Lookout Mountain at Tillyville

Tilly and the Avalanche

Tilly and his friends Skinny McKinney and Chocolate Rat took a skiing trip to the mountains. What fun, gliding down the slopes! Although in truth Skinny preferred riding the lift to the top, and Chocolate preferred sipping hot cocoa in Lookout Inn. For Tilly it was skiing pure and simple. The first day he did more than a dozen runs down every spectacular trail. The first night he dreamt of doing them all again. He was up bright and early the next morning. skis

Skinny found his friend at the base of the mountain a few moments after sunrise. Tilly was clapping.

"You really enjoyed yourself, didn't you?" Skinny said. "Is that why you're applauding the mountain?"

"I did enjoy myself," Tilly said, "but that's not why I'm clapping."

"Then why?" Skinny wanted to know. "To get the snow off your mittens? They look pretty clean to me."

"I'm trying to lure an avalanche," Tilly whispered to his friend. "All that fresh snow last night has made the mountain precarious. A good sharp clap—the sound could start the snow tumbling down the slopes. Then everything will be safe again."

"You're so resourceful," Skinny said. "But why isn't it working?"

"I don't know," Tilly said. "Maybe my clap is the wrong frequency." He looked sadly but intently up the mountain. Nothing but smoothly serene slopes of snow.

"Ah," said Skinny. "Ah, ah, ah, AH-CHOO!"

"Bless you," Tilly told his friend. "I hope you're not coming down with a cold."

"Mm," Skinny sniffled. "I don't know. But look. Up there. Something else is coming down."

Tilly looked up the mountain. It was true. It looked like an albino chia pet skiing down the mountain.

"Hm," Tilly said, turning to his friend. "It looks like ..." When he looked back up the mountain he didn't see the skiing chia pet. He saw a thousand skiing chia pets. Then ten thousand. A stampede of them. And they were all rushing right towards Tilly and Skinny.

"What do we do?" Skinny yelped. "We'll be buried!"

"I don't suppose you could sneeze again?" Tilly said. "Sometimes a second sound might stop them."

Skinny sniffled. He snuffled. He snortled. But he couldn't sneeze.

"Okay, then, hang on tight to me," Tilly told Skinny.

Skinny hung on. With a pop the weather balloon inflated. Up it went, lifting Tilly and Skinny above the avalanche, above the mountain.

"This is so neat!" Skinny said. "Only one thing—how do we get down?"

"Easy," Tilly said. "Just let go."

They let go. They plunged back to earth, plopping into a mound of softest snow.

"That was fun," Tilly said, dusting himself off. "Now we can do some nice safe skiing. What do you say?"

"Ha-choo!" Skinny said.

Story by Walter Galen
Mountain by Leila Colbrese
skis, mittens, and caps by Dave Dziedzic