The Cheese That Rolled the Wrong Way Down Cooper's Hill

The Double Gloucester cheese weighed four kilograms. It was round, hard, and orange. Every year, at the top of Cooper's Hill, someone rolled it down the steep slope. Fifty people ran after it. The first person to reach the bottom won the cheese.

Nora Briggs wanted to win. Her father, mother, and brother all had winning cheeses on a shelf in their kitchen. Nora was seventeen and very fast. She practiced every Saturday. She knew every bump and every tree on the hill.

The morning of the race was cold. Nora stood at the top. Then she saw Eddie Marsh. He was eighteen and very fast, too. Last year, he came second. He did not smile at Nora.

The race started. The master of ceremonies rolled the cheese. But it did not go straight. It hit a rock and bounced left into the long grass. This was not the usual path. Everyone ran in the wrong direction. Nora slipped in the mud. She looked up and saw Eddie. He was ahead. He ran easily because he knew this part of the hill.

Eddie reached the bottom first. He held the cheese over his head. Nora arrived three seconds later. She was tired and her knee hurt.

'Did you move that rock?' she asked Eddie quietly.

Eddie looked at the ground. 'Yes,' he said. 'I wasn't sure I could beat you on the normal path.'

Nora did not tell the crowd. She looked at her family and then back at Eddie. 'Next year,' she said, 'I will know both sides of the hill.'

That evening, Nora sat at her kitchen table. She did not have a new cheese, but she had a notebook. She drew a map of the whole hill. She would be back.