Chapter 138: Jonathan XII

Chapter 138: Jonathan XII—After All of That.....

 

.....Jonathan had a headache.

            All of the excitement, adrenaline, emotion, physical exertion had turned into a ball of throbbing blood in Jonathan’s temples and it wouldn’t stop pounding him. Mom had given him an aspirin from her purse but it didn’t seem to be working. It took a lot out of a kid to really try killing someone!

            “God my head hurts!” Elena moaned and she leaned on his shoulder. “My mom’s gonna kill me, I know it!”

            “I’m so sorry, Elena,” Jonathan whispered back to her closing his eyes and simply having a heart attack that her warmth was pressing onto him the way it was. “I shouldn’t have done that, and put you in trouble.”

            “Hey,” Elena said almost sharply, sitting up and looking at Jonathan. “That sick fuck was tearing your ear off I had to do something! How come you get all the fun?”

            Jonathan smiled back at her, not quite knowing to say. How come she got more and more cool with each passing minute?

            “Eh,” Jonathan said wrinkling his nose and smiling. “How’d he taste?”

            Elena stuck out her tongue and brought it back in, shutting her eyes. “Not good! I don’t think I’ll ever do something like that again. It was the only thing I could think of doing! Uck I hope he doesn’t have any blood diseases or anything, cause... yuck, yuck...”

            Elena’s face relaxed and she opened her eyes, they sparkled so dark and pretty. Curses to Dad for flaunting himself naked like that in here! He didn’t even ask Elena if she saw anything because he decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his life telling himself that she hadn’t seen his naked dad.

            “But Mommy honest! We got lost!”

            Jonathan and Elena looked up and saw Mom carrying Jana on a hip and Mitchell on another. Debbie was right behind her with the signed hockey sticks, pucks and jerseys from the Red Wings impromptu autograph session. Mom had a really pissed look on her face.

            “Do we get presents?” Mitchell asked with wide eyes.

            “Ooooh honey I think you have enough presents here!” Debbie said rolling her eyes and dropping the memorabilia on the table in the Wives Room.

            “Seeeee!” Jana said in a loud whisper. “I told you we’d get presents!”

            Mitchell giggled and smiled at Jana.

            “I can’t get over how cute they are!” Elena said.

            “Yeah try living with em,” Jonathan said dully. “Then give me your opinion.”

            Elena shrugged and yawned.

            Her parents after seeing the fiasco on TV came straight to the Pepsi Center to pick up Elena. Jonathan had been afraid that perhaps they would be so mad that they would never let her go near him or his family again. He saw those replays over and over on the television and each time it looked more violent and bloody. How could they ever forgive him that?

            To his relief, Elena’s parents were more worried about her then angry. They closed her in a hug, checked her for damages and then got into an in depth conversation with Mom and Dad about safety and kids and everything. Of course they were mad at both of them for overreacting like they did, but they weren’t even close to ballistic. That’s what counted. In fact, after all that, Jonathan could hear Elena’s father giggling with Dad about it when the mothers were talking with each other.

           

            That night as Jonathan was squirting toothpaste onto his toothbrush he was thinking about Mom. She had hugged him as she had sent him to bed and asked him if he were OK. Jonathan told her that he was and he believed it. Maltby was gonna have just a slight concussion it said on the news. So it was OK.

            “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

            It was Jana’s loud squeal and Jonathan dropped everything and ran out of his bathroom and into the hallway where he heard the screams. His heart was pounding for her, imagining the worst. Then the squeals turned to giggles and he could hear Dad laughing too as he appeared around the corner with Jana helpless in his arms, like a squirming little doll. He was probably tiring her out so she would fall straight asleep.

            Jonathan couldn’t understand why he had panicked and come running so fast. He was breathing heavily as he watched Dad disappear with Jana to her bedroom, Gigi snarling after them. His heartbeats were so fast that they were hurting him as well.

            “Are you alright my baby?” Mom said in French.

            Jonathan looked at her and blinked back some tears. Mom was standing in the doorway of their bedroom, in her shiny satin robe. He ran to her and hugged her, wanting to be Jana’s size again. “Mommy,” he moaned. “I feel so bad! I want to tell him I’m sorry or something, I didn’t want to hurt him!” As soon as he finished saying that, he could again feel the hate that had coursed through his veins and the sound of Maltby’s head popping on the ice. He saw the blood, felt the pain, and heard her scream.

            “Come on,” Mom said softly, walking with him, “Let’s go to bed. You need to sleep and when Maltby is better you can tell him you’re sorry.”

            Jonathan fell asleep pretty quickly with Mom tucking him in just as if he were a five-year-old, her warm soft hand on his forehead.

 

            “WOAH!” Freddy gasped when he yanked the paper out of the plastic the next morning. He dropped it on the table. “Look it Elena on the front page!”

            “LEMME SEE!” Jana squealed, tearing away from Mom with only half of her hair braided. She leaned over Freddy to look.

            Jonathan swallowed hard and looked as well. “Christ!” he whispered to himself when he saw the paper.

            “Bloody Monday at the Pepsi Center” was the headline and in glorious color was the huge photograph highlighting Elena, eyes clenched closed as her teeth were sinking into Chris Chelios. Jonathan felt a chill looking at himself on the cover as well, huddled over Maltby like he were a vulture on a kill.

            “Mon Dieu!” Mom gasped. “Have these reporters no shame? There’s a hundred other pictures that they could have used!”

            “Can I just stay home today?” Jonathan asked.

            “Non,” Dad said. “You’ll go to school.”

           

            Jonathan’s stomach was hovering close to explosion when he hopped out of the car onto the schoolyard. He knew already that his Math teach Sister Mary Katherine would stab him with that dagger glare of his the minute he walked into the room. All last week she had been preaching non-violence to the class and she had even singled him out as an example of how no one was exempt from punishment when it came to violence.

            Sister Mary Celeste, his English teacher had been so happy to hear him when he told her to her pretty face that he felt horrible when he had been suspended and that he would never hit another human ever again. She had hugged him and told him that God had indeed touched his little heart.

            He wondered how disappointed in him she would be.... and he wondered why it was that every Nun he knew seemed to be named Mary.

            “Jonathan!” Elena cried.

            Jonathan jumped and looked at her.

            “I’ve been waiting for you!” she said breathlessly.

            “You’re on the Rocky Mountain News,” Jonathan said. “Full bloody color!”

            Elena sighed. “Yup, I can imagine. We get the Denver Post and you’re on the cover, your fist drilling in that guy.”

            “Sheezers!” Jonathan said. “It’s gonna be...”

            “Jonathan!”

            He heard his name being called from all around and he almost spun himself dizzy trying to find everyone who was calling him. Within the moment he could see Nick and Danny and Elena’s friends and just everyone as they surrounded them like a pack of dogs. Jonathan could feel a nervous twinge in his stomach.

            “That was toooo cool!” one kid said.

            “Awesome! I saw it this morning...”

            “Hehehehehehe man you really got Maltby!”

            “You beat up a Red Wing!”

            “Woah Elena you KICK ASS!”

            Jonathan could actually feel his eyelid fluttering as all of the voices around him began to melt together into a unified chant of “Wah! Wah! Wah!” but it wasn’t a mocking of his name this time, it was the chant that the crowds would give his father in the Pepsi Center after a great performance. They were recognizing him. Jonathan held his breath and he wrapped his arm around Elena’s waist for want of anything better to do. The chants were getting louder and louder and all Jonathan could think of was the sight of Matby’s blood as it pooled on the ice.

            After all that, this is what it took to get respect on this schoolyard? And he didn’t feel right about enjoying it. It was a relief when Sister Mary Helen broke up the mob, swatting at the hind ends of kids, sending them into class.

            “Man!” Elena breathed into his ear as they jogged to the doors. “We go to school with a bunch of savages! Who’d a thunk it?”