The Potter's Daughter (Literary Series) by Daniel Arthur Smith

been for Thoreau, the cabin was close
enough to the village and had just enough of the wilderness to suit Mitch’s
needs.   Of course, eventually Mitch
found out that the simple life was not all that simple and that life on the
lake went forward like everywhere else.   Still Mitch found a place where he could fit in.
    The sun was now high above the lake
and Mitch thought best to get a few chores done.   He went back into the cabin and put his
boots and coat on then went out to the log pile to split wood.   Mitch had a couple hours before he would
be grabbing his hockey gear and heading into the village and wanted to do
whatever he could to pass the time quickly.
     
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Chapter 19
    Caroline and Abby shared many
memories on the ice.   Their mothers
loved to skate and often took Caroline and Abby when they were children.   Together the two girls had learned
spins, first in place, and then camel spins with one leg high in the air.   They helped each other make costumes and
laced each other’s figure skates.   Slung over Abby’s shoulder by the long knotted pink laces were worn
white figure skates.   Abby recalled
the late winter day when she first saw them.   Each year her mother would drive the
kids across the county to Floyd’s Skate Swap.   Floyd’s was an Old Dutch farm in
complete disarray.   The animals had
taken over the premises and roamed freely.   Emily would speed most of the way to the swap, determined to get there
before they closed at three.   Abby,
Caroline, and Michael droned the “Sanford and Son” theme song the whole way up
the dirt driveway while Emily futilely tried to keep order from the front
seat.   After lumbering the make
shift parking lot to find the driest spot to leave the Volvo, the kids draped
last year’s wrecks around their necks and set off running toward the field
stone skate swap in the bottom of Floyd’s barn.   As potentially embarrassing as this situation
could have been for the teens, all the kids in the county participated in the
swap.   Hundreds of pairs of
exhausted black and white figure skates, a good selection of clunky hockey
skates, and dozens of strap-on runners with tattered leather ties crowded what
used to be the leather tack end of the stable.   They were in every size from toddler to
adult.   The skates the kids brought
with them were turned in to Floyd’s freckle faced teenage daughter.   Floyd’s daughter sat at a table with a
clipboard.   She rated the incoming
skates as used, still in good condition, and recorded them for a credit so the
children could quickly scout out a new pair.   Michael wore hockey skates so his
selection had more to do with getting the right size versus how many socks molded
his foot to the skate.   He went
right to work.   The girl’s choice
was a bit more delicate, to them at least, and they inspected each pair of
figure skates with persnickety attention.   The kids had come to the skate swap late that year and the skates had
already been diligently picked through.
    Abby found a bright white pair she
liked.   The skates appeared barely
worn however her mother told Abby they were the wrong size and that there was
no way she could squeeze into them.   Then Emily brought Abby a pair she had found in the back, a pair that
was unique to the other white figure skates because of the trim.   All of the other white figure skates had
white piping for trim if there was any trim at all.   The white skates that Emily held had
thin pink piping for trim.   Abby’s
eyes went wide.   The skates seemed
so new.   Emily told her that on the
way home, she would replace the dull grey laces with pink ones to match the
trim.   Though the laces had to be
replaced a couple times over the years, the skates still fit.   The last skates from the last skate swap
Abby had been to with her mother.   That was the year Emily was diagnosed with cancer.   That was the year Abby’s mother had
died.

 
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