CHAPTER 16
It was the final heat in the preliminary round, and Selma was lined up in the second gate, which wasn’t her favorite. In fact, it was her least favorite gate. She preferred the first, obviously, but would even take the third or fourth gate over the second one, which put her next to the better boarder in the round. Ranked sixth in the world, Selma was only the second-best ranked boarder in Canada right now, and in the first gate, was the fifth-ranked boarder in the world who happened to be the top-ranked boarder in Canadian boardercross.
This event wasn’t super important to Selma in the grand scheme of things because, as the number two boarder in the country, she’d already be going to the Olympics, barring terrible performances leading up to the Games or an injury, so she viewed this more as a chance to show what she could do and solidify her spot more than anything. She’d been more worried about Drew, who had been convinced that Team USA wouldn’t give her another shot. Selma had been so happy when she’d gotten that text letting her know that they’d decided to let Drew be part of the team after all. She knew Drew had the first race of her event today, so she was hoping they’d be able to update each other after, but she wasn’t sure if Drew would be up for a call or if they’d only exchange some texts, which was what they’d been doing a lot recently.
As much as Selma wanted to talk to Drew, she only had a little time at the end of every long day here, and that time was always going to be given to Gia, who had started her new program at school, as well as a new drawing class. Once Selma was in her room, showered, changed, and had eaten dinner, she had her daughter on FaceTime, having Gia run her through her day while Grandma was usually nearby. She missed Gia, but she also knew that this was important, what Selma was doing. She wanted to show her kid that she could dream big and that if she worked hard, she could have the things she wanted. So, as difficult as it had been recently, Selma had managed to power through and still get here, at the top of her course, waiting for them to tell her to start.
If she came in first or second today, she’d move on to the semifinal race, which would take place that afternoon, with the final taking place tomorrow morning before the men’s final. She was confident, but not overly so, as she arrived at the set of small hills – or,berms – that had given her some trouble in her last prelim, so when she made it out of them in the lead, Selma felt good and made it into the final turn in first place. That left the big air jump that she nailed and, surprisingly, beat the number one boarder in Canada in the prelim. Of course, she came in second, so she’d move on to the semifinal as well.
After she had celebrated minimally with her coach at the finish, Selma walked over to the tent and handed over her board to her waxer, who immediately got to work on it while she found her bag and her phone.
Selma Driscoll: I’m through. On to the semis.
She sent that to her grandma so she could let Gia know, and then, Selma thought about messaging Drew, but she knew Drew’s day was busy, too, and she didn’t want to risk interrupting anything. Drew was very much an in-her-own-head kind of boarder, whereas Selma could get out of her head a little and talk to the other boarders, socialize a bit, and not have her headphones in pretty much the whole time she wasn’t racing. If Drew was in her headphones right now, trying to focus, and Selma texted, the notification would interrupt her music and, possibly, her flow, which Selma didn’t want.
Selma had lunch and prepared for the next race after getting a response from her grandmother that she was proud of her, and that Gia was, too. Then, she got back to the starting gate, taking her number two spot of the six racers again and waiting for them to tell her to start racing down a course of obstacles made of packed snow like someone with a death wish. This time, though, she had some issues at the top of the course. Her board felt almost too loose on the snow, which it hadn’t before, but she did her best to get back in the race, trying to make sure she landed in at least second place in order to move on to the final. It wasn’t easy. She had to take one turn a little tighter than she liked and almost toppled over. Then, her final jump before the big air jump didn’t put her in the spot she wanted, but it did allow her to take over second place. On the big air jump at the end of the course, she took it easy and ended up finishing in second, behind the number one racer, but given her issues at the top, Selma felt lucky to even do that.
“It was loose,” she said to her waxer. “Too much.”
“Okay. I’ll take a look,” he replied. “It was too slow on the prelims, you said.”
“Yeah, but this was worse,” she stated. “I had a big issue up top that cost me time.”
“Got it,” he said and took her board to work on it.
Selma was, thankfully, done for the day and had moved on to the final, which meant that she could go back to her hotel room and call her daughter. She showered, changed, and had her dinner on the bed before she pressed the icon on her screen and waited.
“Mom!”
“Hi, baby,” she greeted with a smile to match Gia’s.
“Did you win?”
“It was the semifinal, but I’m through to the final tomorrow.”
“Cool,” Gia said. “Did Drew win, too?”
Selma laughed and replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to her. If I do, do you want me to tell you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I will. How was school?”
“Mom, it’s so cool now. I get to learn whatever I want.”
“Whatever you want?”
“Yeah, like, whatever I’m ready for. So, I’m doing ninth-grade math and, sometimes, tenth-grade, too. Plus, I’m doing chemistry.”
“That’s great, Gia. Are you having fun?”
“Yeah, I like it a lot. Drawing class is fun, too. There’s this girl my age in the class. She’s really nice. We help each other sometimes.”
“That’s so good, baby,” she replied.
“Mom, Grandma said I need to eat dinner now,” Gia told her.
“Oh. Okay, honey. Can you put Grandma on the computer for me?”
“Okay.”
Gia ran off, and Selma’s grandma appeared on the couch in front of the screen.
“How are you?” Selma asked her.
“I’m all right. She’s just excited right now because you called, and she wanted to know if you won or not, but she’s been pretty relaxed since we got home. She’s got a ton of homework now and seems to like it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I think it’s working; whatever they’re doing for her.”
“Thank God,” Selma replied.
Then, her phone dinged. She looked up and saw a text message from Drew.
“What is that little smile for?”
“Huh?” Selma asked.
“You just smiled.”
“Oh, I’m happy for Gia. She was really struggling.”
“Sure.” Her grandma winked at her. “I’ve got to get dinner on the table, but you get some rest for tomorrow and text me after the race, win or lose.”
“I will,” she said.
After they disconnected, Selma quickly switched over to her messages.
Drew Oakes: How did you do today?
Selma Driscoll: Call?
Drew Oakes: Sure.
Selma wasn’t sure if that meant she was supposed to call Drew or if Drew would call her, but before she could do anything else, Drew’s name appeared on her screen, and she pressed the icon to accept the call.
“Hey,” Selma greeted.
“I hope it’s not bad news since you wanted to talk instead of text.”
“No, I’m through to the final. My board was overwaxed, though, so I just barely made it.”
“Really? Damn.”
“Yeah. It was running slow at first, so I had him take a look, but I think he went a little too far, and I almost crashed out.”
“Fuck. Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I didn’t. I held on. It just cost me time, so I had to hurry to catch up and get a second place so that I could race tomorrow. How did you do?”
“Won both prelim heats, so… feeling pretty good about that, at least. My semi is tomorrow morning, and the final is in the afternoon. I don’t know how I’ll do, honestly. I’m tenth in the world, which should sound good to me, but in my semi, I’ve got the number three in the world right next to me, and in the other semi-heat, there’s the number nine in the world. So, while I’m glad Team USA is really kicking ass, it makes my life in these kinds of events just that much harder.”
“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Selma replied.
“We’ll see. Hey, how’s Gia? She started that new school thing, right?”
Selma smiled because Drew not only remembered that, but she seemed to always bring Gia up in conversation, which Selma not so secretly loved.
“She’s doing great. I just talked to her. She seems to love it so far.”
“Really? Did she do the drawing class like I thought?”
“It started this week. She said there’s a nice girl her age in the class with her and that they help each other, so I like that even if she didn’t, but she seems to like that, too. It’s this massive relief because I’ve been so worried about her.”
“I know. But she’s doing great, Selma.”
“Yeah, but… How long until they tell me she’s ready for college, and I have to figure that part out? She’s already taking ninth and tenth-grade math right now, and they’ve got her learning chemistry. I didn’t learn chemistry until high school. So, what, I have maybe another year or two, and she’s eleven years old and off to university?”
“You know that would be your decision, not the school’s. And I’m sure a university would be willing to work with you on that since she’s so young.”
“I know. Just… God, it’s just so much. I thought being a single mom would be hard enough. Then, my kid turns out to be a genius, and while that’s amazing, it’s also this whole other layer to parenting that I hadn’t planned on having to deal with.”
“You’re doing a great job, Selma. Gia is an amazing kid.”
“Thank you.” Selma shook her head. “I didn’t know that I needed to hear that.”
“Well, I’ll say it again if you want.”
“No, I think I’m okay now. Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
“Do you have to go? Or can we keep talking?” Selma checked. “I know you have your rituals.”
“Rituals? You do?”
Selma’s eyes went wide.
“Uh… You told me you did things the night before a race.”
“I did? I don’t remember. I mainly just chill and review the course. I run through the race a few times; no big deal. So, I can keep talking. It’s not late or anything.”
Selma had actually read about Drew’s rituals in an interview she’d given to Sports Illustrated leading up to the previous Olympics, but Drew didn’t need to know that Selma had read every interview featuring her since she’d first watched that video of Drew racing.
They continued to talk until it was getting late, and Drew needed to get into her racing mind again. Selma didn’t want to say goodnight, but she knew she should. She, like her daughter, was beginning to grow a little too attached to Drew Oakes.
The following day, it was time for her final, and she was hopeful that she’d pull off the win today. While it wasn’t crucial that she do, when the actual selection came for the Games, Selma didn’t want to take any chances. If her performances put her on the bubble, or she had a couple of bad races in the future, she could end up not on the team.
She took her spot, waited for the sound, and pushed off, hitting the first berm, which led to another one before she really got to take off. Her board had been fine that morning during her warm-ups, but now, it felt too tight, as if it was underwaxed this time. Selma couldn’t believe it. Waxing was a critical part of boardercross. Too much wax, and they could fly all over the packed snow. Not enough, and they wouldn’t go fast enough. They needed just the right amount, and that amount changed based on the board and the snow they were racing on. Today, the snow was looser because it was sunnier, and that heat was causing a problem, but she was not happy about her board at all as she tried her best just to keep up.
The others were probably having similar issues, but Selma seemed to be impacted more, so she just tried to keep space between herself and the boarder in fourth place right now to at least end up on the podium today. It was a disappointing end to a pretty good few days of racing to be in third place instead of on top, where Selma felt she should’ve been based on her performance.
She was tempted to fire the waxing specialist, whose sole purpose was to make sure her board did what it was supposed to do, but she didn’t think that was a great idea – at least, not in public, with others around. So, instead, she talked to her coach about what she felt out there, and he agreed that they needed to take a look at their whole process related to Selma’s boards. It was too important now, with the Olympics coming up, for them to not have the right team in place.
When Selma got back to her room, she packed quickly because she only had a couple of hours before her flight home. She had booked something as soon as possible after the final because she didn’t like spending any more time away from Gia than she had to. Then, Selma hit the road, got to the airport, took the short flight home, and ended up back at the lodge right after Gia had gotten back from her art class.
“Mom!” she yelled and ran up to Selma, who picked her up immediately.
“Hi, baby,” she replied and held her close, feeling instantly better.