Carly Gets Chilled

Carly Gets Chilled

As far back as Carly could remember, she was irresistibly drawn to ice puddles.   It was impossible for her to walk past a puddle covered with ice and not jump on it.   No matter how often the ice would give way and fill her boot with frigid water, she would not stop playing in the puddles.   Her mother got angry with her every day when she came home with soaking wet feet and sloshy boots.   Carly can still remember the smell of those boots over the heat vent drying so she could wear them the next day.  Sometimes it was a damp boot that she had to wear.   She didn't mind.  She never learned to stay away.  Until one March day in 1972 when she was 13 years old.

Carly played viola in the school orchestra when she was in grade 6, 7, and 8.  In grade 8, she was chosen to be part of a stringed ensemble that practiced at the nearby high school.  None of her friends thought it was such a special honour, after all being in the orchestra was for nerds but, Carly felt special to be chosen.   Plus they got to leave school early on ensemble days to make the long walk to the high school.   

One day in March, Carly and a few of her musician friends headed out to ensemble practice.   Carly had an enormous crush on one of the boys, Shaun, who didn't even know she existed.   The other boy was Callum, who had been her friend since kindergarten.    She was happy that day, even though the wind was bitter and the sky was gray. She was with her friends and Shaun had joined them.  

"Let's take the short cut through the swamp!"  he said.   "We'll get there faster!"

It wasn't really a swamp Shaun was talking about .  It was more of a marsh.  The boys often went there and collected tadpoles and cattails to bring for show and tell.   The principal of the school often warned them to stay away from that area,  saying it was dangerous, and would be easy to get lost in.

"We're not supposed to go in there"  said Heather was probably the nerdiest of the nerds.  One of those kids that follows the rules and does everything she is told.

"Aw come on! "  said Shaun, scoffing at Heather  "What's so bad about cutting through there." 

"Well you do what you want, Shaun " said Elizabeth who was Heather's best friend.

"I'll go with you Shaun" said Callum.  "I don't want to go the long way, it's freezing out here.."  He looked at Carly.  "Are you coming?"   and he and Shaun started off.    

"Carly you better not, you'll get in trouble"  the girls said.   But Carly  wanted to go with the boys.  With Shaun.  And she knew Callum would tease her mercilessly if she didn't follow them.

"Wait up!"  she called and ran after them.

Carly and the boys made their way in to the bush laughing and joking and horsing around they way adolescents do.   Carly's heart soared every time Shaun spoke to her or laughed at her jokes.   Sometimes it even seemed that Callum and Shaun were competing for her attention.  She was having way more fun with them than she would have  had with Heather and Elizabeth who were no doubt talking about how much trouble the three of them were going to be in.  

As they got deeper in to the bush the ground became softer and there was deep thick mud all over the place.   It became treacherous walking through and their boots became caked with mud. Carrying her instrument  and a bag with her shoes in it, made the trek even more awkward.   At one point Carly wasn't sure Shaun knew the way through the marsh and worried they were going to be lost.   As they trudged through the muddy brush, her hair kept getting tangled in branches and she felt a tear in her jacket.   She was going to be in trouble for that.   And for the muddy boots.  But she dared not complain.  She would die before she would ever act girly or childish in front of a boy.  Especially a boy like Shaun.

Finally, just when Carly was starting to feel really panicky, they emerged from the bush and she could see the high school right across the road.   She was pretty sure it had not been any shorter to go the way they had, but it had been fun anyway....sort of.   Carly's boots were caked with mud, and she was a mess from her encounters with the bushes.   They came to a culvert with a steep embankment up to the road.  Carly tried in vain to clean the mud off her boots.  They boys seemed oblivious to their own dishevelled state.   

And then Carly noticed the culvert had a layer of ice over the water and a bit of water on top.   Her heart lifted.  She would be able to clean her boots in the culvert, they would be fine when she got home and her mother would never be the wiser.   The boys had jumped over the culvert and were on their way up the embankment.  

"C'mon Carly, we're going to be late!"  Callum yelled.

 

"I'm just going to clean my boots off.."  she said

And she stepped out onto the ice.   The ice that was her kryptonite.  The ice she could not have resisted even if her boots had not been muddy.  She sloshed her boots around a bit to get them clean and then it happened.   The ice broke and Carly found herself waist deep in the frigid water!  She screamed.  This was way worse than a soaker!   This was horrible!  She held her viola and her shoes up above her waist to keep it from the water.   To make matters worse she heard Shaun and Callum laughing at her predicament.  Shaun took off and Callum started after him.

"Callum!  I can't climb up!"  she shouted "Please help me!"   she had pulled herself out of the water and was shivering at the bottom of the embankment.   She saw Callum looking towards Shaun and then back at her.   To his credit, his compassion and their long standing friendship won out and he helped her up the embankment before running off laughing.   

In abject misery Carly trudged in to the high school.   She couldn't go home, it was much too far to walk, and she was afraid of the wrath of her mother.   She went in to the bathroom and dried herself off as best as she could, removing  her soaking wet leotards and putting on her shoes.   She had no choice but to walk in to her music class.   Everyone turned to stare at her and her face burned in humiliation.  The music teacher wrapped her in his coat.  And they got on with the lesson.  

When Carly's mother picked her up, she didn't say anything about Carly's ordeal.   She knew her daughter had learned a hard lesson about walking on ice.  After all there was nothing like public humiliation in front of your peers to drive a lesson home.