A/N: Thanks to Jad for imput!
Chapter 190: Tangers XIX—More Important Things
It was hard for me to sleep after the Russian Mobsters left. I know Joey fell asleep really quickly but I couldn’t. I dozed every now and then, had a fitful dream that woke me and slipped away from me as soon as I opened my eyes and I just couldn’t seem to get comfortable on the mattress. It was just way too hard and my pillow was not fluffy enough. I was also real nervous that if I fell asleep that I would wake up with, like a severed animal head staining my sheets… or maybe I just watched too many movies when I was little…
Still one couldn’t deny that a sudden involvement with the Russian Mafia, no matter how small, was a life changing experience. What did this mean? If I had a favor to call upon, what would I want? I mean what if I did take their favor and then they did something mafiaesque like double cross me and suddenly hold me in debt to them forever!
Oh I tell you, I wanted to just do what Joey told me not to do and use my favor for something stupid and quick just to get it over with! I mean what if I didn’t call on my favor fast enough and the Russian book keepers got sick of seeing me on their files, or however they handled their business, and they just got rid of me so I wouldn’t be in their systems. Or what if my name got taken by a rival Mob gang and they decided to do something to get back at the first gang who.. Ohhhh it was killing my tummy! I could feel it growling and yelling at me.
It was the hour before sunrise when I was thinking these things and then the phone rang in our room! Rrrrrrrrring! I sat up feeling horror.
“Argh!” I heard Joey growl. “If that’s for you I swear to God I’m gonna…”
Joey picked up the phone before I could reach for it and he mumbled into the phone, “Yeah?”
I sat tensely.
“Goose what the hell?” Joey snapped. “What? Oh alright… Kid it’s for you..”
I gulped as I took the phone from Joe, glad that the light was out so that I wouldn’t have to see him glaring at me. It wasn’t often that Joe got really, really mad at someone but when he did, and that person was a teammate, then that just wasn’t good.
“Yeah?” I whimpered into the phone. Who would be calling me?
“Ah-lex!” a jaunty, loud Russian voice said into the phone, “How are you doing hm?”
I swallowed. No more Russians, please! “Um… hi?”
“Ah-lex!” The Russian said, “How you forget me, it’s Ah-lex-ee hm?”
I cringed
and then felt a bit tickled at the memory of that chronically loud, jovial,
robust Russian, our former teammate, Alexei Gusarov.
I was not with him for more than a season and a half when I joined the team,
but the sight of “The Goose’s” smiling, joyful face every morning in practice
was one I still missed. Outside of Adam Foote, who was practically Goose’s
adopted son, none of us really saw much of him although he still lived in
“Not much with me,” Goose said in fluent French. It always had the team in stitches the way Goose always told reporters that he spoke no English and no French but would laugh just fine with us when a dirty joke was told in any language. His French was better than his English and I was happy to speak it with him. “But I hear there is much going on with you! How exciting, you happy to have a favor done for you eh? Have you decided yet?”
I squeaked into the phone, Goose was with the Mob? Sweet, humorous, laughing old Goose?
“Hahahahahahhaa!” Goose cackled into the phone with his signature loud laugh. “I tease you yes? They just call me an hour ago and inform me that you have a favor coming to you. Take as long as you want to decide I just want to tell you that when you are certain what favor you would like, call me and I will see that it gets done. Just don’t waste it on something stupid like a date with the tennis whore eh? Hahahahahahaha!”
I heard a sleepy voice purr in the background, “Alexei please! I am trying to sleep!” I recognized that voice as that of Goose’s wife, Sandra, a sweet little Latvian woman.
“Oo,” I said, “I don’t want Sandra to lose sleep!”
“No bother,” Goose said. “Sandra never sleeps, do you Sandra hahaha!”
“Oh,” I replied not knowing what else to say.
“Who are you talking to anyway?” Sandra said in a peeved voice. She was speaking in English, she always spoke in English when she was mad at him.
“With Ah-lex, little Ah-lex!” Alexei said in a voice I could hear the exclamation points stabbing through. “He is owed a big favor, good boy!”
“Oh,” Sandra sighed, “Just make sure he doesn’t use it on something dumb like that man who pissed it away riding zamboni only to fall off and crack his head stupid fool.”
“Hear that?!” Goose said. “She’s wise. That’s why I married her I don’t want stupid wife!”
“Oh,” I said. “Right.”
“Well,” Goose replied, “I sleepy and you’re sleepy so I hang up now.”
Before I could say goodbye the phone clicked dead and there was a dial tone. Goose was never one for hello or goodbye, I suppose he felt it was a waste of his time or something or maybe he just forgot those pleasantries. As I was taking the phone away from my ear I heard a weird sound coming from it. I frowned and put it back to my ear, it sounded like a girl’s voice humming into the line.
Oh, I thought, had the lines in the hotel crossed?
“It only seems like I’m gone,” the voice suddenly said. “I’m never gone.”
There was a click and another dial tone. I wrinkled my nose. Something told me that I didn’t want to know anymore than that. Must be a pranker.
When I hung up the phone I saw Joe leaning on one elbow, looking at me. “Goose gonna handle ya?” he said and I could see in the dim light that he was blinking quickly and frowning.
“Yup,” I said. “I feel safer now, I mean with Goose watching over me and… I’m sorry that he had to call this early I mean…”
“Eh,” Joe said, “Just don’t let…”
BANG! BOOOOOM! BOOOOM!
My blood veins crackled with electric fear and adrenaline, the pictures hanging on the walls of our room fell down, and I could hear the glass of our windows tremble, I saw the bright flash from outside and then there was another, BOOOOOM!
“Jeezers!” Joe exclaimed and he
jumped out of bed and ran to the window, I quickly followed him and leaned over
him as we looked outside over the city of
“That’s an explosion,” Joe said in a serious voice. “A big one, I’d say a building was gone… I hope no one was in it.”
I gulped. “Where is that?” I asked.
“It looks like it’s at the docks, a warehouse maybe,” Joe said.
“Isn’t the arena near there?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Joe said. “But I don’t think it’s in that specific spot. Something flammable, maybe propane, gas, something like that must have ignited.”
I felt fear trembling in my gut. “Should we go help?” I asked.
Joe looked at me; I could see the worried lines in his face. “Naw I don’t think we could do much for them, it sounds like there’s already enough people headed in that direction. There’ll be help enough.”
I sighed, feeling helpless and maddeningly useless. The favor didn’t matter much anymore in the larger scope of things. I was silly to have worried about it so much. I even felt embarrassed and as the sirens became more plentiful, and louder, I knew that there were more important things to worry about sometimes, then your own comfort.
We were told to stay in our rooms for the time being as the day began. A bunch of the guys came into our room and we watched the news together. Joe had been right it was a warehouse at the docks that had exploded and the fire department was working hard to put it out. Black smoke was billowing everywhere and we only had to look out the window to see the evidence of it.
The good part was that from what they could tell, it was an abandoned warehouse and there really shouldn’t have been anyone inside it so there wasn’t a likelihood of heavy casualties. Also, there wasn’t even any apparent injuries to anyone and it had been three hours now. I have to tell you that made me feel tons better knowing that it could have been much worse. Just about everyone in the room was betting that it was arson by a bunch of kids or crackheads or something like that.
It was around that time when Patty came into the room, and I tell you he looked awful! He was in his jacket and shoes, and he was pale, very, very pale, bags under his eyes and one of his eyelids was drooping so far that it was practically shut.
“Patty!” I exclaimed.
“Where the hell have you been?” Keaner barked, “Have you not seen this?”
Patty wrinkled his nose and ran his hand over his face. “I saw it. I was out.”
He sat heavily on the bed next to me, and I felt the side of his face pressing in against my shoulder. He was freezing cold! “You look like shit,” Keaner said. “What happened?”
Patty shrugged and yawned, “I was out, I couldn’t sleep. And then she blows up and the police block the roads everywhere so I could not make it back in a cab, I had to walk. It’s a bitch yes? At least no one is hurt.”
“At least you’re okay,” I said quietly. “That’s what’s important.”
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