Angie is five years old. She lives with her dad, mom, and Jack, her dog, on the west coast of Canada. Today, she woke up earlier than usual because it was Christmas day.
“Merry Christmas, Dad! Merry Christmas, Mom! Merry Christmas, Jack! I’m happy it’s a white Christmas! May I open the gift from Santa before breakfast?” Angie asked excitedly running down the stairs to the dining room.
“Let’s have breakfast first. It’s pancakes,” her mom said, hugging her.
“The gift won’t run away,” her dad said, winking at her.
“OK, if you say so,” reluctantly Angie agreed.
Glancing towards the Christmas tree in the living room, Angie started to eat the pancakes. Actually, they were very good with plenty of whipped cream and strawberries.
“Mom, these pancakes are really good!” Angie said through a big smile.
“Of course! They are Christmas special,” her mom smiled back.
When she was full with lots of pancakes, Angie dashed under the Christmas tree and found a big box with her name on it. Enthusiastically, Angie ripped the wrapping paper and opened the box.
“Wow! Cool!” Angie couldn’t help but shout.
It was a shiny new orange sled with built-in handles and a pull rope. It looked almost magical to Angie as it was so beautiful and sparkling.
“Why don’t we go and try it in the park?” Her dad said grinning with his sled under his arm.
“Sure! Let’s go! C’mon, Jack!” Angie jumped out of the house grabbing her new sled.
The park was a 10-minute-walk from home. Angie went there every day with Jack. It was a big park with two baseball fields, a playground for kids, and slopes. Today, the baseball fields were covered with snow and lots of kids, also adults, were playing snowball fights. Angie and her dad went towards the slopes followed by Jack. Some people were sledding already there.
“Let’s start here on the shortest slope,” her dad suggested, adding, “can you pull up your sled to the top of the slope by yourself?”
“Of course, I can.” They went up to the top of the slope. First, she got in the sled.
“Are you ready?——GO!” with a shout, her dad pushed the sled. It started to move slowly, and then picked up speed.
“Yahoooooo!!”
Feeling the wind on her face, she yelled with delight. Jack ran after her, then he fell on his buttocks and slid down next to her. What fun it was! When she got to the bottom of the slope, she was laughing out loud. Then her dad got closer to her with his sled and asked, “how was that? Did you like it?”
“Yeah! That’s fun! I’ll do it again!” saying that she went up to the top of the slope once again.
She sledded down over and over. When it got around noon, her dad said, “Shall we go home? It’s about lunchtime.”
“Well, I’d like to do the last sled on the longest slope. Can you wait for me at the bottom, Dad?” she replied and climbed up to the top of the longest slope. From there, she could see an estuary where some winter birds were floating.
“I’m coming!” Shouting, Angie started sloping down. How thrilling it was! The sled accelerated more and more. Then it passed by her dad and Jack, after that it was whirled up in the air.
“Oh my God, Angie!” her dad was startled. Angie didn’t understand what happened. She just felt like floating and falling. Then something caught up her sled’s pull rope. That was a trumpet swan! She was on a trumpet swan’s back flying over the estuary.
“Angieeeeeeeeeeeeee!” “Bow-wooooooooooow!” Under Angie, her dad and Jack were fading away.
Angie wasn’t scared by the thing that just happened, though. Actually, she was excited riding upon the wind with the swan. It was moving its wings gracefully, but sometimes it gave a jump to Angie with a sudden trumpet-like sound which was surprisingly loud. Once in a while, a flock of Canada geese got closer and flew parallel. At some point, the swan made a turn and flew over the residential area.
“Wow, that’s my kindergarten!” She saw some kids making a snowman. She recognized her friends and called them from above. When they saw her on the swan’s back, they were so surprised that their jaws dropped to the floor. Angie felt sorry for them not to come with her up there flying together.
Then, suddenly, Angie had a sinking feeling. The swan was going to land on the water. It was doing a bee line to the surface which was brightened with sunshine. As soon as the swan’s webbed feet touched the water sliding on the surface, the big splash blew up and the swan stopped as if it braked suddenly. With its rebound, Angie was thrown up again in the air.
When Angie opened her eyes, she was on her back on the lawn. She saw some faces peering down at her. They seemed familiar to her. Who were they? She wondered.
“Hey, Angie. What on earth are you doing here?” They were Nick and Libby, her cousins. So, she was in her auntie’s back yard!
“We were having a snowball fight when you fell out of nothing.” Nick said excitedly.
“Are you alright? Does anything hurt?” Libby asked anxiously.
“I think I’m OK.” Angie replied standing up.
“But, what happened?” They asked her in unison.
“Well, it’s a long story.”
“Angie! Guys! C’mon in and get some hot chocolate inside.” Her auntie called from her kitchen.
“Your dad called me saying you flew away towards this neighbourhood, so I was looking up if you would pass over here. I’m glad you landed safely,” her auntie said, putting a cup of hot chocolate in front of her. Angie took a sip of it. It was sweet enough to make her feel relaxed after all this excitement.
“Oh! Angie!” her dad burst into the room followed by Jack. “Are you OK? I’m so scared!”
“I’m so sorry, Dad, but I’m fine and it was a wonderful flight!” With that, she started to tell them her extraordinary adventure.
The end.