Chapter 603: Fred VI—Fallout
All things considered, Freddy would have preferred a normal All Star game. If everything had been normal, they would have had fun shopping in Los Angeles, would have hung out at the hotel, would have stayed up late watching horror movies, would have spent the day running around the pool, would have done a quick interview for Cool Shots if they were called upon, would have had fun at the skills competition, would have been nervous about Dad’s All Star starting period, would have comforted Dad for giving up a couple goals, would have gone to bed early after an expensive dinner and then, they would have come home pink, happy and rested.
As it were, Freddy felt like a whipped dog. His eyeballs felt like they were bleeding from exhaustion, his knees and his knuckles hurt, his shoulder blades hurt from carrying Isabella, and he had weird bruises on his body and he couldn’t remember where they came from. Also, he didn’t think he’d ever feel comfortable or in awe of poor Wayne Gretzky….ever.
What really sucked hardcore, however, was the natural misunderstanding all of this chaos created between them and their parents. Mom and Dad sat them down Saturday after the skills competition and grilled all three of them about what happened. Whose idea was it to accuse Wayne Gretzky, of all people, of attempting to kidnap Isabella, and whose idea was it to drag little Isabella Yzerman and Alex Tanguay into it. In fact, why would Alex have ever agreed to this? And all of this time they thought he was so mature and that their children would be safe with him.
What alternative could they give to their parents? Jana fiercely maintained the truth to them, bursting into tears of rage that they didn’t believe for one moment her tale of Leprechaun royalty and wizard accomplices. Fred sat tightly, feeling sorry for his sister who obviously had tired of pretending that everything was normal to Mom and Dad. Mom got tight and quiet, crossing her arms and telling Jana she was already in huge trouble for stabbing Chris Chelios. Violence, even if it felt justified was NEVER warranted to solve a situation. And in that event, Jonathan was no doubt to blame for encouraging Jana to violence in so many situations.
Jonathan turned red but didn’t protest.
Stop lying Jana!
I’m not LYING! I hate you!
Jonathan squeezed Jana’s arm and then held up his hand. I’m sorry Mom, I’m sorry Dad, I guess I went too far.
But Jonathan! Jana exclaimed.
I went too far. Jonathan said calmly and he patted Jana’s shoulder. I keep coming up with these games, and they’re so fun at the time. I keep forgetting that Jana and Mitchell and kids like Isabella, they’re too young for some of it. We got carried away, way too carried away. I’m sorry. Look, I’m taking all the blame here. This is all my fault.
Jana remained quiet here, for whatever Jonathan declared, became her law.
Fred swallowed, wiped his sweating palms on his pants and backed up Jonathan to the letter. The damage was contained. Jana was to bed without any dessert for saying “hate”, and all three of them were grounded from seeing friends, spending the night over anywhere, or going out to the movies, or going out to eat for two weeks. All of them were lucky to escape this scenario with no spankings. Oh, and Jonathan, your computer will have no internet access either for this time, unless you are in the den and researching homework where your father can supervise you. Also, you will not be able to play those new video games you got on this trip for two months. They will be locked up.
This smacked Jonathan in the gut; his brother doubled over and cringed.
Fred swallowed when Mom and Dad looked at him. What would his extra punishment be? Both of them sighed. It’s my idea, Mom said, that you be pulled from the line-up of your team.
“Mom!” Fred gasped, but he couldn’t say anything more. The
complete injustice of this gutted him. His team was undefeated and they were
going to the championship in
Mom shook her head, “Fred you
are the most well behaved one, you get better grades than the other two, you
don’t act on impulse which proves to me that you know better than to dumb yourself down and play along with these
ridiculous situations. You know you can come to us and stop things before they
get out of hand. This makes your crime worse than the other two.”
Tears stung Fred’s eyes and two fell down his cheeks before he wiped them and sucked the rest of them down.
“But your father will not allow you to be taken off the line-up,” Mom said calmly, and obviously the mere threat of it has been punishment enough for you. “It will suffice to me if you apologize right now, and promise me that you have learned your lesson right now. Promise me that the next time things start getting out of hand, you come to either me or your father, and you end it! I’ve been dealing with the behavior of you children for months now and enough is enough. Make believe games are fun, I know this, but not when they affect every person around you. Can you promise me?”
But he couldn’t! A couple more tears fell, and Freddy swallowed, “Mom… I don’t think I can promise!” How could he? It’s not like they could control whenever the stupid universe ripped open and barfed all over them. If he promised now, it only ensured that Mom would think he’d betrayed her trust willfully the next time it happened. “Mom, I’m so sorry!”
“Wait…did you just call me dumb?” Jonathan mused.
“Shh,” Dad snapped.
Mom put her hands on his shoulders, squeezing. “Freddy, you can promise me. Why do you think you can’t?”
“It’ll happen again, Mom, I can’t stop it.”
“Stop crying,” Dad said calmly, but not angrily. “You’re too old to cry about something that isn’t bleeding.”
Fred sucked it up and looked at Dad. “I can’t promise, Dad. I’ll pull out of the line-up if you want, but I can’t promise. And really, I’m sorry. I really am sorry, I hate that this happened and if I could change it, I would. But I can’t promise.”
“
Fred sighed. “I’ll pull out of the tournament. I’m sorry Mom, I’m sorry Dad.”
“Mom, don’t do this!” Jonathan said.
“It’s
“Is this what you want? Really?” Mom asked.
Fred shook
his head, but refused to allow anymore tears. In fact, he looked straight at
Dad, “It’s not what I want, but it’s what I have to do.”
Jonathan cried as soon as Mom and Dad went to bed. Fred, oddly enough, didn’t feel the need to anymore. He told Jonathan that it didn’t matter. Jonathan was pissed, he hated Mom and Dad right now and he wanted Fred to know that he would find a way to change Mom and Dad’s minds. They had NO right to keep him from the tournament. This sucked. This was not Fred’s fault; this was no one’s fault except for that stupid universe that wouldn’t leave them alone!
“Jonathan, stop crying, you’re scaring Jana.”
Jana stood in the bathroom with them, her eyes big, round, her cheeks red. She was clutching tightly to Sneezy Bear and her lips turned down at the corners.
Jonathan calmed down and told Jana to go to bed. He went to bed. Fred couldn’t sleep. He lay under the covers, his chest pounding and his throat felt strangled and raw. How could he miss this tournament? Yeah, he had a chance next year, but he just felt it, he knew his team wouldn’t be as good next year. This was a magical year! MAGIC! He rolled and rolled, and clutched at his hair in frustration.
As Jonathan started snoring, Fred heard Jana moving. He peered over at her and watched her as she came to the side of the bed. “Freddy, I’m sorry.” She whispered.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
“Want Sneezy Bear?”
“Sure.”
Jana crawled into bed with him and put Sneezy Bear in-between them. She fell asleep soon after.
He wanted to hate Mom and Dad, but he couldn’t. Of course he knew that both of them could never understand or see the truth of this situation. How could he expect them to believe everything that had happened? Argh! He covered his face with his hands; still, it meant that he was missing out on the coolest thing that could have ever happened to him. It meant that he was left out of something that Jonathan and Dad had.
This sucked.
Links to other sites on the Web