Chapter 481: Modo XXVII—Unusual
That morning, Mike woke up and he could feel himself energized and euphoric, and with a sense of peace he had not found in quite literally years. For once he opened his eyes, stretched, yawned, looked at the cold empty pillow next to him and he smiled. He’d worried about possibly giving in easily to Phil on the first date, waking up with the uncertainty of a one night stand or trampled feelings and none of that happened. After a wonderful dinner, great conversation, a game of pool down the street, they parted with a strong hug, a kiss on the cheek and a jovial smile from Phil who said, “I can’t wait until we do this again. Call me before I call you.” A wink and he disappeared into his car.
Call me before I call you.
That seemed more than a light promise, it seemed a certainty.
No it’s too early to fall in love.
Modano laughed as he crawled out of bed. It’s too early for anything, and Phil understood that. Right now they could be happy and comfortable with a tight friendship that could possibly be something more.
I could be happy now!
It did cross his mind to call up Alex Tanguay and thank him a million times over for “unloading” Phil upon him, but he decided not to. He could tell Alex soon enough when they saw each other again.
Of course when they did see each other again, Mike couldn’t have predicted the insidious effects of the mysterious chemical leak in the practice facility. What that facilitated was a call back from Phil sooner than either of them had probably expected. Only after they’d left the hospital did Mike have access to his cell phone and it rang as soon as he clicked it on. “All I’m good for is an inside scoop, huh?” Mike teased Phil’s eager questions about the interested.
“Well right now you are!” Phil exclaimed.
Modano laughed and they continued with a great conversation about last night, maybe meeting again the day after tomorrow, how he was feeling and then the details of what happened, well enough for a news report.
Things finally seemed to be great! Modano felt a little nervous, however, and he told himself that he couldn’t read too much into it, he couldn’t rest too much upon it. Don’t get so high so fast, and you won’t hit the ground as hard.
He did hit the ground in a way, stung when he heard that terrible word leave Joe Sakic’s lips. “Fag”. Of course Joe was obviously drunk, once drunk you could not expect someone to react to things as they usually would. Still, the word seemed to be the first thing that left Joe’s mouth. “Fag.” And Joe’s face twisted into a drunken ugly mask of revulsion, a primitive phobic reaction to the very mention of a man touching another.
So this resided in the darkest corner of Joe’s heart? Even Joe Sakic could feel this way? Mike’s cheeks reddened and he never felt so embarrassed in his life. All of his dreaming and certainty about Joe’s affections had been such a delusion. And what could that mean about what he felt with Phil?
Chris Drury snapped something at Joe, angry, petulant as usual and Modano peered through the fog in his mind to see that really Joe was taunting a younger player, much as one would razz a rookie. I can’t read too much into this, he thought. I can’t read into things like I usually do.
Why the hell would Joe be drunk anyway?
With one thought he brought to mind Keating’s laugh, his smile and beautiful eyes. It couldn’t matter to him anymore the why’s and where’s of Joe Sakic’s life. Joe had his own reasons to be drunk he was sure, and one of the main ones was more than likely, Kirk Muller. Modano decided he wouldn’t confront Kirk about it either, after all, being the Captain, Sakic didn’t need a babysitter.
The first period couldn’t be anymore horrible and but Modano was not at all surprised by it. The only thing that bothered him was not pitching in and scoring a goal to at least inspire the team some. Joe Sakic still playing in his condition had to be one of the most irresponsible coaching moves ever, but there was nothing he could do about it.
During the first intermission, they threw out Alex Tanguay to do the television interview and Hartley did a job of tic tac toe on the dry erase board to try to find a solution to this situation. For his part, Sakic spent a lot of time in the bathroom, and then somehow got his hands on a cold beer, flaunting it as he chugged it down.
“Sakic I am going to bench you!” Hartley exclaimed in exasperation.
Kicking the words off with a belch, Sakic said in a clear drawl, “Yeah and then you’re gonna miss the two goals Im’a score in the second, cause….” He blinked, “cause Im’a score two goals in the second. You you you guys can lay a bet on that. Two goals. Good gamble, Coach aye? If I don’t get two goals in the second, you can,” he burped again, “scratch me for the next week! It’s a deal?”
Modano could never even imagine Joe Sakic in this state was possible. No longer did he look the classy, quoteless and harmlessly sweet. He just seemed like a drunk thug, and one with the streak of a bully at that
“Come on Coach,” Sakic prodded, “You’re a gambling man.”
And indeed Hartley turned out to be because they skated onto the ice to start the second period with Joe Sakic still in the line up and one more beer heavier. Different from the first period, however, was Joe’s attitude. Whereas in the first Joe had been more vocal and boisterous, now he remained quiet, and he seemed to be almost brooding. Modano couldn’t help but watch him nervously, whether he was on the bench or the ice.
How much did he not know about Sakic? How much more was there to learn as a teammate? How much did he want to know? Mike leaned over the boards and watched a beautiful passing play, Drury to Tanguay, to Sakic, to Drury who instead of taking the shot sent it back to Joe’s stick. Without hesitation Sakic unleashed a wrist shot that found its way through the goaltender’s five hole and into the net. The bench erupted in cheers, the audience as well, and Sakic held up his stick and skated away from any congratulations.
When he approached the bench his lips seemed tight and bloodless, his eyes almost narrowed. And when Modano vocalized appreciation of the goal, Sakic replied, “We’re still losing aren’t we?”
Modano looked up at the scoreboard. Of course they were.
Patrick
remained solid, the defense as well and Modano put his mind into skating and
trying to contribute his own goal into the pot. Hartley had him centering a
line with Hejduk, and Modano found it actually quite a joy to trade passes with
the Czech, and he watched with admiration the stick work
Next shift Modano watched as Joe dropped a pass that sat by itself for two juicy seconds before being snapped up by Chris Drury who deked around an opponent and then buried a goal. Modano smiled as they came back to the bench. “That’s the way to redeem yourself,” Joe said to Drury who nodded. “But we ain’t even yet aye? Another one, we need another one boys.”
Modano felt
inspired enough to want to be the one to deliver that go ahead. He could taste
it. Unfortunately a bounce off the boards sent
Patrick’s eyes which had been half closed and contented when he’d caught the damn thing, now widened to the size of large marbles. “Merde! Now I scored on myself!”
“Patrick!” Modano exclaimed in horror.
Patrick hadn’t moved from his position, he sat as if frozen his eyes wide, his cheeks scarlet as the crowd groaned and buzzed. “I can’t believe I did that!” Patrick muttered when Modano skated to him. “I should be shot!”
Modano grimaced, “We’ll get it back, Patty, just don’t let anything else in. We can’t afford another cheap one.”
“You’re telling me,” Patrick sighed.
Oddly
enough, back on the bench, no one mentioned a thing about Patrick’s mistake.
One thing Mike knew was that in
He’s a star, Modano thought, and the team can’t afford to admit he’d made that mistake. Not right now anyway.
That didn’t change the fact that right now, the building was quiet and tense. Mike knew the sound of a crowd sitting on their hands, waiting for salvation or disaster to occur. Near the end of the period, Hartley put Mike on a line with Joe and Tanguay. Mike could only concentrate on Joe, waiting for that perfect pass to come to his stick. The pass came from Tanguay, and Modano couldn’t shoot it, instead he snapped the puck to Sakic who fired it, hit the goalie, collected the rebound and scored.
Now the building exploded. It felt so good to see that goal, that it felt like they’d gone ahead instead of simply tying the game again. Both Modano and Alex rushed to Joe’s side to hug him and Joe merely barked. “Don’t you dare cuddle me!”
Modano backed up, still smiling and he exchanged glances with Alex who also seemed amused by that. They moved aside as Rob Blake skated in and the smile on his face was so adoring that Modano couldn’t imagine how anyone could resist that! But when he reached for Sakic, Joe snarled. “I said don’t cuddle me!”
Blake laughed.
“Come on Captain!” Alex Tanguay grinned skating alongside Joe and he reached for him.
“What’d I say about cuddling!” Joe barked.
Once at the bench however, Joe snagged his water bottle, took a long swig and then tossing it to the ground he bellowed. “FOOTE!”
“Yeah captain?” Adam replied.
“CUDDLE ME!” Joe snapped.
And Footer gave him a warm bear hug.
When the period ended, Joe stomped through the hallway to the locker room ignoring any and all compliments on his goals. “Eh I need to shave,” he said to a random equipment manager on his way through the door.
Modano sat down on the bench with a water bottle and the team gathered around and listened to the coach’s praise on their defense and his optimistic plan for how they will bounce back and win in the third period.
“But Most importantly,” Hartley said, “We need Joey to… to… where’s Joey?”
“Joey!” Foote called into the bathroom. “Get your butt out here Captain!”
“Why?” Joe barked.
“We need you for the game plan!” Hartley called.
“What I scored,” Joe replied. “Leave me alone, I’m shaving.”
Obviously Joe Sakic was not in a mood to be bothered.
Mike really felt unnerved and awed by this. Really, Joe Sakic drunk seemed to be playing as well as Joe Sakic sober the difference seemed to be a matter of manners, of which drunken Joe Sakic had none. I don’t know this Joe, Modano kept thinking to himself, and I never knew him at all.
It felt a little bitter under his tongue to think about that, but he knew he couldn’t just sit around and feel the loss of something he’d never had. I can lay Joe to rest now, can I? He asked himself. I can put him away now, can’t I? Because I never knew him, because I was so wrong.
With things
running so tight in the third, Hartley ordered all of them to behave on the
bench, and that means you Danny,
“He tried to take out Joe’s knee, I saw it,” Dan grumbled.
“I don’t need a body guard,” Sakic replied and he wiped his nose on his sleeve.
It happened
when Modano found himself yet again on a line with Joe. They took the play all
the way into
To his credit, Drury only tottered and he whirled around on his skates and did not back down. Even though Bertuzzi more than likely had a good fifty pounds on the feisty winger, Chris stuck his nose and chin in the air and puffing his chest skated into Todd’s face. “Do that to my face, pussy!” Drury snarled.
“Yeah go lick your own,” Bertuzzi replied and he shoved Chris with two hands, “What are you gonna do about it college boy?”
Chris scowled but before he could say anything, Sakic skated in between them. “Lay off Todd you’re not baiting any of today, you see?”
“Oh and you’re going to teach me my place?” Bertuzzi grinned.
“Fuck you,” Sakic replied, “Really.”
It seemed the end of that because Bertuzzi seemed momentarily at a loss for words. Not that the words held any power or meaning to Todd, Modano knew, he assumed however that Bertuzzi must have been more surprised that Sakic even knew how to cuss. Sakic began to skate away, and Modano and Chris exchanged glances, Chris had a smirk on his face and he mouthed out, “Woah!”
Yeah how I feel exactly Modano thought.
“Yeah go back to sucking your coach’s cock,” Bertuzzi snapped.
Modano looked in astonishment at Todd but the more amazing thing came from Sakic who immediately went into action. Joe turned and glaring daggers, snarled, “You’ ready for more than words sweetheart?”
“Anytime,” Bertuzzi grinned.
Joe charged forward, Bertuzzi dropped his gloves, the crowd screamed, Drury reached over and snatched Joe’s helmet with its face guard off his head, Joe dropped his gloves, the crowed screamed even louder. “C’mere!” Joe barked and then he pounced on one of the biggest power forwards in the game of hockey.