Curved Chute

I jogged two blocks over to the neighborhood playground and scaled the access ladder to the wide plastic slide. The bright yellow chute dropped in an open, sweeping curve toward a thick bed of cedar mulch. I dropped into a low crouch at the top lip, gripping the smooth rim with both gloved hands to calculate the descent angle. With a deliberate push off my cleats, I launched into the slope. Acceleration was immediate. I leaned hard into the banked turn, keeping my center of gravity low and shoulders square through the bend, then shot off the exit apron and landed clean in the wood chips.