Christina ran like lightning to her bunk. Free time at last, she thought. Finally, out of that stuffy room and onto the sledding hill!
Christina 'Christie' Murray was spending a weekend at a church camp retreat. The theme of the weekend, 'New Evils,' was particularly boring. So the long sessions drove her and her friends nuts. They were slow, and never seemed to say anything except that the 90's are evil. Her friends and she were always anxious to get outside and go sledding.

The sledding hill at Camp Solomon was about a quarter of a mile long. Which meant a long walk back to the top. But it was worth it. During the first few days of winter camp, the campers would harden the snow into ice. And with the hill made out of almost solid ice, all the kids would literally fly down the hill. It was the highlight of any winter weekend.

Christie reached the bunk thirty seconds before her friends Juliet Capson and Shana Robinson did. She stood by the back door, panting and waiting for her friends. They came pattering up to the door and were not short of breath. Juliet opened the door for Christie, and they all went into Oak Cabin. Their room, number 7, was very close to the back door, and they didn't have far to go. Christie opened the door to their room and collapsed on her bottom bunk.

"Gee guys, nice race. Too bad I had to win," Christie said. Juliet climbed up to the top bunk and Shana sat down on her queen size bed across the room. She turned to close the curtains. She picked up her snow pants and tossed Christie and Juliet their pairs.

Juliet started to put her snow pants on. "Christie, you know very well that we can't run as fast as you. You ran track last year and came in 2nd. Juliet and I couldn't even get on the team. We expected to lose." She fastened the buckles and jumped off the bunk.

"Besides," Shana started, "you're much more eager to get to the hill than we are. That, and the fact that you want to see Kevin." Shana started laughing. Christie pouted and turned to the corner.

"Well, if you feel that way, then you don't have to come," Christie said haughtily. She chuckled and turned back around. "But, I could always tell Ryan about you two..." She giggled. Shana and Juliet turned white and muttered their apologies.
Christie had a major crush on a boy in her grade, Kevin Behnar. The two had known each other since preschool, and the two were good friends. Recently, Christie had come to like Kevin to the point that she thought she loved him. And she was a nervous wreck about it.

Shana and Juliet, on the other hand, were two years younger than Christie, and had their eyes on a younger boy. Ryan Sampson, a seventh grader in the middle school, was quite a looker. And Shana and Juliet looked at him a lot.
Christie zipped up her snow pants and threw on her band coat. She reached into the pockets and pulled out her gloves. Putting them on, she said, "Come on, guys, hurry up. We don't want to be late-the boys will be back to semi-normal by then." At that, her friends hurried up noticeably.

As a somewhat childish show of manliness, the boys at the camp usually started sledding with only boxers and boots on. Guys going down on sleds without their shirts on was a sight for any person to see. And the funny part was when they crash landed into a snow bank. Then, after about 15 minutes, they would get dressed so they didn't freeze.

Christie and her friends shot out the back door to grab their sleds. All bundled up with snow pants, coats, gloves, and boots, the girls ran across the icy ground to the sled run. They were only halfway there when they heard the kids yelling and screaming in fun.

They went over the peak of the hill and saw at least 40 kids and counselors there sledding. About 15 of them were there without shirts on. Among them being Kevin.

Christie stared. She hadn't really expected Kevin to be with the ones who froze their butts off. Kevin wasn't that type. He was more of the silent but funny type that everyone thinks is really weird. So, when Christie saw Kevin with his shirt off, she couldn't help but start to laugh.

Juliet and Shana were busy staring at Ryan. He had his shirt and his coat on, but he was sledding non-stop. He would sled down, jump the jump, wipe out, climb the hill, and start all over again. The thing that caught the girls' attention was him himself.
Christie placed her sled down on the ground next to Kevin. He looked down and smirked. Still giggling, Christie sat on her sled and aimed it. Her sled was the flimsy, roll-up kind. As she was aiming her sled, Kevin sneaked up behind her and pushed her from behind.

Totally taken off guard, Christie and her sled immediately turned around so that she was sledding down the hill backwards. She scowled at Kevin as she plummeted down the icy slope. She hit the first bump with a thud and landed. She suddenly realized that the second ramp was coming up, and that was the dangerous one. It sent you two feet into the air. Only the insane tried to make it.

Christie hit the ground after the second bump with a loud crash and skidded off her sled. It blew off a couple of feet, and she got up and ran after it. But, before she could get to it, she heard someone yell "Watch it!" and was hit by a runaway sled and driver. She fell to the ground hard and got up to see who it was.

Kevin picked himself off the ground and came over to Christie. Smirking, he picked up her sled and handed it to Christie. She promptly hit him with her fist and stomped off playfully. Kevin followed, with his kamikaze sled dragging behind him.

"You know, this sled is suicidal. That's it-the Super Suicidal Sled. It's dangerous," Kevin said. He laughed and looked over at Christie. The scowl was gone from her face. But that was mostly because at that moment, she was thinking about how much she wanted to tell him that she loved him.

"Yeah...the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session," Christie quoted from one of the books they had read in their Honors English class. Hearing her remark, Kevin chased her up the hill. They spent the next hour sledding non-stop.
At 4:30, the two friends wiped out at the bottom of the hill. Resting there, the two got into a discussion.
"Man, this really takes a lot out of you. I mean, I crashed into a telephone pole, into about ten snow banks, and you at least five times," Kevin said. He sounded slightly tired, but not exhausted.

"No, I think it must have been around ten times you crashed into me. Then I tried to crash into you, but I couldn't!" Christie complained. "The camp people are going to have to take a look at that telephone pole-you might have permanently damaged it," Christie cracked.

Kevin got up and started to chase her across the camp. Christie got up in time to start up the hill. Thinking that Kevin would stop, she looked back. He was still following her. She regained her grip on her sled and kept running. She could hear him laughing as he chased her. She was halfway into the woods when he caught up.

She tripped over a root and fell down. Kevin ran up to her and helped her up, then slapped her playfully on the shoulder. She giggled and started walking towards the boys' cabin. He jogged and caught up.

"Nice try, Christie. Want to go for a walk?" Kevin asked. She looked at him, then nodded her head. They changed their course and started an indirect route back to the sledding hill.

For about five minutes, the only sound was the crunch of the frozen ground under their feet and the scratch of the sleds over rocks. Kevin broke the silence by asking Christie a question.

"Christie...right now, what do you want to do more than anything in the world? Kill someone? Go sledding? Be back at home? What? You tell and I'll tell." The sincerity in his voice brought Christie out of her thoughts. Up until that point, she had been thinking about how nice it would be to kiss Kevin right there and then. When she heard his question, she panicked.

Thoughts ran through her head: should she lie? Should she tell the truth? Or should she just kiss him and run? She could do any of those, and she didn't know which. A vision of her kissing Kevin appeared in her mind. Kissing him seemed like a good idea-she just didn't know if she could do it.

"Well...um...well...I can't really tell you, I'd have to show you. But if I do, do you promise not to get mad or anything? Please?" she begged of him. She was totally nervous, and she wanted to make sure that they would still be friends if she got enough courage to go through with it.

"Of course I won't get mad...why would I?" said Kevin. At first, Christie thought that he sounded a bit nervous himself, but she decided that she was just imagining things. But what she didn't imagine was the kiss itself.

She quickly brought her face up and pressed her lips against his. At first, he seemed startled. But then he relaxed and started to return the kiss. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she put her arms around his neck. The kiss was long and powerful. The feeling of love was mutual, and both of them could tell.

Christie broke the kiss off by backing up. Scared, she grabbed her sled and ran towards the sledding hill. Thoughts were streaking through her mind: Omigod, I can't believe I just did that! What if anyone saw! Oh gosh, I have to get out of here!
Nearing the peak of the hill, she looked behind and saw Kevin running after her, with his sled scraping the ground. Even though the sled was slowing him down, he was catching up. Christie panicked again. Fighting through the crowd at the top of the hill, she jumped on her sled and rode.

The sled ride was fast and far. She flew past the bottom of the hill and kept going. She was afraid that she would fall into the creek below, but the fear passed when she jumped it. She whipped through the weeds sticking up from the snow, leaving a flattened trail behind her for anyone, especially Kevin, to follow.

She finally stopped next to the camp center. Thinking she was 'safe,' she collapsed on her sled to wait for dinnertime. But something came before that. Kevin.

He came barreling through the woods, and landed exactly next to her on the ground. Christie was too tired and too terrified to move, so she just sat there, gasping for air. She was scared, but she knew she had to face him eventually.

Kevin picked himself up from the crash and turned towards Christie. "Hey," he said. Not accusingly, or mean, but gentle and full of love. Just like a mother talking to a sick child who woke from a long nap.

Christie looked up at Kevin's adorable face and said, "You must hate me. I can't believe I did that! I was so stupid..." she rushed, with obvious hurt in her voice. Tears started to fill her eyes, and she looked down at the ground. She felt like she could melt away into the ground.

With a gentle hand, Kevin turned Christie's face back up. Then, quite suddenly, he brought his face down to hers and kissed her again. The kiss was long and relaxed, and both people surrendered to the love that sparked between them. It ended with Kevin pulling away carefully, leaving a heavenly expression on Christie's face.

She opened her eyes to see the loving face of Kevin looking at her. She smiled and hugged him. She stood up and brushed the snow off of her. Kevin followed, and the two walked off hand in hand, dragging their sleds behind them.
 

CandyCaneCar
February 1997
 

Back to the main page.