String of Fate

Chapter Sixty Four

I fell again, landing harshly on my side on the ice, the cold surface nearly cutting through my thick clothing. It was cold against my cheek, though. I felt someone glide over to me, stopping inches away from me – only really attainable with the smoothness of a pro. He bent down and held out a hand to help me up. When I was back upright, he held on to me until I was steady on my skates again. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you." I replied, trying to step back to put some distance between me and the professional. Lawrence let go of me and glided away easily. It was easy to tell that he had been skating since he was eight. Now, fifteen years later, he was a guy with an Olympic Gold Medal, and he was trying to teach me how to ice skate.

The current goal of my first lesson, which was today, was to follow him around the rink – which was not going that well. I had enough trouble trying to stay on my skates. I think I'd spent more time sideways on the ice rather than upright. Maybe it was too late to learn to ice skate.

Still, I watched as Lawrence easily glided around the ice with an immense amount of grace. I wanted to be able to skate like that. It always looked amazing. It was always something that I had wanted to do, but only now my parents had allowed me to. I shouldn't give up after half an hour of failure. I still had the rest of the lesson to go.

I headed in his direction again. This time, I wobbled a bit before making it a bit further but then I did fall again. Luckily, it was only the two of us who had the place to ourselves so I wasn't getting in anyone's way. I guess having your parents own the place had its perks. Well, when they actually allowed for you to practice ice skating after they had spent years seeing horrible ice skating accidents.

"Why didn't your parents teach you to skate when you were younger?" Lawrence asked me, skating alongside me with no effort – as if it was just like walking. A part of me hated the fact that he always made it look so easy. "After all, they do own the place."

"Well, they're more business-people than actual people-people. They only bought this place because it was going to close down anyway and this was where they had their first date. I don't even think they've put on a pair of skates since that time. I think because they've seen some horrible ice skating accidents over the years, they didn't want me to get hurt." I explained to him, wobbling a little but managing to stay upright. I was just trying to concentrate on going in a straight line. "The only reason they hired you was because I asked them to. Well, I didn't ask them to hire you specifically – I wanted a teacher and they asked you."

"Right. That makes sense." He said after a moment. Then, he reached out and grabbed my hand, stopping me. Then, he picked me up by the waist and turned me so I was facing a different direction. He took my hands and started pulling me again. "Let's try turning now."

An hour later, we had to leave for one of the normal coaches to come in with a group of students. They were roughly ten years old and would, hopefully, become professionals like Lawrence one day. It was where my parents made the money to keep the place open. Other uses of the rink were public openings, rare school trips, and the ice hockey trip. It was enough to keep this place open for them.

"Would you like to go and get something to eat? I know a wonderful little restaurant with lovely pasta dishes that isn't too far from here." Lawrence asked me as we were leaving the ice rink. I pulled my scarf tighter around me. I thought that I was still cold from the rink. I was starting to wonder if this winter was going to kill me. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

"That sounds like fun. Let's go." I answered, swinging my backpack onto my shoulder. We walked a few steps in silence. Then, I decided that I wanted to know more about Lawrence. I had a few good questions that I could ask him. Plus, I would be spending a bit of time with him over the next few weeks since he'd be teaching me to skate, so, it would probably be a good idea to get to know him. "So, what made you want to skate? You probably could have been anything but why did you choose ice skating?"