In this story by Joy Williams, parents (Tom and Annie) take their teenage daughter Molly on an awkward trip from California to New England to look at boarding schools. Sending Molly to school across the country is ostensibly so that the distance will help her deal with the recent death of her older sister Martha. Molly thinks her parents have an ulterior motive… to help them cope more easily with their own grief. Although Molly rejects all the schools, the trip helps all three on their road to recovery. Themes include family, death, grief, acceptance.
The Skater Text / PDF (3,450 words)
The final stage of recovery from grief is acceptance, and Tom and Annie appear to be struggling with this. Despite being nominally labelled a “guest room”, Martha’s bedroom is still intact after a year. Their real reason for sending Molly to school in New England may be so that they are not confronted every day with the fact they only have one daughter. Two prominent “skater” figures help the family towards acceptance.
The first is Jimmy Watkins, whose parents donated an ice-hockey rink to one of the schools they visited in memory of his death. When Molly lies that Martha had attended the school and knew Jimmy better than anybody, she imagines a new life for her sister in a new place with new friends.
The second skater is Tom who, after taking some tentative steps sliding on an icy lake in his shoes, is joined by his wife. Their clumsy embrace is not only something that Molly will remember, but may also signal the beginning of their acceptance.