‘Okay, I’ll be back soon,’ he said.
While Cynthia headed off with Holly, there seemed to be some sort of commotion on the ice. Turning back to the rink, Libby and Guy could see a crowd of skaters huddled in the centre.
‘What’s going on?’ Libby asked, concerned.
‘It looks like someone is down,’ replied Guy, straining to see over the crowd of people.
‘It’s David!’ Libby exclaimed, noticing the neon green coat lying on the ice. ‘What’s happened? We only took our eyes off them for a second.’
Within moments David was being helped up off the ice by his fellow skaters. His face had paled, matching the colour of the ice as they carefully manoeuvred him to a nearby bench.
‘He went down with a thud, could possibly be a dislocated shoulder,’ relayed one of the extras. ‘Nasty bang.’
‘Libby! We need a first-aider and fast,’ Miranda ordered as Libby rushed to the couple’s side.
‘I’m so sorry but there are no first-aiders to hand as the rink isn’t officially meant to open until tomorrow.’
Miranda looked at Libby in outrage. ‘What do you mean, there are no first-aiders? David is hurt and needs his shoulder looked at. Are you really telling me there’s no one at all to take a look at him?’ Miranda’s face had reddened and she looked angry. ‘You’ve put us in unnecessary danger with no medics to hand.’
Libby was a little taken aback by her tone of voice but avoided confrontation. She could see Miranda was angry, and she wanted to keep the situation as calm as possible. ‘I’ll call an ambulance right now,’ she said, soothingly. She pulled off a glove and reached inside her pocket for her mobile phone.
‘We haven’t got time to wait to wait for an ambulance. Can’t you see how much pain he’s in? It’ll be quicker if I take him to the hospital.’
‘Let us help.’ Libby looked towards Guy. ‘Can you go and fetch their shoes from the hut?’
David was crying out in pain, gripping his shoulder with his other hand. ‘I actually feel sick.’
Libby started to unlace his ice skates while Guy headed towards the skate hut.
As soon as they had their shoes back on Libby asked, ‘Where’s your car?’
‘Over there.’ Miranda pointed to the vehicle parked near the trees on the other side of the rink. ‘I’ll get him to the car myself.’ Her tone was curt.
‘Let me know what happens at the hospital,’ Libby urged, watching as Miranda linked her arm through David’s good one and they began to walk slowly towards the car. Libby turned towards Guy. ‘I feel dreadful. It never even crossed my mind that we would need a first-aider on hand. Miranda was so angry.’
They could still hear unhappy mumblings from Miranda until they reached the car. As soon as David was sitting in the passenger seat and his seatbelt was fastened, Miranda slammed the door shut and within seconds the car sped away.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Guy, touching her arm. ‘I’m sure he’ll be okay.’
‘It’s not the point though, is it?’ Libby felt awful.
‘Let’s get rid of all these extras. It’s a wrap,’ he shouted, bringing back some order after the commotion. His words led to instant movement as all the extras began swapping their skates for their own footwear and the staff behind the huts began closing up. Within fifteen minutes everyone had headed home, leaving Libby and Guy at the side of the rink.
‘Well, that wasn’t the ending I was expecting to the evening,’ Guy remarked, looking through the lens of the video camera. He wound back the footage. ‘Let’s have a look at what happened.’
They both stood and watched as David raced in front of Miranda on the ice.
‘My gosh. He’s picking up speed,’ Libby murmured.
In a pirouette-like manoeuvre, David lifted his arms above his head and, taking one foot off the ice, he attempted to spin. He didn’t even make a full turn, but fell straight to the ice with a thud.
Guy grimaced. ‘Ouch! It even sounds painful. But who attempts to pirouette on ice if they don’t know what they’re doing? All we wanted them to do was a few laps of the rink, not to pretend they’re Torvill and Dean.’
‘Let’s hope it’s not a serious injury,’ she replied, tossing her empty hot chocolate cup into the recycling bin.
‘Do the fairy lights stay on or do we need to switch them off?’ Guy asked, looking all around.
‘I think they’re on a timer,’ she replied, subdued.
