The Ashton Road Gang Chapter 1 January. part 2

Minutes later we were on our way.

The Leas were smashing, the snow icy and flat, the slopes steep long and exciting. Across the middle of the meadows in a deep gully was a stream. This flowed from its source somewhere the other side of a factory that made sulphuric acid down to the river. My other Grandad always said that when he was a little boy, hundreds of years ago the water was full of frogs and fish and things. Now the 'water' was a peculiar rusty yellow colour and the banks were encrusted with yellow powder. A yellow mist hung permanently over the gully. The best slopes led down to the edge of this gully. They levelled out giving one time to stop or turn.

"Race you down,” shouted Stew.

I won.

"Give us Ten yards start," ordered Noddy.

Reluctantly I agreed.

We were flying. I was rapidly overtaking Simon. The others were well behind or had fallen off. The finishing line was in sight. I flashed over it looking to the side to see where Simon was. He was half a yard behind.

"I won!" I crowed. In my excitement I completely forgot to stop or turn. Before I could do anything about it, I was over the edge and really flying. At this point the gully was about ten feet wide and five feet deep with the stream in the bottom. There was not time to even scream before the sledge and I began to fall.

Somehow, I managed to land on my feet in the stream. The sledge flew on to land in the yellow snow on the farther bank. For a full two minutes I stood in the foot deep liquid shaking my head in disbelief.

Simon's head appeared over the gully edge. "Here he is," he called, "In the stream." The rest of the gang lined the gully

"Are you OK?" asked Stew.

"Yeah, yeah, give me a hand out and the first one to laugh gets murdered."

"I'm not laughing," said Bob quickly.

"Well just don't, that's all."

They slid down and helped me get the sledge out taking great care not to go in the stream.

I had had enough "I am going home, you lot can do as you please."

It was about twenty minutes’ walk home. I put the sledge in the coal shed and went in.

"What on earth have you done to your clothes and your wellies? "Mum said. I looked down. There were little holes and some big ones all over my coat and my wellies were covered in yellow. I tried to explain but mothers have a habit of not listening when they are as angry as mine was. I had to have a bath and all my clothes went into the bin.

"That sledge can go back tomorrow and I never want to see it again". She said a lot more of it none of it very pleasant.

Next morning I trudged off to Uncle Joe's. He was in and listened to my story. When he stopped giggling, he said," Well, I suppose you Mum is right. Listen, leave it here and I'll overhaul. Keep quiet about it until your Mum forgets, then you can come and get it back, OK?"

"Thanks Uncle Joe."

It did not really matter. The following day the weather took a turn for the worse. It got warmer and rained. The snow turned to slush and disappeared. I did not care. I had lost interest in sledding.