The locker rooms are crowded—he’s glad he
wore his skinsuit beneath his sweats so he won’t have to change.
The heats for the five hundred are first and because of his last
name, he’s in the first run. Nothing like a baptism of fire
to…well, to break the ice, he tells himself, stepping
through the double doors. The rink is filled to capacity, people
stretching away above him to the ceiling, he never imagined
such a crowd, not in his wildest dreams. As he slips on his skates,
he tells himself it’s nothing, these people, nothing different from
the fans back home, but that’s a lie. This is in addition to
those fans who are watching him on tv as if he’s some kind of
superstar. He wonders if his mom took the day off to see the race,
if she’s at the Rio del Oro right now, grinning as
