| It was the first day of the Christmas holidays and fresh snow was falling on the ground. The garden was covered in a blanket of sparkling snow. Pres Parsley and I could hardly wait to try out our toboggans. They were gifts we had received from last Christmas when there was no snow. We took them out of the garden shed to get them ready. They were still brand new and ready to race down the hill. Farmer Ben had built a new hill at the end of the garden path. The new, almost ready to harvest members of the garden, could hardly wait to try out their new toboggans and special sleds. Farmer Ben had made one for everyone. The day was clear and sparkling. In the air, we could hear the crispness of winter. It had been a while since Farmer Ben had seen enough snow in his garden to build the hill for the youngsters to play. He was even considering building the ice-skating rink for all of us in the back corner of the garden. The winter had started very cold this year. He’d had plenty of time. There was lots of snow to build his winter playground for all of us living in the garden. Pres and I, I being Porky Peach of the Fuzz family, had been eying the steep toboggan hill. “That’s the perfect spot,” Pres cried pointing at just the right place to try out our first ride. “That’s pretty steep alright Pres.” It was high up at the top of the hill. It was filled with bumps and dips and was the most daring spot to stop. “It looks like a Devil, we’ll call it Devils Slide, Okay?” asked Pres. All the other’s from the garden patch had all gathered around us while we contemplated our first daring trip. Herman Rutabaga, Juicy Apple, Red Tomato, Georgie Potato, Crunch Carrot and of course tagging along was Petunia Split Pea. None of us liked her; at least that’s what we said. Cause you know being boys well that’s what you said about girls. Petunia was the bravest girl in the whole garden. She dared everything and what made it worse was she usually beat every boy at everything we tried in the garden. She could play any games just as well and she could even arm wrestle Georgie to the ground with no trouble. We had just decided to take our first trip down the slope when Petunia said, “Hey, lets pair up and have a contest who gets down the slope fastest.” Well a challenge being a challenge and us thinking we were the best on the hill we gladly took up the gauntlet. The rules were laid down quickly. No holds barred and only two to a toboggan. The pairs were decided, Pres and I, Petunia and Crunch, Georgie and Red and Juicy and Herman. We all split up. Some were measuring and eying Devils Slide. Others had more common sense. We were waxing our toboggans and getting our scarves mitts and hats on in readiness for our adventure down the slope. “Farmer Ben will you be the judge and timer?” we asked. “Of course I will, for a cup of hot chocolate, that is.” “Everyone get ready now. On you marks…get set… Goooooooo.” Farmer Ben blasted off his cap gun and the race was on. Georgie and Red went first. They’d struggled to climb the slope to the top. They were almost out of breath when they finally reached it. They’d gotten their toboggan just in the right place and had almost settled down. We all watched with anticipation from the bottom of the hill. It looked like there was something wrong with their toboggan. But the only real problem seemed to be excess weight. Being Georgie was so plump. We all watched stunned as Georgie, on the back tried desperately to push them along with his feet. Finally, they got going but they seemed to go sideways and ended up making a wrong turn. They slid sideways all down the Baby’s Slope to the bottom. “Sorry boys, you ran out of time. You’re disqualified.” Said Farmer Ben trying his best not to laugh. Herman and Juicy were next. They’d arrived at the top of the hill as Georgie and Red were still sliding down the Baby Slope. They were perched on their toboggan. They were ready and raring to go at the sound of Farmer Ben’s cap gun. And off they went zipping and sliding past everyone trying to crawl up the hill. Our eyes got wider and wider the faster they went. All we could do was but wonder how we would beat these two with their speed in zipping down the hill. They had reached the bottom in no time and Farmer Brown announced the time of 38.9 seconds. Herman and Juicy were overjoyed with the remarkable feat of speed and could not contain themselves, running and clapping and jumping all over the garden patch. We were up next. We tried to plan our strategy while we walked up the hill. We thought we had waxed and practiced enough together that we could beat them, but they were not as big as us and we knew our size would make a difference. We both looked at each other as we got on the toboggan and slowly got ready to begin. Time seemed to take forever as we waited for the farmer’s gun to sound. We sort of just about lost control when it did finally sound and we were not even ready for it anyway. Ziiiiiiiiip off we went flying, both of us bending front wards as much as we could to gather speed. The snow blew in our faces, our eyes were covered with icicles and we could not even see where we were going, Up and down the bumps and hanging on for dear life we finally sped through the end of the course. We jumped off the toboggan and awaited the farmer’s announcement of the time. 38.6 seconds he bellowed and we went crazy with excitement and joy. We had done it, we had beaten the Devils Slide and we would be victorious. Unfortunately we had forgotten about Petunia and Crunch. They were at the top and waiting to go. They’d done just as much work and practicing as we had and we knew then that we could be beaten. Off went the gun and whoosh; off went the toboggan with the two aboard. We watched in amazement as they jumped over the bumps and flew through the air, both holding on and moving in unison with the toboggan. It seemed like a lifetime had passed by as we waited for them to hit the bottom and we thought surely that we had gone faster and with much more style of course. Petunia and Crunch had walked over to stand beside us and await the news from Farmer Ben. 38.5 seconds he bellowed. Petunia and Crunch had beaten us. We were the losers. They were jumping and hugging everyone in the garden and were heading for us with our sad downtrodden faces. Petunia had come over and given me a big hug. “Congratulations,” she said. “Maybe you will be first next time, but it was only a game and we had a lot of fun.” She smiled the biggest smile and kissed us both on the cheek, making us blush till we were both beet red and smiling the biggest grins in the garden. Farmer Bens wife had arrived with huge mugs of hot chocolate for all of us and we all sat down and laughed about how funny Georgie and Red looked going sideways down the Baby Slope. It was a great day for us and the next day we planned to have a hockey game on the ice rink, this winter was going to be the best one of all for the garden. 8/14/03© Jackie Berry |
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