Daily story, December 19, 2024

Sometimes, halfway down the hill, when the sledge was still picking up speed and there was so far still to go, she felt that it would never stop. And then, one day, it didn’t. She went hurtling across the park, past snowmen and kids with chilly fingers, and out into the street. She flew between parked cars and garden fences and discarded Christmas trees. She shot out into the fields and over them, taking great jumps from hills, sheep parting at her approach. She skimmed over the ocean until she reached land again. Faster and faster and faster, until she could circle the Earth in a single night.