On a Sunday afternoon -- cold for September in Northern California -- to see if the compressors that ran the portable ice rink had miraculously managed to produce skateable ice, Yuri was walking across the Huygens campus.
In the spring, construction would start on the Huygens ice rink. Meanwhile, Yuri had arranged skating time on a well-endowed local university's rink, where Huygen's hockey practice would begin in October. This year, he did not yet have enough ice hockey players to play the D3 Hockey schedule, but next week, six students would begin practicing on Silicon Valley University ice.
In Brooklyn -- where neighbors held summer barbeques and built Christmas snowmen in small backyards -- when Yuri and his brothers were children, their former Russian Olympic hockey team Father built a backyard ice rink that filled most of his family's Brooklyn yard.
Yuri crested the hill that shadowed a former farmer’s field and looked down on his own portable rink.
Below, on unexpected smooth ice, a young woman was skating. She was wearing a practice outfit with an ocean-green top that left nothing to the imagination -- and a short split at the sides black skirt. Revealing shapely long legs, she sped across the rink executing a series of perfect double axel jumps.
