Caitlin
January 3, 2005

Thin Ice

The fish instantly scattered as I felt my whole leg go through the ice. I wasn't up to my hips yet, but I could feel the cold penetrate and slowly numb my leg. I wasn't expecting to fall through the ice, but as I lay on the rocks with only my leg in the icy water, I thought it was stupid to have even tried to skate on it. I was panicking. I looked around the huge backyard…nobody was there. I thought to myself, "What will I do?"

I managed to pull the rest of my leg out of the ice and hobbled across the yard. Lumpy, smelly fish poop and green, slimy algae dripped off of my numb leg. I was struggling to pull my temporarily lame leg across the dewy grass, so I decided to call for Mom while resting on the rough bark of their pine tree. She came outside with the most horrifying expression on her face. Her mouth was hanging open her eyes bugging wide. But it wasn't all sympathy. I could almost see the steam streaming out of her ears.

When I got inside, she shook her quivering finger while my head hung low, ashamed. As I got into the warm bath, I watched the ice crumble off my leg, then hit the water and sizzle then vanish. Afterwards, I wrapped myself with a warm, fleece blanket as I recovered bit by bit from the cold and suspense. And to this day I have sworn to never step on thin ice again.