Taylor paused without rhyme nor reason. Bob waited intently for an answer, but after a few minutes he noticed Taylor had fallen asleep. Not wanted to disturb his napping pal, Bob got up and went back to the chicken wing buffet.
After piling chicken wings upon his plate, Bob sat back down at his table all by himself. Bob didn't have many friends on the Sabres, and with Taylor sleeping, he had no one to sit with. Bob munched on his snack under a cloud of loneliness, not oblivious to the snickering and pointing from his teammates. Professional hockey players can be so cruel. Lunch time was nearing its close when Taylor wandered back over to the table.
"Hey, Taylor," Bob said with a mouthful of poultry, "you had something you wanted to tell me?"
"Oh, yeah. I got traded to Vancouver. Or Philadelphia. Or somewhere. I don't remember. My plane leaves in 10 minutes, though. Nice knowing you."
Bob's world was shattered. He couldn't comprehend what he had just heard. "Are you sure? You're leaving? Forever?"
"Pretty sure," Taylor responded. "It might have just been a hallucination, though. They happen from time to time... hey, look! A pink elephant! Catch it!"
"Gentlemen!" Lindy Ruff was at the front of the room and he had something to say. The players gave him their undivided attention as soon as the last paper airplane hit the ground.
"Management has made a trade. Don't ask me why, but we've made a three-way deal with Vancouver and Philadelphia. Taylor, you are on your way to Vancouver. Erik, get ready to go to Philly. Good luck."
Erik Rasmussen was heartbroken, as he had hoped to go to Vancouver to be with his "friend" Donald Brashear. However, he had not let Lindy finish.
"I think Philadelphia is also getting that Brashear kid from Vancouver. Who cares, though?"
"I CARE!" Erik burst out in tears of happiness. "I CARE!" He ran out of the room like a giddy schoolgirl, never to be seen by the rest of the Sabres again.
A confused player shouted at Lindy. "What are we getting?"
"Umm... this is the hard part... we're getting the corpse of Dan Cloutier from Vancouver, and we're getting a dozen cheesesteaks from Philadelphia. Oh, and the Liberty Bell."
A grumble of disapproval reigned over the room as Taylor waved goodbye to Bob and the rest of the Sabres and walked out the door. Bob didn't know what to do, so he simply put his head down and cried. He cried like he had never cried before. He cried and cried and cried. Then he cried some more. There was a lot of crying on Bob's behalf.
Bob felt no reason to go on. He had no job other than to keep the end of the bench warm, he was not welcome in his homeland of Canada, and he now had lost his only friend.
"Dear world," Bob shakily began to write on his Hello Kitty stationary. "I guess this is goodbye..."
Chapter 15 - Day of Reckoning