I sat
on the bus beside Harley today. He’s one of the guys in my group of pals. Well,
actually, Harley is one of the guys who is on the edge of the group. I mean,
within our group of pals, there have been times when I’ve been closer buds with
Neil or closer buds with Jagdish. But I’ve never felt particularly close with
Harley.
Not
that I feel close with any of them lately. I’ve been sticking by myself a lot
lately. It’s been so long since I’ve actually made any effort to hang out with
my group of buddies it makes sense that any attempt to get re-acquainted with
them would be through Harley, the guy on the periphery. So on the bus ride home
today, I sat near Harley. I knew he would start up a conversation almost
immediately.
Anyways,
Harley was talking about hockey. It’s funny to see him all enthusiastic about
hockey this year, because a few years ago, during the NHL hockey strike, he was
really pissed about the whole thing. He quit hockey that year and for several
years after he refused to even put on a pair of skates or even play a quick
pick-up game of street hockey. He sort of followed Team Canada in the Olympics,
and now he seems a bit more pumped about hockey in general.
Harley
said that it’s time to have another one of our challenge games with the Sudbury
guys and that he’s been organizing an outdoor game on Windy Lake - it’s to take
place this coming weekend on the ice near the old Elk’s Club hall.
The
Levack guys are challenging the Sudbury guys. See, from our town -- actually
it’s not just Levack, but it’s Levack, Onaping and Dowling. Well, that’s not
really true after all, because several years ago we amalgamated into the
Greater City of Sudbury; but we still think of ourselves as a unique town --
there’s quite a large group of us that take the bus in to school. Anyways,
whenever we participate in after school types of events, they always take place
in Sudbury, the veritable centre of the universe around here. It’s always tough
to get any of the students who live in Sudbury to actually show up to anything
that takes place out here, even though it’s only a 45 minute drive.
One of
the only exceptions, of course is the occasional Levack vs Sudbury Hockey
challenge. Levack no longer has its own high school, or hockey team, but the
team used to be called the Huskies. So that’s what we’ve named the Levack team.
The Sudbury guys call themselves the Wolverines -- partly named after the
Sudbury Wolves junior A hockey team and partly an ode to the X-Men comic book
character.
Harley
asked me if I was interested in playing, and he showed me the sheet of names of
players, said that the Huskies could use a couple of more players. “Whaddya
say, Pete?” he asked. “Tired of moping around like a big cry baby and sobbing
in your milk over Sarah? Ready to play a man’s sport again?”
Harley
has this way of saying things in a blunt fashion, not really holding back or
worrying about perceptions. This had a tendency to piss people off, but at
least you always knew exactly where you stood with him.
But my
mind was already too busy to take issue with the way he’d said that, because
I’d been looking at the list when he was talking, and spotted Chad’s name on
the list of the Sudbury team.
I
smiled.
Man,
it would be a good chance to take my frustrations out on him, maybe a nice
cross-check across the forehead, or a body slam right onto the ice.
“Yeah,
Harley,” I said, a huge grin on my face. “You can count on me. I’ll be there.”
-- 3 Comments --
Frank said...
I guess letting jock boy
have it, is as good a reason as any for playing. Good luck Peter
Kim said...
oh crap...chad better
grow eyes in the back of his head!
good luck with the
game...kick some ass!
Trish said...
*LOL* Good for you, Peter! Kick Chad's ass!
