Epilogue - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I spent the rest of my summer in Fort McMurray with my grandparents. They let me go into Edmonton to do some shopping towards the end of the summer and I got to spend some time hanging out with Dion before he headed to Red Deer Rebels training camp.

Basically Ms. Kulak, my summer was like every other summer I’ve spent since Frankie died. Only when I came home, things were different. All of my Dad’s stuff was gone. There was nothing of his left. All of the family pictures were gone.

All that was left was my stuff and my Mom’s stuff. Except even my family pictures were gone. Mom was drunk, as always. Neither of my parents had been at the airport to pick me up. Instead they had a new car waiting for me in the lot.

See Ms. Kulak, my parents don’t love me with love. They love me with things. And when I came home, my Mom was wasted. She told me that Dad and Jena were getting married and that the divorce was going to be final in a few months.

The divorce is going to be final by Christmas. Mom is going to go to Barbados. I’m going to Grand Forks, North Dakota to watch Sidney play hockey. To top it off, I found one of Coby’s shirts… a shirt that I bought him, in the laundry.

That’s what I came home to Ms. Kulak. I didn’t come home to a family that was ready to be a family again. I came back to something that’s worse then what I left. I know that my Mom is sleeping with Coby. I called Morgan about the shirt and she finally confessed it to me.

Apparently it started not long after I left for Rimouski. That’s why Coby wasn’t at the party I threw in May. He was wherever the hell my Mom was. They’re having an affair Ms. Kulak. He’s my age and he’s sleeping with my Mom.

Bet you’ll go to the principal with that one. He’ll probably go to Social Services, who’ll go to the police. Of course Coby’s a year older then I am, and he turned 18 in April, so unless there’s proof they were sleeping together before that, no one can do anything. There’s also the little detail that none of this would have happened if you hadn’t interfered in my life in the first place.

I wonder what Coby was thinking though. Just like I wonder what you were thinking when you talked to my parents. Did you honestly think that you could make things better? Or were you just trying to get rid of the pain in the ass that was in your class? Did it matter to you that you were destroying what was left of my family?

I’d been trying for years to solve my parents problems. There was absolutely no way that you were going to solve their problems you know. If I couldn’t do it then there was no way that you were going to be able to. Part of me wishes that you hadn’t gotten involved. Part of me wishes that you’d left my family alone.

But because of you I met Sidney. I met Mark and Michelle and Danny and B and Alex and Erik and Patrick and everyone else in Rimouski who is my family now. I don’t have my parents or my little brother anymore. All I’ve got is them.

Except I don’t have them right now, because they’re in Rimouski and I’m here. They’re getting ready for next season and I’m here. They’re playing pre-season games and I’m here. I don’t get to be there for Sidney.

That what is bothering me more then anything else about being back her Ms. Kulak. That I can’t be there for him when he needs me. Already the media is on his ass hard. The NHL lockout… well right now there’s no light at the end of that tunnel. They aren’t even in negotiations.

So Sid the Kid is all the media has. Sidney is the future of Canadian hockey. Sidney is the future of the game. Talking about the future of Canadian hockey and how that’s bright, even if the NHL situation isn’t. He’s going to be on highlight reels across the country all year. If you watch any sports highlights, you should know the mantra by now, because they’ve been repeating it all summer.

Except for the extremely minor detail that I am not going to be there for him Ms. Kulak. He’s going to need me you know. Being the phenom isn’t easy and I helped by giving him a time and a place to forget about it.

But because you “fixed” my parents problems Ms. Kulak, when you encouraged them to get counseling I’m here. They got it and they got a divorce. So now, ta da! Everything is solved and I’m home.

Everything is different now Ms. Kulak. I don’t have any family left at all. At least not here in Airdrie. So if home is where your family this, then I’m not really home either, because my home is in Rimouski with Sidney and Mark and Michelle and B and Danny and my new family. And so now I’ll do everything in my power to go home…. Anything.

The End