The Random Light

“Bloody random light!!” How was I supposed to know what it meant?” I cursed as I slammed through the double doors. The two police officers who had assisted me earlier wished me luck as I hastened away. Just moments earlier, I was buried in despair.

*The call had come whilst I was attending a two day conference on managing public estates. “Honey! It’s started!” How was it possible? Everything was looking fine and there was still another month to go! Eagerly I reached the Audi A5 to begin my journey.

My heart raced, and all thoughts were scrambled like eggs, as I exited the car park. Will he look like me? Will she look like me? Or will the child have its mother’s beauty? As I reached the car park barrier gate, my face straightened, as I suddenly wondered where the hell my parking token had vanished. Flushed, I felt around my pockets. “No, no, nooooo!” The sweat started to bead down my back as my hands returned back to each pocket I had previously searched. At last I found it, I slumped in my chair with relief, as I fumbled my token into the barrier before starting my eighty mile commute back to Oxford .

Images from the antenatal classes I'd attended flashed into my mind, like scenes from a horror movie, distorted into further gore, as I pictured my wife screaming in agony, alone. I drove faster and spurred my Audi on, like Ben Hurr on speed. I was twenty miles into the journey on the M4 when I recognised the light. It was low on the dashboard, and glowing red, I should have known by fact that it was red that it meant ‘death of car’.

My car fell silent apart from my tyres rolling on the tarmac and the wind which also was diminishing rapidly. The car behind was close to my car bumper, and flashing furiously which reminded me that as my car was stalled. Need to get out of the fast lane and onto the hard shoulder as quickly as possible.

After unsuccessfully trying to start the car I opened my car bonnet, and after looking, pacing, and looking and screaming, I finally crashed myself on the grass verge to drown in my fear and failure. Thankfully the police were passing and pulled over to check to see if whether I was in trouble.

And now, as I raced out of the hospital lift on the third floor, the thoughts of the nightmare journey were shunted far aside into insignificance for concerns for my family. “I am looking for my wife…. She's …. Labour… Mary…. Mary Merton?” The nurse understood my distress and calmly told me she was through the fourth door on the left.

I burst through the swinging door to see my wife, weary, sweaty, tired and smiling, with, what looked like an animated bundle of blankets, from which peered with eyes blue like Mary’s, the latest addition!

And the snow came down.

For a whole year it sat undisturbed in the garage like a relic from the winter before, sitting and waiting. And then the snow came down.

Alice (who preferred to call herself George), rushed downstairs that morning, flung the door wide open, breathed in the crispy cold air and regarded the virgin snow, untouched by humans, but littered with soft bird and cat prints. Yelling for her sisters, Alice quickly got herself dressed in her favourite woollies and put her coat on. “You’re not going out like that!” father said as he searched for gloves and hats. “Same for you two!” he said as he inspected the other two sisters attire, adding extra items to keep them dry and warm.

Alice rushed to the garage to get her special sledge. She had spent last year’s Christmas money on purchasing the ultimate sledge which she had christened “The Hawk”. Looks of envy came from her sisters as they collected their “butt boards”. Theirs were plastic and crude, with butt prints to sit on and a handle to hold, but The Hawk was a traditional sledge with metal runners, wooden body and a rope to either steer or hang onto for dear life.

 After a short walk the girls finally reached the bottom of the park and Alice’s eyes widened, a big smile stretched her face as she surveyed the scene before her. In the snow blanketed  park, kids were yelling and shouting as they propelled down the hill on anything they could find.

The girls made their way up the slopes as fast as they could to jump on their sledges, speed down and then do it all again.

It was before the fifth rundown that Alice got a wicked glint in her eye as she looked for ways to make sledging more thrilling.  “Look at that slope! Wicked! Let’s do it!” she exclaimed. Before her sister could yell “wait!”, Alice had launched herself head first on The Hawk.  The lack of tracks told her nobody had been down this side. Nobody was crazy enough. The wind whooshed past Alice’s ears as The Hawk quickly gained speed.”Wooo-hooo!”. Alice clung on, her eyes dripping wet tears from the cold wind. Then, “thhhhrack!!” the tree’s were closer together and fir branches were low enough to start hitting Alice.  She ducked her head as low as possible as branches snatched at her. There was no more whoops of joy as she battled to stay on. With her eyes closed and head down, Alice could not see the edge of the dead drop ahead of her. The branches cleared as the sledge jettisoned into the air and then tipped to a near vertical position. Down they fell until the slope evened out. A root stopped The Hawk dead in its tracks causing Alice to tumble head over heels in the thick snow. She sat, dizzy, frosted and cut from branches, but wore a grin. The Hawk really could fly!