The Tournament

by Angelo Kontos

  Unlike the previous night, Matt was hyper and excited at his team’s win and wanted to chat Eddie up in their hotel room.

  “Man, I forgot about your disgusting wrist shot,” Matt said.

  “I kind of forgot about it too,” Eddie replied as he sat on his bed and grabbed a tablet to play video games.

  “It’s disgusting,” Matt continued. “You’ve got to let it go more often.”

  A knock on the door. Matt opened it and there stood Freddy Rozelli.

  “Hey,” Freddy said as he brushed past Matt and walked right in. “What are you guys up to?”

  “Just hanging out,” Eddie replied.

  “Most of the boys are downstairs in the bar,” Freddy said.

  “Aw, no, man. We’re too tired,” Matt said. “At least I am.”

  “Me too,” Eddie added as he started playing a game.

  “Too tired,” Freddy repeated while staring intently at Matt.

  Matt started to shift uncomfortably. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  Freddy pulled out some money from his wallet and held it out to Eddie.

  “Hey Eddie, can you do me a favour and get us some of those delicious Beaver Tails from over near the ByWard Market?”

  “Beaver Tails?” Eddie asked.

  “It’s a dessert,” Freddy said.

  “Yeah, I know what a Beaver Tail is,” Eddie replied. “You want me to go buy Beaver Tails now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why can’t…” Eddie stopped himself as he realized Freddy wanted him to leave for some reason. He got up, put on his shoes, snatched the money out of Freddy’s hand and went out to get Beaver Tails.

  As soon as Eddie closed the door, Freddy started opening drawers.

  “Hey,” Matt protested. “What’re you doing?”

  “Where is it?” Freddy asked.

  “Where’s what?” Matt almost shouted.

  Freddy opened the front closet and saw Matt’s two jackets hanging there. Freddy started digging through the pockets of one jacket and Matt ran at him.

  “Hey, get the fuck out of my stuff!” he yelled.

  Freddy used one hand to grab Matt by the scruff of his shirt and slam him against a wall. With his other hand, he held up a vial from one of the jackets.

  “It takes one to know one,” Freddy said.

  “You don’t know shit about me,” Matt said. “That’s none of your business.”

  Matt grabbed the vial and pulled himself free from Freddy’s grip.

  “Who the hell do you think you are? Huh?” Matt demanded. “There’s no videos of me on the internet drunk and high and making an ass of myself.”

  “You don’t need that to play,” Freddy said. “You need to stop.”

  “What the hell is your problem?” Matt asked.

  Freddy went for the door.

  “Just remember that when you need me, I’ll be there for you.”

  37.

  “Why didn’t you ever talk to Diana about what happened that night?” Dr. Williams asked Alex.

  “I never talked to anyone about what happened that night,” Alex replied. “I didn’t even talk to my mother about it, and we’re the ones who went through it.”

  “Why not? Be honest.”

  “I am honest,” Alex replied, agitated. “I don’t like it when you keep saying that. I haven’t lied to you, and I would never lie to Dee.”

  “So why did you never talk about it?” Dr. Williams asked again.

  “I don’t know. I just didn’t see the point. I mean, it was done. We had to move on.”

  “Did you ever wonder why it happened?” the doctor asked.

  “My father was a selfish piece of garbage,” Alex replied. “There’s nothing to wonder about.”

  “Isn’t that a little harsh?” Dr. Williams asked. “I mean…he was your father.”

  Alex leaned forward in his chair and for a moment seemed to forget he was there with Diana.

  “Oh, he was? Really?”

  He leaned back, and then forward again with a finger pointing at the doctor.

  “All he had to be was my father and a decent husband to my mother. That’s all we wanted. We never asked him for anything. My mother was the most loving woman on the planet.”

  “Alex…” Dr. Williams tried to interrupt.

  “We never told him to do crazy stuff like bringing home bags of money to hide in the ceiling,” Alex continued. “He brought danger to our family. Do you understand? Real danger. He was warned about what could happen, and he let those men come into our home. I jumped out a window…my mother could have been…”

  Unable to finish that last sentence, Alex swallowed hard and exhaled through his nostrils. He massaged his temples.

  “Fuck him,” he said. “He deserved a lot worse than he got.”

  “Can you forgive him?” Dr. Williams asked.

  Alex looked at Diana and then at the doctor.

  “No.”

  38.

  Corey’s secretary invited him over to her house for a home-cooked meal and some company. He initially declined the offer, but then reconsidered after she insisted. Corey had decided he would clean himself up and return to the Arena Gardens for Game 5, but that wouldn’t be until tomorrow night, and he certainly had nothing better to do until then.

  His secretary was a warm, family-oriented woman who fussed over her two kids and appeared to be in a good marriage. Corey brought over wine and dessert.

  The dinner itself was very pleasant. Her husband was welcoming and gracious. The food was delicious, but Corey was glad when it felt like a natural time to leave. He thanked them for having him over.

  As he walked back to his apartment, he contemplated going to a bar and diving into a few scotches, but he decided to get some air instead. Corey reflected on what he’d seen in his secretary’s home. She was sitting beside her husband at the dinner table. Their two sons, who were not much older than Corey and Helen’s children, were polite and respectful. They asked to be excused after finishing their meals and gave their mom and dad a hug and kiss before leaving the table.

  Corey could not help but think of how Helen tried to establish something like that in their home for years and with little success. He’d never given much thought to this before, but after witnessing his secretary’s interaction with her family it became clear to him just how detached he’d allowed himself to become from his own wife and kids.

  He decided to double back to a bar for a scotch after all.

  39.

  Curtis had managed to regulate his sleeping habits more despite the team’s travel schedule. However, the two intense road games in Ottawa still left him feeling tired. He got to Megan’s house in the late morning after the bus returned to Toronto and found the house empty. Megan had already left for a shift at the restaurant and Jimmy was in school for another hour or so.

  He decided to take advantage of the quiet and went for a nap. Just as he was about to doze off, Curtis’s phone rang, and it was Megan freaking out about Jimmy again.

  She blurted out something about Jimmy getting in trouble at school. It was nearly impossible for her to get off work because unlike Curtis’ warehouse supervisor, her restaurant manager Earl was – as Curtis knew all too well – a petty man immersed in his own bitterness. He would probably cut her shifts if she tried to leave.

  Curtis was not a custodial parent, but Megan spoke to a vice-principal and gave permission for Curtis to meet with school administration and take her son home afterward. She had explained that she and Curtis were in a common-law relationship.

  “We are?” Curtis asked her.

  “Well…aren’t we?”

  Within minutes, Curtis was back in his car and rushing to get Megan’s boy out of a jam for the second time in a week.

  When he walked into the school’s main office, Curtis heard an argument going on and recognized Jimmy’s voice.

  “Yo, you got no right to look through my bag,” Jimmy protested.

  Cu
rtis entered the vice-principal’s office. “What’s going on here?”

  After quickly picking up on the lack of family resemblance, the vice-principal asked Curtis his name.

  “Ah, yes,” the VP said after Curtis told him. “His mother said you were on your way.”

  “So, what did he do?” Curtis asked. “Why do you want to search him?”

  “He and another friend of his decided to grab a student’s bag and take it outside for whatever reason,” the VP answered. “We got that bag back, but I need to search him because I received word that he may be carrying a knife.”

  Curtis looked at Jimmy. “You took someone’s bag?”

  “Yo, you’re not touching my stuff,” Jimmy said to the VP.

  “If you don’t cooperate with me,” the VP replied, “I’ll call the police and you can deal with them.”

  “You got no right!” Jimmy insisted.

  “Alright, then,” the VP said and picked up the phone.

  Before he could dial, Curtis reached over and took the receiver out of the vice-principal’s hand. He put it back down and turned to Jimmy.

  “Show him your bag.”

  Jimmy glared at Curtis but did not move. Curtis grabbed the knapsack and pushed it onto the boy’s chest.

  “Open it.”

  Jimmy continued to glare at Curtis before opening his bag and removing the contents.

  “Hurry up,” Curtis said.

  “Yo, this is some bullshit,” Jimmy responded.

  After Jimmy unloaded his binders, textbooks and a few gross uneaten lunches, the vice-principal seemed satisfied that he did not have a weapon in his knapsack and told him he could put everything back in the bag.

  “See, I told you this is some bullshit,” Jimmy repeated.

  “Watch your mouth,” Curtis said.

  “Your jacket,” the VP said.

  “What?” Jimmy asked.

  His jacket was resting on a chair.

  “Your jacket,” the VP repeated. “The pockets.”

  Curtis grabbed the jacket and dug through the pockets. He felt something metallic in one of them and pulled it out.

  “You’re carrying a box cutter?” Curtis asked in disbelief.

  “Go screw yourself!” the boy replied defiantly.

  Curtis bent over to be eye-level with Megan’s son.

  “Now you listen,” Curtis said. “I don’t really care how you feel about me. What I care about is that your mother asked me to help her – so that’s what I’m going to do, even if it means dragging your little ass to my car and throwing you in the trunk. Now if you’ve got half a brain in your head, let me talk to your vice-principal and shut up.”

  Jimmy looked like he was dying to say something, but did not. Curtis handed the box cutter to the vice-principal.

  “So, he’s in some trouble?” Curtis asked.

  “Yes,” the VP nodded. “He is.”

  40.

  With the sellout crowd roaring from the start, Toronto took the game to Ottawa as soon as the puck dropped for Game 5. The Wall turned away the first ten shots he faced before Toronto scored a power play goal by Curtis when a puck bounced off his body and into the net.

  Early in the second period, an Ottawa forward took a foolish hooking penalty behind the play and Isaac scored. Toronto led 2–0 and appeared to be in complete control of the game. The Wall was the only reason his team wasn’t losing by three or four more goals. He didn’t seem to have that aura of invincibility anymore though.

  Coming off a shift, Alex and Isaac sat beside each other on the bench.

  “You going to see your daughter again?” Alex asked.

  “Supposed to,” Isaac replied. “I’m going over before we leave.”

  “You could just meet her tonight,” Alex said. “She’s sitting over there.”

  Alex pointed to a group of seats he helped get for Melanie. She was with Sophia, who was fidgeting on her lap and eating popcorn. Isaac’s eyes widened and he punched Alex hard in the shoulder.

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “I wanted to see how you were playing first,” Alex laughed.

  Isaac was literally jumping up and down on the bench until it was his turn to take the ice. He surprised the Ottawa players with his speed and stripped one of their defencemen of the puck before going in on a short breakaway. Isaac deked to his left and shot the puck in while the Wall was sprawled out after missing a poke-check.

  And here comes Banion. He’s flying out there and steals it! Now he comes in on goal…oh, my heavens! Look at Banion! What a move! What a goal! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, baby!

  Late in the third period and with the game feeling like it was all but over, Isaac added another on a give-and-go with Mike, for the first hat trick by a Toronto player in The Tournament. Some fans threw their hats on the ice. A timeout was called, and Angus ran out to pick them up, annoyed and happy at the same time.

  For the second game in a row, Ottawa scored late to spoil Matt Richards’ shutout bid, but Toronto won by a score of 4–1 to regain the lead in the series.

  Diana was now watching the action from near the Toronto bench. Corey Peters had taken her place by one of the fire exits and watched the entire game from there.

  Corey’s phone was ringing, and he saw that it was Dave Chambers, who undoubtedly was upset that Corey did not raise ticket prices. Corey muted his phone and put it back in his pocket.

  41.

  Tonight, as he sat up in his hotel bed and lit a joint, Matt thought that perhaps his father had not been all that bad. Slapping his mother was certainly wrong, but she’d been nagging Matt’s dad about everything under the sun. Was she really justified to walk away like that and ruin their family? So, his father screwed up. What exactly had she wanted?

  At the motel after the last game, his father had pulled out a little black box and suggested they take a minute to “really celebrate” before Matt left to return to his boat.

  The product in the black box made Rachel’s stuff look like powdered baby formula. Matt felt like he was walking on a cloud the entire way home. As he stumbled along the pier, he could not have realized how close he came to falling in the lake.

  When he finally got back to the boat, he squinted his eyes and saw a light on inside again. As baked as he was, he now recalled that Rachel had rescheduled their date to have dinner and a little fun to make up for the previous time. When Matt stepped out of the dressing room after tonight’s game and saw his father, though, he forgot all about it.

  Still considerably woozy from designer drugs, Matt fumbled around for the door handle before finding it and going inside. The scene was similar to a few nights ago, with two microwaved dinners on the small table along with a lit candle and bottle of wine.

  Rachel was sitting on the bed with an empty cup in her hand. She looked upset.

  “I forgot,” Matt offered. “Sorry.”

  “How could you forget again?” Rachel asked.

  “Sorry,” Matt repeated as he removed his shoes and nonchalantly walked to the bathroom.

  He dropped his pants and started to pee. His aim could have been better.

  Rachel stood watching with her arms crossed.

  “It’s inconsiderate,” she managed to say.

  Matt snickered as he finished and pulled his pants back up. He came out of the bathroom without washing his hands or flushing the toilet.

  Rachel took a minute before finally saying, “I’m not some piece of trash, Matt.”

  “You’re not?” Matt replied sarcastically as he passed by her on his way to the bed. She grabbed his arm and turned him around.

  “If this is how you’re gonna…”

  Before Rachel could finish, Matt shoved her with considerable force. The momentum sent Rachel sprawling backwards into the table and she fell to the floor. One of the microwaved dinners, spaghetti, spilled onto her as she scrambled to sit up.

  Matt looked at her and then laughed. Rachel got up, grabbed her purse, and ran out with noodles dr
ipping from her pants.

  Continuing to laugh out loud, Matt turned back toward his bed and collapsed on the mattress.

  42.

  Despite a high wind warning, Helen decided to go for an early run through High Park before settling into the Grenadier Café to watch Game 6. She planned to enjoy some of the café’s diverse menu of scrumptious food and desserts.

  This was the first night the kids were with Corey at his new apartment, and Helen had an entire night of freedom.

  While she sat at a table in her running outfit rehydrating and enjoying a warm piece of apple pie, she noticed a man checking her out from a nearby table even though he was with another woman. Helen ate the pie slowly and decided to treat herself to a small beer as she nervously watched Toronto eventually drop a heartbreaking 2–1 decision. A late goal from Mike in the third made for a wild finish, but The Wall stood tall, and Ottawa hung on to win the game. That meant another Game 7, and Ottawa’s goalie looked hot again at the worst possible time.

  The more distance Helen had from Corey, the less she could see herself returning to their old life. The truth was he never became the man that she had hoped for. Perhaps it would take some time for her to enjoy the new opportunities she had to meet other men. All she cared about right now was making sure her kids were okay as they adjusted to their new reality.

  Helen was also surprised at how much she regretted approaching Alex in the Toronto changeroom a few nights ago. She walked in determined to seduce him and never imagined feeling guilty about it, but she did.

  She got up to pay her bill. It was time to go. She had to start preparing the Old Arena Gardens for its wildest event yet – Game 7 of The Tournament’s semi-final.

  43.

  Before Alex left the hotel in Ottawa, he and Diana had talked over the phone and agreed to meet up again the day after the team returned to Toronto. So, Alex could not have expected to find Diana in the apartment when he returned home that night.