Chapter 384: Joey XXI—Son of a…

Joe heard some of the things that Jonathan said out there, and the rest of the stuff he heard from his teammates second hand. That boy had been endowed with a goalie’s mouth, no doubt about that and it seemed to be working for him. Jonathan had faced three times the amount of shots Steve Hartley had, and had put on an impressive display of shut out hockey to show for it. Still, Joe didn’t approve of the boy using such colorful language, to put it lightly, at such a young age and in a charity game at that, no matter how it seemed to be helping the team.

“We just have a little less than half a period left,” Drury replied in his monotone voice and he shrugged. “Let the kid finish it off his way, he’s pretty good.” A small grin from Chris and Joe shook his head.

“I don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Joe said. Although the main thing on his mind was what Michele had told him after she’d hit him. How bad could Debbie’s worries be, how serious were they? Had she just voiced her opinion to Michele or to the whole bench? She couldn’t possibly be feeling insecure about Cecile in a stupid hockey game could she? The girl was like a little sister to him, surely Debbie understood that!

“Well, sticks and stones Joe, right?” Drury said with a devilish grin. “It’s not like he’s hurting anyone really. It’s just a game.”

Of course it’s just a game, Joe thought. He would tell Debbie that later if she still felt bad about Cecile and this whole business, felt bad about losing. He couldn’t worry about it too much, for one thing, he had to consider who had told him this. A month’s paycheck, Michele Roy was just as competitive as her husband. If that were true then she’d probably stoop to anything to insure her team a little bit of breathing room. Hamstringing his line, whether physically or emotionally would do just that.

“Well what to you think, Cecile?” Joe asked his nanny and Cecile yawned and opened her eyes. The girl looked as if she needed a good drink of water and a nap. She resembled a pressed and dried flower that had had water spilled on it. Real soggy looking, that would be the best description of her.

“I don’t know,” Cecile said dully. “I don’t want to think about it.”

Joe patted her on the back and rubbed his hand over it a little. “We’ll let him finish his game then, so we can all go home.”

Cecile yawned a long slow yawn. “Sounds great.”

“Heh, I didn’t know the kid had that much character,” Drury laughed as their line took to the ice. “He’s one nasty little boy.”

“I don’t think vulgarity counts as character,” Cecile snipped and Joe grinned, ah the sound of the grumpy tired Catholic girl coming out. He wondered if Danny would take her out for dinner after the game and what kind of date would he have. He exchanged amused looks with Drury and Joe slunk back to the wing to let Drury have the face off.

They scrambled in the zone, and Joe felt a little anxious as they took the play into the offensive zone. He saw Steve Hartley’s dark eyes and he wondered if the boy was worried at all. He caught Cecile’s eye as she scrambled to the goal crease. Yeah this would be a perfect place to set her up for… He had barely let the puck go in a pass when it was snapped up by Michele Roy.

“Aw hell,” Joe exclaimed as the small woman broke free in a mad tear down the ice towards her son. Rob Blake took the time to laugh before he went after her and it didn’t look to Joe that he would catch Michele before she reached Jonathan. His stomach twisted with worry when he saw the collision. The boy had charged out of his crease in a senseless way his father sometimes did and slammed full force into his mother. The sudden silence in the building betrayed the worry also in the hearts of the audience. The night could really be blown if Michele didn’t get up, or Jonathan.

Joe spat and skated to the crumpled pair. Jonathan had rolled off her and his helmet lay twinkling on the ice, his hair twirled and dripping with sweat. “Oh God Mom!” Jonathan moaned. “Please don’t be hurt!”

Joe could see Michele’s hand move, her leg, and Jonathan had tossed off his glove and his eyes were full of tears as he patted his mother on the cheek. “She okay?” Joe called out as he skated forward. He could hear Michele’s voice now not saying anything but whimpering, high and pleading. He imagined she had the wind knocked out of her or perhaps a bruised ligament.

“I don’t know,” Jonathan moaned, “Mom please don’t cry I didn’t mean it!”

Joe kneeled next to them and he motioned for the team trainer. Michele’s eyes were closed and her face pulled in a pained grimace, tears fell from her eyes. “Where are you hurt Michele?” Joe asked feeling horrible that he’d even allowed this game to happen in the first place.

“Mom I’m so sorry for everything!” Jonathan whimpered, “Mom please forgive me! I’ll never do anything bad again just please don’t be hurt!”

Joe frowned, the sounds she made, well, they sounded almost too kittenish to be sobs, and he raised his eyebrows. “Michele?”

Like sapphire jewels her eyes twinkled when she opened them and a smile spread on her lips, obvious now, she was laughing. “Scared you, you little shit,” she grinned.

Um, yeah, Joe wanted to throttle that woman’s skinny neck for making him worry. He looked at the trainer who had just arrived and he held up his hand, “She’s okay.” He then grabbed Michele’s hand and he began to pull her to her feet. As she stood up the audience broke into applause.

“MAW-UM!” Jonathan howled his face scarlet as he stood up and he crossed his arms. “THAT’S NOT NICE!”

“Well neither were you earlier,” Michele sniffed. “Serves you right.”

“Mom I thought you were hurt!” He exclaimed. “I thought I hurt you! You’re not hurt? You’re okay then?”

Michele answered him in French, in an affectionate tone, and she grabbed his cheeks in her hands and gave the boy a big kiss. Jonathan hugged her and then he pushed her away. “Don’t do that again, Mom!” he grumped in English. “You can’t do those things to your kids! It’s not fair!”

“Ooo life isn’t fair,” she replied ruffling his sopping hair. She picked up his helmet and handed it to him. “Now let’s finish this game, yes?”

“Hey don’t think I’m gonna go easy on you guys just cause I got scared!” Jonathan cried out.

“Well we won’t go easy either,” Michele replied. “In fact I’ll tell them to pepper you with pucks bebe.” The absolute glee on Michele’s face reminded Joe of some deranged psycho preparing for a kill.

“Yeah just try to scare me,” Jonathan replied. “Like I said I ain’t gonna shut my mouth on any of you!” The boy nodded and narrowed his eyes, looking like Patrick on the warpath.

“Oo,” Michele giggled. “You will be annihilated, you understand?” Her voice dripped with velvety, honey poison.

Joe scowled. The woman really wanted to have a fight with her boy didn’t she?

“Ha!” Jonathan snipped. “Is that a declaration of war?” His tone of voice boomed with a playful mocking of her accent but his eyes seemed to dazzle with something almost close to malice and power lust.

Michele grinned, “If you like,” she winked. “War.”

Joe threw up his arms and skated back to the bench. Yeah, that family was insane…

When he went back to the bench there were a little over six and a half minutes left in the game. He didn’t know what Michele told her team when she returned but true to her word, the next shift on the ice against Jonathan had a mission to score. The world felt raucous and exhausting for the twenty second shift as Jonathan made a stick, pad and finally a glove save on the line and he held the puck for a whistle. Joe squinted and saw Derek Morris say something to Jonathan and the boy replied with one hand on his hip and whatever he said made Morris blanch and skate away. Joe shook his head.

“Hey Dad, Jonathan’s doing pretty good,” Jana Roy exclaimed holding onto her microphone and tossing free Avalanche t-shirts to the audience. “Dad what if he gets a shut…”

“Shh!” Patrick replied, and he flung a handful of shirts to the crowd.

“Oh right,” Jana said, “Sorry Dad, sorry Jonathan I almost said shut out.”

Patrick groaned.

Joe watched two more shifts go by, from the bench and it all seemed a repeat of the same story. Team white kept attacking furiously and Jonathan just would not let anything get by him. To Joe, it looked like the men had taken all of the sugar coating off their shots too, and were launching some pretty good missiles. Jonathan just kept on replying with saves and plus, his mouth seemed to be sending everyone back to the bench either traumatized or amazed.

Oh for heavens sake! If he heard, “Did you hear what that boy said to so and so?” one more time…

“There’ll be no living with your brother now,” Patrick said after one particularly flashy save by Jonathan and the boy held the puck aloft to the eternal delight of the crowds.

“Indubitably,” Jana Roy said solemnly.

“Hey I taught her that word!” Mike Keane laughed as he skated by the bench, talking to Josefina. “The little squirt does listen to me.”

“Sweet,” Jo replied in a sarcastic voice. “Let’s concentrate on scoring on that punk, though, he called me a boy toy!”

Joe shook his head and he looked at Drury as they hopped over the boards, he noted with some amusement that Cecile had also swung her long leg over and jumped off as skillfully as a man, without even going to the open door. “Dru,” he said.

“Yup?”

Joe nodded. “There’s a good chance they’ll tie it up sooner or later, Jonathan’s really pissing them off, someone’s bound to get a little revenge, so let’s pad our score hm?” Drury nodded with a grimace. Joe looked at Cecile to tell her the same thing but her wide blinking eyes and the way she nodded showed that she’d been listening as well. “Alright let’s do it!” Joe barked.

He won the face off and dropped the puck to a defenseman and they scrambled over the neutral zone until Joe found himself again with the puck. He saw Drury at the boards and Joe passed it to him. Derek Morris tried squeezing him off but Chris managed to wriggle through. Cecile had been left unguarded and Joe smiled to see the ensuing two on oh. He skated behind, muttering under his breath and Drury took the first shot, and Steve Hartley made a magnificent sprawling save on it but the puck bounced off him and then to Cecile who wasted no time in slamming the goal home.

The scream that left the girl’s lips was shrill and euphoric and Joe hugged her tightly. “Is that a hat trick?” she squealed. “Did I get one? Does that count? Does it?” Joe could barely understand the rest of what else she said and he laughed as Drury, whose face glowed with enthusiasm, lifted her off the ice and carried her back to the bench, dropping her into a mass of congratulatory arms.

A few hats did flutter onto the ice, and Cecile wriggled out of Rory’s embrace to snatch one. She picked it up and waved it giggling before she tossed it back on the ice for someone else to clean up. “Oh Danny’s gonna be so mad,” Joe said with a grin.

“Oh, don’t say that!” Cecile breathed and she stood up and Joe could see her peering over at Team White’s bench. He saw Danny, a smile on his face as big as a dolphin’s and he waved. Cecile waved back and Joe saw Dan mouth out, “I love you.”

“Well we got a two goal lead,” Rory grinned rubbing her hands together. “We’re gonna win this game!”

Joe nodded. Indeed they were.

Although Jonathan didn’t seem all too grateful the next time Joe and his line were on the ice next. “We got you some breathing space, kid,” Joe said casually to the boy before he went for the face off.

“Eh like I needed it,” Jonathan replied.

Joe raised his eyebrows. “A thank you would be nice!”

Jonathan shrugged. “Sure whatever. Like I said I had what I needed to begin with anyway.”

Joe half grinned, wanting to cuff the kid. “Hey how about I toss one in on you, if you want that one goal lead so badly.”

“Yeah you could try but you won’t score, Quoteless,” Jonathan replied.

Punk!

Joe took the face off feeling bristled and aggravated, the kid’s attitude sticking in his craw. Not even Patty had an attitude that bad when it concerned his teammates! Jonathan needed a good lesson learned, but Joe really wanted to shake it off and go on with life. After all, Jonathan being just a kid; it was silly to want to settle a score with him, his own teammate.

But Joe couldn’t let it go. His jaw tightened as he sat on the bench again, watching Jonathan continue to make save after save. Steve Hartley did very well too, but the crowd seemed to have adopted Jonathan chanting “Roy, Roy, Roy” after every nice save, no doubt inflating the boy’s already overwhelming ego. Oh yeah, he really wanted to teach the kid…

It happened in the waning seconds of the period. They still had their two goal lead, and with less than ten seconds to go Joe couldn’t help it. Cold sweat prickling on his brow for the traitorous act he was about to commit but had to do, Joe spun around in his own zone and fired a blistering wrist shot straight at Jonathan. Not even a second elapsed when that puck fired past Jonathan’s catching glove and then… PING!

“Son of a bitch!” Joe cried as the puck fell harmlessly into the blue crease and the buzzer rang the end of the game.

The crowd stood up and cheered, the teams spilled of the benches, women hugging their husbands and boyfriends and shaking hands and through it all, Joe stared at Jonathan Roy who lay on his back in the crease, cackling like a mad scientist alone in his lab during the late hours of the night. Heated anger boiled on his cheeks and he narrowed his eyes. The boy continued to laugh, tossed his helmet off, cackled, “MWAAHAHAHA MOOHAHAHA!”

Ah he’s young; he’ll always have this to talk about whatever else may happen in his life, he’ll always be able to say Joe Sakic once rang one off the post behind him. Joe grinned. He couldn’t remember ever having a comparable experience as a kid. Let the kid have his moment. He leaned on his stick, and behind him he could hear Danny and Cecile laughing and talking with each other and everyone else as well. He began to skate towards Jonathan to congratulate the kid on a great game, but then he stopped. Frowning, he realized that the kid was still cackling with as much deranged enthusiasm.

Now that couldn’t be normal.

“Michele!” Joe barked, and the Frenchwoman answered immediately at his elbow, he hadn’t even noticed her standing there.

“Yes Joe?” she replied in a cautious voice.

“Go get your boy,” He said.

“MWAHAHAHA BWAHAHAHA!”

Joe skated a little closer to the boy whose laughter only got more loud and unhinged. Michele squeaked, “No I don’t think I want to Joe, yes? He’s scaring me, that’s not my baby, some demon has taken him from me.”

Joe grimaced. He wanted to tell her to stop being silly and get her son, but he couldn’t say he didn’t think she was being all that melodramatic. He sure as hell didn’t want to touch the kid. “Tangs! Parker!” Joe bellowed. And both skated to them, eyes wide and waiting for a command. “Get the kid; get him into a locker room.”

“Humph,” Tangers replied and he and Parker went to Jonathan. It looked like Alex tried to talk some sense into the boy who only cackled in reply. Alex shrugged and looked at Parker and then Alex took a leg and Parker took his other leg and they dragged him over the ice, cackling and muttering, and then Parker picked up the kid and took him back into the locker room.

“Well that’s that,” Joe said looking at Michele. “So did you have fun Mimi?”

Michele gulped and smiled weakly. “I guess… yes of course…”