My hero

Tonight I witnessed an amazing feat of courage and strength.

After practice tonight we all came out of the arena, put our gear bags down or into our vehicles and proceeded to do our post-practice milling around.  After a little chat with my buddy Lacee Longstalkin', we both said our good byes and I walked back to my car while Lacee got into hers.

Getting into my car, I glanced over towards Lacee to wave goodbye when the unthinkable happened. 

Lacee backed up her car right over her skate bag.

I started waving my arms, shouting, 'Lacee, stop!  Oh my god, stop stop stop!'  At first she game me an amused smile, having practiced many track awareness drills with me and used to my sudden screaming of her name, but once she felt the crunch under the back end of her car, her grin turned to a rictus of horror.

Lacee immediately braked but it was too late.  The skate bag had lodged itself under her back axle.

I jumped out of my car and Lacee shut hers off.  We raced to the brutalized bag, to try to extricate it from under the car.  I reached my arm under and gave tuga slight  to the handle and it became immediately obvious that any attempt to pull the bag out would cause further grievous damage to the bag and possibly to the precious cargo it contained.  Panicked, I said, 'Lacee, what are we going to do?!' 

But Lacee knew just what to do. 

Lacee gripped the back bumper of the car and said, 'When I lift, you pull.'  And with one tremendous heave, like a larger than life superhero, Lacee lifted the car off of the bag.

The bag suffered some ripping and crumpling at the corner but it could of been much worse without Lacee's demonstration of super human strength.  It's true, that in a time of emergency, we find the strength we need to save what we love.

Tonight my thoughts go out to Lacee and her poor bag.  I hope her skates and safety pads are all right.  Next time I see her I will bring her duct tape to help put her shattered bag back together.

And for all of us, let that be a lesson.  If it's just after practice and you've been milling around, before you turn the key to start you vehicle, you need to ask yourself do you know where you skates are? 

With the jammer in her sights, super strong Lacee LongStalkin' on the right.
Photo by Argent Dawn Photography