Page 4 of Wonderstruck

I pulled one of her curls. She pushed my shoulder.

“Oi, fuck off.” I rushed, nudging her back, thatsmug smile all over her face.

She eyed me. “Aww, you’re missing Tristan somuch; you’re even sounding like him. How sweet.” I tugged another one of her curls. “Hey—”

“Crap, where was I?” Grandpa asked the lines on his forehead deepened, stealingback our attention.

Daisy's eyes were on him in an instant. “You were bolting down the ice,Grandpa.”

“Oh yeah,” He set his mug back on the counterwith a clink. “I was bolting down the ice, and out of nowhere, Laurent swoops in from my left and steals the puck right from under me.” He blew a breath from his mouth, and even though this happened thirty-nine years ago, that breath still held so much disbelief. “I should’a seen it coming. I mean, Charles Laurent was always a rascal; he never knew when to call it quits or let someone else have their moment, ya know?”

I nodded, my eyes locked on Grandpa. It was stillamazing to me, even after having these stories be the ones we’d fall asleep when we were little, how inspired they still made me feel. How right it made everything about the path I’d chosen for myself with hockey feel. How I wanted to be this man to my grandkids one day.

Grandpa’s eyes, the same fir green that had beenpassed to me and Daisy, dulled a little when he said, “It was always his moment. It was always his credit. And, hell, if anyone tried to take that from him, you’d be benched for the next three games so you knew your place.”

I shuffled on my elbows, clearing my throat. “What made you do it then, Grandpa?”

I already knew his answer, but fuck it. It madehim happy to talk about it.

The worktop creaked underneath his weight ashe pushed himself away from it, the gravelly bottoms of his boots scraping on the tiles. Green flames lit up his eyes as he mirrored me, leaning his elbows on the island opposite me and Daisy, shrugging like what he did was nothing.“I remembered everything I was doing this for.”His finger pointed at me. “The only reason I stole the puck back andgentlyknocked him off his skates—”

“Gently?” Daisy jested. “Remember that we’veseen the tapes from that game—”

“And I did it because I thought to myself, ‘Whatkind of role model am I being if I’m gonna let another guy swoop in and take my dream away from me?’. I’d be a lousy one, if I let him keep that damn puck. And I don’t regret it. I was selfish, sure, but thinking about myself for that split second, thinking about everything I was letting myself become if I hid, was the reason we won the Stanley Cup, and the reason why I was captain for the next eight seasons after.”

I knew that come tonight I’d have sat down withthe VCR and watched that entire game from start to finish. The last timeI dusted it off from the attic and forgot the world was the night before we flew out to New York, a few days before we started Liberty Grove.

I used to picture myself in place of my Grandpawhen I watched it. I used to imagine what it would feel like—the gold and blue Knights jersey with my name on the back, the roar from the stands, the chill of the rink, the aggression bearing through everyone’s helmets and the pressure that I knew would push me to be the best version of myself out there. I used to think of him, and Daisy, and sometimes my dad, depending on how he made me feel that day, all calling my name from their seats.

And I knew if that ever happened one day, I’d have made it.

“Just don’t go doing anything like that with theLions, Finn. You ain’t earned the right to be selfish yet.” Grandpa laughed, bringing me back into the moment and a smile across my lips.

“I know my place,” I chuckled. “No risks until I’mcaptain.”

Grandpa shook his head, hisforehead scrunching with smug shadows. “Oh, you can take risks. That’s how you’ll know when you’re ready.”

“For what?”

He shrugged. “Whatever it is you see yourself aswhen you think about your future, on and off the ice.”

I don’t know what I’d do without this man in mylife. Seriously. I have no idea how I’d navigate things. Sure I had Daisy, but that was for the sibling stuff, for the heart-to-hearts when we were going through the same things. But life advice? How to be a man that would benefit the world? If Grandpawasn’t here, I’d be as good as lost. Falling from the sky without a parachute.

The hum of comfortable silence descended upon the kitchen then, as did theglow from the sunset, casting orange beams across the wooden cupboards. It was as if the world knew that we needed a quiet moment, just the three of us, beforehewalked in.

The second I recognised the familiar jingle of keys in the porch door, I looked down at my watch: 17:44 PM. Give it an hour, and he’d be back out that door again, crawling into the same cesspit he called a bar that he’d existed in all day.

Hell,everyday since we’d been back for the summer.

Clearing his throat, the sound full of disappointment, Grandpa got up from theisland. “That’s my cue. I’ll be in the stables if you need me.”

As Grandpa strode towards the back door, I had to roll my eyes. Not at him; Iwould never. No, this eye roll was for the tumbling that was coming from the entryway. The sound of his keys hitting the floor, followed by a thud, was all Daisy and I needed to look at each other and decide to head in there.

Every time I caught Daisy’s eyes, especially now that we were stuck at homewith Dad, I could see it—the weight she carried. The way her sadness clung to her, thick and heavy, just waiting for the moment she could close her bedroom door and let it spill out. It was all there, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

I wondered if she saw the same thing in me. If she noticed how my chest feltlike it was caving in every time I locked my door and killed the light, finally free to unravel.

My eyes glanced at her, finding hers already tracing my face.

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