Childhood Summers and Ring Pops

Jan's knees were bruised. Her butt was wet. Her ankles were burning. But she was on her feet at last.

"Look Daddy, look!" The newly-four-year-old exclaimed, gripping tightly onto the metal chair that was helping her keep her balance as the two thin blades sliced the ice beneath her.

Michel Gagnon, who wasn't two feet ahead of her, chuckled, his own skates moving him backwards effortlessly. "That's very good honey."

Very proud of herself, the toddler looked around for anyone she knew, but the only kid around was a boy about her age she had never seen before. She pouted. "No one's here to see me!"

Her father chuckled again. "You know, not many people want to go skating in the middle of June, sweetheart." He looked around. "Isn't that Mr. Gilbert over there?" He asked her, pointing at the other side of the rink. There was the little boy she had seen and failed to recognize, and with him was the man that lived two streets away, and who's daughter Andrée had went to school with her own mom. She knew because her mother had told her once. A smile spread on her baby face.

"It is! Hey Mr. Gilbert, sir!" She waved like mad in his direction, not noticing her father's hand on her shoulder to keep her steady.

The man turned at the sound of his name and, recognizing Janice, began motioning the little boy to follow him. Jan watched him a little jealously. Maybe he was still wobbly, but at least he was already able to skate without the chair.

"Hey you." The man said, skating up to the two. "Learning how to skate?"

Jan nodded fast, grinning. "Daddy promised he'd show me. Look! I can go all the way to you without falling!" And to demonstrate, she slowly started closing the four-foot gap between the two. Okay, she had lost her balance halfway, but the chair kept her steady and she managed to get all the way to the man without falling. Very proud, she gave him her best grin. "See?"

"Wow, you're really good." He told her, looking impressed. He put a hand on the boy's shoulder, who was until then staring off into space. "I'm also teaching my grandson Jonathan here how to skate. He's a really fast learner, and he really loves it." He laughed, looking down at him. "It's his third time in three days, and I'm usually the first one complaining about how we should go home."

Jonathan was now staring at his black laces, playing with the hem of his coat. Jan though he looked nice enough - he hadn't laughed at her chair even if he didn't need it anymore - so she skated the few inches between them and piped up. "Hi Jonathan. I'm Janice."

Jonathan raised his head to look at the little girl with two blond ponytails sticking out from under her helmet. "Hi." He said, unsure.

"You're not from around here, right? All the kids from around here go to Auntie Cassie's daycare. But I never saw you there. So you're not from around here, right?" Jan asked, curious.

The little boy shook his head. Beside them, the two men were talking together, keeping an eye on them but otherwise leaving them alone. "No, I'm from Winnipeg. My mommy's parents live here though, so we come sometimes." He shrugged, unsure what to say.

"Do you want to be my friend Johnny?" She asked, making him look confused.

"Johnny?"

"Yep. Jonathan's just too complicated." It was her turn to shrug, making him laugh.

"Okay Janny." He grinned at her, and she noticed for the first time how very brown his eyes were. Almost all the kids she knew still had light eyes.

"Okay," she said, taking his hand in her own gloved one, not noticing the smiles on the adults' faces.

Jan stood before the house, unsure what to do. Should she knock? Enter the house like she always did? Check out the back for the picnic? She bit her lip, running her palms down her flowery sundress. The slight breeze was making it dance around her knees, and she fought the urge to just tie it in the back so it would stop moving.

After much deliberation, she had followed Andrée's advise. Along with the black dress printed with soft-blue flowers and the matching half-shirt came a pair of simple matching blue flats, and the tiniest hint of mascara covering her lashes.

"Janice, I'm so glad you made it!" The sight of Andrée appearing from behind the house and wrapping her in a hug made her smile, and she was smiling genuinely when they parted.

"Of course I made it Andrée. I couldn't possibly get lost between the two streets."

"Of course you couldn't, but you could've remembered a very important meeting with your friends or an important paper due... someday."

Jan laughed. "It's summer. Plus, I would've called if something would've popped up."

"You're just too considerate. A nice, polite young lady." Andrée smiled radiantly at her, pulling her towards the back of the house. Well, looks like that decision was taken for her. "The boys are setting up the backyard, people are supposed to arrive around six-thirty. Leave it to them to leave everything at the last minute." She laughed as they rounded the corner.

The huge tables were already set up, but only half the chairs were in place, meaning the boys still had some work to do. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Jan asked the woman, uncomfortable at doing nothing.

"Don't worry about that dear, everything will be just fine. You don't have to do anything."

At that moment, the screen door slid open, revealing a well-built young man carrying what looked like ten thousand chairs in one trip. Jan's heart skipped a half-beat, but when he turned around, she smiled at the much friendlier, younger face.

"Jan! Long time no see!" David Toews dropped his chairs, ignoring the 'David, careful!' his mother threw him and wrapped the girl in a bear hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you too Davie." She laughed, patting his back. "So where's Bryan? Isn't the whole family here?"

David's face grew somber, and Janice felt her stomach fall. What was going on?

"Well, you see..." His voice dropped so that his mother, who was busy placing the food on the table, would not overhear. "Mom and Dad started fighting a couple months ago. It's gotten really bad. That's why we're celebrating Johnny's season here, Mom wanted to get away from Winnipeg, and honestly, I wanted to get away from Dad."

"I'm sorry to hear it." Jan did feel terribly sorry. On the rare occasions that she had met with Bryan Toews, he had seemed like a good, honest man. She had liked him.

David's face quickly changed from serious to joking. "Don't be, it's something that happens all the time. At least they're not throwing dishes at each other, so that's something."

"David, goddammit, I'm not supposed to do the whole work mys... Oh, Hey Jan." Jonathan had exited the house looking for his brother, but now he was completely ignoring him.

She nodded. "Hey Jonathan." she replied, stung. If he didn't use her nickname, then she wasn't going to use his. A small silence fell. "So um, congratulations. You know, for the Cup. Everyone here was rooting for you."

It was his turn to nod. "Yeah, I know. Grandpa sent me pictures."

"And let me tell you, you sure do look fine in a Blackhawks shirt." David added, winking playfully at her. She laughed, happy to have him relieve the tension that was settling between her and her former friend.

"Kids! You'll have all the time in the world to talk tonight, people are already arriving and things aren't completely set up yet!" Came from the front of the house where Andrée was meeting the early arrivals.

"Duty calls. Talk to you later hot stuff." David winked again before marching off and she smiled, happy that things were natural with at least one of the two brothers.

Jonathan stayed put for a moment more. "Yeah, see you later." He finally said, ripping his eyes away from her own and walking towards the stack of chairs that was desperately screaming his name.

Why did she have a feeling this was going to be a long evening?