The slide

It was an accident. I didn't mean to hurt him. Gulping I thought about the dire consequences for my actions from both my mother and Kym himself. It was an accident; it wasn't supposed to happen.

This wasn't how my day started l, I was woken up at the crack of dawn by my eager energetic brother fidgeting at the end of my bed. Kym impatiently shook me trying to wake me up quicker.

Playfully kicking him off the bed I groaned inwardly as I rose from my comfy pile of blankets. As I drew back the peacock blue curtains I took in the landscape before me. A thick blanket of snow covered everything in sight and the sky was a peaceful grey, no clouds to be seen. Softly strutting into the kitchen I grabbed an apple for breakfast; I didn't have long before people would start arriving.

About an hour later everyone was here, I escaped the tedious family gossip and crept out into the garden. The spacious, blooming garden was the one part of the house I relished. It was overgrown but that only made it more intriguing. There was a gazebo squatted in the far corner with ivy curling and climbing up its posts. In the winter it looked frail and frozen but in the summer it came alive in a riot of flowers and bees. A pond, the size of a blow-up paddling pool, was situated in the centre of the garden shadowed by an apple tree. It was covered by a thin fragile layer of ice but some how bright orange fish still thrived underneath. Spear like icicles hind menacingly over the murky pond from the great apple tree. The tree was bare but glistened due to frost blanketing it's trunk. A small stream ran along side the fence and splashed against the rounded pebbles which sat on the edge.

Kym and I decided to build a den using the faded blue slide, we began to drag the slide to the side of the pond. He held the snow-covered bottom and I held the steps. Suddenly I felt the urge to sneeze. I instinctively closed my eyes and used my hands to cover my nose and mouth. As a opened my eyes I realised I had let go of the slide!

As if in slow motion, it fell with a shattering force into Kym's wrist. I watched as his face crumpled in pain. He let out a scream, so deafening birds abandoned their nests and flew off at some pace. A single tear fell delicately down his rosey red cheek. Before I knew it everyone was outside clamouring to see what had happened. Paralysed in my own guilt, I stood, motionless, watching Kym's face drown in tears as they dripped off his chin.

Inside I went, scurrying along the narrow hallway to retrieve an ice pack for my brother. Once I returned to the scene of the accident my mother snatched the ice pack from my grasp and snarled. Sorrowfully, my mum told everyone to head home early and left, with out a word to me, to take Kym to A and E.

A few hours later I heard her keys jangling furiously as she entered the silent house. As I guiltily plodded down the stairs my heart beat violently out of mr chest. Mum's piercing blue eyes glared at me before she darted her gaze back to the dark green cast supporting Kym's wrist.

"I'm sorry" I whispered shamefully.

It was an accident; it wasn't supposed to happen. Did I really just break my brother's wrist?