For Every Missing Shade

Entry 28

Emma woke me up in the early hours of the morning to request that I come back to bed with her and, furthermore, to never let her sleep alone again. I believe her exact words were, "if I ever wake up again and you're not next to me, I'll murder you." I obliged and laid with her until the reflection of the morning sun off of the snow woke us up.

once we got out of bed we found two sleds in one of the closets of the cabin and took them outside with our thick winter coats. It shocked me at first to see Emma so back to normal after basically passing out the night before. But, I wasn't going to try and stop her from being herself.

We decided to make a competition out of the sleds we found: race down to the bottom of the hill. Best of seven doesn't have to cook lunch. We set up our sleds on the mountain as Emma counted down from ten to start it off.

"... five, four, three, two-" she ended as she pushed off of the snow and down the hill before she said one.

"Hey, not fair!" I yelled out to her.

"One! Sorry, cancer perk!" she yelled back.

I rolled my eyes and pushed off of the hilltop with all my strength. I was naturally faster than Emma because I weighed more, but she was still in front of me quite a way.

I got out of my sled eventually and began running with it. It proved faster for a small while, but eventually my legs got tired of the unending amount of snow underneath them. I got back into my sled and closed in on her at the halfway mark. I tipped my snow cap at her and inched more and more ahead of her.

Right when I turned around, though, I felt all the wind get knocked out of me as I tumbled off of my sled. I looked up from the snow to see only Emma laughing and pointing at me from hers, still moving to the bottom of the hill.

I laid my head back down in the snow and looked at the bright blue sky above me. I watched my breath swirl out of my mouth in a white cloud.

A smile crossed my face.

I pulled myself back up into a sitting position to see her walking back up the hill, pumping one fist into the air.

"Easiest win I've ever had," she said, a smile shining through her wind-blown hair.

"If I knew that we were playing dirty it would've been no contest at all," I snapped back.

She helped me up and stood close. "I will stop at nothing to win, you should know that." She kissed me on the cheek and continued up the hill.

I clumsily picked up my sled and followed suit.

We got to the top of the hill and she began the counting again, this time starting slower.

"Ten...... nine...... eight..."

"Are you trying to wait for me to fall asleep or what?" I asked jokingly.

"Seven...... six...... five..."

"Ya know, I'll just go if you're going to be this slow."

"Threetwoone," she said in one breath as she threw a handful of snow into my face.

I wiped it off as I blindly ran down the hill after her. I jumped on the sled, not sure where I was headed as I wiped the wet snow out of my eyes. By the time I could see, I was headed in a perfect 45-degree diagonal from where I was supposed to go. Emma 2, Israel 0.

The next time we went, I went up behind her and pushed her hat over her head to secure the win. On the next hill, she pantsed me right when I was about to start running, and I won twice because I pushed her off of her sled. Tie match.