Winners (32 page)

She watched the first racers take off, and was impressed with their style and their speed. Several of them had competed before, and the previous gold winner was in this race too. Her injury was slightly less acute than Lily’s, and she could walk with braces when she wasn’t on skis, but it made no difference once they were skiing. And then suddenly it was her turn, and with a silent prayer she took off and just concentrated on the mountain and what she was doing. The time flew, and before she knew it, she was at the base. She was exhilarated and out of breath, and she saw Teddy and the others beaming at her. She went over to Teddy as soon as she could, to wait for her results, and her father came to praise her for how well she’d done. His eyes were shining with pride. And Chris gave her a thumbs-up.

“How did I do?” she asked Teddy breathlessly as she took off her goggles.

“You looked like a bat out of hell to me.” He beamed at her.

They announced her speed minutes later, and her timing had been good, not as good as the previous champion, but very close. Her coach had come down the mountain, and he was thrilled with her numbers and her speed.

“We’re going to win the silver,” he said in his heavy accent, with tears in his eyes. “You watch.” But nothing was sure until all the others did their runs. And at the end of the event, they would announce the winners. It was an interminable wait as she listened to each one’s score. But Lily was still up there, as they announced each one, and then they gave the final results. Lily had come in second. She had won the silver medal, and suddenly she was sitting in her chair ski as they put the ribbon with the medal around her neck, and the anthem was playing, and she was crying, and when she looked over, so were her father and Oscar, and they were hugging, and then everyone she knew came over to kiss her and congratulate her when the medal ceremony was over. It was even better than winning the bronze in the Junior Olympics. This was one of the greatest moments of her life. Walker grabbed her and picked her up right off the ground with her ski dangling while she laughed. She leaned over to kiss Teddy when he sat her down, and Chris put an arm around her and looked into her eyes with a wide smile.

“I was really proud of you!” he said with a voice full of emotion, and there were tears running down Jessie’s cheeks. A year before in the hospital at Squaw, she had never expected to see this, nor had Bill or Lily.

They stayed for the rest of the races and then went back to Bill and Lily’s house to celebrate. She had to join her teammates for dinner that night, but she stayed at the house while her father poured champagne for everyone, and Chris stood very near her. It had been the most incredible day of her life. The gold medal winner had congratulated her. She was nine years older than Lily and had been doing this for eight years. She told Lily she was sure she would win gold one day too.

It was a long, exciting night full of congratulations and celebration. The next day they all went to watch Teddy play chair rugby, and Lily had her heart in her mouth watching him, as she always did. It was so aggressive and so violent, she was constantly afraid he’d get hurt. But he scored a goal and his team won, and everyone was impressed by what they did, and Teddy had a great time. They all did. And ESPN interviewed Teddy after the game.

It was a magical moment and Lily couldn’t wait to compete again in four years. It made her even more determined to start a sports program at The Lily Pad, where they would have competitions with medals once a year. It gave everyone something to strive for, and four years was too long to wait. They all stayed for the full ten days of the games in Aspen and went to many of the events. And Lily had a ball with her team. The closing ceremony was deeply moving. Lily was wearing her silver medal, and she knew it was something she would never forget. And after it was over, she thanked Phil for everything he’d done.

The day after the closing ceremony, they all went home. Chris told her he’d call her in Denver. He wanted to go skiing with her again, and suggested they go out to dinner.

“That would be fun,” Lily said, smiling at him, as he left for Denver with his mother. And Jessie stopped to talk to Carole for a minute before they left.

“Have you decided?” Jessie whispered.

“I’m in. I’ll give notice when I go back.” Jessie smiled broadly, hugged her, and gave her a thumbs-up, and then she rushed off to drive Chris back to DU. She had been watching him with Lily, and she could see a romance blossoming between them, and she was extremely pleased. She couldn’t think of anything better, for either of them. And she was thrilled that Carole was moving to Denver. Now she would have a good friend there when she moved herself. And best of all, Lily had won the medal she had worked so hard for.

Lily was wearing her medal around her neck, as she slept in her father’s car all the way back to Denver. He looked over at her and smiled. He had never been happier in his life.

Chapter 24

On a Saturday morning in March, after she was back from Aspen, Jessie screwed up her courage, sat down to breakfast with her children, and told them her decision. She had been dreading it all week, but she knew she was doing the right thing.

“We’re
what
?” Adam looked at her in amazement.

“We’re moving to Denver,” Jessie said calmly, trying not to feel guilty at the look on his face. “I took the job as medical director of the new rehab facility there. It’s a very good job. We will live in a beautiful house that goes with it, and I hope we’ll all be happy there.” She waited for the storm to hit, and predictably, it did.

“Don’t you care what we think or how we feel? I have friends here! We all do!” Adam shouted at her. He had just turned twelve. He played soccer and Little League and was on a ski team.

“Of course I care how you feel. But you can do all the things you do here, in Denver. You can ski, do Little League, all of it. And there is a very good school for you and Jimmy.” Jimmy was sitting at the table, looking shell-shocked, and worst of all, Heather was sitting in total silence with tears rolling down her cheeks.

“How can you make me move for senior year? How can you be so mean?” Heather asked with a horrified expression. Jessie felt like a monster. It was the reaction she had expected and was dreading. And she didn’t totally disagree with her, and still felt guilty about it.

“I know, baby, it’s hard. But it’s a great job, and we’ll be able to do a lot more things than we can now. It’s hard for me without Daddy to help.” She said it as gently as she could, and Adam looked outraged.

“Then get a better job here. Dad would never have made us do this.”

“Probably not,” she said honestly. “But I think it’s a good decision, and we’ll be able to see more of Chris, since he’s in Denver too.”

“I want to stay in California to go to college,” Heather said miserably.

“You can come back here for college. And I’m not going to sell our house. I’m going to rent it. So we can always move back here if we want to.”

“If
you
let us,” Adam said, giving her an evil look. He was just adolescent enough to hate her. And Heather was in the depths of despair. She jumped up from the table then, ran to her room, and slammed the door. Adam did the same a minute later, and Jimmy sat at the table, looking confused, and he reached out and patted his mother’s hand.

“They’ll get over it, Mom,” he said kindly, and she put her arms around him.

“Why aren’t you mad too?” He was the angel in her life.

“Because everybody can’t be mad at you. That wouldn’t be fair.” He was always the sweet spot in the group.

“Thank you for being so nice about it. I think you’re really going to like the school and the new house, and we’ll come back here to visit,” she reassured him. He nodded and then went up to his room too. It killed her to see how sad he looked going up the stairs.

Heather as good as declared war on her that day, and from then on. For the next month Jessie got the cold shoulder from Heather, was insulted by Adam, and Jimmy just looked despondent. She felt like the worst mother in the world. And she called Carole to whine about it. Carole had already found an apartment she loved in Denver, and her attitude was great. She was packing up in Boston, and excited about the move. And she insisted that she and Joe were just friends when Jessie asked again. But for now Jessie was more concerned about her kids than Carole’s move.

“My kids are going to kill me, literally or figuratively. Heather hates me, Adam is pissed, and Jimmy looks depressed.”

“They’ll be fine when you get to Denver,” Carole said confidently. “I saw Chris the other night, by the way.”

“You did? Where? Was he playing hooky?”

“No, he was having dinner. At Bill’s. With Lily. I think he likes her.”

“I think he does too.” Jessie smiled. When she told him about the move, he was shocked, but less upset than the others, as long as she wasn’t selling the house.

“They went to the movies afterward. And Bill says he’s been over several times. He took Lily on a date.”

“Well, that’s one piece of good news. I approve. She’s the nicest kid in the world. She’s got every reason to be a spoiled brat, and she isn’t. She’s a great girl.” Jessie hadn’t seen her since she won her medal, and she was due to go back to Denver very soon, once her kids settled down. “What am I going to do with this bunch, other than shoot myself or change my mind?” She was discouraged by how distressed they were about the move.

“You’d be wrong to change your mind. Just hang in. They’ll get over it. Give them time,” Carole encouraged her.

“Wonderful, you try living with them. Heather says she won’t go. She stays at her best friend’s house almost every night and says she wants to move in with them and go to school here next year. I can’t let her do that.” Jessie sounded stressed at the idea.

“She won’t do it,” Carole reassured her. “She just has to express herself. Better that than hidden aggression. She wants to punish you.”

“Well, she is. Actually, I’d like hidden aggression a lot better—hers is a little too overt.” Jessie sighed, and Carole assured her that Heather would relent eventually, but the war continued week after week. If anything, Heather got angrier and more hostile with her mother. Even though Jessie had expected it, it was painful to live with.

When Jessie went to Denver two weeks later, Carole proudly showed her her new apartment. She loved it. And all Jessie could talk or think about were her battles with Heather.

When she went to see Bill, she discovered that all was not smooth sailing between him and Lily either. It was the spring of the young people’s discontent. Bill had said that he was having a problem with her. Jessie hoped it wasn’t Chris, and that he didn’t object to his seeing Lily. But she was eighteen, and a very sensible girl. And her son was a good boy and wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Before her father got home, Lily came downstairs and asked for Jessie’s help.

“I can’t reason with my dad,” she said as she pulled up to the kitchen table with a look of despair, while Jessie wondered if Heather said the same thing to her best friend’s mother. Jessie had talked to Lily and Lily was sympathetic about Heather’s fury about the move. She said Heather would get over it, but Jessie was beginning to wonder if that was true. “I’m still waiting to hear from all the colleges I applied to, and Dad says he won’t let me go away,” Lily explained to Jessie with intense frustration.

“Why not?” He had said as much to Jessie, but she wanted to hear what he was saying to Lily.

“I don’t know. He’s ridiculous. Something about he doesn’t want me to get hurt. It makes no sense. Why would I get hurt going to school?” They both knew how protective he was, and he wasn’t ready to let his little girl go away, particularly in a wheelchair.

“Did he always say that?” Jessie asked carefully.

“He never really liked the idea before, but he would have let me. He had no excuse not to. Now he won’t, because of my SCI. It’s such bullshit.” Jessie could tell how worried and angry Lily was. They had been arguing about it for months. “I’ve got good grades and scores. What’s the point if he won’t let me go to a decent school?”

“And you don’t want to stay home?” Jessie wanted to be sure.

“No, I want to go away to school. Jessie, will you talk to him, and try to get him to be reasonable?” She looked at her with pleading eyes.

“I’ll try, but he’s a pretty stubborn man, especially about you. My kids aren’t too happy with me these days either,” she volunteered, and Lily looked sorry for her. She liked Jessie a lot, and thought her kids were lucky to have her. Chris said nothing but good things about her. He loved his mom a lot. “Except for Chris, they’re all furious with me about the move. Well, Jimmy isn’t, but he’s looked heartbroken since I told them,” which almost seemed worse to her.

“Heather hates me at the moment. She thinks I’m ruining her life.”

“Yeah,” Lily nodded sympathetically, “moving away for senior year would be tough. But Denver is pretty cool. She’ll like it here. It’s too bad we won’t be in school at the same time.” She looked unhappy again, then, “I hope I’ll be away, in college back east. Will you talk to my dad?”

“I’ll try.”

And she did that afternoon. Bill was adamant about it. He felt that Lily had been through enough. She was too vulnerable on a campus in a wheelchair with drunk boys all over the place, and he wanted her at home. He wanted her to go to DU.

“She didn’t even apply there,” Jessie said sensibly. “She’s going to lose the year entirely if she doesn’t go to one of the schools she applied to,” all of which were in the east.

“Then she can go to City College or take a year off. I am not letting her go east.” He looked determined when he said it, and Jessie remembered that look of the fierce protector from Squaw a year before.

“Bill,” Jessie said quietly, “you’ve done everything possible to integrate her back into the world. You sent her back to her school—you didn’t have her tutored at home. You sent her to Craig to learn all those skills so she could go out in the world and go away to school. And you let her compete in the Paralympics, and let’s face it, downhill racing is a dangerous sport, for anyone. And you won’t let her go away to college? What are you afraid of, really?”