Leaving Tracks Read Online Free PDF Page A

word from you, and everything could have been different.”
    “ I’m not going to complain now. I’m going to move forward, not stand still. Let me tell you what I’d like to do with this space and you can tell me if it’s doable.”

North
 
    S ince I had come back early, Wesley hadn’t had a completed list of items ready, so I excused myself to go clean up some before going over to Avala’s. She disliked dirt as much as Wesley. I did clean up some, but that hadn’t been my real purpose of closing myself in my room.
    I sat at my laptop and Googled Hadley’s name. I assumed if she had been an Olympic hopeful, there would be videos of her skating, possibly articles, or interviews. I hoped a little of all of it so I could scope her out. If she was what Wesley had implied, maybe I could talk her into teaching me to skate properly? Maybe she could help me reach the dream that seemed so elusive just this morning.
    I read the Wikipedia article first. It gave me the basics that I wanted. She was three months older than me, not really a big deal. She was so short I hadn’t thought her older. She’d been born in Minnesota, a Senior level figure skater–retired, figure skating coach–inactive and needed citation. She stopped skating after an accident involving her partner at the time, Hugh Brownstone, during a National Event in Boston. No mention as to what the accident actually was–like it was a forbidden topic.
    I found a few articles before the accident where she speaks about being her very best even at her worst. It sounded off when I thought about the woman sitting next to the lake. Other articles were after the accident and she spoke about physical therapy, not being able to skate any time in the future but wanting to pass her knowledge on to other skaters.
    I went back to Google and searched for the accident. There were articles and articles referring to the accident, but no video footage that I could find. If it had been a National event there would have been a videographer that much I knew so there had to be video somewhere.
    Ten minutes of frantic Google searching–frantic in case Wesley or Thierry made an appearance– I hit the jackpot with a fan site. I had to create an account and grudgingly pay the nominal fee of ten dollars for the video library privilege, but I got access to the video I wanted.
    From the start , I didn’t like the look of Hugh. There was something off about him; he didn’t look as serious or as focused as Hadley. He looked well, drugged, I realized, and tired, worn down even. He looked like all the movie portrayals of someone that was high on something or blank and in an institute for crazies. I wondered if Hadley had noticed.
    It was the pairs short program. Their first skate of the night. Hadley had skated earlier, according to the announcer in the women’s singles.
    It would have been a tight routine, I thought if Hadley’s partner wasn’t so off. He was behind the tick; almost as if he was waiting for Hadley to do it then he did it. Like he didn’t know the routine.
    Less than a minute in, during a lift, Hugh over b alanced and dropped Hadley. She was above him; not holding on because she was doing some kind of superman move. She flailed as she fell down in front of him.
    I had to force my self to watch her hit the ice head first with enough force that she rolled a few times. Her leg bent at an awkward angle–it broke against the unforgiving ice. Hugh tripped over Hadley’s prone body as his reaction time was somehow delayed, and his skates ran over Hadley’s broken leg as he fell to the ice.
    The ice was coated red as Hadley’s blood pumped out through the now severed–not just broken–leg. She didn’t scream or react, but the blood on her face indicated she could be knocked out from the landing. People ran out onto the ice, a few officials jumped the wall closest to the skaters. When the first person reached Hadley, the video ended.
    I sat back horrified at what I’d