THE WHITE MORNING ON RED ICE There's a world out there. Not like this one. I guess the first time you relate to it, it becomes part of your identity. This is how that world became part of mine: I heard on the news, one winter night, that there was going to be a blizzard and that it will snow like crazy. So the next morning I got up at 7:00, put all my snow gear on, and hit the trails. It was pure white out, no sign of there being grass. I lived on a mountain in Colorado. It was the best place for snow boarding or sledding. We had tons of hills. I started out with the most tiny first. As the day went on, I got cold and wanted to go inside but first I had to try the most dangerous hill. It led down to a frozen lake. I set my sled down at the tip top of the hill and down I went. I sled down at like 15 miles per hour and didn't stop. I was almost out of control, but still headed in the right direction. I sled far out onto the lake, when I reached the bottom. I jumped out of the sled and that's when I heard it... the sound of your heart beating, the sound of death, the sound of pure ice, the sound of a crack. CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK ...sinking CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK I was in the water and reached for the surface but couldn't. The only way I could find the hole, I went through, was to open my eyes. Would I be blind? Which was worse? Dead or being blind? I opened my eyes and saw that the water wasn't black, blue, or clear... but red. This was what flashed through my mind: RED RED RED RED RED BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD I reached my arms up to the surface and all I felt was ice. I had nothing left to offer. But still, I did find the hole and pulled myself up, surprised that it didn't break. I ran as fast I could to the shore. I hardly could move my joints, they were frozen. I just kept running. I told my family what had happened and they were shocked. They said that they believed me because I was covered in blood. My dad went out to look and came saying that the lake wasn't red. They stripped me and pushed me into a hot bath. Later they told me this: Before I was born, they had a baby boy, who did the same thing one morning and never came back from the ice. Contact me here: being_human@37.com Submitted From: Ethan Ramsi, CO, USA