The Family House

The Family House 2 Nathan House had been something of an athlete in his youth.He wasn't blessed with an abundance of natural gifts, but anyone who competed with or against him back then would nod and acknowledge, "He does okay," a reasonably strong endorsement in northern New England.But Nathan never expected that his quest to remain an athlete in early middle age would take him far from home and put him directly in the path of a deadly machine that threatened to tear him away from his beloved family.Like many kids born and raised in Maine, he strapped on his skates and bundled up for pond hockey as soon as he could wobble around on the blades as the ice solidified on a mid-November morning.Average sized from toddlerhood, he grew to be just big enough, barely fast enough, narrowly skilled enough, and plenty determined enough to blend in on his clunky high school team.They won a few more games than they lost on lumpy rinks in chilly, barn-like structures scattered through the small towns of the Moose River Valley and the Highlands, venturing as far as the Mid-Coast, Down East, and even the big city of Portland to lose in the district quarterfinals at the end of his senior season.