Pathways to Submission
Copyright© 2023 by Rachael Jane
Chapter 4. Zoe
Fourth place! Dawn insists that Zoe did well, given the quality of the competition here tonight. Even though Dawn heaps praise on her performance, Zoe is bitterly disappointed. They both know that fourth place isn’t good enough to qualify for the Nationals. Zoe’s fanciful dream of competing in the next Olympics is crushed. By the time the following Olympics come around, she’ll be twenty-seven, and her age will be working against her. Top level competitive ice skating is a sport for teenagers and those in their early twenties.
Dawn has been Zoe’s manager and trainer for the last four years. At times Dawn has played the part of a cruel dominatrix, preventing Zoe from giving up when things went against her. Unfortunately, Zoe’s failure to reach the Nationals means that Dawn’s contract is now at an end. Zoe had previously accepted that her parents’ reluctant sponsorship of their daughter’s ice skating career ends the moment Zoe no longer has a chance at qualifying for the next Olympics. Like now! Zoe is sure that her parents will be delighted that her skating dreams are dust. Her steadfast refusal to train to be an accountant, like her parents, brother and sister before her, has made Zoe the outcast of the family. Now she must either comply with her parents’ wishes, or make her own way in life. As for Dawn, there are plenty of up and coming ice skaters looking for a manager. With Dawn’s reputation, there’s little doubt she’ll find a new skater to manage within a matter of weeks.
“The Stables are back in town,” says Dawn as she and Zoe share a farewell meal at a local restaurant. “I hear they have a vacancy.”
Heather Hopkins Ice Show, nicknamed the Stables, is a small operation of six ice skaters providing a travelling ice skating show. A decade ago, Heather Hopkins was a successful competitive skater who, like Zoe, almost qualified for the Olympics. Since retiring from competitive skating, she has operated her shoestring budget travelling show from an old converted school bus.
The show is nicknamed the Stables because their performance always begins with the six skaters dressed as pony-girls entering the rink pulling Heather Hopkins on a sleigh. Zoe first heard about the show a year or so ago. She’s always assumed it’s some raunchy adults-only performance, but Dawn assures her that the show, and the skaters’ attire, is family-friendly.
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