The blue toboggan

Original fiction extract.

Asha sat at the front of the blue toboggan with her boots lifted clear of the runners. Her older cousin settled behind her. From the top of the low slope, the bare tree at the bottom seemed comfortably distant. She had watched other people slide down and was certain she understood how long the journey would take.

The first movement was a small polite invitation. Then the snow began to run backwards on either side, a white carpet being pulled from beneath them. Asha’s breath caught halfway into a laugh. The tree grew with impossible speed, its thin branches opening like a hand which had suddenly remembered her. Beneath the runners, each bump became a quick message delivered through her knees. She could not decide whether to shout for less speed or more. The blue nose of the toboggan kept pointing ahead with an assurance she had not agreed to share.

They slowed on the level ground and stopped short of the tree. Her cousin asked whether she had enjoyed it. Asha put one boot down before answering. The hill behind them looked smaller than it had from the top. She began pulling the toboggan towards it, leaving a crooked line where the rope swung against the snow.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to convey Asha’s experience of the toboggan gathering speed.

Write about 200 to 250 words.