The Bell That Could Not Wait

Mika held the wall with both hands. Her skates slid sideways, and she stopped breathing.

She was thirty-one years old. This was her first night on the ice.

Her sister gave her the ticket as a birthday gift. "You always say you want to try something new," the card said. Now Mika wanted to throw the card in a bin.

All around her, children flew past. A small boy skated backwards and waved at her. She did not wave back. She needed both hands.

Then a loud bell rang.

Everyone stopped. Skaters turned and looked at the door. Many of them began to leave the ice.

"Wait! Please stay!" a young man shouted. He wore a yellow jacket with the word STAFF on the back. "It is not the end! I am sorry!"

Nobody listened. The skaters were already at the gate. In two minutes, the rink was almost empty.

Mika stayed where she was. She did not trust her legs to go anywhere.

The young man crossed the ice in his boots. He walked like someone crossing a river. He stopped near her and looked at the ceiling.

"This is my first night," he said. "My name is Gaspar. The bell rang at the wrong time again."

"Again?" Mika asked.

"It rang two times before. Once in the middle of a game. Once in the middle of a song." He held his head. "The boss is away. I cannot call him."

Mika looked at the small brass bell by the door. A rope hung from it. The rope went up to a hook on the wall.

"Who pulls the rope?" she asked.

"Nobody. That is the strange part." Gaspar shook his head. "I watched it. Nobody was near it."

Mika did not answer. She thought hard. When you cannot move, you notice things.

For ten minutes she stood at the wall. The music was very loud. Every time the big drum played, the wall shook under her hands. She felt it in her arms.

"Gaspar, can you start the music again?" she said.

"But the rink is empty."

"I know. Please try."

Gaspar walked to the desk and pressed a button. A loud song began. He came back to Mika and stood next to her.

The drum played. The wall shook. Mika counted under her breath. "One, two, three, four."

On the fourth beat, the bell rang.

Gaspar's mouth opened. "It is the music?"

"The bell hangs on the same wall as the speaker," Mika said. "The drum shakes the wall. The wall shakes the rope."

"But it did not ring in the first hour."

"In the first hour, the music was quiet." Mika pointed with one finger, then grabbed the wall again. "Look. Somebody turned the sound up."

Gaspar looked at the desk. He made a small, sad noise. "That was me. I wanted the skaters to feel happy."

Mika laughed. It was her first laugh of the night, and it felt good. Her hands shook less.

"So how do we fix it?" Gaspar asked.

"Move the rope," Mika said. "Put the bell on a wall that does not shake."

Gaspar looked around the rink. There was one quiet wall by the clock, far from the speakers. It was a plain wall with a single hook.

"I need to carry the bell there," he said. "But I cannot leave you alone. You will fall."

"I will not fall," Mika said. A second later, her feet slid forward. She held the wall with a great effort and stayed up. "Maybe I will fall. Go. I am a wall expert now."

Gaspar ran to the door. He took the bell down. He walked across the ice slowly, with the bell in both hands. Mika watched him. Without her hands on the wall, she felt strangely alone.

The music played. Gaspar stood on a chair. He hung the bell on the hook near the clock. He pulled the rope once to test it. The bell gave a clear, bright sound.

"That is the right sound," he said. "But now it is too quiet."

"What do you mean?"

"Now it rings only when I pull it. I forget to pull it. Last week, I forgot to feed the cat."

Mika smiled. "Then ask the clock to remind you."

Gaspar looked at the clock. Then he looked at the rope. "At nine, I pull. At nine, the session ends." He wrote a big note on his hand with a pen. NINE.

Now the music was loud. The wall by the door shook, but nothing rang. The skaters waited at the gate. Some of them looked in through the glass. A girl pointed at Mika.

"Please come back," Gaspar called to them. "The bell is fixed! A woman fixed it!"

A few people came back first. Then more. Soon the ice was full again.

The small boy skated up to Mika. "Why are you holding the wall?" he asked.

"I am a beginner," Mika said.

"I can teach you," the boy said. "It is easy. Just go."

"That is what I am afraid of," said Mika.

Gaspar came back to her. His boots were still wet from the ice. "Let me thank you properly. I will walk with you. Tonight, for free."

"You can barely walk on the ice."

"True. We can fall together." He gave her his arm. "Let go of the wall. Hold me instead."

Mika took a deep breath. She let go of the wall. She took his arm, and she took one slow, tiny step. Then another. The ice felt wide and cold under her feet. For the first time that night, she did not look down.

Ten minutes later, she could move across the whole rink. She was slow, but she moved. Gaspar walked next to her in his boots. Sometimes he grabbed her sleeve to stay up.

"You are a natural," he lied.

"I am not," Mika said. "But thank you."

They passed the clock. It was one minute to nine. Gaspar looked up and gasped.

"The bell!" he said. "I must pull the rope!"

He let go of her arm and ran for the wall. Mika wobbled alone for two seconds. Her skates went one way. Her body went the other.

At the same moment, the bell rang, loud and clear. Mika sat down on the ice with a bump.

Gaspar checked the clock. He looked at Mika. "Good news," he said. "The bell is on time. And so are you."