"Boys, tonight is one of the most important games of the season. St. Tim's is one of our school's greatest rivals but we've managed to keep them out of the championship for quite some time. Rockwell has taken the A conference championship trophy home for three years consecutively. We have not had a single loss under the former line up on this team. But things have changed, some of our star players have failed to follow the rules and regulations of this stadium, respect this game, and respect their teammates…" Coach Gibbons briefly looked at Jesse who was far too nervous to even notice the relevance of his remark.
"It's a new game and a new season. I expect all of you to be willing to lay your lives down on the ice for this team. I want to see your skill, your intensity, and your honor out there tonight. You will focus not only on yourselves but also on your fellow teammates. A team is only as strong as its weakest link, but here at Rockwell we have no weak links. I want St. Tim's to fear ever last one of you, I want them tired and ready to go home after the first quarter. So go out there and fight for your rightful place at the top." The coach bellowed.
The entire hockey team banged the ends of their hockey sticks on the floor and chanted "Rockwell Warriors" in unison. Jesse had never been more exhilarated. He stood shoulder to shoulder with his teammates all in burgundy uniforms decorated with silver colored tomahawks on the front and felt a rush of excitement and apprehension course through his veins. As the team filed out of the locker room door, the cheering from the crowd grew louder. Jesse stepped out into what easily could have been an NHL stadium and looked up at the bright lights that illuminated his soon to be war path. Adjacent to their box stood the St. Tim's Hawks, flaunting their blue and white uniforms and tapping their hockey sticks on the plexy glass walls hoping to intimidate their rivals. Jesse searched the crowd for his family and smiled when he caught a glimpse of Jen and Rodger sitting next to one another waving to him from the stands. His father, mother and grandmother noticed Jesse shortly afterwards and stood up waving Rockwell's school flag in support. Jesse was also surprised to see Tyler sitting on the opposite side of Jen and holding up a "Number 1" glove the best he could without dropping his crutches. The people he needed most were there to support him and now nothing could get in his way of playing a phenomenal game.
Coach Gibbons read out the list of starters and Jesse was called to play center. After numerous pats on the back and friendly arm punches from his teammates he headed out to ice with the other starting five. The crowd's cheering intensified ten fold as soon as the referee placed the puck on the ice. Jesse was quick to take the puck from his opponent and flew down the ice with his teammate Ben at his side. The both of them weaved through the defense and scored the first three goals of the game without breaking a sweat. As the Warriors began to clearly take the lead, the St. Tim's coach began subbing in every last player he had. They managed to score a goal towards the end of the first quarter but at the start of the second the Warrior's defense went from tight to impenetrable. Jesse was checked a few times by the bigger players on the opposing team who were attempting to slow him down but each time he regained his composure and came back twice as hard at the Hawks' slowly weakening defense. Kelon and Ben scored two goals while Jesse joined Ryan and Gunner on defense. At three minutes Coach Gibbons subbed Jesse out for two minutes so that he could take a short break and then head back to finish the quarter strong.
As he left the ice he winked at Jen and smiled at Rodger whose lively expression faded once Jesse's back was turned. While Jesse sat on the bench he found his attention divided between supporting his team and focusing on his grandfather who seemed to barely able to keep himself upright in his seat. He shifted uncomfortably as he saw his father come down from his seat and take Jen's place at his father's side. As Jen stood up to move, she turned back and looked directly at Jesse, her face ridden with worry. He stood up and looked at his grandfather who was now doubled over and in seemingly immense pain. Coach Gibbons looked over at him and directed him to sit down but Jesse could hardly breathe as he watched the situation with his grandfather grow worse as every second passed. Just as he saw his father and mother stand up Coach Gibbons called him back out on the ice to play center. He hesitated but then realized his commitment to his team and headed back out, completely unable and unwilling to focus on the game. Thirty seconds were left on the clock and both teams were tied, the Hawks had managed to catch up with the Warriors in the last half of the second quarter. Coach Gibbons signaled Jesse the play in which he would fake out the defense and go directly for the goal. Just before the referee dropped the puck on the ice, Jesse looked over to where his family had been sitting and saw no one. He knew something was wrong, but had no choice but to finish the first half. The clock began and Jesse stalled, he passed the puck back and forth between the wings and refused to go to the goal. He could have care less about the outcome of the game at this point. Within the last three seconds he threw the play and cost Rockwell their 1 point lead before halftime.
The buzzer sounded and Jesse skated as quickly as he could off the ice. He ran ahead of his teammates into the locker room but Coach Gibbons followed him close behind, feeling ready and willing to yell at Jesse for blowing the perfect opportunity for the Warriors to retake the lead. The rest of the team filed into the room blocking Jesse's much needed escape route. While Coach Gibbons scolded Jesse for letting the team down, he took off his skates and slipped into his sneakers.
"Where do you think you're going!?" Coach Gibbons shouted as Jesse packed his things into his school sports bag.
"I need to leave. Right now. I'm sorry but I have to go. This is urgent coach!" he said nervously. Coach Gibbons reached out and closed Jesse's locker.
"I don't care, you're going to stay here and finish this game McCartney!" he replied. Jesse looked up at the locker room window and saw Jen motioning for him to come outside.
"No. I'm not." Jesse said as he pushed past his coach and ran out the door.
Jen stood there in the hallway with tears streaming down the sides of her face. She took Jesse by the hand and ran with him down the hallway.
"What's going on? I saw Rodger during the game…is he okay? What happened? Jen, talk to me!" he said fearfully. She turned back around and looked at him, with an expression that he had remembered Tanner having when he saw him in the hospital after his accident.
"Jess…I…I don't know what happened…he was fine for most of the game…and then all of a sudden he was having troubling breathing…and your Dad told me to come and get you as soon as I could…I don't know what's going on Jess…but we need to go to the hospital right now." She said hysterically. Jesse swallowed hard as he realized the gravity of the situation. He stopped walking.
"J-Jen what are you trying to say to me right now? What do you mean he wasn't breathing? Rodger's fine…he said everything was okay on Monday…and he would never lie to me…He said I didn't need to worry about him…so I don't understand what you're telling me right now…" he said, his face contorted with anger and concern. Jen cupped her hand over her mouth in attempt to stop herself from crying more than she already was. She shook her head and looked up at Jesse with tears in her eyes.
"…we need to get to the hospital right away Jesse…this is serious…" she said while trying to get Jesse back in touch with reality regardless of how cruel it was. He walked over and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT!" he shouted. Jen reached up and slapped him.
"Now you listen to me…your grandfather is very sick and if you want to sit here and argue with me about you can but he needs you right now. So you can deny the truth for the rest of the night or you can come with me. You choose." She said sternly then turned and walked towards the parking lot. Jesse followed her silently, the images of his grandfather's gradual collapse racing through his mind. Jen turned on the car and sped out of the school driveway and onto the highway. Jesse picked up his cell phone and tried dialing his parents but his hands were shaking so fiercely that he could barely punch in the numbers. In his frustration he threw his phone on the floor of Jen's car and bit his nails until they were raw.
"Jen…can you try to tell me what happened again…I just…don't really understand…could he like…breathe at all? Or was he just a little bit short of breath? I-I'm sure he'll be okay he probably is just tired or maybe he forgot his medicine…yea he probably just forgot it like he always does…he'll be fine…right…? My dad would have told me if he wasn't…right?" he babbled, his words flowing in torrents of consciousness. Jen looked at him in anguish, for the first time she had no idea what to say or do to make things better…she couldn't even tell him something as simple as whether or not his grandfather was going to be okay. She reached over and took his hand in hers and he squeezed it as tightly as he could, knowing that the only response she could give him was her comfort. They arrived at the Emergency Room nearly twenty minutes later and Jesse ran inside to find no trace of his parents. He and Jen approached the nurse's desk and she directed them down the hallway towards the cancer ward. The smell of sterile instruments and sickness made Jesse nauseous; he hated the scent of hospitals which at this point in his life was a permanent reminder of his accident a few months before. He turned the corner and saw his father and mother standing with a doctor at in the middle of a long hallway. He noticed the doctor leave them and his father standing motionless next to his mother who slowly approached both him and Jen. Without saying a word Jesse's mother took her son into her arms and hugged him tightly.
"Go see your father." She whispered while wiping away a few tears and taking Jen back into the waiting room with her.
Jesse walked slowly down white walled and green tiled hallway towards his father who attempted to stop him from reaching the room he had previously been standing in front of.
"Dad…where's grandpa?" Jesse asked in an unrecognizable tone. His father refused to look at him much less respond; he stood his ground and firmly held Jesse back from the room behind him.
"Stay here Jess…" he whispered.
"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Jesse shouted. His father didn't move.
"Jesse listen to me…" he replied hopelessly.
"I don't want to listen to you! What are you hiding from me Dad?! I'm going to see him! I'm tired of you hiding things from me! Move!" he said then impulsively pushed his father to the side with all his strength. Jesse took three steps forward and found himself standing the doorway of a dimly lit hospital room. His grandmother was standing next to his grandfather's unmoving body crying louder than he had ever heard before.
"…grandpa…?" he whispered before collapsing on the hard linoleum floor.
His father ran over to try and lift his son up but Jesse sat on the floor in complete shock. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't move. Every muscle in his body went limp and his conscious went numb. His father shook him and repeatedly called out his name to try and bring him out of the initial shock he was experiencing.
"Jesse breathe! You've gotta breathe kid come on!" he shouted.
Jesse's chest rose and feel sporadically he took in a few sparse breathes too quickly and then let out a cry so piercing that even Jen and his mother could hear it from the waiting room down the hall. Tears spilled down his face as the reality of the situation began to sink in. He screamed and cried until his voice was hoarse. He couldn't believe or accept that the man lying in front of him and his grandfather were one in the same. He leaned over and pounded his fists into his father's chest screaming that he'd lied and betrayed him. Every single mention of his grandfather's health had been a false. The "I'm fines" and "I'll be Okays" rang so loudly in Jesse's ears that the sound was deafening. Jen ran into the room and held him close to her as long as she could, her own tears staining his shirt. He wailed in such sorrow that even his father who had known about his grandfather's condition couldn't bear the site of him. Jesse's grandmother stood silently next to her husband, her face awash with tears and held his frigid unmoving hands in hers. A few nurses came down the hall and assisted Jesse to his feet and took him into another room despite his pleas to stay with his grandfather.
They brought him into a small waiting room and told him that "everything would be alright" but Jesse refused to hear them. He was finished with false promises and foolish expectations. This was a lie that had cost him his best friend, his companion, the one man who had seen him grow since he was born, the one person who had helped him through every hard time he had ever encountered, was gone. His mind went blank, and he felt as though he had been robbed of every memory of his Grandfather he ever had. The truth about his grandfather's health came too late to be considered honorable, a lie in exchange for a life was trade he would never forgive.