Page 7 of Between the Pipes

CHAPTER 6

IZZY

Me: Yes, Mom. I ate at the captain’s house for the holiday.

Mom: Did you get enough to eat?

Me: His wife knows how much hockey players eat. I even got leftovers.

My mother is going to drive me insane. Thank God she forgets that I’m old enough to drink now. Otherwise, she’d be hounding me about my non-existent alcohol consumption.

Dad: Great game last week. Keep it up, kid.

While my mother frets about every little thing with me, Dad is – per usual – all about the game. I don’t mind it though. The man taught me everything he knows about the sport of hockey. So did my uncles – two of which went pro over in Europe back in the nineties. We’re a hockey family.

Me: Gotta travel to Toledo tomorrow morning.

Mom: Text me when you get there

I close out of the family group chat with a laugh. Mom will never stop seeing me as her baby boy. It doesn’t help that for the last five years I’ve lived away from home more than half the year each year. While in Juniors, I lived with billet families and I stayed in the dorms at Wrenshaw. Come to think of it, between camps and leagues and school, the last full year I lived at home was when I was fifteen.

Whatever. I don’t need to be around people.

I last about five minutes before the sound of the electricity in the apartment starts to grate on my nerves. I log in to my Spotify to play some music and turn on the TV to see if there’s something that might distract me. Christmas movies seem like a good idea, but it’s not the same without my family around to watch them together. Dad and I make bets on how many tropes they can cram into ninety minutes.

Instead of putting on something I haven’t seen before, I flip over to my K-drama profile on Netflix. I set up my account with different profiles for different moods. It helps keep the algorithm in check so that I can find what I’m looking for easier. Today, though, nothing looks good. I pick a show at random before snatching up my phone to check social media.

After about an hour of Doom scrolling, a news article out of Washington DC catches my attention. I know my feed can get wonky sometimes, but I do everything in my power to not have news show up in my personal feed. I don’t need or want the depression that comes from mainstream news. Why the fuck is this article showing up?

It takes a moment for my brain to process the words in the headline, and then I realize the correlation:

Veteran Goalie Arrested:

Gladiators Organization Responds

Sitting up, I pause my playlist to let the screen reader app on my phone read the article to me. I could power through it like I did with the title, but it’s not worth the strain when I’m by myself. They make the assistive apps to be used after all. As the robotic voice starts, I can’t help wondering if this is the break everyone’s been telling me would come for me.

The Gladiators’ luck just seems to be getting worse. After three consecutive losing seasons, the team faces yet another setback. This time in the form of the hospitalization and arrest of their PHL affiliate starting net minder, Reginald Clarke.

According to sources, Clarke was dining with friends in the capital for the holiday. The owner of the house told our reporter that Clarke was insisting that he was not intoxicated despite having several alcoholic beverages over the course of the evening. At approximately seven p.m., Clarke got into his Range Rover and was heading northbound on Interstate 295. Multiple calls were received by 911 operators mentioning a vehicle swerving between lanes and even driving on the shoulders. At seven thirty, police and firefighters were dispatched to the scene of a single vehicle crash involving Mr. Clarke’s vehicle.

Clarke was transported to the hospital where his blood alcohol content was discovered to be almost four times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle in the District of Columbia. Police have placed him under arrest to be taken into custody once medically cleared to leave the hospital.

At this time, no comment has been made from Gladiators organization nor their PHL affiliate, the Harrisburg Pickaxes, about the future of their veteran goalie or what kind of impact this might have on the teams going forward. One thing is certain, this might be a blessing in disguise for the struggling Pickaxes who will likely be calling up the rookie sensation, Isaiah Charming, from the Baltimore Bruisers for the foreseeable future while Clarke works his way through the legal system and his recovery.

The Gladiators play at home tomorrow night, facing off with the Phoenix Firebirds. Puck drops at 7:05 pm.

Holy shit! This can’t be.

The sound of my text alert has me swiping open the app.

Coach B: Forget us, Kid. You’re heading to H-burg. U got a car?

Me: No.

Me: Shit.

Me: Sorry