“She gets all the cuddles she wants, princess treatment, and all the toys she could ever want,” Koen replies. “She’s our pack’s princess. Who’s excited to skate today while Edna hangs out with the princess?”
“Me!” the kids squeal.
I don’t know why I was worried, because Koen responded perfectly.
After a team effort from both parents and players to get skates and pads on the kids, we’re ready to start.
Climbing up the step, Koen begins the class.
“They say baby steps are the building blocks to walking, and the same goes for skating,” he says. “You’re going to hold onto the side wall for balance, and then step down onto the ice.”
Each of them follow him out, and then we’re showing them how to walk and fall in their skates.
“What do we do if we lose our balance and think we’re going to fall, Rhodes?” Koen asks.
“Oh no!” Rhodes yells, dropping into a deep squat. “The closer you are to the ice when you do fall, the better. It’ll reduceyour chances of hurting yourself. It might still hurt because the ice is hard, but that's how we learn, right?”
There are few nervous glances at his words, but the kids nod. Olsson and O’Neil join us on the ice fifteen minutes later, and it allows us to break up into smaller groups. This makes it less stressful, and also helps to move forward with our lessons too.
By the end of the class, the kids are shooting pucks at Rhodes so he can block them, giggling at the way he dives for pucks that clearly aren’t anywhere near him. The kids had a fucking blast, and I’m starving.
This was a lot of fun.
“Did you see? Those parents were completely locked in,” Koen notices as we’re driving home. “None of them left while we were skating, and while I could hear the cringe when one of the kids fell, it was clear the parents were willing to let them learn. This was fun.”
“They’re lucky,” I say. “It was nice to be around kids who don’t have completely fucked up pasts.”
“Edna didn’t choose kids from wealthy families for this,” Rhodes says. “Those also weren’t their biological parents, but foster parents.”
“I wouldn’t have had any idea,” Koen murmurs.
“They all looked like good people,” Rhodes says. “Being in the system fucking sucks.”
“It does,” I admit. “Rhodes and I spent some time in the foster system. Different towns, but both shitty options. We were too wild for most people so we were shuttled around a lot.”
“I kind of wondered about that, but I didn’t want to pry,” Koen says.
“Baby, if you have a question, ask,” Rhodes says, rolling his eyes.
Princess Sunny is fast asleep in the seat next to Koen, and he pets her head as he thinks about that.
“You said you were in and out of foster care,” he says slowly. “Why?”
“My dad was a crack head, and my mother was killed one night walking home from a nursing shift. She was mugged,” Rhodes says. “My mom was a saint, and did everything she could to keep a roof over my head, but shit went south quickly after she died. Foster care pulled me out of the home when I was twelve, after my father beat the hell out of me when I was protecting my sisters. My siblings went into care soon after, but my sisters were adopted fairly quickly. I caught a growth spurt when I was fifteen, and we avoided each other when he’d see me.”
Rhodes doesn’t include the fact that he killed him one night when his dad was high out of his mind. The man told Rhodes he wished he was dead instead of his mother. He was the first person Rhodes ever killed. Sometimes, it still bothers him, but I remind him it’s for the best.
Rhodes and his siblings all deserved better.
“As I said, I don’t speak to my brother. However, my sisters are now happy, married, and I paid off their student loans when I started making money. They haven’t had kids yet, but they’re thinking about it. I’m trying not to rush them,” Rhodes says with a deep chuckle.
“I’m an only child and an orphan,” I add, knowing Koen will ask. It’s better simply to get it over with. “My parents got into a car crash when I was about five. I went to a boys home in South Carolina, and I joined every club possible to attempt to stay out of trouble. It doesn’t mean it always helped, because I still got into shit.”
“That explains Tilly,” Koen says.
“We link up with charity organizations in whatever new city we land. Edna has been keeping up busy for the moment, so that’s taken a back seat for now. We’ll get to it,” I promise.
“It’s not like you’re not giving back to the community,” Koen reminds me. “I want to put together a sports program in Lakeview, but it feels like too big of a task to do alone. We’re a smaller city, which means we have less government money for community programs.”
