The Steel Ramp

Indoor walls couldn't hold me this afternoon. I pushed through the building's street door and marched down the sidewalk to the neighborhood park, where a towering play structure rose above the mulch. I scrambled up the ladder rungs to the top of the curved stainless-steel slide. Standing at the brink, I didn't just peer down—I sat back, tucked my talons forward, and hoisted my flaming tail high above the metal chute. One shove launched me. The polished steel was ice-slick, whipping me around the bend in a silver blur before I flared both wings wide to skid to a halt in the woodchips. Hmph. An exhilarating plunge. Gravity knows how to put on a race.