A Day of Sledding
by jackwabbit

Author’s Note: Written For The Ancient Obsessions Advent Challenge – December 7 (sled)

Charlie didn’t just love baseball.

He loved hockey, too.

Baseball in summer, hockey in winter.

Of the two, winter was his preference.

Man, that kid could skate.

Would’ve been better than his old man.

Would’ve.

Yeah… more like should’ve… sometimes it’s like this.

Most of the time I can keep myself busy enough that I don’t notice it, but… there are times.

Now is one of those times.

I do this only a few times a year, if that.

But sometimes I just can’t help it.

The trunk creaks open and a musty odor escapes.

The contents haven’t changed since the last time I opened this.

A hockey stick meets my eyes first.  It’s a pee wee stick, broken cleanly in two.

I did that.

I used to do things like that a lot, when he first left us.

Now, it’s a rare day indeed that I lose my temper.

I move the pieces of the stick gently aside and slide my finger along the cold steel of a skate.

Little skates.  Just right for a ten year old boy.

Under the skates are pads, gloves, and jerseys.

All unused in far too long.

I should get rid of these things, but I can’t bear to part with them.

Sometimes, I just have to feel that a part of him is still with me, and this helps.

In some sick and demented way, refreshing my pain makes me feel better about his loss.  I can’t forget him if it still hurts to miss him, right?

Finally, in the bottom of the box, I find the book.

It’s a photo album.

Just a small one, designed to hold about thirty pictures.

It’s only half full.  Most of the photographs are of Charlie playing hockey or skating.  But one, near the back, is an exception.  I’ve never really looked at it closely before, but today it catches my eye.

Charlie’s on a sled.  I’m with him.  We’re both rosy-cheeked and look half frost-bitten, but we’re grinning from ear to ear.

I remember the day the picture was taken suddenly.

It had been a glorious afternoon spent on a hill near the house.  Charlie was eight, and for a day, so was I.

I feel the hot prick of tears begin in my eyes, but I do not cry.

I might have lost the battle with my emotions, however, if not for a loud knock at my front door.

It forcefully shoves me back to the present.

I sniff once and pull my feelings back to a comfortable place before tossing the book back in the truck and slamming the lid shut.

I wouldn’t normally appreciate this interruption, but it provides a suitable distraction from my mood for the moment, so I answer the door with a sense of gratitude.

A sense of gratitude that quickly morphs into amusement.

For as I yank open my door, I’m met by none other than Teal’c, dressed from head to toe in winter garb.

He’s got one of those Jaffa smiles on his face that lets me know I’m in for trouble.

“O’Neill.  I am glad you are at home this morning.”

“Yeah, T?  Why’s that?”

“I wish your help with something.”

Oh, this should be good.  “What’s that?”

Teal’c reaches forward to a spot I can’t see next to the door.  His hand returns with a bright red sled in its grasp.

“I wish to experience ‘sledding’, a sport I have read about on the internet.”

I don’t even want to know how T discovered sledding online, so I ignore that part of his sentence and focus on the part I can fix.

“Sledding isn’t a sport, Teal’c.”

“I believe it is, O’Neill.  Do they not have sled races and competitions in your Tau’ri Olympics?”

“Yeah, but that’s not that kind of sled, T.”

Teal’c’s brow furrows and I can tell he doesn’t understand.

Suddenly the memory of Charlie and I sledding comes rushing back to me like a tsunami.  I’m overwhelmed by the power of it, and it must show, because Teal’c looks concerned.

“Are you alright, O’Neill?”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak.

Teal’c nods back, then questions me about his interpretation of things.  “Am I incorrect in my understanding of the Tau’ri again, O’Neill?”

I nod again, then answer.  “Yeah… no… well, sorta.  They do have sled sports, but when most people talk about ‘sledding’, they don’t mean those.  They mean… well, it’s kinda difficult to explain.”

“Did I purchase the correct equipment?”

“Yeah.”

“Then perhaps you can show me what you mean?”

I look at T for a minute, trying to decide whether I’m too old to go sledding, or if they’re some other reason I shouldn’t do this.  A part of me doesn’t want to be disloyal to my recent thoughts of my son by doing this, but another part of me begins to grin mischievously, and that part finally wins out.

I remember how I felt sledding with Charlie, and I figure it’d be wrong of me not to share that joy with Teal’c.

Finally, I answer him.

“Yeah, I think I can do that.”

Fifteen minutes later, Teal’c and I are in the car driving a little park I remember that’s got great hills.

Thirty minutes after that, I witness a Jaffa let go of the constraints that hold us all in place and speed down a hill on a sled like a demon on speed.

His laugh rings out through the nearly empty park (it is a school day after all) and I join him.

I don’t know how long we played that day.

I only know we played.

And while things would catch up with me in the morning, I can honestly say that at least forty years fell away from me for one magical afternoon in the snow.

And a whole lot more than that fell off Teal’c.

The End