Eldridge 1

Joshua Eldridge
VanderSlik
English 100 - 15
9 September 2014
The Dark Ice
The sun is just beginning to fall down the horizon leaving behind no warmth for mankind
to cherish. The absence of warmth allows the cold, hard ground to freeze over with ease once
again and creates a hazardous zone for anyone who crosses its terrain. Its the middle of a
freezing winter and snow and ice cover the ground outside without letting any signs of
vegetation or life appear through its white cover. The temperature is dropping without the energy
of a blazing sun. The chill freezes anyone down to the bone if they dare walk outside and
challenge its power. Being the fool that I am, I become the one who does this exact act and
neglects the power of snow and ice combined.
It started with the notion of traveling over to my friends grandparents house with him.
We were bored out of our minds with nothing to do but sit around and watch television.
So want to go over to my grandparents house? he says.
I waited for a moment to determine whether or not getting up and going to his
grandparents house was better than sitting in that sunken, comfy chair. I decided that I had
nothing to lose by getting up and replied by saying, Why not?
As I stood up and walked over to the door to put my shoes on I yell out to Aaron, Hey!
Are we taking the car or walking over?
He pauses for a second and finally looks at me and says, Lets just take the car.

Eldridge 2
I decided to not wear any shoes because his grandparents house is right beside his house,
but little did I know that I would regret that decision later on. I walked out of the house into the
garage and felt the freezing concrete under my feet as I neared the car. I opened the door to the
car and got inside and off we went to their house. I couldnt feel the exact temperature of the air
outside because of the warm, comforting heat being produced inside the car, but looking outside
and seeing more than a foot of white, crystallized snow surrounding the driveway and a slight
layer of ice on top of that made me realize that it must indeed be freezing.
We arrived to the house and as I stepped out of the warm car I felt bone-chilling snow
and ice under my bare feet. I immediately ran to the front porch and waited for Aaron as he
slowly walked with his giant sandals. After knocking on the door, we walked inside and sat
down on the couch. For about an hour small talk and conversations were made between
everyone, along with the occasional joke here and there. Everything was welcoming inside the
house and the atmosphere made that hour spent there more fun and interesting than it would have
been sitting at Aarons house.
Even though we enjoyed visiting his grandparents, Aaron and I had to leave. But, I had a
childish idea and this idea would cause me to feel the numbing pain later on.
Hey Aaron, what would you do if I ran off with your sandals!? I asked him with a
crazed look in my eyes.
If you even think about touching those, you are dead to me. He said with irritation and
anger in his eyes.
Well you have to catch me then! I said as I booked it out the door with his oversized
sandals on my feet.

Eldridge 3
Just as I was about to reach for the car door handle, Aaron locks the doors with a press of
a button on his keychain, trapping me outside in the cold and freezing snow with just jeans and a
tshirt. He manages to get into the car without letting me inside and starts it up. I only had two
choices at that moment. My first choice was to do the smart thing and wait to see if he unlocks
the doors to let me in. My second choice was to hold onto the back of the car as he started
driving down the driveway. Of course I was foolish in my ways and chose the second choice.
The moment I grabbed onto the tailgate I knew I was doing something extremely stupid. The car
started accelerating and my body jerked as I tried to keep myself upright. The sandals under my
feet began sliding ruggedly across the sharp, spiky ice. Aaron began accelerating faster, making
it harder to hold onto the tailgate and keep the sandals on my feet. Unfortunately, after about 5
seconds into this crazy act I finally fell off. During that moment I knew that falling on that ice
would end terribly. I felt the sharp ice tear through my frozen skin as I hit the ground and the
snow adding its freezing numbness to that pain. I laid there thinking to myself, What have I
done? Realizing that I could either lay there in pain or walk back to Aarons warm house, I
decided to stand up, brush the snow off my clothes, and slip the sandals back onto my feet. I then
slowly limped back to the house wincing with every step I took.
Once I entered the house, I finally found all the cuts and bruises I had obtained through
the accident and saw blood coming from my toe. The cold had numbed my skin to the point
where I didnt even know I was bleeding. Never again will I make that mistake of being foolish
and challenging the the darkness with its icy grasp on the world.