But me? I was liking Lexie. With a laugh, she called back, "You're on!" She lowered herself onto the sled and turned to give me a wink over her shoulder as she announced, "We'resogonna win this!"
From the look in Lexie's eyes, she had no intention of winning.
But our sled had a mind of its own. It was fast –toofast for what she had in mind, and soon, we were hurtling toward victory.
I was riding in the rear with an arm around Lexie's waist. On impulse, I took my free hand and grazed the snow beside us, looking to slow our momentum enough to give the kids an edge.
My fingers had barely hit when the sled careened out of control, turning sideways and flipping both of us out onto the snowy hill. We began rolling downward, first together and then separately after I realized that the weight of my body might do Lexie more harm than good.
After a couple of rolls, I recovered my balance and slid the rest of the way mostly on my ass. But Lexie – she kept on rolling.
We reached the bottom long after our sled, which had miraculously righted itself before sliding to the foot of the hill without us.
A few feet away, Lexie was lying face down in the snow.She wasn't moving.I felt the blood drain from my face. "Lexie, you alright?"
In a choked voice, she replied, "I think I broke something."
"What?" I lunged closer. "Where?"
She rolled over and sat up. As she did, she removed the mitten from her right hand. I leaned toward her for a closer look.What was it? A hand? A finger? What?
My blood turned to ice.This was all my fault.
I'd hurt her. "What is it?" I urged. "Show me."
With her bare hand, she reached into the pocket of her ski jacket and pulled out a classic candy cane, wrapped in tight plastic. The cane was broken in half, with the curved portion dangling loose over the stem. With a little snicker, she said, "This!"
I stared at the candy cane for a long moment before my lips curved into a reluctant smile. But I still couldn’t laugh, not when I'd almost caused Lexie bodily harm.
Filled with regret, I moved closer to say, "Lexie, I'm really sorry."
She gave me a funny look. "For what?"
But already, the kids – who'd traveled a lot farther thanwehad – were racing toward us, dragging their sled behind them. The boy who'd challenged us was grinning ear-to-ear as he called out, "You totally crashed!"
Lexie laughed. "I guess you won, huh?"
With a little swagger, he said, "Got that right." Still grinning, he kept on going as his friends followed after him.
Lexie watched them go before turning back to me. With a little wince, she said, "Sorry about that."
"About what?"
"The crash." She bit her lip. "It wasn't the sled. It was um…me actually."
I shook my head. "You?"
"Yeah, I stuck my foot out – you know, into the snow – thinking it would slow us down. But…" She gave me a sheepish grin. "I guess I overdid it."
Nowthatwas funny. "Yeah, well, you weren’t the only one."
"What?"
"You did a foot." I gave her a sheepish grin of my own. "I did a hand."
She burst out laughing. "No way."
Soon, I was laughing, too. Already, I'd laughed more today than I had in years. And I knew why.
