Chapter 24 #2
The background music that’s been playing dies down, and Rory’s voice rings out from the podium.
“For those of you who might not know me,” he says, as if there’s anyone at Blackstone who doesn’t know him, “my name is Rory Shanahan. I’m on the board of directors here, and we want to thank you for coming out tonight for this amazing event put on by our ski team.
Every bit of the profit tonight goes to support the boys and girls who race for our mountain, and I’d like to take a moment to thank them. Can you all come up please?”
About forty kids, ages eight to eighteen come up to the front, all of them in the black pants and white dress shirts they’ve worn as they’ve worked this event together. We give them a round of applause, and as they leave the front of the room Rory leans in to the microphone.
“Some of you know that I’ve owned property here and been coming to this mountain for well over thirty years.
I taught both my kids to ski here. My son, Beau, learned to love snowboarding instead, but my daughter, Jackson, raced for the Blackstone team until she moved on to Danforth and eventually the National Ski Team.
” Everyone claps, even though this isn’t a new story.
Jackson is skiing royalty at this mountain.
“And Blackstone has changed quite a bit since I started skiing here. New trails, big additions to the lodge, and new lifts—thank God!” The audience chuckles.
“And even though every change that’s happened here has been positive in the long run, sometimes change can be hard.
The board has mentioned that there’d be a big announcement tonight, and so I want to prepare you for some changes that are going to be taking place starting next season.
” A low-level murmur rises up from the gala attendees.
Rory explains how climate change is making it more difficult and expensive to run a ski resort, and about the multiple offers they’ve turned down to be purchased by major ski conglomerates.
“To some extent, I think we all fear change. The board was afraid of losing the intimate and independent feel that we have here. But then, earlier this year we got a very different kind of offer. One that would allow us to grow on a reasonable scale by adding twelve runs and a small luxury hotel to the backside of the mountain. And the part that really sealed the deal was that the offer came from a veteran of the Blackstone Mountain Ski Team. You more likely know him from the waves he’s been making as a rookie this year on the National Ski Team.
I’d like to invite Nate Davenport up here to tell you a little more about these plans. ”
Heads spin toward me and the crowd parts as I head up toward Rory. This is a warmer welcome than I’d expected from him, all things considered. He shakes my hand, then gestures toward the podium.
I hate public speaking. I can power through it only because I’m too arrogant to make a fool of myself, but I always keep my remarks brief.
“Like Rory mentioned, I spent several of the happiest years of my life here at Blackstone. There’s nothing I want to change about the feel of this mountain.
In fact, the main reason I wanted to invest in it is to preserve the independent spirit, while helping it to grow in a fiscally sustainable way that will ensure we can continue raising generations of ski lovers who feel the same way we do about Blackstone.
And I know that any description I give won’t be able to do my vision justice, so I had some of the people I work with put together this video to show you what’s possible and the timeline for this growth. ”
I tip my chin to the guy in the back who is running the AV and the lights dim even further as the video starts on the screen behind me.
Through the many rounds of editing I’ve seen it at least fifty times, so I don’t focus on it at all.
Instead, I watch the audience—the men and women who love Blackstone and are raising families who feel the same way.
And thankfully, almost all of them are smiling and nodding as they watch the video, “oohing” and “aahing” at the stunning architecture of the new hotel and the small village of local shops and restaurants around it.
When the video ends, most of the adults are clapping and the teenagers around the edge of the room—the ski racers who are experiencing Blackstone the same way I did at their age—are high-fiving each other.
I step back up to the podium to say a few words, but the lights don’t come back up.
I make eye contact with the AV guy across the room, but he just shrugs and then taps a button on his computer.
I about give myself whiplash with how fast I turn toward the screen when I hear Jackson’s voice.
Her face fills the white space, her cheeks pink from the cold weather and her green eyes bright and alive.
She’s standing on the deck of the Blackstone lodge, I can tell because I can see the ski team cabin next to the lift behind her.
“Hi, everyone,” she says. I glance out at the audience and lock eyes with Rory, whose arm is around Jackson’s mom.
When he winks, I have the sickening feeling he’s set me up somehow.
“If we haven’t met yet, I’m Jackson Shanahan.
I grew up skiing at Blackstone, and it holds a very special place in my heart.
Here I learned about perseverance and dedication.
Those lessons helped me achieve some of my dreams.” She pauses for a moment while the picture of her receiving her Olympic gold medal flashes on the screen. “And for that I’ll always be grateful.”
That picture is replaced by a picture of the two of us when we were teenagers, out on the same deck she was just standing on at the beginning of the video.
There’s a fleeting moment where I wonder how we were so young, just babies really, and I already knew then that I wanted her in my life forever.
That thought sinks to the pit of my stomach like a lead weight.
“However, the other reason that Blackstone will always be home, is because it’s where I learned how to love.
” A slideshow of pictures of us continues as she says, “Nate came into my life when the only thing I cared about was skiing, and he taught me that achieving your goals and living out your dream is so much sweeter when you have someone to share those ups and downs with.”
By now, we’re into pictures of us when she was racing on the World Cup in our early twenties.
“Nate and I planned our lives together, but we were young and it turns out I was a little too determined and a little too focused on my goals. I let the best thing I ever had slip right out of my hands.” The picture of her crash at Val d’Isère makes me visibly flinch, like it always has, but it’s quickly replaced with photos of her in the hospital—giving a thumbs-up even though she’s so bruised and scabbed up she’s hardly recognizable, learning to walk again after her hip surgery, and one where she’s sleeping with a stuffed penguin.
“You might think I’m talking about the crash that ended my racing career, but I’m not.
I’m talking about the five years after that, the ones I spent without Nate in my life.
” The video cuts over to footage of her wearing a sexy black dress, and .
. . my eyes scan from the projection screen to the room because in the video she’s definitely standing in this lodge and it’s already decorated for tonight’s event.
Does this mean she was here earlier? Is she still here?
“The reality is, when you’ve been loved the way Nate loved me, there is no way to fill the void that’s left when it’s over.
” She takes a fortifying breath and looks straight at the camera.
Her chin is dipped and her green eyes are glassy.
“Nate, I’m going to be more honest right now than I’ve ever been.
You told me that you wanted what we had, but better .
. . the evolution of the life we’d planned together.
I need you to know that I want all those things too, and I want them with you.
I’ll never stop wanting that, even if sometimes I am stubborn or get scared and pull away.
Loving you has always been the driving force of my life,” she says, and I can feel the tingling in my nose as a lump takes up residence in my throat, and goddammit I will not get teary-eyed in front of this whole fucking room, no matter how long I’ve waited to hear her say this.
The next words out of her mouth absolutely floor me.