Lucy's Wish by Anna Winter

Author:Anna Winter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Babelcube Inc.
Published: 2015-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“Isn’t it magnificent?” asked Pia next to me as she straightened her red pom-pom hat.

Brookings was barely recognizable. Countless strings of lights hung in trees and on houses, shining in the darkness. The town had transformed promptly at the beginning of Advent. Pia seemed to enjoy freezing better when it was on a winter’s evening with Christmas decorations around rather than on a cold wet fall day on a park bench.

As I stared at the glassy ice in front of me, my gaze was drawn away again and again by the sparkling lights. Countless skate blades had carved a pattern into the hard layer of ice. I’d always been fascinated by the milky opacity water took on when it froze. The ice was my personal Achilles’ heel. I used to love it so much, until it had all changed for me.

“Hmm,” I said without enthusiasm.

“Just look, all the pretty lights.” Pia sighed. “Oh, I wanted to ask – in the next few days we’re going to decorate the sorority house. Do you wanna come? You have such an eye for arty things.”

“Sure, let’s get started right now.” I would have loved an excuse to get out of this.

Pia poked me in the side. “C’mon, put your skates on and let’s go have some fun! You’re gonna love it, you’ll be so annoyed you missed out all these years.”

Hopefully she was right. I sat on the wooden bench at the edge of the rink with a pair of hire skates. When I pulled off my Eskimo boots, I felt naked, but when I slipped on the first ice skate, I felt vulnerable on top of that. Boy, this sure was starting off well.

Pia patted me on the back. “And the other one too.”

Braver knights had slain bigger dragons. I struggled with my ice skating trauma. Pensively, I ran my finger over the curved blade and tapped several times on the tip. Something exactly like this had gone into my stomach and it had hurt like hell. Like surgery without anesthetic.

Pia crouched down in front of me and took the skate. “Lift your foot.”

She smiled encouragingly at me. I let my foot slide into the second skate and she tied the laces. It felt like a too small cage. She struggled awkwardly up onto her skates and looked pleased. I slipped on my new gloves and pulled the zip of my jacket up to my chin. It was as if I were arming myself for battle.

A hundred feet away, the local brass band was playing ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’. The laughter and screams of children and couples on the ice mixed into it. A few handcraft stalls with homemade Christmas items lined the square and the smell of hotdogs emanated from the snack bar nearby.

Pia opened a door in the barrier for me and waved me on. I felt completely stiff and this time not from the cold. Like a newbie I clung to the barrier and, sweating with fear, headed onto the ice.

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