The Tournament

by Angelo Kontos

  He was sobbing quietly.

  87.

  Isaac’s ex-girlfriend Melanie received a call from some big-shot lawyer named Corey Peters instructing her to meet him that afternoon at the restaurant where she was fired.

  “Why?” she asked, completely surprised.

  He knew about her situation, he said, and had a plan to help her. He wanted her to bring the letter she received that abruptly terminated her employment. Did she still have that letter? Yes? Good.

  “Who asked you to call me?” Melanie said into the phone. “How do I know you’re not some con artist?”

  “Do you want my help or not?” Corey asked.

  “I can’t exactly afford a lawyer right now.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Meet me there in an hour.”

  When Corey arrived, Melanie was standing by the restaurant entrance holding an envelope. He was taken aback by how gorgeous Melanie was, even in her stressed-out state. He had a fleeting thought about what payment he should ask for in return for his services, but he felt surprisingly ashamed and blocked it from his mind. Instead, he opened the envelope and read the letter.

  “Perfect,” he said. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

  Corey went inside with Melanie following closely behind. A few of the servers recognized her and the hostess came over to say hello. Corey went right up to one of the managers who fired Melanie, the duty manager, and asked to speak to him as well as the other manager who had been in that meeting.

  “Who are you?” the duty manager asked.

  “I’m her attorney,” Corey replied.

  The duty manager looked nervous and excused himself. A few minutes later Corey and Melanie were led into the same room where she’d been terminated and asked to wait.

  “We don’t have long to wait, so I suggest you hurry up,” Corey replied tersely. “I’m here in good faith to avoid a court proceeding, so you better move your asses.”

  Just a few minutes later, both managers came in and sat down. The duty manager looked nervous while the other one, the general manager, looked angrier than he had during the previous meeting.

  “So, you lawyered up?” the general manager asked Melanie in disgust.

  “If you mean exercising her legal rights in order not to be treated like shit by you, then sure, she lawyered up,” Corey responded coolly.

  “We didn’t violate her legal rights,” the duty manager responded nervously.

  “Did she have any advance notice of the meeting where you called her in here to fire her?” Corey asked.

  “We don’t have to give advance notice for a meeting like that,” the general manager barked.

  “But you have to give her a reason, don’t you?” Corey asked. “Did you do that?”

  “We told her there was a problem with her receipts,” the duty manager replied.

  “Actually, I believe you blurted that out after she begged you to explain why she was being fired,” Corey said. “Isn’t that right? I mean, it’s hard to know since there were two of you and no one was in here on her behalf.”

  “They’re not unionized,” the general manager replied in disgust, as if the thought of unions made him ill.

  “Sure,” Corey agreed. “But you do have to follow labour laws, don’t you?”

  “Well, of course,” the duty manager chimed in.

  “Okay, so it’s reasonable to assume that with no notice of what was going on and no one here to advocate on her behalf, Melanie would be shocked at losing her job. She’s a single mother, by the way. Did you guys know that?”

  “That’s none of our business,” the general manager replied.

  “So, when people are even in a mild state of shock, it stands to reason they might miss something,” Corey continued, “which is why it’s good to write it down so they can look at it later when the shock wears off. I’m so glad you boys did that. I understand there was a letter.”

  Corey pulled the letter out of the envelope and acted like he was seeing it for the very first time. He made a face and tossed it onto the middle of the table.

  “Oh, would you look at that? It doesn’t say why she was fired there either,” he said before turning to Melanie. “Where’s the letter explaining why you were fired? Did you lose it?”

  “I wasn’t given anything else,” Melanie responded.

  Corey feigned surprise. “You mean you don’t know why you were fired?”

  “There was a problem with her receipts,” the general manager repeated.

  “I still don’t know what that means,” Melanie said.

  “You ever heard of ‘just cause’?” Corey asked the general manager. “Means you can’t just fire someone unless they’re on probation. Melanie was not on probation, was she? If she did something wrong, why wasn’t she told what it was and where’s the documentation that proves she was given a chance to improve?”

  “I know what ‘just cause’ is,” the general manager fumed. “And if a situation is serious enough, we’re within our rights to terminate her.”

  “What situation?” Corey asked. “We still don’t know.”

  “We had a customer who said he settled his bill with cash, but that she charged his credit card and there’s no receipt,” the general manager said.

  “So, what? You think she pocketed the cash?” Corey asked.

  “I never did that,” Melanie objected. “When did this happen? A few weeks ago our printers were down and we couldn’t print receipts.”

  “Wow,” Corey laughed.

  The general manager looked at the duty manager who, based on how he was constantly shifting in his chair, might have soiled his underwear.

  “Look, we’re not stupid here,” the general manager said.

  “No, actually, I disagree,” Corey replied. “You especially seem like the biggest moron I’ve met in a long time.”

  “I wouldn’t have been the only one who couldn’t print a receipt,” Melanie added.

  “You have an obligation to provide your employees with everything they need to carry out their jobs properly, don’t you?” Corey asked.

  “Look, we all know what happened here,” the general manager fumed. “She took his credit card to run a tab, then he decided to pay cash and she charged the card anyway and pocketed the money.”

  “So, you think she stole?” Corey asked.

  “Obviously!!!”

  “I see,” Corey said, pausing for effect. “Do you normally deal with criminal matters on your own without involving police? You have any proof of theft? Because unless I’m missing something, it sounds like the only thing that can be proven is the printers broke down and your servers couldn’t do their jobs properly.”

  At that moment, a loud, long fart was heard. The duty manager looked straight ahead, but the bead of sweat coming down his forehead confirmed his guilt.

  “Well, that just about sums everything up, doesn’t it?” Corey smiled.

  Melanie smiled too. She liked her new lawyer.

  Corey pulled a folder out from his briefcase. “Alright then, let’s stop wasting time and get down to brass tacks.”

  A short time later, Melanie was back outside and in such a haze that she could not remember walking there from the meeting room.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she stammered. “I can’t thank you enough. I mean, I knew I got screwed over, but my job back…lost wages, the raise. Just curious though, why did you back down on the apology?”

  “Because if they write out an apology it leaves them open to more litigation,” Corey said. “They’re dumb, but they’re not that dumb. I didn’t think we’d get that, but it was worth a shot. You sure you still want to work here?”

  Melanie nodded. “The money’s good and the farting guy’s actually not so bad.”

  “Okay,” Corey chuckled.

  “As soon as I get some money, I’ll pay you.”

  “There’s nothing to pay. Take care.”

  Corey turned to leave, but Melanie stopped him.
r />   “You shouldn’t take Isaac’s money,” she said. “He gets himself in trouble.”

  “You know his dad was a jazz musician, right? He was pretty good. Kind of locally famous.”

  “Yeah, sure, I know. Isaac used to put on his records, especially the big one…you know…he called it The Record.”

  “

  Corey smiled at her.

  “He would never sell that record.”

  Corey smiled again and walked away.

  Corey decided to return to his office. Alex and Isaac had showed up there earlier that morning to take him through the story of Melanie’s dismissal. When the guys first reassembled for The Tournament, Corey’s impression of Isaac was that he hadn’t changed since university. He was still a long-haired freak who could never be serious about anything. He had no idea this different side of him existed – until now. Corey wasn’t sure why he agreed to help, but there was something about listening to Isaac pouring his heart out about Melanie and his young daughter that made Corey momentarily forget about how much he hated Alex. He agreed to help and even got a valuable jazz record in the process for his trouble. Isaac insisted. He did not want a handout.

  Corey exited the elevator and went to his office. Everyone around the firm had begun to behave more normally around him and there was less hushed whispering each day. Corey had also made a point of being friendlier to his loyal secretary.

  “Hey,” he said as walked by her. “How’s it going?”

  She shot out of her chair and came around the desk.

  “Corey…”

  He had recently told her to call him by his first name.

  “Yes?”

  “There’s someone in your office.”

  “Let me guess. It’s Dave Chambers wanting me to cancel all the tickets for Game 7 and then resell them for triple the price?”

  “No.”

  “Well, what then?” Corey asked as he opened the door.

  Diana was seated on the couch.

  “I need your help,” she said.

  88.

  When Curtis returned from New York, his mother was discharged from the hospital. He left there with a small arsenal of phone numbers and pamphlets for support services should he need help taking care of her – everything from home-care nurses to Meals on Wheels to housecleaning.

  Since leaving Megan’s home, Curtis had just been going through the motions. First, there was The Tournament. One more game and that would be over. As great as it was, his heart was just not in it anymore. Then there was the obligation to take care of his mother once again. It struck Curtis as ironic that numerous services were required to offer all the things that he had done single-handedly for so many years.

  Curtis had thought extensively about how things would be in the house now. They could not go back to their previous routine. Instead of just caving in to her every demand, he would make a point of being firm. She was still his mother, and he would take care of her now more than ever before, but he had to try and live his life as well.

  He missed Megan.

  When they got back to the house, his mother went for a bath and immediately complained the water was freezing cold.

  “Here we go,” Curtis muttered to himself.

  She had been back in the house for all of ten minutes and was already complaining and making demands. With his mother sitting naked in the tub, Curtis put his hand under the running faucet. It was indeed quite frigid.

  “I’m cold,” she said again.

  Curtis helped her out of the tub.

  “Put on a robe,” he said. “I’m going to go check on the water heater.”

  “Thank you, son.”

  As Curtis was on his way to the basement, the front doorbell rang. He pulled the door open and standing there was Megan’s son Jimmy.

  They looked at each other for a while without speaking.

  “Your mom okay?” Curtis finally asked.

  Jimmy nodded.

  “How’d you find out where I live?”

  “Google Earth.”

  Curtis’s mother called from upstairs. “Curtis, I’m cold.”

  “Why’d you come?” Curtis asked Jimmy.

  Jimmy gestured toward the living room. Curtis nodded for him to enter and shut the front door.

  “Curtis!” his mother yelled. “Is the water warm yet? I’m cold.”

  “Who’s that?” Jimmy asked.

  “That’s my mother,” Curtis replied.

  “You have a mother?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “A father?”

  “No.”

  “Curtis! Should I go back in the bathtub?” Curtis’s mother called.

  “Hold on a minute!” Curtis called back.

  “Why’d you leave?” Jimmy asked.

  “That’s between me and your mom.”

  “It’s ’cause of me, right?”

  “You’ve got nothing to feel bad about, okay?” Curtis responded. “You’re a kid and you’ve got a great mom. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Son, I’m cold,” his mother called again from upstairs.

  Curtis sighed. This would never be easy.

  “Look, I’m a little busy and I have to get to the rink,” Curtis said.

  “She misses you,” Jimmy said. “Like, a lot.”

  “I miss her too.”

  “When this tournament is over…it’s over tomorrow, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, can you, you know, come back?”

  “You want me to come back?” Curtis asked. “I mean, you were pretty clear that you didn’t want me around.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Let me think about it. I’ve got to get through the game first.”

  “Okay.”

  On the way out, Megan’s son stopped briefly.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” Curtis said.

  “Why don’t you have a dad?”

  “That’s a long story, you know?”

  Jimmy nodded thoughtfully and left.

  89.

  The afternoon skate was optional, but every player showed up except for Eddie Mark. Although no one said anything, Alex thought it was a bad sign that Eddie hadn’t come around at all since his injury.

  Alex had bigger things to worry about right now. For the first time since agreeing to play in The Tournament, he had no desire to go to the rink. The only bright spot in the practice for Alex occurred when Ken skated over while he was standing by himself in the corner firing pucks off the glass.

  “Alex, I never thanked you for finding me after all these years and convincing me to come back and coach,” Ken said.

  “You don’t thank me for anything, Coach. It’s more the other way around.”

  The only other moment of levity for Alex was when Barry Davis skated by with his usual surly expression and Alex fired a puck off Barry’s rear end on purpose. Barry growled, but then to Alex’s surprise broke out in a big grin.

  For the rest of the skate, Alex just stood in the same place and kept shooting pucks at the glass, harder and harder. He could care less about the money, but if anything happened to Diana, he would tear Havock apart limb by limb or die trying.

  Before leaving the arena, Alex asked Isaac to call the hospital from an arena phone. He wanted to make sure that Diana was there working. Alex was too afraid to use his own phone. He had no idea how far Havock’s reach was.

  After getting Isaac to ask for any of the three nurses Alex knew worked with Diana, one of them took the phone and Alex jumped on the line to ask if Diana was there. He learned that she was, and this gave him some temporary relief. Things appeared to be normal for now.

  A duffel bag full of money lay at his feet.

  A few hours later, Alex’s cellphone began vibrating loudly on his dining room table and startled him awake. Bright light was shining onto the apartment balcony from the streetlamps, and it seemed to be getting brighter by the second. He shook off his grogginess and realized
that he wasn’t dreaming. Alex looked at the phone and saw a blocked caller ID, but he knew who it was. He grabbed it and pressed the button to answer the call, but he did not say anything.

  “Hey there, Alex. How you doing, son?”

  “I’m not your son. I thought I was clear about that.”

  “Well, yes, I guess you thought you were.”

  “I have the money.”

  “Words I never heard from your old man!”

  “You want me to meet you somewhere?”

  “We’ll come to you.”

  “Yeah, I figured.”

  “Okay, then. I’m sure you know what time.”

  “Yeah, I remember. See you then.”

  “Oh, and Alex, you seem like a bright guy, but just in case, don’t be like your old man,” Havock advised. “Don’t be stupid.”

  As much as he wanted to come up with a brilliant solution, all Alex could think to do was sit there and wait. He knew that his current game plan was rough around the edges.

  3:00 a.m. would come soon enough.

  90.

  After receiving a payout from her lying, cheating husband years ago, Matt Richards’ mother had set herself up in a trendy downtown condo. She never shared this information with Matt or his father. In fact, she made a point of cutting off all communication with them while rebuilding her life. She started her own business in architectural design and worked out of her condo, so her whereabouts were not exactly a secret.

  In fact, Matt had known where she lived for a long time. It was a relatively short walk from his boat to her building. However, it was a walk he had never been on, until now.

  With Freddy in tow, Matt proceeded up York Street and cut left on Richmond. He did not have a plan for how to get past the concierge, but Freddy assured him they would come up with something if they had to. After all this time and that e-mail response, Matt doubted his mother would agree to let him go up to her place.

  For a brief moment, it looked like they might get away with being sneaky. The security guard at the desk in the lobby was busy speaking to someone as Matt and Freddy slipped by and made their way to the nearby open elevator.