Scars On Ice | Charlie Conway

z e r o

The Folsom family was, without a doubt, a hockey family. Joey, Caine, and Aspen grew up on the ice. It was more than just a game to them -- it was their life. It's what held them together, made them so close. It's how they met their friends. It's what gave them their best memories. Hockey was the reason they got up in the morning. They were good at it. But more importantly, they loved it. And they loved each other.

One evening, just after dinner, the three Folsom children found themselves out on the pond in their front yard. They practiced for a while, shooting the puck around, racing from blue line to blue line, anything they could think of. When their mom called to give them their ten minute warning, they tossed the gear aside and just skated for a while. It didn't take long for them to begin to goof off.

"Do you think we could be figure skaters?" ten year-old Aspen joked, spinning gracefully on her skates. Her older brothers laughed as she gallivanted around the pond.

Caine snorted, "Can't be that hard. I mean, come on. Hockey is way more difficult, and we're pretty good at that."

Joey nudged his younger brother. "Yeah? Show us some moves then," he teased, his eyebrows raised expectantly. Caine huffed at his older brother before attempting a pirouette. Aspen roared with laughter when the older boy teetered and fell, landing flat on his butt in the snowbank beside the ice.

Caine stood up angrily, his ears bright red. "What're you laughing at, Squirt? I'd like to see you try," he provoked, glaring at the younger girl.

With her head held high, Aspen nodded. She took a deep breath before sending her older brothers a grin. She did a few somewhat-awkward spins, easily staying on her feet. Joey chuckled, "Aw, anyone can do that. Do one of those jump things."

Though the idea made her nervous, Aspen had never been one to turn down a challenge from either of her brothers. None of them stopped to consider that she was wearing hockey skates, not figure skating skates, or that the pond's rigid ice wasn't the least bit safe. Joey and Caine just watched with their arms crossed as their little sister took a deep breath and took off skating, building up momentum before jumping into the air. Her takeoff was clean, but she only got about halfway through her axle before she lost air. She landed on the ice with a sickening crunch. She let out a pained scream, tears rippling down her face.

Joey raced to her side, shouting for Caine to go get their parents. Joey held his sister tightly as she hyperventilated against his chest, clutching at her ankle. When their parents came racing out of the house, their mother was already crying. Their father lowered himself next to his daughter, gently trying to ease the skate off of her crooked ankle. When she cried out in pain, he promptly let go, an alarmed look on his face. He turned to his wife, "Go get the car."

That trip to the emergency room was the beginning of the end for Aspen Folsom.

The damage from her landing was much worse than any of them had expected, and while the doctor assured them that there was a chance it would heal, the process was going to be extensive. She was in a wheelchair for a little while, not wanting to take any chances. Once she had graduated from the wheelchair, she was stuck on crutches for an indefinite amount of time. That time was further prolonged by a nasty spill that occurred when she and Caine were walking to school. Caine tried his best, but he wasn't quick enough to catch his sister as she slipped.

She fell directly back onto her bad ankle.

After countless more doctor's visits and months on crutches, Aspen was finally able to walk again, but not in the way she was used to. She had an awful limp, the ligaments in her ankle far too damaged to ever correctly and perfectly heal. Her left foot was useless, and she could hardly walk, let alone skate.

Not that she would've skated, anyway. She couldn't even force herself to go to her brothers' games. Her injury left her emotionally scarred, with a perpetual fear of the ice rink. The pain of the incident was so clear and traumatic in her mind that she found it hard to even talk about it.

She never told her friends, and neither did her brothers. All they knew was that there was an accident, and she was never quite the same. She quit her peewee team without another thought, and for a while, she kept her two best friends at arm's length. When they were able to get her back, they still could never get the whole story out of her. After a while, they gave up trying. They were just happy to have her back in their lives.

But her life was never the same.