And then college began and I’d been sucked into a universe that reached my soul. The vastness of space and every molecule of knowledge was there for the taking, and my sex life was second on the list. I didn’t know where I fit in the gay spectrum, but in my own head, and using a pure science fiction movie model, I was that quiet hero who would use my brains to save everyone. I wasn’t the one who was going to singlehandedly repopulate an entire planet. I’d never found someone who I even wanted to kiss, let alone touch in any way that wasn’t shaking hands.
Yet, here I was staring down at the ice and I was having feelings about things.
If anyone had asked me at that moment if I was enjoying this, then I’d probably have said something insane like “I think goalies are sexy and I think I’m having feelings about things,” so I’d already thought up an answer which would consist of few words. Yes, it was fun, thank you. The WAGs had been accommodating and friendly, bringing me nibbles and cold drinks, cooing over Maddie, but I was balancing caring for Maddie along with trying to stare at Colorado, so my conversation was limited.
“Hi, can I sit?” I glanced up to find Heimdall from Thor staring down at me. For a second I lost my voice, because… what the hell? But then, over the shock I got a proper look at his face as the guy sat down, it was not Heimdall or indeed the actor who played him, Idris Elba, sitting next to me. He held out a hand, “Justin LaFayette, seventy-two, out of Vancouver” he introduced himself, and given that he was obviously not seventy-two, I assumed that was a jersey number, ergo he was a skater from the Raptors. I’d noticed that players tagged on their numbers, and sometimes even added things like wing, or D, or the country or province they came from, whatever made sense to them.
“Joseph.” I shook his hand.
“Colorado said you’d be up here and suggested I keep you company.” I got more of a sense of the Idris lookalike as he wriggled in the chair and had to manually grab at a cast to bring his leg to the front, wincing as he did so. “Told me you’d want to know what was happening.”
“It’s okay,” I reassured him and waved at his leg, “seems like you might need the rest.”
“This?” He glanced at his toes, “LBI, it’s nothing.”
“LBI?”
“Lower body injury, hockey talk, I won’t be playing in the cup run so I have plenty of games to show you everything.” He glanced over his shoulder, then lowered his voice, “If I don’t get traded first.”
“Is that a possibility?” I copied him and half whispered, because it seemed like the right thing to say and do. In my arms, Maddie moved, and yawned, and on reflex I swayed a little, hoping she wouldn’t wake up until the official end of this period. She would need changing, and there was a small room set aside for that, but I’d just seen blonde WAG five disappear in there, and I had no idea what I’d talk about with her if she stopped to chat with me.
“Depends, Coach is looking to move things around, and I’m seven of six.”
“Is that like Seven of Nine?” I joked, but it fell flat.
“No, six.” He looked puzzled. Clearly not a Trek fan then. I needed to remember that jocks were jocks, and nerds loved different things. I was embarrassed, and I don’t know why, because I was a planetary scientist for God’s sake, and just because I don’t know anything about hockey, doesn’t make me less of a man. “Are you okay?” Justin interrupted my self-validation in which I was spiraling back to high school.
“Sorry, carry on.”
“So, there are three pairs of defensemen and healthy scratches.”
“Yeah,” I said, which was possibly the best thing to do although I did subtly shift away from him in my chair, because scratching sounded bad and I was in charge of Maddie. Also Seventy-two was a big man and as intimidating as Simon.
“A healthy scratch is a player who is able to play but is kept out of the game for reasons. Then there is me with the injury.” He sighed. “Anyway, tell me what you know about the game.” He smiled at me.
I peered at the tiny people on the ice. “Well, the Raptors are in red and gold, and the other team are in green. Plus there is unpredictable predictability, like chaos theory in work.”
“Oh,” he said, and I thought he wanted me to say more.
I tried to think of another fact, but a dissertation on the physics of rubber on ice wasn’t going to cut it. Then it hit me.
“Colorado is the Raptor’s goalie, and I assume Ryker and Alex are down there somewhere,” I added.
Justin grinned at me, then leaned forward in his seat. “Right, I know where to start.” He wasn’t put out that I knew nothing, in fact he was excited to start from the beginning.
Who knew that hockey was played in three periods, and that they switched ends, and that what Colorado was currently doing was a butterfly? I know I didn’t. Justin sat with me through the game, kept me company in the breaks, helped me with Maddie by demanding he get a hold, and even found some tiny ear defenders that he admitted he’d stolen-slash-borrowed from one of the wives. By the beginning of the last period, with just four minutes left on the big Jumbotron countdown, I was on the edge of my seat along with Justin who couldn’t sit still.
“What the hell?” I followed the man in green skating backward to his sin bin gesticulating
