Sunday, April 27, 2008

Chapter 22 - Some Kind of Wonderful

Less than a week later I was back in Cole Harbour and I was getting ready to start my new job. I should have been excited. I should have been eagerly anticipating the beginning to a new chapter in my life.

Instead I spent most of the time wondering about Sidney. I wondered what he was doing and how things were going for him at Mario’s. I wondered how practice was going and if he was adjusting well to life in the NHL. Mainly though, I wondered if he was thinking about me as much as I was thinking about him.

We hadn’t spoken since that night in Pittsburgh. He hadn’t tried to call me, but then again, I hadn’t tried to call him. Every night I sat at home and my fingers itched to dial his number. I just wanted to hear the sound of his voice. I wanted to hear him say my name again.

Only I didn’t know if he’d answer the phone if I called, so I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t make myself pick up the phone and dial his number because there was always a chance that he wasn’t going to answer. Or worse still, he’d answer and he wouldn’t want to talk to me.

I had too much to worry about. I couldn’t deal with the emotional trauma of him not wanting me when all of this other… stuff, was going on in my life. I had to focus on my job… I wanted it to be my career.

Except that I wasn’t. Because no matter where I was, the only thing I was thinking about was Sidney. I was worried about him and I worried about the pressure he was facing. How was he dealing with it?

Or was it even hard for him? Being so far away I had no idea. Maybe he was having the time of his life in Pittsburgh and he didn’t need me at all. The plain hard fact of the matter was that I didn’t know. Nor was I likely to find out anytime soon.

So I continued working. I worried about getting to know my students. I worried about doing my job properly and in my spare time I tried to focus on anything and everything but Sidney Crosby.

Living in Cole Harbour made that practically impossible. You couldn’t take two steps without hearing something about him. I almost grew accustomed to hearing about him, though it continued to hurt. Every time I saw him on TV it hurt, and he was all over TV, every where I looked.

It didn’t help that I’m a huge sports fan. I couldn’t help but turn into Sportscentre and Sportsnet News. I wanted to know the scores, and though I tried to avoid most of the major stories about Sidney, I couldn’t completely ignore Sidney-mania. In fact, it probably wouldn’t have mattered where I was living, I wouldn’t be able to avoid Sidney-mania.

Sidney-mania continued with the press and I continued to try to ignore it as best I could.

However, whenever I saw one of those stupid pieces on any of the sports channels where they compared him to Alexander Ovechkin, I couldn’t help but tune in. I worried about Sidney when I saw those stories.

I worried about how he felt, being compared to a 20-year-old. Ovechkin already had a pro-season under his belt in Russia. Sidney had just turned 18… last year he’d been playing in a kid’s league, compared to what Ovechkin had been doing. It didn’t seem fair to compare the two.

And every time I saw one of those stories… one of the ones that I just couldn’t turn off the question inevitably came up. Did he have a girlfriend? Over the summer, when I knew that Sidney and I together, the fact that he said that he dated, but was still single, well it didn’t bother me.

I knew the truth. Troy, Trina, Taylor and even Pat knew the truth. So did most of Sidney’s closest friends. So it didn’t bother me when he lied to the media. Lord knew that the media lied about him enough. Turnabout seemed like fair play when he lied to him.

Now though, it bothered me. Hearing him tell people that he didn’t have a girlfriend bothered me. I wanted him to tell the truth all of a sudden. Maybe that’s what bothered me the most. That now it seemed as though he was telling the truth. I mean, really telling the truth. He didn’t have a girlfriend. I wasn’t his girlfriend anymore.

That bothered me. It bothered me more then I really could ever say. So while I could turn off the TV and ignore the newspaper, I couldn’t ignore the Crosby’s. Troy and Trina continued to invite me over for dinner once a week, or to brunch on Sundays. In fact, they acted as though Sidney and I were still seeing each other.

If Sidney hadn’t bothered to tell his parents that things had ended between us, and badly, I wasn’t going to tell them. That was his job. Besides, they were the only people I really knew in Cole Harbour, and I wasn’t willing to give up that small connection with the world outside of my school.

As September continued and the pre-season games started, I was slightly worried when I saw Sidney wasn’t scheduled to play much. I hoped that he wasn’t hurt, but I just couldn’t bring myself to call him to find out.

Right before the pre-season started, I went out for Sunday brunch with Troy, Trina and Taylor and the minute I sat down at the table, Troy nearly pounced on me. “So are you going to be able to come?”

“Come where?” I asked, feeling totally confused.

“To Wilkes-Barre.” Troy replied immediately.

“To where?” I asked, feeling as though I was missing something important.

“Wilkes-Barre.” Troy said slowly, looking at me carefully. “That’s where the baby Penguins play.”

“The baby Penguins?” I asked, my eyebrows raised.

“The AHL affiliate of the Penguins.” Troy explained slowly, as if I were a little slow.

Which really, I suppose I was. I know that I’m not good early in the morning… I’ve never claimed to be, but somehow I was feeling as if I was really missing something this morning. “Umm why would I be going there?” I asked, bewildered.

Troy glanced at Trina who was giggling. “Troy don’t you remember?” She asked.

“Remember what?” Troy asked, sounding and looking as confused as I’m sure I had a few moments before.

“Sidney told us he hadn’t been able to get in touch with Darryl.” Trina said with a grin. “So why don’t you explain what’s going on to the poor girl instead of asking her a bunch of questions that she just doesn’t understand.”

“Thank you Trina.” I said with a sigh of relief. “I was beginning to think that I was really missing something.”

“Well you are.” Troy said with a bit of a teasing smile. “But that’s nothing that we can’t rectify.”

“Oh good.” I said with a relieved smile.

“So the pre-season starts on Monday.” Troy said.

“I know.” I said nodding. “I don’t live completely buried under a pile of rocks. Close, but not quite.”

“Well, Sidney’s not going to be playing in every game.” Troy added.

“I heard something about that.” I said, trying as hard as I could to remain calm. “He isn’t hurt or anything is he?” I asked, struggling not to reveal how anxious I was about his health.

Trina and Troy both looked at me oddly, so I continued. “Umm, Sidney and I have been keeping such different, ah, schedules lately.” I lied, though not totally smoothly. “We haven’t talked much lately.”

The Crosby’s seemed to accept this. At the very least, they didn’t question it. “He’s fine Darryl.” Trina told me with an easy smile, much like Sidney’s. “The Pens are just worried that he’ll have a target on his back this pre-season and they don’t want some minor-league enforcer to take a dirty shot at him, so he won’t be playing in every pre-season game.”

I sighed with relief again. “Oh good.” I said. “I was a little worried.”

Troy laughed. “Well if you want, you can see for yourself.” He said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly feeling confused again. “Troy, its early on a Sunday. I’m not exactly a morning person, so you have to move really slowly with me in the morning.”

Troy and Trina laughed. “Basically, Sidney’s playing every second pre-season game. Which means he isn’t playing tomorrow, but he plays Wednesday, he’s not playing Friday, but he plays Saturday, in Wilkes-Barre.”

“So he’s playing for the baby Pens?” I asked.

“No, the Pens are playing a pre-season game in their AHL team’s venue.” Trina explained with a bit of a chuckle.

“Oh you mean like how the Raps always play a pre-season game in Winnipeg.” I said nodding. “Okay, even that makes sense to my poor, tired brain.”

Taylor giggled and her parents laughed. “Basically….” Troy said. “Sidney called us the other night, because we’re all going to be there, obviously, and he said that he hasn’t been able to get in touch with you, but he knew that we’d be seeing you for brunch.”

Now that surprised me. Because that meant that Sidney was well aware of the fact that I was still eating with his family at least once a week. Which meant that he had a much better idea of what was going on in my life then I had about his.

It almost angered me, because here I was, worrying about everything that was going on in his life, and he wasn’t at all worried about me. He knew. I sighed. “Yeah, we haven’t been able to talk to each other much lately.”

“Well he asked us to invite you to join us in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday.” Troy said with a smile. “So what do you say Darryl? Are you in?”

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