My Hero

Melody stood when she spotted Daniela at the start line; two of the other competitors watched her take on the course and glanced at each other when her time came back. The team's trainer pulled her off the course and kept her in the warm up pond for the next hour. I guess she had made her point.

"Please, walk with me."

When I looked, Melody had her hand out towards me. Instinctively my hand clasped hers and we wandered the grounds of the complex, we grabbed a coffee each from one of the kiosks and continued to wander with no real destination in mind.

"When my husband cheated on us, I hated men. My business is female dominant; it helps, of course, that it's a cosmetics company, but I surrounded myself with women so I didn't have to deal with men."

She moved her coffee to her other hand so her warm hand could hold mine again.

"I often wonder were we would be now if it was left to that girl to rescue Daniela, but she didn't and you did: a man did."

Her tightening of her hand made me stop walking and she placed herself in front of me, her eyes bore deep into my soul.

"Daniela calls you 'my hero'. She's not alone when she calls you that. You didn't only save my daughter." Her voice turned to a whisper. "You saved me, as well."

Her eyes went a little moist. "This isn't a threat, it's a promise. I'm going to sit on my hands and wait for you to ask me that question. It may kill me to do it, but it's a lesson in patience that I need to learn. Next year is a leap year, that's when I get to ask you. So please take notice, at one minute past midnight at the start of the New Year, I will ask you, if you haven't already put a ring on my finger."

Knowing what I did about this woman, a lot of things had changed in her in a year. I suppose my own thought process came to a screeching halt right about then and I smiled.

Melody caught me and asked. "What's so funny?"

"I suppose I'm going to have to thank Cheryl, now."

It took Melody a second and then she burst out laughing; her arms came around me and held me tight to her until she managed to get that image out of her thoughts.

"I'll let you do that, but don't expect me to thank my ex, in return."

Telling her that I would actually pay to see that happen stayed locked in my thoughts.

Daniela phoned her mom late that afternoon; we knew we wouldn't see her that evening so we both wished her good luck and I just knew I would have one of the Carlson women up all night worrying.

*******

The hotel had converted their biggest conference room to a media room to show the white-water finals. Melody wanted to go to the centre and watch it from there, but she knew that she could become a distraction and told Daniela that over the phone that evening. Daniela understood and told her mother that she would see us all later. I'm sure they both spent the rest of the evening wondering if they had both made a terrible mistake.

Daniela had to focus. This was the culmination of so much work: a true blood, sweat and tears year if ever there was one. The papers had published her history that morning, and it flattered her. Many knew the reason for 'My Hero' on her wetsuit, and the newspapers brought everyone in on the open secret. The papers also noticed the lack of it on her wetsuit yesterday.

One of the papers used an 'unnamed source'. Whoever it was got it spot-on. The paper did try to keep an open mind, but it was a shame the writer of this article wasn't at the meeting when Mr. Ernst Brunner and his cronies from the Olympic committee came and demanded the removal of her wetsuit jacket there and then from the final event. I wasn't sure if he would still be amongst the ranks of being impartial.

The room hushed as the first of the competitors started her journey down the course. Her time was really good and automatically put her in first place, for the time being. Two others made their own attempt: one fell foul on connecting with a pole and the other came in a full second behind the leader.

It was Libby who spotted her self-adopted sister first; the commentator wasn't more than a couple of seconds behind. He passed on commenting on Daniela, in favor of his guest speaker in his commentator's box, and again the 'My Hero' jacket got a mention. Libby looked at me and smiled, I suspected that both girls had been on the phone to each other this morning and a few secrets changed hands. Judging by the look from my daughter, I think she knew how we got around the committee's demands to derail Daniela.

The camera zoomed in to Daniela's features; her concentration was total. She gripped her paddle once more before the buzzer went off, after that, not even the commentator could be heard as Libby gave her own commentary to everyone in that room. In the end, even the manager of the hotel turned the sound down so we could all hear Libby as Daniela dug her paddle into the white-water.

Libby knew the name of everything on the course and we all let her run with this; hell, I doubt I could have stopped her without a riot on my hands. Everybody in that room was torn between watching Daniela dig into the course and make it her own, and listening to my daughter's commentary as she, herself, mentally rode that same canoe with her sister. A hand went into mine and held on tight. Melody watched Libby, whose own eyes were totally locked on the big screen through tears of joy and pride, the same feelings that held me to the spot.

My daughter's voice grew in confidence just as Daniela bossed the slalom course. With one final push Daniela exerted every muscle in her body as she dug her paddle into the water in that one final concerted effort. I'm sure that Melody was watching the scene that unfolded on the big screen. As for me, I watched Libby as she rode the course through her sister's eyes that very moment. Everyday I was proud of my daughter; that day, she wrote a whole page of pride across my heart and that day will never leave my heart for so many reasons.

When Daniela broke the sensor to record her time the whole room erupted; the loudest of them all was Libby. As the current pushed her canoe along, all Daniela could do was slump forward and try so hard to pull air into her tired young body. The crowd's noise gave Daniela a clue that she had done something special. She pulled her torso upright and focused on the time as her canoe passed it, finally registering her score.

There were still another three competitors left to run the course, but they had to pull off a miracle since Daniela Carlson had just broken the record she herself set days before. Daniela's fist clenched as she raised her arm above her head, an act of pure willpower. The crowd shouted encouragement to her, their cheers making more noise than ever before. The cameras continued to follow her canoe, even though the next competitor was ready to start. The Olympic people held her back. They didn't want to but it was plain to see the television people were still focused on Daniela and the celebrations around the course.

The sound went back up on the hotels big screen and Melody and I went and rescued Libby, a few people still around her congratulating her on a fine, even if slightly biased commentary.

Melody swept Libby into her arms and swung her around. "That was beautiful; I watched in awe and you held everyone in this room in your hand."

It was fun watching my daughter, as the realization of what she had done finally hit her and she went the cutest shade of pink. Our hotel was too far from the white-water centre to make it in time for the handing over of the medals, so we watched from the conference room. To add insult to the proceedings, Mr. Brunner was the man giving the medals out, along with one guy I had met only once and told me he liked to stay in the background.

I paid attention; he was the man who ran the centre and he stood right next to Kurt Brunner. My instincts kicked in, this wasn't going to have a happy ending and I suspected he knew it wasn't, which is why he was now in the public eye and standing with the same man who seemed to want to scupper Daniela's dream.

Melody and I watched Daniela closely as she accepted her gold medal from Brunner. The camera person must have sensed something, because he zoomed in closer at the group, as Daniela's eyes went cold and the smile left her lips. The camera angle given to the television companies only gave the back of the head of the official. Daniela's eyes read pure hatred and I just said a silent prayer as I hoped that she would hold it all together just a little longer.

The man in charge of the centre took a step forward and placed his arm on the official; they exchanged glares but nothing else. The group moved away and the winners turned to the face the raising of the flags.

Our national anthem rang out across the course and Melody gripped my hand just a little tighter. As the last bar on our anthem floated across the course Daniela's hand went to her jacket and her zip came down, her jacket was shrugged off her shoulders and the woman behind Daniela spotted it first, her hand went to her mouth, as her eyes widened in surprise.

As the camera zoomed back in, I turned to Melody. "Get the car; we're going to need to get her out of there."

By the time I had scooped up Libby, Daniela was, I thought, already destroying her career. Her wetsuit jacket never left the podium. The team manager, sensing something wrong, sent two of the male canoe team out to collect Daniela and she walked back into the centre with a couple of her team members either side of her. The same cameraman had a superb position and continued to hold the image of three of the team heading back into the centre, with Daniela in the middle displaying 'My Hero' in henna between her shoulder blades for all to see.

Every screen around the course showed that tattoo to the world. What Daniela didn't see through her tears, was that every member of the public stood and applauded her, as every step towards the complex building, we thought her own fate now sealed with the Olympic committee.

*******

To say all hell broke loose would have been a mild understatement. It turned into a full on fight between the Olympic committee and our own governing body, with the news papers acting like a boy pocking a stick into the side of the growling bear.

'My Hero' was never an advertisement and our governing body took the Olympic people to task at circumventing the canoe team management at the time to go directly to Daniela and demand it be removed a day before the finals. While all the name calling went on between the governing bodies, the television crew went over ever scrap of film they took of the event, even the stuff that eventually hit the electronic cutting room floor.

One of the cameras at the event only had the back of Daniela's head so at the time it was deemed not usable stuff. The director let it run and even got himself a promotion off the back of that one decision. Although they only had the back of Daniela's head, Mr. Kurt Brunner's face was in full view. They hired someone to lip read what he said as she stood on the podium and broke the story a few days later.

Kurt Brunner had done some research of his own; he knew that the girls either side of Daniela didn't speak any English and was hell bent on revenge. The ego of the man knew very few bounds that day, and as he placed the Gold medal over her head he leaned in thinking only Daniela could hear. In doing so, he gave the camera across the course a clear view as he told Daniela that she had won this one, but he was going to insist on her getting a drugs test at every event she was competing in.

He even smiled when he let go and said. "Remember, mud sticks, eventually."

When the news people led with this story and even had the lip reader authenticate it, the Olympic Palace in Lausanne Switzerland started to pull up the drawbridge; it stopped just long enough to allow the head of the organization to throw Mr. Kurt Brunner under the nearest bus.

Our people stomped on him as they banged on the door of the headquarters. They wanted a written apology for the shabby way Daniela was treated, and not only verbal, but a written statement. Her medal stood, since she had done no wrong, but not one person stood in front of any camera and gave Daniela an official apology. Away from the cameras, one apology was handed to our governing body to hand on to Daniela; she politely declined to accept it.

In Daniela's mind, it was the Olympic committee's own Kurt Brunner that started it all; it shouldn't be down to our own governing body to do the committee's dirty work. Off the record, the governing body agreed with her, and to this day are still trying to get Daniela back on the team.

*******

For two years Daniela kept a dignified silence; while the coaches and governing body kept all channels open to Daniela, they wanted to include her in the world championships and even the next games. Daniela went back to Oxford to finish her studies, she took part in a few inter-college slalom competitions but that was it. She knows she hurt herself when she refused to speak out; it left only one side of the story and, as we all know, when you only hear one side of any story, you can't help but judge from that.

I got on one knee in front of both our daughters and my folks at a barbecue at my folks place a month after the Olympics. Melody followed me to the ground and said yes before I even had a chance to start my speech. Neither of us could see the point in waiting, so we tied the knot six months later in England so Daniela could fit us in between her exams.

The book 'My Hero' came out a year after she finished her studies in Oxford, and the Olympic people have been doing damage control ever since. If there is anything more powerful than an Olympic organization, it's a woman seeking revenge.

Daniela's roommate was a very nice lady called Chelsea Morgan who was at Oxford studying English Language and Literature. Between Chelsea and her course professor, they sat Daniela down and got the whole story from the one person who, up until that point, had remained tight-lipped.

'My Hero' held on to the best sellers list for all of six months, and refused to drop below the top twenty for over a year after that. It was also at Daniela's insistence that the book cover was the picture I gave her on the pen drive. It seems the book hurt them more than they thought it could.

Daniela was asked to try out for the next Olympics. She respectfully declined, citing time constraints with her new job. When Melody found herself pregnant, Daniela insisted that because of her mothers age, she step down and rest through the whole pregnancy. By the time Angela Beth Henderson was born, Melody was so much into mother mode that she just left Daniela to continue to run the company.

Another promise I kept was to Daniela: three months after she finished her exams at Oxford we started the adoption process. The judge told us that it's more common than you would think. He did hold out for an autographed photo from Daniela Colson before he would officially change her name though. He told us it was for his grand-daughter; we all nodded that all knowing nod.