Calloway is talking about Eastlake’s power play. Someone asks a question. Everything is already continuing as normal.
We won’t have her much longer.
I catch Chen’s eyes.
Calloway said it and moved on like it was a scheduling note, like it was a footnote to the actual business of the morning. And maybe for everyone else in this room it is a footnote - just the skating consultant leaving at the end of the season, these things happen, next item…
The pen in my hand has stopped moving.
Barrett leans over. “You getting this power play stuff?”
“Yep,” I say.
I scrawl something in the margin that makes no sense when I try to decipher it later.
ELIDA
I set up the laptop at the side of the rink on a stand and angle it toward the space where I can skate in view of the camera.
Brita appears on screen - silver haired, sharp-eyed and warm - and we exchange hellos. She asks about the rink access and I tell her I have a key and can use it whenever. She nods approvingly.
“Good. We can be flexible around this. Now, I want to address something. Before we go any further.”
“Okay.”
“What happened with Lindqvist. I want you to know that the people who matter in this sport - the people worth working with - they know what he is. They’ve known for a long time. You were not the first. I suspect you were not the last. And what was done to your reputation was deeply, deliberately unfair.”
I don’t say anything.
“I’m not going to ask you to talk about it. Not today, not ever, unless you want to. But I wanted you to hear that from someone in this world before we go any further. You didn’t deserve what happened. And you don’t have to keep paying for it. You shouldneverhave been paying for it.”
“Thank you.”
“Good,” she says briskly, moving on in exactly the right way. “Now. I’ve watched the extra footage you sent through.”
“And?”
“And you’re extraordinary,” she says, matter-of-factly, like she’s telling me the weather. “But you know that. What you don’t know yet is where the rust is, so let me tell you.”
I like her enormously.
She pulls up the video on her end and shares her screen. She talks through it methodically.
The entry to the combination sequence - rushing it slightly, she’s right, I’ve always rushed it under pressure. The back outside edge on the second pass - dropping the shoulder, old habit, my old coach used to correct it constantly and without him it’s crept back in.
We work through it section by section - her calling corrections, me moving through the relevant sequences in the space I’d set up - the laptop camera following me as best it can. It’s strange and kind of makeshift.
“Better,” she says, after the third run of the entry sequence. “Much better. You’re trusting it more.”
We work for another twenty minutes, and then she sits back.
“One more thing before we finish.”
“Okay.”
“Partner work. I want to assess it before you get here. Lifts, holds, and the basic partnered sequences - I need to see how your body responds to working with someone again. Of course, I’ll find you a proper partner when you’re in Sweden - I havea few names in mind, but for the video sessions. Well. You’re coaching a team of athletes. Surely there’s someone who could help? It doesn’t have to be a figure skater. Any competent person who can follow instructions and stay on their feet. Someone you trust.”
“I think I know someone.”
