Amaranthine

Chapter Ten

© Copyright 2011
All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.

Beguile: (bih-gahwl)

to charm or divert

to pass time pleasantly

 

Orion wasn’t at all diverted by the series of strange events. Oddly enough, it almost had the opposite effect as he took to doing just about everything with me: lunch, classes, after school, even rehab. It was okay. Having him there made me feel stronger somehow, and it was easy to forget about his temper tantrum and focus on happier things. Bruce took a leave of absence. His mother had a stroke and he stayed with her. Admirable, but it forced me to tolerate Julie’s borderline abuse. The day she took my crutches away and told me I could walk, Orion was ecstatic. “Can I take her skating?”

Julie paused before responding. “Well sure, I suppose you could. The exercise would be very good for her. You just need to watch her. Be careful, you can’t let her fall,” she said.

“I’d never let her fall.”

I shot them both a nasty scowl. “Excuse me, I’m right here.”

“And pretty soon you’ll be right at home on the ice,” Orion said, beaming.

As soon as that little idea had planted a seed inside his head, it blossomed into a full-on mission and, by Saturday, I was in an arena watching Alicia lace her skates up like a pro. “It’s gonna be so much fun!” She clapped her large wooly mitts together. I sat on the bench just outside the rink lacing up my skates with much less enthusiasm than she had.

“Tighter.” Orion observed. “You don’t want to hurt your ankles.”

Following his advice I tugged the laces taut. My feet were crammed into the skates. If I could stand in these, much less move, I deserved an award. Once he decided my skates were sufficient enough that my ankles wouldn’t snap, he offered his hand. Reluctantly I took it and stood. It was like trying to support the weight of an elephant on a butter knife and I wobbled.

“I can’t believe you’ve never skated before. You’re from Manitoba.” This fact amused him.

“I’m not a fan of the cold, Orion. That’s why I like motorized things that move fast through it,” I said, referring to my beloved snowmobile. “Otherwise, I’m an indoor girl.”

He laughed. “But you’re from Churchill, Manitoba. You’d have to move to the Arctic to get much colder than that.”

“Precisely why I don’t like cold. Just because you live somewhere cold doesn’t mean you have to like it or enjoy outdoor activities, like skating for example.” 

“Are we outside?”

I didn’t answer.

“Right. We’re at an indoor rink, which renders your argument invalid.”

“Skating is associated with ice. Ice is associated with cold, and cold is associated with outside.  I hate to rain on your parade, but your logic is disillusioned, and my fact outweighs yours.” I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him.

“You’re feeling feisty today, huh, Tiger? That’s good. Let’s go.”

I glanced over at the ice to see Alicia and Alex. Alex was talking to a tall brunette on the sidelines while his sister floated with incredible grace. If she could do it, I reasoned, it couldn’t be that hard. We hurried to the cut out on the side of the rink and Orion smoothly stepped down, turning to face me.