Chapter 415: Tangers XXXIX—Super Heroes

Joe had this really annoyed look on his face when he gave me his cell phone and I thought that pretty rude considering Robbie had been through such an ordeal, and Brandi didn’t even know about it yet. “She’s all yours!” he said as if she were the heaviest burden on him that could ever be inflicted. Really, how rude!

“Hello, Brandi, this is Alex,” I said kindly, just to show Joe how to talk nice. I swear, some people were just so insensitive sometimes.

“Hi Alex,” Brandi said sounding so happy and carefree it just broke my heart. “Your accent is so cute, I just love it. Ha ha if you had been around years ago maybe I would have had a French hubby instead of a lumberjack one.”

I felt my cheeks burn and I shrugged my shoulders. “Aw. But Brandi the reason we’re calling you is because…”

“Oh wait Alex,” she interrupted me. “Are you looking at Joe right now?”

“Um, sure,” I said and I looked at Joe who had a slight frown on his face. I only saw that look on his face when a coach or a bad call from the refs really put him out.

“Does he look really irritated?” she asked.

“Um, well, yes.” I said, I couldn’t think of lying to her at the moment.

Brandi laughed. “Good!”

“Good?” I exclaimed. Now I’m sure I was frowning. “Why good?”

“Oh he’s just so bland all the time,” Brandi sniffed. “I just wanted to see if it even was possible to annoy him. I guess it is!” She squeaked. “Yay. Oh you can tell him later if you want that I know who he is, if his feelings are that hurt that is. Now what did you want to tell me?”

“Oh,” I scratched the back of my head feeling embarrassed. “Oh well it’s about Robbie, are you sitting down, I don’t know how to tell you this but…”

“Sitting down?” Brandi gasped. “Alex what are you saying? You’re not… what do you mean you don’t know how to tell me this.” Her voice rose and I had to hold the phone away from my ear. “Oh my God did something happen to him, why isn’t he calling me himself, what happened, is he hurt bad, is he dead, did you have a game I don’t know about what happened to my Robbie did you hurt my Robbie oh God why, why now of all times how could all of you let him get hurt weren’t you watching him he doesn’t know how to take care of himself sometimes!” And then she proceeded to sob.

“Brandi calm down, calm down,” I said feeling really weird now cause I didn’t know how to calm a hysterical woman down, there should be a manual for guys on that sort of thing. “Um, let me talk…”

“Oh don’t tell me to calm down where is my Robbie!” she shouted in terror and anger. “What did you do to him?”

I held the phone at arms length and frowned. “Um…”

Rob put down his pudding cup and held out his hand. “Here give her to me, Alex.”

“Gladly!” I said and I gave him the phone, now understanding Joe's mood with Brandi a little better. "I think I just made things worse."

With a roll of his eyes, Rob said, "That's cause you don't know how to treat her right." He held the phone to his ear, looking rigid and awkward because of the neck brace. "Brandi baby I'm alright, calm down, honey, I'm talking to your aren't I? Yeah, yeah, honey baby it's alright, your Robbie is fine, no they weren't just trying to scare you. Why would they? Now are you calm? You're calm? Okay, I'm just gonna talk, and everything will be okay."

Rob held out one of his hands and wiggled his fingers than he winked at us.

"Yes, I did get hurt honey," Blakie continued and he lost all the jovial flippantness in his face and it kinda amazed me to see him so serious. I mean, you don't really see Rob Blake that serious that often. "Kinda bad, well not bad, it seems worse than it is. Concussion honey, yes, no not a bad one, and my neck and shoulders, they're kinda banged up as well, and my knee probably, just bruised. No I'm not hurting honey, they gave me pills and shi- stuff so it's all good. How did it happen...." Blake grimaced. "Okay, remember I'm okay. No it didn't happen at practice. It happened at the hotel... No I didn't fall down the stairs, hey that's a pretty good guess though." He breathed in and I could even feel myself bracing for the reaction, I think all of us were by that point. "I fell out of the second story window into a dumpster."

Blake closed his eyes and held the phone away from his ear and the entire room could hear her scream. "WHAT?"

"Baby, I'm okay!" Rob said quickly into the phone and we couldn't hear Brandi anymore. "It was an accident, I don't really remember how it happened, but the point is I'm gonna be fine, and hey even better, my roadtrip is pretty much done so I can come home to you. Would you like that sweetie? Yeah I can be home and I can bother you all day it'll be great. Yes, snookums..." Blake stuck out his bottom lip in a playful pout, "Aww does Brandi miss her Bwakie, well Bwakie misses his Bwandi..... Awww punkin I..."

And there was the official cue for all of us. Even my tummy turned at the mushy gushy baby talked Robbie put on. I mean really, it sounded like he was talking to a puppy or a small child and there was so many gootchie goos and Bwandis that I could feel myself scowling. Even Danny's nose wrinkled and Drury made a "gag me" signal. Yup, we all just waved good bye to Blakie who by that point didn't even notice us anymore.

"Well at least Rob's gonna be okay," Danny said brightly as we left the hospital. All of the other guys called cabs to get back to the hotel, but Danny thought it would be great to just walk back the night being clear and warm and all. Oh please stop me before I sit on him and slap him! Of course I couldn't call a cab because of Joe's order that Dan and I be best buddies for awhile. Humph, at least the night was nice, so things weren't completely unpleasant.

"Yeah it coulda been a lot worse." I replied. And it was true, and i was grateful for Robbie's sake.

"I mean, Rob coulda died, or been paralyzed, man would ya lookit that moon!"

We stopped so Danny could look at the moon, hands on his hips. "But at least he didn't," I said. "So we shouldn't think about the bad stuff, because it didn't happen." Ah sound advice from my Mom, ah Mom.

"Sure," Dan said, "sure. Poor Brandi, scared and all that shit. Hey I didn't get it though, I mean how did Robbie fall out like that? Drury looked like Hell, something Chris did?"

"I guess Chris dropped or threw Robbie's Brandi ball out the window and he went after it," I said. "That's what Patty said. I guess Robbie really loves that ball you know?"

"I guess!" Dan said. "Hey it's kinda sweet, heh, heh, that's how much he cares for Brandi, I mean when you think about it. Kooky stuff, eh?" His brilliant grin just plain annoyed me, I mean what right did he have to gush over devotion when he himself was trying to get a married woman into his bed?

"Oh now look here, Danny," I said holding my finger out. "Don't you go talking about love and romance like that when you were going to..." I didn't get to finish my sentence however, because something more important happened. Just down the sidewalk from us, a woman began to scream.

Dan and I turned around and saw a woman tangled with a man, a young scruffy, spotty faced, pasty skinned man who had his hands on her purse tugging at it violently. The woman wouldn't let it go, and she kept screaming, "Help! Let go! Help!"

"Drop the purse before he hurts you!" Danny yelled and he ran towards them. I followed, my heart pounding, not in fear but in anger, and in excitement, because I knew that this man would not be getting away with this behavior!

"Aaah!" The woman screamed and she let go of the purse falling back and the man began running with it.

"You're not getting away you son of a bitch!" Danny bellowed and I grinned as we ran after him and saw his pale face looking nervously behind at intervals. We were fast closing the gap to him, the man obviously was in no great physical shape. My lungs filled with air, my muscles pumped, and I just boiled over with energy seeing that man within reach if we could only keep up with him.

"Drop the purse!" I yelled. "Before we get to you!" But I think I may have yelled it in French. That didn't matter though because the tone of my voice sounded suitably pissed and menacing.

"No!" The man yelled and he dropped the purse and stumbled. In that instant Danny leaped and tackled him and I joined in, holding his head onto the pavement as Dan pinned his arms behind his back. And that man was smelly, like bad coffee and wet cigarettes.

"You like that bitch? HUH!" Danny snarled. "You like picking on women?"

I twisted his ear and he cried out, so I socked him, just once. Now normally I am not a violent person or anything like that but, in this case, well what a jerk!

"OH my God!" I heard the woman yelling and I could hear her high heels clicking on the sidewalk, "Oh my God did you get him? You got him, oh you wonderful guys, you great guys!" She gasped for air, her hand on her chest and she leaned over and picked up her purse. "I'll call the cops, oh you sweethearts you didn't have to do that!" She reached into her purse and pulled out her cellphone and dialed the emergency number. "The world needs more young men like you, are you recruits for something, marines or police men?"

"Nope," I replied, "We're hockey players."

She pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows. "Oh, even better."

"Let me go man, I have connections, I have friends in high places man," The guys whined.

"Oh shut up!" I snapped, "Before I break your nose or something eh?"

"What are you guys super heroes or something?" The guy taunted. "Gay superheroes."

"Sure," Dan grinned. "Hear that Tangs? We're superheroes."

"Oof," I replied. "But we're not gay!"

"Fags," the guy snapped.

Dan, still grinning, whacked the guy on the side of his face. "Hey, I'll not have you using derogatory slurs when there's a lady present, where's your manners?"

"The cops are coming," the lady said, "You boys are angels, guardian angels!"

I felt my cheeks redden and I smiled at her. I loved getting compliments from ladies.