Page 54 of Love of the Game
“Anyway, if there’s actually some kind of curse on the team, then nothing we do should work, right? So let’s have fun, force them to play hard, and see what happens?”
What happened was turnaround. No idea if it was what I’d said that caused the momentum shift or that flukey goal from our defensemen, Cal, that tied us up under two minutes into the third. Nothing special to Cal’s shot. Simply a blast from the point that hit one of their players and then floated past the goalie in what seemed like slow motion.
With the game tied, suddenly, our bench was hyped, and their goalie was… not. The next goal was mine, and at first people didn’t know how I’d gotten it in.
I’d simply noticed the goalie’s reverse VH stance wasoff and he’d left a hole against the post by his foot, so when the puck bounced to me at the side of the net, I jammed it home as hard as I could, and it went in.
Garbage goal. But who cared? We were up by one.
In the end, my goal stood as the game winner. We added two more and beat them five-two, finally breaking the curse.
Nothing was going to topple me off of this high. We were hollering and shouting as we made it to the locker room. Our winning song was blaring, and everyone was smacking me, congratulating me for the game winner. I even got the Lion helmet as game MVP.
Then Will, one of the trainers, came over and touched my shoulder. “Coach wants to see you.”
My stomach dropped to my feet. It went through the floor when I caught the expression on the trainer’s face.
Oh fuck. What’d happened? Was it something I’d done? Was my mom okay? Had that asshole sperm donor contacted the team? Every single possibility ramped through my head. I stripped off the rest of my gear. Bearsy shoved a protein bar and water into my hands. “You’re shaking.”
No shit. The look Coach gave me when I entered the video room didn’t help. He did pat the air with his hands. “Don’t panic. Everyone’s fine.” Then he grimaced. “Mostly.”
“Just—tell me.”
He nodded. “We wanted to get to you before the reporters did so you aren’t blindsided. Jonny Eriksson took a bad fall into the boards. Broke his shoulder. He needs surgery, so he’s on his way here.”
Oh shit. I sank into a nearby chair. “What happened?”
Coach huffed. “He made the play of his life, wonthe game in overtime, then got tripped up. Just bad luck. He skated off on his own power. Isn’t concussed. Just a broken shoulder.”
“Fuck.” Jon was hurt and I wasn’t there. I set the water and protein bar on the floor and dropped my head into my hands. I had no idea what went into shoulder surgery, but I knew even minor stuff to shoulder sucked hard and was painful to work through in PT.
“He’s going to be okay,” Coach said.
I looked up and studied Coach. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He shook his head. “You’ll see on the replay. But be thankful it was his shoulder that took the impact.”
I knew the unspoken thoughts. Be thankful it wasn’t his head. Or neck. I shuddered. Yeah, I was going to watch the replay. But not yet. Because Jon washurtand I wasn’ttherewith him. “Which hospital?”
Coach rattled off the name of a hospital in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. “Look, shower and eat something before taking off.”
I picked up the protein bar and shook it.
“More than that, Williams.”
“I know.” Fuck, Fuck. I needed to be there. But Coach was right. And Jon would be exasperated if I showed up not having eaten, and then… probably call a nurse to try to order me food or something. “Thanks,” I said to Coach, “for pulling me away before the media got in.”
“You didn’t need that. Neither does Jonny. He’s a good man. So are you. Now get out of here, get the stink off you, and get some calories. Then get to him.”
So that’s what I did, as fast as I could. When I retrieved my phone, I found messages from Jon.
Hey, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. It’s not as bad as it looks on TV. I mean, I need surgery, but it’s fine. I called my parents, and Papa is coming out, so don’t worry, please.
Oh! Great goal tonight! GWG! Keep finding those holes in the goalies.
But seriously. I’m fine. Please don’t run over here if you have other things you need to do.
I reread the messages as I walked to my SUV and rolled my eyes.
