Whispers on the Ice Read Free Page A

celebrating Chanelle’s sixteenth birthday. Bob had agreed, under protest, to take Jordan to the party, preparing to simply drop her off and pick her up two hours later. However, upon meeting the amazingly physically mature and lovely Chanelle Watts, he decided to stay. That Chanelle was five foot eight and more curvaceous than a sixteen year old had a right to be didn’t seem to bother Bob. In fact, it seemed to Jordan, that he spent the better part of the evening ogling Chanelle’s breasts than actually talking to her. To make matters worse, Jordan teased him for two weeks after the party that he couldn’t tell her what color Chanelle’s eyes were when she finally managed to drag him away from the party. That she was right didn’t matter to Bob, because he couldn’t tell her what color eyes Chanelle had, but he had turned nasty and said he didn’t have time for such childish games or partners and to grow up or he’d find another partner. When she stated that she was only thirteen after all, he had threatened once again to quit partnering her if she couldn’t act older and at that moment she had learned a hard lesson in life. To blend in, you often had to lose part of yourself, but in the end, it would all be worth it, or so she believed. So at the age of thirteen, she turned into an old lady, meticulous in her manners, her speech, the way she always maintained her composure and that was when sports commentators began to notice her sudden maturity and dubbed her the ‘Ice Queen’.
    Jordan’s presence and skating matured to a degree where anyone who didn’t know her age assumed she was simply a very small woman; granted, missing the expected curves, but not everyone was full figured like Chanelle. All the music Jordan picked was serious, often melancholy, never requiring her to smile during a performance and thus allowing her to concentrate on her skating and landing the throws that Bob fiercely threw her into. Enduring his endless criticism of her abilities and how Chanelle could do this or that, never satisfying him in any way, but she never stopped trying.
    Now, her last four years work was dissolving before her eyes. All because her partner had found her lacking yet again somehow. He moved on to what he believed to be a perfect partner, abandoning Jordan, but not before digging the proverbial knife in one last time.
    “Where’s Dee?” Mindy asked, referring to Jordan’s coach and guardian, as she watched Jordan’s eyes cloud with conflicting emotions.
    Jordan appeared baffled by the question, shaking her head in confusion then suddenly remembering. “She had to run over final details for our costumes. She should be home by now,” Jordan suggested, glancing quickly at her watch; Ten forty-nine p.m..
    Mindy quickly dialed Jordan’s number, frowned at the busy signal and hung up. “Get your things—we’re out of here. Dee will know what to do,” Mindy hoped out-loud. Dee had been there when Jordan’s mother had died and her father hadn’t been able to face seeing his wife every time he looked at his daughter. It wasn’t that her father didn’t love her. He diligently sent little gifts and cards to her frequently. Still, he hadn’t been the same since her mother had died, seeming to want to slip silently away to join his wife, never thinking about what his behavior might do to an eight year old girl. He couldn’t deal with the burden of an eight-year old questioning why God took Mommy and why daddy seemed to be slipping away too. That was when Dee had volunteered to take guardianship of Jordan, already having known and coached her since she was five, and ready to answer any questions she might have about anything at anytime. It had been a blessing to both Jordan and Dee.
    “Yes, Dee,” Jordan agreed softly, still numb with confusion.
    * * * * *
    As Dee Carlen listened intently to the voice on the other end of the phone, astonishment and disbelief shifted across her features. One moment she