Chapter 177: Modo XI

Chapter 177: Modo XI—No Calm Within a Storm

 

 

            Dallas, Texas, 1999

 

 

            The day had been bad enough that they had caught no fish and didn’t really have a ghost of a bite on the line, and that embarrassed Mike Modano. He had been so excited when he told Brett that he knew this great spot outside of New Braunfels where it was humid and tropical green and where the fishing was great. Brett had been in a lousy mood after the last game they had played and lost, and after an on the phone argument with his wife. It didn’t matter to Brett they were on their way to a President’s Trophy clinching and that he would have a wonderful shot at his first Stanley Cup. So Mike had thought that perhaps a good fishing excursion for the day would calm him down.

            Mike wasn’t sure why Brett’s happiness had seemed so important to him that day, perhaps he was just wanting to make a new teammate comfortable and welcome. And he wanted a good fishing partner; no one else on the team seemed to enjoy fishing on an off day. It was always the golf courses. Mike enjoyed the golf courses for certain, but the calm of sitting by the stream, drinking a cold beer....

            Texas is a huge state and the drive from Dallas to New Braunfels was a long one. Brett had seemed wowed by the change from the Humid plain like terrain of North Texas that seemed to bleed into the lush, tropical foliage of South Central Texas. So that had begun well enough in its own right. But the fish weren’t there, they had failed him. And heavy storm clouds seemed to be rolling in; they would have to leave soon. In Texas, greenish black storm clouds were never a good sign.

            “Shit I’m sorry,” Mike said finally as they were in the car, driving onto the road, heading back home.

            “Naaaw,” Brett replied in his rather high, scratchy voice, a sigh within it. “It was nice, maybe next time.”

            Mike smiled despite himself. Maybe next time? Then Brett was implying a next time? He had a new fishing partner!

            “Damn,” Brett said, craning his neck to get a better look out of the passenger window, “Those clouds are over us, fast sons of bitches aye?”

            “Yeah,” Mike said trying to keep the worry out of his voice. “Fast.”

            He hit the accelerator on the car, there seemed to be no one else on the road with them and they had to beat this storm. But they couldn’t, within minutes the storm was over them with flashes of lightning, a bucket pouring of rain. The water was sheeting down so hard that Modano had to slow the car down to a crawl and the windshield wipers did nothing to improve visibility.

            “My God,” Brett said in an awed voice and then CRACK!

            Both men jumped as a long crack spidered over the windshield, deepening with each strike of a hailstone. The hail was coming down hard and Mike glanced almost fearfully at Brett. There was no way the windshield was going to hold up under this barrage. Brett shrugged, and Mike understood.

            They flung their doors open and jumped into the cold rain and sharp hailstones and as soon as they did, there was a loud crash as the windshield shattered in under the weight of the hail. Glancing through the misty air, Mike could see a lonely white house, sitting in a grove of trees. There was no way they could stay in this mess!

            “Come on!” Brett yelled through the noise, “Let’s go! We can’t stay here!”

            Mike nodded and followed the man, running through the pain and cold over the open grass and to the slight protection of the trees. They could hear the darts of hail slicing through the leaves and mutilated green foliage was pouring over their heads, sticking in their hair.

            There seemed to be no one home as they banged on the front door of the house. There was no sound of a dog barking, there was no car in the driveway. But the wind was blowing the rain in sheets against the front door, they couldn’t stand here in this!

            “I’m gonna break in,” Brett said loudly.

            “What?” Modano exclaimed. “You’re crazy!”

            “We’d be crazy to stay out in this!” Brett replied, blinking his pale lashes rapidly through the water streaming down his face.

            “What if...”

            “What if nothing,” Brett snapped. “If someone comes home we’ll explain everything and pay for the damage, it’ll be OK.”

            Mike sighed and decided that Brett was probably right. He stood back as Brett yanked open the rickety screen door and with one precise kick, he knocked in the weak front door.

            They both trotted into the house and sighed to be out of the rain. Brett pulled the damaged door closed and sighed. Modano looked around the strange house; it was small and smelled like dust.

            “I don’t think anyone’s been here for awhile,” Modano said as he ran his fingers over the coffee table in what he assumed was a living room.

            “Neither do I,” Brett replied. “There’s barely anything here, no furniture...” he walked into the kitchen and came out. “And no food in the fridge. I don’t think anyone will be coming home today.”    

            Mike sighed and flopped down on the moth eaten couch sending a cloud of dust into the air. “So now whatta we do?” he said.

            “Just wait out the storm,” Brett said as he picked up a binder that was sitting on the coffee table. He flipped it open and his pale eyes widened. “Woah!” he said and then laughed.

            A flash of thunder boomed and sent the windows rattling. Modano jumped and looked around, wondering if the house would collapse over their heads. “What did ya find?” he asked with a nervous laugh.

            “Porn,” Brett said and he sat down next to Mike. “Good stuff, photographs I don’t know why someone would have left this behind.”

            Mike took one look at the picture Brett was looking at and his pulse began to glug. They were glossy 8X10 photos and the one he was looking at was of two blond women, one of them tied to a chair as the other one was…. All the blood left his brain and tightened within his jeans.

            “Heh heh,” Brett laughed quietly and he leaned back on the couch. “Yeah that’s a good one.”

            Modano was startled when he heard the zip of Brett’s fly opening and he jumped off the couch, “Brett!” he snapped. “Jesus we ain’t horny teens we can’t just...”

            “How come?” Brett replied, “How come when we’re kids we can jerk off in front of each other and it’s wrong when we’re all grown up?”

            Modano couldn’t stop looking at him, and he felt the damp heat all over his body as the thunder continued to crash outside. Brett opened his eyes and Modano felt petrified under his gaze. “Come on,” he said. “You know you want to.”

            Modano’s mouth dropped open and he knew he was having a heart attack. And then Brett sat up straight and pulled off his shirt revealing a muscled torso.

            “I don’t..” Modano said helplessly and he fell to his butt on the ground, jostling a new erection from him.

            Brett kept him fixated with his gaze as he slid off the couch and crawled to Mike. “What have we here?” he murmured as he reached forward and began to open Mike’s fly….

            When the rain stopped, Mike stood up, wet with sweat and naked, dripping as he looked out the window into the sunshine. The world was wet and covered with hailstones, leaves scattered all around. The world wasn’t the same anymore. When Brett came up behind him, finally kissing him and wrapping his arms around him, Mike knew that he had just been baptized out of the world he used to live in. He now belonged somewhere new, strange and sooo fucking sweet.

 

                               

 

 

                                        Present Day

 

 

            Modano had slept on the plane all the way from Denver to Detroit. It had actually been real sleep, not the worried tortured sleep of lately, deprived, pining and most recently scared shitless that the kids would tell on him. It hadn’t taken him long to learn Alex Tanguay’s reputation for blabbing any and all gossip he ran across. How could the kid keep such a secret he had learned, and how could he have let himself go like that?

            On top of that there had been his rage at Peter Forsberg. Joe had kissed him? But it had been an accident, Joe had not been himself, he had had a concussion and no doubt he was thinking that Peter was someone else…

            Modano’s heart had almost stopped when the kid sat next to him, poking him. And that’s when things became different. The kid had told him he knew, and at that point Modano had been expecting some sort of threat or blackmailing, something… Instead, Tanguay had offered what seemed to be sympathy and unconditional friendship.

            Why would he do that? Modano accepted the kid’s offer, realizing at that moment how much he missed a good, real friend he could trust. He didn’t want to overanalyze what the kid was offering or why. Perhaps it was best if he didn’t ask to many questions. So he slept on the plane, feeling a warmth inside him that had been missing for so long.

            The kid had sweet brown eyes, a sweet face, a sweet mouth. He seemed gentle and friendly when he wasn’t in his normal bitching, whining mode he often took in the locker room. But why would he?

            As they were lugging their tired bodies off the plane into the thick, air of the Detroit airport, the kid tapped him on the shoulder and gave him another smile before wandering off with someone else. The realization struck Modano at that point. The kid must be in love with me!

            Modano’s eyes widened in shock. Tanguay had no girlfriend and from what he’d heard he rarely had one. He lived alone, was seemingly uninterested in sexual escapades with bunnies or porn. The guys figured him to be a goodie two shoes…. Was he gay as well? Is that why he was sympathizing with him? Did he have a crush on him?

            Modano smiled, no that couldn’t be it. He was just being a little conceited with himself. He didn’t want to fall into another mess so he didn’t want to think of Tanguay having anything else but a friendly interest in him. That made him feel better to think that is was simply the kindness of the kid’s heart that led him to reach out to him. He was like dear Jere Lehtinen, sweet and unassuming. Oh heavens how sweet it was to have a friend once again.

            Modano was could feel himself practically beaming with happiness when he and Peter Forsberg stumbled into their hotel room. Forsberg groaned and immediately threw himself on the bed, making sure to grab the remote control and flip on the television. Modano glanced at the Swede as he kicked off his shoes and rested himself on the bed. He couldn’t help noticing how miserable Peter looked. He could see the pale tense lines on his face, feel the quiet anger. He had known it coming from Brett enough times to realize… No he wouldn’t think of that.

            Still, he was still feeling good enough from Alex Tanguay’s gesture of kindness that he felt he should also reach out.

            “Pete,” he said to Peter.

            Peter looked at him with glowing, silver blue eyes. Modano actually felt a twinge of appreciation for those eyes, he quickly squashed it away. “Yeah?” Peter replied.

            “You wanna go get something to eat? Are ya hungry? My treat.” Modano said.

            Peter slowly shook his head and looked back at the television screen, “Maybe later, I dunno… I’m not in the mood to go out.”

            Modano nodded. “I could order us some room service, the menu looks good.”

            Peter sighed heavily. A sigh pregnant with sadness and frustration. Modano realized that he wasn’t helping his situation any.

            “Wanna talk about it?” Modano asked.

            There was a silence for a moment and then Peter ran his large hands through his thick auburn hair and he looked back at Modano. Mike felt again a little chill at the paleness of the Swede’s gaze. “It’s my fault.” Peter said. “She wanted a baby and I was a dipshit about it, and when I finally came around her grief made her body kill it. She’s still emotionally traumatized about it. She was such a strong, gorgeous perfect woman and I single handedly shattered her confidence.”

            Modano frowned. He had heard all about this, Peter and his girl friend’s miscarriage. It did sadden him because he knew he wanted to be a father one day and well…

            “Maybe you should tell her how you felt?” he asked.

            Peter nodded. “I told her everything and I think it’s making her worse. She’s beginning to blame herself and I can’t…. I thought she was doing better but before I left she seemed to get worse again. What if she wants another baby? I don’t know if I can do it for her, is that what she wants you think?”

            Modano thought about it. “She miscarried when you were gone?”

            Peter nodded. “Yeah during the night, she and Debbie went to the team’s gynecologist and he couldn’t save it. It was too late.”

            A bell rang in Modano’s mind. “The team’s gynecologist?” he asked.

            Peter nodded.

            The problem seemed clear to Modano. He was glad that now he could offer some insight on Peter’s problem. “And you’ve been telling her that you wanted the baby after all?”

            Peter nodded. “Not all the time but when I came home.”

            “Peter,” Mike said, sitting up, “I think I know what’s wrong.”

            Peter frowned, “You do?”

            “Think about it!” Modano exclaimed. “What does the team gynecologist do for wives and girlfriends after hours, in private?”

            Peter frowned again and Mike could see his mind working and then his eyes widened in realization. “Noooo,” Peter said slowly. “Nooo, no, no she didn’t.”

            Mike nodded. “Maybe she did. It was quiet, and private rather than in the public, and maybe she thought that that’s what you wanted. Debbie certainly would have informed her of her options and maybe she helped her through it. And when you came home telling her you wanted it, she felt guilty about it and doesn’t want to tell you what she did because now she thinks you’ll hate her.”

            Damn I’m smart! Mike thought.

            Peter, however was shaking his head. “That can’t be it… she… she wanted...”

            “Peter,” Mike said. “Forget about it, it’s gone. Just concentrate on her. You need to tell her how she’s much more important to you than a baby that never was. Trust me; things will be better once everything’s out in the open.”

            Peter was nodding and he stood up, tossing the remote control to Modano. “I need some air, see ya later.”

            Modano caught it and watched Peter leave the hotel room, slamming the door behind him. “Some people just don’t know how to say thank you,” he muttered to himself as he began to flip through channels.