Time to Think
“Brr! It’s getting cold,” Jay said, “What time is it?”

“Umm, about 11:30” I replied.

“So we have about half an hour before the whole resort closes down, right?” He asked. I didn’t hear him because I was focused on scraping the ice off my goggles as we rode up the ski lift. “Carter?”

“Oh, yeah! Exactly half an hour” I said.

We were on vacation in Colorado. The rest of our families went shopping because they have gotten bored of skiing all day, every day for the past week. As we neared the top of the hill I stared off into the darkness of night and saw the very distant lights of the city over 30 miles away.

“God damn, we’re up high!” exclaimed Jay. “Doesn’t it suck that we have to go back home tomorrow?”

“Hell, yeah! I could live here and never get sick of it.” I said. “Let’s make the most of our last night. We should hit some jumps.”

“Agreed.” We got off the lift, put our bindings on our snowboards and went down the hill. This is a huge resort compared to what I’m used to. Ski lift rides are 15 minutes long compared to the 3 minute long rides back at my lame town. As we rode down the hill I couldn’t stop thinking about leaving tomorrow. I love it here. Snowboarding is my passion and I want to spend every second possible out on my board. We got to the bottom and went up a different ski lift. We decided to head to the back hills for our last ride.

“Maybe if we go really quickly we can get one more in!” said Jay.

“Alright! Race you to the bottom!” I yelled as I started off down the slope.

We got to the bottom and got on the next lift and started back up.

“We still have 5 minutes. They’ll let us go down once more, right?” I asked, “I mean they’re closing down for spring break so they should know we want to go as much as we can.”

“I sure hope so!” Jay replied.

As we started going down the hill I heard faint yelling. I turned around to see a lift manager wailing his arms and yelling at us, but couldn’t quite understand what he was trying to tell us. Hmm, must just be telling us to hurry up, I thought.

We took our time as we went down. Going side to side and savoring every last foot of snow. There was no one at the bottom. No other skiers no lift managers. I was beginning to get worried.

We got on the lift and made our way up. About half way up, it stopped.

Jay turned around, “Someone must’ve fallen trying to get on.”

“But there was no manager to stop it…” I said curiously. It hit us at the exact same time. We looked at each other. Our mouths open is disbelief. They closed down.

Soon enough all the lights shut off. Jay started to panic, “Oh my god! What do we do? What if they never find out we’re here?” he screamed.

“Jay, stop. No, stop it! Stressing out about it isn’t going to help us.” I put my hand on his shoulder and unsnapped my helmet. “Instead of freaking out, let’s make a plan to get off.” I suggested.

“Okay, you’re right. Umm, how far down do you think it is?”

“Uhh,” I took off my goggles, “50 feet? We’re not jumping if that’s what you were thinking.”

He sighed, “We’ll then what do we do?”

I thought. Then thought some more. Thought as I looked around. Thought of ever idea that came through my mind. I began to feel my eyelids close. As cold as it was, I was so tired that I was comfortable. I rested my head against the T-bar holding the chair and felt myself drift away.

I was swinging. On the swing set at my elementary school. There was Jay, swinging right next to me. How old was he? 7? He fell off, but never hit the ground. He kept falling, and falling, and …

I woke up, startled. Gasping, I looked over at Jay, thankful he was still next to me. I rested my head back and began thinking, again, how to get off. I felt my stomach rumble, wondering how long I could last up here if I was already this hungry.

“I’m gonna jump.” I turned, surprised he was up. He was looking down at the ground, his hands on the front of the seat. He knew I’d stop him. Before I could completely process what he had said, he pushed off. It seemed like he just kept falling. It felt like it took him 5 minutes until he finally hit the ground. I was still in disbelief when he landed. He landed on bent legs and quickly rolled forward into a somersault. He lay on his back. I couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or not.

“Jay?” I squinted, trying to get a better look. “Jay, answer me!” I yelled. I need to find a way down there, I told myself. Panicking, tears came to my eyes. I looked at the cable holding the chair. I could already feel the sharpness of the wires piercing my hands. I looked at the nearest pole to climb down. On the pole was a ladder that descended to the ground. I lifted myself off the chair. Feeling my gloves ripping, I started propelling myself forward. With each grasp of the cable, my gloves would tear. I kept my sight on the pole. On the ladder that would bring me to safety.

I cringed in pain as it pierced my skin. Ripping and tearing my flesh. Each clench hurt twice as bad as the previous. I squeezed my eyes shut and grunted as I could feel my own blood trickle down my arms. I’m almost there, I kept telling myself. I kept pushing and pushing. I started crying. I couldn’t help it, the pain was intolerable. Screaming, I reached the ladder. I wanted to take a break, but my legs were numb from hanging off the chair, so I couldn’t keep myself up. I had to climb down. Each step down my legs almost gave out. About halfway down, I lost my step. I grasped a bar but I let go because of the pain in my hands. The last thing I remember was falling. Looking up at the blue sky.

I awoke in an ambulance. I sat up quickly, looking around. Then cradled my head in pain. My mom was sitting beside me and immediately hugged me and cried. I continued looking around, “Where’s Jay?” I asked.

“He’s in a different ambulance”, she replied as she wiped away tears.

“What time is it?”

“About 10:00”.

“At night?” I asked.

“Yep!” I couldn’t believe it. I was out all day. We pulled into the hospital and as I put my hands on the bed to propel myself up, I felt the pain and looked down at the bloody bandages.

I had a mild concussion. The injuries on my hands would leave life-long scars and permanent nerve damage. Jay had a severe concussion (that put him in a contemporary coma) and both legs were broken. We both recovered and rehabbed and were able to play full contact sports by our junior year, we were freshman at the time being. I have now learned to rather be safe than sorry, and to not push limits to the point of where they question your safety.