Silvia B.

Rookie's Rock

A shiver runs down your outstretched arm, as your knuckles bump against hers in mid-air. Otherwise you stand, steady and still, disbelieving. Would you ever have thought you’d get to be so close, close enough to see the goosebumps on her skin, to show her the ones on yours? Close enough to touch – with so much gravitas – the weight of your future and her fame pressing down on the horizontal plane where your small bones meet. Of course not. You never believed you’d still be here at this point. You signed up to this for a chance to see your hero, not race her. You signed up as soon as you heard that this year’s tournament would be held in town: $9.99 to get a glimpse from afar, but in person at last, of her formidable skill.