Page 43 of Keeping the Score

13

ANDI

“Ford Archibald makes it look so easy—he just goes down on his knees and swallows it up.”

Wait, what? My attention was distracted from the TV by Tilly, but I look back. What the hell are they talking about?

Oh. Ford just made a nice save.

Do these hockey announcers know how dirty they sound? Does Ford know what they say about him? Knowing him and his dirty mind, he’d love it.

It’s the first game of the regular season. Ford’s in net, and the Storm are leading one-nothing early in the first period.

I don’t know much about hockey, but I’m watching anyway. And I’m making Tilly watch because she should see her dad play hockey.

Just kidding. She’s too busy sucking on her toes.

She’s lying on the floor and I’m sitting cross-legged in front of her with a view of the TV. I give her a tickle and am rewarded with a baby giggle. That has to be the best sound in the world. It makes me smile.

I watched Ford at the start of the game go through his routine—part of it is looking rapidly side to side only moving hiseyeballs. It’s like the eye exercises he does and definitely looks odd.

It’s weird to think all those players were just here in Ford’s condo yesterday. They seem like good guys. They threw a shower for Ford! That made my heart go all squishy. They were all so easy with each other, like a family, but with some good-natured ragging… also like a family.

The crowd on TV starts roaring and I look up again. My eyes fly open wide. Ford is out of his net,wayout of his net, as a player on the other team comes in on him with the puck.What is he doing?It happens fast, but Ford goes down, the other player trips over him and falls. I gasp, my hands going to my mouth.

He’s okay. He gets up. But another player from the Caribou hits him and he goes down again, his mask flying off.

“Oh my God!”

The whistle blows sharply and the play halts. I can hear the ref yelling, “Are you okay?” at Ford. I watch with my heart in my throat as he gets up, retrieves his mask, and then, in his trademark move, shakes his hair back. I hear the panties of women all over North America dropping.

He seems to be okay. He goes to the net to squirt water on top of his head, fastens his mask back in place, skates around a bit, then positions himself in the goal to prepare for the faceoff.

Holy shit. Why did he do that?

“Your dad is crazy,” I tell Tilly. “But you’ll find that out when you get bigger.”

Well, I guess he may have saved a goal with that daredevil move. As I watch, he makes save after save. The TV announcers are beside themselves with wonderment. I don’t know enough to be impressed, but after a while even I can tell he’s on fire tonight.

I’m so happy for him! It’s a great start to the season.

While he’s protecting the Storm’s net, his teammates are scoring goals at the other end. By the middle of the third period, it’s four-nothing for the Storm.

“He could get a shutout!” I tell Tilly. I need to get her to bed, but I’m having a hard time moving away from the TV. She’s cradled in my arms, a little drowsy from the bottle she just sucked back. I turn down the volume of the TV and stand to walk around with her, still watching intently.

As the Caribou pelt the Storm net with pucks, the announcers say, “And Archibald’s down on his knees again! He likes to go down.”

Jesus. This is giving me extremely inappropriate thoughts about Ford.

And then it happens. The puck gets past Ford and into the net.

Damn!

Ford shakes his head and skates back and forth in front of the net.

So much for the shutout. Oh well. They’re still going to win. Probably.

I get Tilly into her bed, turn on the monitor, and hustle back to the TV to catch the end of the game. It ends up five-one for the Storm, so yay! Great start to the season. And Ford only let in one goal!

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