a place to stop and get help.
Skate skate skate.
The first place I pass has no lites on. Nether does the second. The places are far apart. There are fields in between. I am some where in the country. The third place is lit up but no one is home. I try the front door and the back but no one comes.
I wonder what I shuld do. The place has a clear patch of ice in the back with some snow piled up. I hop over the snow and skate across the open ice for something to do. I remember learning to skate. Dads arms around me. Mom telling him to let me go. Dad worrying about me falling. Mom saying so what every body falls.
My mom—tuff lady.
I get back on the road and keep skating. I pass another speed limit sine. It looks rong somehow. And then I come to a salt truck. It is resting by the side of the road. I am so happy. I skate up to the door and wave my hands. The driver rolls down his window.
Help he says. A surprise since I was going to ask him for help.
What?
Im stuck he says. And my sell phone is out of power. Do you have a sell phone kid?
I shake my head.
Sorry.
Well can you go home and tell your mom or dad to call in? This stupid wether is killing me. Im supposed to get 40 miles of hi way salted and I am stuck in the ditch.
Sorry I say again.
You got the rite idea he says. Skates. Wish I had em.
Yah I say.
Go home kid he says rolling up the window.
Skate rite home. Thats what I want to do.
This guy is not going to save me. I skate away. I keep going until I come to my first cross street. Still no cars or walkers. Or skaters. Theres a sine that says RICO CITY LIMIT with an arrow pointing the way but I cant see a city. Or even a house. I have never heard of Rico Ontario. Not even on the wether report from CBC that they listen to at Creekside witch is how I have herd of Red Lake Pickle Lake Kenora and Rainy River.
I turn left to follow the arrow. I can skate faster than I can run. I bend over and put my hands on my nees to go even faster. Nothing but woods and stars for a while. The next place I come to has a lite on the porch and a car in the drive. I skate up the walk and ring the bell. I hear it like a voice in a dream. Bing Bong. No 1 comes out.
I put up my hands to cup my face and look thru the window beside the door. I can see into the living room. And there is the woman who lives here. She is in her house.
Only problem—she seems to be dead. O wait no. She gets up.