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Chapter 57: Tangers VI or The Land of the Fruits and Nuts
"Hey Tangs!" I heard Danny Hinote call my name to my instant chagrin.
"Yeah," I said, turning around.
"You alone?" Danny asked, catching up to me outside the hotel and shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Yup," I said.
A huge smile broke out on Danny’s face and he patted my arm. "So am I!" he said. "And I’m bored! Wanna get a bite to eat? I heard that there was this great seafood place in town, lets check it out."
"Sure," I said. "I wasn’t about to turn down lunch."
Danny chattered on and on to me in the cab about Michele and the kids. It was Mimi this and Mimi that and so forth. I loved them all, but the way Danny was going on, it was like they were his family. It was pretty annoying and I actually wanted to slap him. Why was he grinning so big like that when I was so hungry?
"Yeah," I finally said. "I don’t know what I would have done without Patrick and Michele." I emphasized Patrick’s name just to remind Danny that it wasn’t a single parent household. Jeez he did one favor for the family and now he was suddenly the new member of the house?
Danny paused and the smile disappeared from his face. "I’d forgotten you lived there," he said. "Was it Mimi’s idea? It sounds like her to take you in, she’s so generous."
"Patrick’s idea, I’m pretty sure," I said feeling uncomfortable. "He’s the one who talked to me about it."
"Oh," Danny said. "Um... Tangs... it’s not any of our business I guess, but you love them, I mean Mimi and the kids, right?"
I frowned. "What you getting at Noter?" I asked.
"Well," Danny continued. "I was a little worried about her..."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"I mean... when you lived there... you didn’t see anything... I mean," Danny stuttered.
I narrowed my eyes. I knew what he was getting at, the same thing everyone else always insinuated too. I know, because they always asked me in the same way Danny just did. Honestly! There were many other things in this world to be thinking about!
"Noter," I said, "Look, they’re a fiery couple, they’re passionate and all that... I guess people could take things the wrong way, the way things look... but you never see what really goes on when they’re just with each other, and they’re smiling and looking into each other’s eyes. It’s OK."
Danny nodded, sucking in his lips thoughtfully and gnawing a bit on them. Oh boy! I thought. The next question was coming up.
"You were there," Danny said, "The night that Patrick got arrested."
I nodded.
"What happened? I mean, come on, it’s not like I’m a reporter or anything, I’m a teammate!" Danny said.
I sighed. "Too much wine for both of them," I said. "That’s pretty much it."
"Oh," Danny said. He looked at me for a little bit longer, looking miserable and expectant. I knew he wasn’t going to ask me again, but I could see that he was sincere, he hadn’t been fishing for gossip. I didn’t want to talk anymore though. All he was asking was to be reassured, and I wasn’t in the mood to.
I looked away from him, into the traffic on the street. I wasn’t really looking at the cars. I was listening to the memories in my head. The drunken shouts, the sound of breaking objects, it had been much more than two broken doors that night.
"Don’t worry," I finally said to Danny, "Why are you worrying so much?"
"Right," Danny said. "I guess it’s none of my business. I mean you know them better than anyone I suppose and if you say it’s alright..."
We were quiet the rest of the way to the restaurant and I have to say, I was in an increasingly bad mood. I was hungry and here Danny was, making me all depressed! Argh!
The real surprise came when we were shown to our table.
"Hey, Tangers," Danny said to me hitting me on the arm, "Didn’t you say Mike Modano was like in love with Joe or something?"
"Yeah," I said. Poor Danny had been out of the loop with that concussion and I had to spend awhile this morning catching him up on everything about Modo’s lust for Joey. Then again if he had decided to hang around the team just a little bit maybe he wouldn’t have gotten so behind!
"Isn’t that them at the table over there?" Danny asked, pointing.
My mouth dropped and I withheld a scream. Danny was right! Modano and Joey were at the table and Modano was slumped over choking on something while Joe was patting him on the back. How... What.... When...! This was incredible! I mean how the hell did Modo get here and get in contact with him! He was insane! The man was insane!
"Mon Dieu!" I gasped.
"Yeah," Hinote said. "You don’t think that the captain is like...."
I glared at Danny. "Finish that sentence and I’ll bop you!"
Hinote laughed. "Just kidding, Tangers, just getting a rise outta ya."
I shook my head, watching Modano chug down a glass of water.
"Should we go over there?" Danny asked.
"I don’t know," I said. "Maybe we should just watch them for a bit, see what happens you know? Like maybe it nothing and it OK."
Danny grinned again, "Yeah," he said. "I’m really hungry too. I wanna eat first."
I looked at him and laughed. Right then my stomach made an angry roar.
We burned through a basket of calamari appetizers, even though Noter kept saying that each one he ate was gonna be his last, all this fried food was not gonna be good for all the weight he was trying to lose. Michele had told me that Danny ate an entire batch of vanilla cookies last week before they could even cool! Didn’t even have any for me when I came over that evening, grrrr! Fine then, I didn’t care if he got fatter.
When the basket was done, we decided that we should go make our presence known to Modo. He had to know that we were watching and that he shouldn’t try any funny business! Wiping our mouths on our napkins, we pushed our chairs back and sauntered over to the table, and just in time! Because when we got close enough to hear their voices I heard Modo say, "Joe, I really need to tell you something!"
I knew exactly what he was going to say!
"Hey!" I called out. "Captain!"
Joey and Modo looked at us and I could see the panic in his eyes! Hah! Caught ya!
"Hey! Tiger! Noter!" Joe said with a smile, "Come and sit with us!"
Noter and I looked at each other and shrugged.
"Sure," Danny said. "Glad to join ya!"
The look of pure hate, heartbreak, and pain in Modano’s face was all the encouragement I needed! I was fuming inside, just wait until the guys heard about this one! What did we need to stop Modo anyway? A nuclear bomb?
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