Chapter 6: Power Skating

"You can't skate," I said.

"I can skate. I can't play." Beau sat down on the bench and started unlacing his sneakers. "Different thing. Ask my orthopedist."

"Beau. Dane is your captain. If the team finds out you're here..."

"It's a public rink on a Saturday." He pulled on one cracked skate. "I'm a member of the public."

"You're a member of the coaching staff."

"Not on Saturdays." He looked up at me. "Brecken. Do you want help or not?"

The kids were all staring at him over the boards.

A boy in a too-big helmet whispered, "That's a real coach. From TV."

I swallowed.

"Yes," I said. "I want help."

"Then go get me some pucks. And find out which of these monsters can skate backward."

The answer was none of them.

By nine-thirty, six of them could.

He didn't move fast.

His left leg stayed stiff, and he pushed off mostly with his right, and every so often I saw his jaw tighten.

He never stopped talking, though.

"Knees bent. Like you're sitting in a chair. A tiny invisible chair."

"I can't see it!"

"That's what invisible means, chief. Sit in it anyway."

The girl in the pink helmet asked him if he'd ever been in a real fight.

"Once. I lost."

"To who?"

"A Zamboni. Very aggressive Zamboni. It's in jail now."

She screamed laughing and fell over.

He picked her up by the back of her jersey and set her back on her feet.

I stood at center ice holding a bucket of pucks and forgot to do anything with it.

"You're staring," he said, gliding past me.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Burned The Hockey Star Down from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.