🛝 The Lion Slide

Oli and Craig sat on the wall outside Burgon’s News, the newsagents at the edge of Gildeen park, eating crisps. “You ever hear the story about the lion slide?” said Craig, through mouthfuls of Ready Salted.“Hasn’t everybody?” said Oli. “Used to freak me out. But then I grew up.”The lion slide in Gildeen park had become legend.The big fibreglass cat lounged atop a green metal tunnel with its four legs spread out over the edges. Its tail was the ladder and its giant pink tongue functioned as the slide, lolling out of its yawning mouth on to the soft playground surface below. It had seemed to appear overnight, replacing the traditional climbing frame and slide apparatus that dominated Gildeen Park for years. Everything else was the same: the elephant on the spring that cut your thigh when you sat on it, the roundabout that barely moved anymore, and the swings with chunks missing from the seats. But the lion looked out of place. Brand new. Shiny. Safe. Friendly. That was the scariest…