Chapter 199: Foppa XV—Aftershock
Peter’s first reaction when he felt the rumbling underneath his skates was to fall. It registered quickly that they were experiencing an earthquake and he had found himself imagining how cruel it was and somehow fitting that they would all die buried in the rubble of a hockey arena clad in their gear. When it stopped, he had felt instant relief, it wasn’t so bad. He had looked at Blakie who was grinning.
“Hey,” he said in a low voice, “cool an earthquake.”
“Is that
all?” Peter asked. Blake would know, he lived with
them in
Blake nodded, “It feels like a small one it shouldn’t…”
And that’s when things got really weird. The sounds, the screams, the intensely cold temperatures, then a pane of glass shattering, and then Joey screaming into the dead silence of the arena, “You don’t exist!”
Peter looked at Joe at the other end of the ice, he was pressed against Adam Foote and then he noticed that the glass was swaying. “Oh shit Robbie!” Peter said watching as frightened fans began to run up the aisles.
Before Robbie said a thing the glass exploded. Forsberg closed his eyes, felt the sting on his cheek and he opened them, hearing excited voices, some people crying the chattering of those in shock.
“Jesus!” Blake said. “Is anyone hurt?”
Peter swallowed and stood up, Blake held onto his arm as he stood up too. Peter looked around; saw no one in obvious distress. How lucky was that?
“Oh Pete, you’re bleeding,” Blake said.
Peter frowned and touched his finger to the sting on his cheek; he looked at the droplets of blood. “It’s not that deep,” Peter said, “It feels like a paper cut.”
In truth he was more worried about Joe. You don’t exist? Why would he scream something like that? And he had been pressed on Footer almost like a frightened child would cling to his mother. That certainly wasn’t the Joey he knew. He saw Joe standing a few feet away from Patty on the ice, watching the goalie as he was running his hand up and down one of the goalposts.
Joe was skating back now, and at a speed where Peter was bumped into by him. He steadied Joe, felt how cold he was, and he could see him trembling. “Joe?” Peter said, “Are you okay?”
Peter saw Joe’s helpless, pale face and his trembling, gray blue eyes. “Can you hold onto me until we get into the locker room,” Joe said in a weak voice, “I think I’m gonna throw up or go insane and I don’t want to do it in front of everyone….”
“Sure,”
Peter said, now feeling sad and frightened that Joe was so obviously distraught
over such a little earthquake. True, he wouldn’t think of
He put his arm around Joe’s shoulders and felt Joe’s arm slide around his waist, Joe was dripping sweat but Peter could feel the cold fear emanating from his body, and he could feel how violent his trembling had become. Peter shook his head, said quietly to him, “Joey, relax. Look Blakie’s been through tons of earthquakes and he said that this one was nothing.”
“It wasn’t an earthquake,” Joe said in a quick voice.
Peter frowned, ignored the queries from worried teammates as he helped Joe into the locker room, and he settled Joe onto a bench. Joe was looking down at his lap, tangling his fingers in his sweat soaked hair. “I can’t believe it… it’s not true..” he muttered.
“Joe!” Peter exclaimed. Joe being helpless? This was not a possibility! “Joe listen to me!”
“Huh?” Joe said looking up at him.
Peter leaned forward and pressed his hands into Joe’s cold cheeks, “It was just an earthquake. And a small one! Don’t be scared of something that probably didn’t do much else but break some glass.”
Joe swallowed. “I..” he said.
That’s when he heard Patty. Peter frowned and turned around when he heard the goalie singing a jaunty French tune. Only Patty would be pleased at a time like this! “Patty?” Peter said and then he stumbled as he felt Joe stand up and shove him out of the way.
“Are you NUTS!” Joe yelled at Patrick, pointing at him.
Patrick raised his eyebrows, tossed his white mask onto the bench and grinned. “What?” he asked. “You’re asking me? I’m not the one who spit on them my friend.”
“OH GOD!” Joe yelled and he staggered away from everyone, stumbled into the bathroom. Pat Karns and a couple other teammates were quick to follow him.
Peter couldn’t stop scowling and he looked at Patty. “What was that about?”
The smile was gone from Patty’s face, and he was grimacing, looking like a little boy who was about to get spanked and didn’t much like it. “Joey. It isn’t his fault, but he didn’t know what he was doing… and it’s my fault. Yes, I accept that.”
“Are you nuts?” Peter asked realizing he was sounding like Joe from just a few seconds ago. “What are you talking about?”
Patty shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, they are complacent now and no one is hurt.”
Peter sighed. “Hey Robbie,” he said.
Blake blinked, grinned. “Yeah?”
“Is that how bad it’s gonna be?”
Blake shrugged. “I don’t know, sometimes there’s aftershocks but only after the really big ones.”
It was a zoo in the locker room after the game. The hot water in the showers only worked in brief spurts and there were droves of reporters cramming every inch of free space, desperate for an interview about the quake. The hysteria only tripled when they were finally dressed and washed and everyone had turned on their cell phones. At least from what they were told, the earthquake was indeed a mild one. The only serious damage done anywhere seemed to be the broken glass in the arena, and similar incidents throughout the city.
Peter’s cell shrilled as soon as he had turned it on. He answered it.
“Peter!” it was Josefina. Peter felt his heart warm over when he heard the terrified tone in her voice. If he ever thought he could melt with bliss, it was at that moment.
“Yeah?” he said, knowing he had a goofy grin on his face.
“Yeah?” Jo said with a suddenly irritated edge, “Yeah?! You could have died I was scared out of my panties and you just say, yeah?”
Peter withheld the urge to laugh. “So does that mean you’re not wearing any panties?” he whispered, imagining her luscious….
“Well I guess that means you’re okay!” Jo snapped and he heard the click and tone of her hanging up.
Peter grinned and ran his fingers over the front of the phone and slipped it into his pocket. He looked at Robbie who had his eyebrows raised.
“Heh,” Robbie said. “What you smiling at?”
“She’s nuts about me,” Peter said. “Wouldn’t you be grinning?”
Peter watched Joe warily as they walked down the corridors of the hotel. Joe had asked him in a rather subdued tone earlier if it would be alright if he roomed with him tonight. Peter had asked Joe why, and of course it would be alright with him, he needn’t ask. Joe had sniffed, a steely set to his eyes returned that had been missing.
I’m… I need to talk with someone who isn’t a kid… someone I trust.
It had been dormant in his heart but not dead, not uprooted and all the giddiness, the soaring of the soul that he had felt when he had heard the sound of Josefina’s voice returned and drowned his senses when Joe had placed his implicit trust in him. Peter felt his cheeks redden, his skin prickle, and it embarrassed him.
Joe was silent as they entered the room, he sighed as he took off his shirt, threw it on the floor and fell onto the bed. Peter glanced at him, felt the stirring, swallowed it. He turned his back to Joe and he sat on the bed and he pulled off his shoes. He paused before he began to take off his own clothes. He felt vulnerable now, nervous that Joe would be watching him… but why would he be watching him in that way?
Peter sighed, more to fill the silence than anything and he quickly rolled himself under the covers. He lay there, staring at the ceiling. Joe wasn’t saying anything and Peter felt relieved in a way. Perhaps he would fall quickly asleep and leave it at that. He closed his eyes and tasted the salt on his lips, it was how Drury’s skin tasted, far more salty than a woman could taste. He swallowed, remembered the heat of the burning skin…
“You’ve never held back with a woman, have you Peter?” Joe finally said, breaking the silence.
Peter rolled onto his side to face Joe, he thought about it. He thought of Josefina, trembling and soft, pushing him out of her, sobbing in his lap. He thought of how he watched her now in a sort of silent awe, worshipping her grief, the beauty of her eyes.
“Yes,” Peter said. “Yes I have.”
“You?” Joe exclaimed, he sat up, “Really?”
Peter nodded. “Yeah,” he replied. “But not before… never before.”
“I understand,” Joe said. “But that’s for her sake more than yours?”
“I don’t know, to tell you the truth,” Peter said. “Why?”
Joe looked away, squinted and then he turned off the lamp. Peter heard him settle into the bed. “I thought it was for Debbie’s sake,” he said. “She was so sick for so long, and she still is. I never wanted to overwhelm her, I never wanted to scare her or hurt her. You know?”
“Sure,” Peter said. Now that he knew the look of a woman who was to fragile to be kissed, he knew exactly what Joe was saying.
“Some crappy things happened on my junior team, I know you’ve heard the rumors,” Joe said. “I mean, well I doubt that many other teams are different, I’m sure you’ve seen your share of weird stuff.”
Peter thought of the shenanigans, the drunken girls, sometimes they didn’t really know where they were, the howls of teammates egging each other on. He remembered the disgust he had felt, the cold, frigid, Swedish night air as he left the building, not wanting to be a part of it. “Yeah,” Peter said. “I think we all have seen it.”
“You know what I mean then,” Joe said. “I never condoned any of it. I would hear them laughing about it, but generally I stayed out of it but I knew what they did. I knew how troubled Debbie would get when she would hear of it, the things they’d do to girls and I never wanted her to ever think that I was anything like that. So..”
Peter remembered Debbie’s flashing eyes as she had accused her husband of not touching her, of being afraid of her body. “You don’t want to be to hard on her… I mean, to put it delicately?” Peter finished for him.
“Yeah,” Joe said. “And now. Well I thought that we were, when the ground shook, with everything that happened I realized that I could die at any moment and I had never once enjoyed myself with Debbie or let her enjoy herself the way we could. I have wasted so much of my life, of our lives!”
“I understand,” Peter said. “Joe, think of it, you’re alive. We’ll be home by the weekend, you’re lucky that you realized this now, and not twenty years from now or forty. Think of it that way.”
“What’s it like?” Joe asked.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked.
“Tasting every girl you can, not holding back?”
Peter closed his eyes and suddenly felt tears sting them. “It’s intoxicating, addictive, compulsive and ultimately lonely. I don’t think I’ve ever really known real bliss as when I discovered Josefina, and watched her sleep unmolested.”
There was another silence and then Joe spoke again. “You’re a great friend.”
Peter pressed his hand over his chest, felt the pain. “You’re a great man.” He said.
Joe laughed quietly. “Can I tell you something without you telling everyone?”
“Of course,” Peter said, wondering what big secret Joe could be harboring.
“Patty’s goalposts are really alive Pete,” Joe said. “And I don’t recommend spitting on them, at any cost!”
Peter laughed. “Joe really!”
“I’m serious,” Joe said in a serious voice. “Don’t piss those things off. Next time they might take out the entire city!”
“Oh,” Peter said. “That… that’s good to know.”
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