Ice Castles or Cutting Edge: You Decide

Like many children growing up in New England, I played hockey. I actually wasn't half bad… it's just that here not half bad is not really that good compared to guys like Jeremy Roenick. As a senior in high school, a man approached me after one of my games and asked what I thought about figure skating.

"Toe pick."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

He had with him this gorgeous 13-year old Asian girl named Soo Kwon. In fact, she was my age, 17, but she just looked 13; and she was to be my partner if I gave figure skating a try. So I did.

I'm not sure if you know anything about figure skating, but those bastards keep long hours. We'd go at like 4am, then I'd go to school at 7, then get back over there at 4pm to skate until 10. We had Friday night through to Sunday morning off.

I only put up with the regimen out of my infatuation for Soo Kwon. I needed her. She would quietly rebuff my advances with a simple smile, or a "no, we gotta practice". She lived a very sheltered life, one completely different from mine as a working class boy in Brockton. I used to regale her with tales of all night parties, drunken debauchery, and trips to McDonald's. Finally she relented, and agreed to join me at this rager a kid was having while his parents were out of town.

It took only three sips off a Bull Ice 40 for her to profess her love to me, and suggest us running away together. When the cops showed, she tried to fight them, and they were pissed that we'd let a 13 year old drink. In fact, she'd just turned 18, and was legal have alcohol back then, but the damage had been done. When word got back to her coach, I was removed as her partner.

Two weeks later she appeared on my doorstep with a bag of her clothes. She was running away, and she wanted me to come with her. It was a no-go, as I only had a couple months before graduation; and she turned down my offer for her to crash at my mom's place, because it didn't have the amenities she was used to.

I'll pour out a little Cab Sav for you Soo Kwon… into the sink, because it's been opened for two days, and it's no good.