Novák
Somewhere with air conditioning.
Yes. I would like this.
Mueller asks if he should bring anything. Novák says "your passport, in case we get lost and end up in Alabama." I send a thumbs up and then, after a pause, a chicken emoji, because I don’t know what else to say.
I set the phone down and think about how I am in this apartment in this enormous city in this enormous country where I am far from home and missing my mother and still full of a feeling that I think might be hope. Four guys who didn't know each other a week ago are making plans to spend their day off together. None of us has anywhere else to be, and that's the whole reason, and it's enough.
Tomorrow we explore. Tonight I lie in the quiet and let the homesickness sit where it sits and try not to fight it, because Novák told me once that the missing doesn't go away, you just learn to carry it while you're doing other things, and he would know.
Fresh Meat: Group Chat One
Davis
Did anyone else see the Fontenot/Volkov thing at practice today?
Mueller
Which thing? The failed breakout or the part where Fontenot forgot how geometry works?
Davis
The bag skate. They were paired for the two-on-one. Fontenot took the puck for a scenic tour of the boards instead of passing to Volkov. Coach blew the whistle. They ran it again. Same thing. Fontenot went wide again.
Mueller
That's a garbage read. Volkov was open. I could have passed to Volkov. My grandmother could have passed to Volkov.
Novák
Mueller.
Mueller
What?
Novák
It wasn't a bad read. It was a protest. He won't pass to him.
Mueller
Why would anyone deliberately not pass to an open teammate? That makes zero hockey sense.
Davis
You remember at lunch last week when I said they had history?
Mueller
You said their chemistry was off. Novák said "something like that" and then asked me to pass the salt.
Novák
He remembers salt logistics but can't read a room. Incredible.
Mueller
