Chapter Two: Chicago
Author's Note: I have every reason to believe based on Portman's D2 Jersey that he's from the Morgan Park area and went to Morgan Park High School. Need to do a final proof read.
Gordon Bombay patiently waited for the bell to ring as he finished his third coffee that morning. He had caught a red-eye flight from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to O'Hare International Airport and was due to fly back to Minneapolis followed by another flight to Montana before returning to California.
As the bell rang, the previous empty halls filled with students. Bombay walked through the hallways in the hope of spotting Dean Portman before he started his next class. Bombay cursed his height. Almost everyone was taller than him. Finding Portman would be near impossible.
It wasn't until Portman was just about to walk into his next class that Bombay found him. Their eyes locked for a second. Portman shot him a look of disgust and shook his head before disappearing again into a classroom. Bombay considered going after him but decided against it. He'd try again after school was done for the day.
*Six hours later*
Bombay hung out at the school's back doors in hopes of catching Portman before he got the bus home that afternoon. Hordes of students filed out of the school that afternoon. None of them Portman. Once all the students have left, Bombay entered the school to look for Portman.
Bombay walked the hallways looking for him but he was nowhere to be found. Bombay walked into the men's washroom and came across a small group of boys, and girls for that matter, smoking cigarettes. Or was it marijuana? Maybe both.
Immediately, the largest boy spoke up.
"You're not allowed to be in here."
Bombay was incredulous. "Excuse me?"
One of the other boys stepped forward. "Yeah. The teacher's bathroom is down the hall. You need to follow the rules man."
Bombay sighed. "Because you guys are all about following the rules, right?"
"Get out of here," one of the girls yelled. "Or we will call the cops."
"Oh really? The underage smokers are going to call the cops. And say what exactly?" Bombay stopped. He didn't have all day. He needed to find Portman. He changed the subject. "Do any of you know a Dean Portman?"
"Go check out the library. He's probably in detention again," the girl said. "And get outta here."
Bombay shook his head and left to go look for the library.
Morgan Park High School was supposed to be one of the worse public schools in the city. Maybe one of the worst in the whole state. It reminded Bombay of the exact opposite of Eden Hall. Instead of lush grounds and freshly painted walls adorned with the schools' colours of red and black, there was faded green paint on the walls and metal detectors at every entrance.
Bombay could not see why Portman's parents did not try and compel Portman to go to Eden Hall like some of the other parents on the team did.
Just as the girl had predicted, Dean Portman was in the library with the rest of the students who received after-school detention for one thing or another. Portman, along with the rest of the detention crew was assigned to write a thousand-word essay on what they did wrong and how they would make sure not to do it again.
"Portman," Bombay called out.
Portman looked up and saw Bombay. Portman started to get up to run off but Bombay rushes over and stopped him before he had the chance.
"Get your hands off me," Portman growled as Bombay grabbed his left arm.
The entire class stared at the two of them.
Bombay removed his hand from Portman's forearm. "Follow me."
Portman huffed as he followed Bombay in the secluded part of the library.
Once they were alone, Bombay pulled out a leather-bound case with Eden Hall Academy in gold lettering on the front of his briefcase.
Portman shook his head. "No way."
"Why not?" Gordon asked. "The ducks are there."
"There are no ducks," Portman said. "I spoke to Fulton over the phone a few weeks ago. The ducks are dead."
"Is that so?" Bombay inquired. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. "Want to call him?
Portman looked at the phone. "Get bent."
Bombay frowned and put the phone back in his pocket. This was proving to be more difficult than he had hoped. Bombay had managed to talk to Charlie and convince him to go back to Eden Hall. Portman was no Conway.
"Alright touch guy," Bombay started. "What did you do to get in after-school detention?"
"Nothing."
Bombay didn't believe him. "So you are here because you want to be here?"
Before Portman had a chance to answer, one of the staff bellowed out, "Dean? Where did you go? You can't leave until you finish your essay on how you're not going to be late for class."
Portman glared at Bombay. "I'll get to it when I get to it," Portman yelled back.
Portman turned his attention back to Bombay. "So what? I was late for class. Big deal. It's not like I'm learning anything anyway."
Bombay raised an eyebrow. He had heard horror stories in the news about the condition of some public high schools not only on the news but from some of the parents of the ducks. It was why he fought so hard to keep the ducks at Eden Hall.
"What do you mean when you say you are not learning anything. Surely you are learning something," Bombay reasoned.
Portman shrugged. "Most of the time the teacher doesn't even show up. And when he does, he just puts on a video and pretends to read a book when we all know he's looking at a playboy."
Bombay wasn't shocked. He had heard similar things about the public school system in Minnesota. "Why don't you finish your essay and I'll drive you home,' Bombay offered.
Bombay heard Dean mutter 'whatever' but he went back to one of the tables and finished his thousand-word essay.
"Can I look at it?" Bombay asked. He was genuinely curious.
Dean Portman handed him the sheet of paper. Portman's handwriting was barely legible with a myriad of spelling errors. Bombay shook his head. Portman was already a year behind the rest of the ducks along with Fulton. If things didn't change, Portman could easily be facing the prospect of repeating the ninth grade.
"Let's get outta here," Bombay said.
Gordon Bombay drove Dean Portman home from school. As he pulled into the driveway, an older lady carrying a toddler came rushing out of her house.
"Dean! Dean! You said you'd be here for four. It's now five p.m. If you and your sister can't be on time, I can't look after him anymore. I have bingo tonight and I don't want to be late."
The lady placed the toddler in Portman's arms. "I'm sorry Mrs. Grubb. It won't happen again," Portman promised.
Portman motioned for Bombay to follow him into his house. Portman lived in a very modest side by side near the railway tracks. It wasn't the worst area in the city but it was far from the nicer suburbs north of the city.
Portman offered Bombay something to eat but he wasn't hungry. Instead of cooking himself supper, he made Jacob dinner and himself a pot of coffee.
Portman and Bombay sat in silence as Jacob sat in front of the tv and watched cartoons. After an hour of watching cartoons, Bombay looked over to where Portman sat sound asleep on the lazy boy. The younger boy had taken this opportunity to start emptying the kitchen cupboards and make a mess of the kitchen.
"Jacob," Bombay said. "Stop that."
Jacob looked up from what he was doing, shrugged and then returned to taking more pots and pans out of the cupboard. Bombay stared at him unsure of what to do. Coaching ten-year-olds was one thing. Looking after a toddler was something completely different.
Jacob smiled mischievously and pulled out a large glass bowl from the cupboard and raised it high above his head.
"No."
Jacob dropped it on the floor causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces. The noise from the bowl crashing on the floor caused Portman to jolt awake from a dead sleep. Portman groaned as he saw the mess in the kitchen.
"Bedtime," Portman ordered.
A large wail came out of the toddler. "I don't wanna go to bed."
Portman looked over at Bombay. "Why didn't you stop him?" Portman asked.
Bombay was defensive. "I tried. I told him 'no'."
Portman shook his head. "Toddlers don't listen. " He thought for a moment. "At least this one doesn't."
"I wonder where he gets it from," Gordon laughed.
Portman ignored the last remark. He picked up the toddler. "Why don't you clean up while I get Jacob to bed?"
Portman picked up Jacob with one arm and carried him to his bedroom while Bombay swept up the broken shards of glass spread throughout the kitchen and living room. Once Portman had gotten the young boy to bed, he came back out to the living room where Bombay was waiting for him.
"Don't you have someplace to be?" Portman asked.
"Not really. I have a flight back to Minneapolis in a few days." He paused. "I had hoped you'd join me."
Portman looked at Bombay like he had lost his mind. "Are you kidding me? I can't go to Minnesota."
"Portman, you're fourteen. You shouldn't be stuck at home all the time looking after a young toddler all the time. You should be out living your life." Bombay paused. "The team needs you."
"I'm needed here more," Portman shot back. "You want to know why I was in detention? I missed the first period because Mrs. Grubb wasn't up first thing to take Jacob so when you saw me earlier, I was just getting to school."
The missing puzzle piece fell into place. Gordon had come to Chicago to convince him to come to Eden Hall and that the team needed him. While that was still true, the real reason Portman had stayed in Chicago was that he felt he couldn't go.
"Where are your parents?" Gordon asked concerned. Dean had mentioned earlier that his sister had to work the afternoon shift but he failed to say anything about his parents.
"Don't know. Don't care."
Bombay was shocked. "You can't possibly mean that."
"I do, " Portman huffed. "I haven't seen them in years. I don't remember them. It was always just me, Ashley, Jacob and my grandma until last year. It's just me, Jacob and my sister now."
"I'm sorry," Gordon said. A simple 'I'm sorry' felt so insufficient but it's the only thing Bombay could think to say.
Dean, and his sister Ashley, were in trouble and the system was failing them. They had unreliable child care with Dean left to fill in the cracks most days. Even though Portman didn't outright say it, he was exhausted. He looked exhausted.
With his sister working a lot to support the three of them, Dean was left choosing between an education and looking after his nephew. If attending Morgan Park High School could be considered an education. More often than not, the latter won out. Bombay was convinced that Portman belonged at Eden Hall with the rest of the ducks but he couldn't ask Portman to leave with his home life in tatters.
"Have you looked at getting Jacob into a real daycare so you can focus on school?" Bombay asked. He knew the answer but he had to ask.
"The social worker says he's on a waiting list for subsidized daycare but it might be a while until he gets in. He'll probably be in school by the time a space opens up, " Portman said glumly.
A plan formed in Bombay's head. He was planning on helping out Portman regardless of his answer because like the rest of the ducks, Portman was one of his kids. "If, and I'm saying if, I was able to get Jacob into a real daycare, would you consider coming to Eden Hall?"
"I dunno, my sister needs me and …"
"Yes. The answer is yes," Ashley said.
Both Bombay and Portman looked up. Ashley had just gotten home after her afternoon shift.
Bombay put forth his hand. "I'm Gordon…"
Ashley took his hand. "Bombay. I know. Dean talks about you and the rest of the ducks all the time time."
Ashley plopped down on the couch. "So you think you can get Jacob into daycare?" she asked Bombay. "Dean says that you are an amazing lawyer and that you were able to save the ducks' scholarships."
"I'm going to try," Bombay said. "I know a few lawyers in Chicago. No promises though."
Bombay spent the next day pounding the payment on the streets of downtown Chicago. It was only midday but he had already visited the Chicago Department of Family Services, the Chicago Housing Authority and the Illinois Department of Human Services. Bombay had reached out to an old friend from law school he used to clerk with when he attended law school at Georgetown University. He now practised law in Illinois and although he was still in corporate law, he had pointed Bombay in the right direction and given him the name of the department head of family services.
Bombay heard his cell phone ring and pulled it out of his briefcase.
"Hello. Gordon Bombay speaking. Yes, that would work. When would be a good time to go over the paperwork? Next week? That's not good enough. I need to see you today. Okay. I'll buy supper. See you then."
Gordon Bombay arrived at Gibson's Steakhouse at five pm on the dot. Without fail, Robert Grove was there waiting for him.
" Do my eyes deceive me? Gordon Bombay. How the hell are you?" Roberts stuck out his hand to shake Gordon's
Robert was just as Bombay remembered him. Loud, boisterous but still a bleeding heart on the inside.
Bombay took his hand. "I'm doing great Bobby. How are you? Still saving the world from the big evil insurance companies?"
Bobby chuckled heartily. "Always. I'd ask if you were still defending those big evil insurance companies but I saw you on television a year or so back coaching hockey. Big law got you down?"
"I was at Ducksworth, Savor and Gross for the longest time. But it wasn't for me," Bombay replied.
"What happened?" Bobby asked.
Bombay was about to answer when the waitress came to take their order. "What would you like gentlemen?"
"Well normally I'd order a t-bone but since my friend here is paying, I'll have to order a porterhouse," Bobby said with a chuckle.
Bombay, not wanting to complicate things ordered the same.
Once the waitress was done taking their order, Bombay answered the question. "Let's just say I had to choose between doing the right thing for the firm and the right thing for the team I was coaching at the time and for the first time, the latter won out."
Bobby raised an eyebrow. This was not the Bombay he knew back in law school. "Whose the bleeding heart now?"
Bombay laughed. "I guess you're right."
Once their meals were delivered, Bombay pulled out a manila envelope and handed it to Bombay. "This is the kid I was telling you about."
Bobby took the envelope and unsealed it and read it over. "Who's this kid to you anyway?" Bobby asked once he finished reading the file.
"He's one of the players I coached at the goodwill games. I managed to get him, and the whole team, scholarships to my alma matter but he won't go because he has to look after his sisters' kid."
"Who looked after the kid while he was at the Goodwill Games?" Bobby asked.
"I think his grandmother did. But she isn't around anymore so it's just Dean and his sister now."
"I see." Bobby reviewed the file again." I know the women who runs the department of family services. She owes me a favour. I'll see what I can do but no promises. When do you need this by?"
"As soon as possible," Bombay said. "Tomorrow if you can."
Bobby laughed again."You don't make things easy."
"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't necessary. I.."
Bobby stopped him. "Say no more. But you'll owe me more than this steak dinner."
Bombay spent the morning in Bobby's office proofreading legal briefs. He couldn't file them as he did not take the Illinois bar but he did as much as he could. Bombay had not done this much legal work since he was a first-year attorney. Once the legal briefs were done, one of Bobby's secretaries gave him another stack of papers. Due diligence, research and proofreading contracts. It was never-ending.
Bobby Grove spent a lot of his time volunteering for Chicago Legal Aid and in exchange for helping Bombay with Portman, Bombay had to volunteer his time at the legal aid office. Work had piled up at the office. Most of them were disputes between tenants and landlords.
Bombay was amazed at some of the stories he read in the testimonies. Landlords turning off the heat in the middle of the winter to try and force people to move out to uninhabitable apartments with the landlords unwilling to do anything to fix it. Bombay spent the first six years of a lawyer on the other side of these cases. Defending the indefensive.
It wasn't until eight pm that Bobby Grove finally showed up at the office. He dropped a file folder in front of Bombay.
"As promised," he announced. He looked around. Bombay had done a good job of cleaning up the backlog of paperwork in the office. Everything was filled neatly away and a stack of envelopes sat on the front desk ready to be delivered to the count the following day. "If you ever find yourself getting sick of hockey, let me know."
Bombay chucked. He appreciated the offer but his heart was in Minnesota. When he read what was inside the file folder, his eyes were as big as hockey pucks.
"You managed to do all of this in one day?" Bombay asked astounded.
"Life's great when you know the right people," Bobby said smiling.
Bombay was at a loss for words. This was more than he had even hoped for. "Thank you."
Bobby smiled. "Go. Get that kid of yours an education. Who knows. Maybe he'll become a lawyer and come work for me one day."
Bombay knocked furiously on Portman's front door. He had a flight in a few hours back to Minnesota to catch the JV/Varsity showdown. He had promised Charlie that he would try to make it and he had no intention of breaking that promise.
Portman would be just getting up for school and he had hoped he would catch him in time. Instead of Portman, or his sister Ashley answering the door, Jacob opened the front door and shrieked 'Hi Bommer.' He could barely reach the doorknob and definately not the deadbolt. Portman must have been so tired the night before that he had forgotten to lock up.
Jacob ran to where Portman had passed out on the couch. "Dean! Dean! Bommer's here!"
Gordon smiled at the nickname. Jacob couldn't pronounce Bombay so he called him 'Bommer'.
Portman opened his eyes. "What are you doing here? Aren't you going back to Minnesota?"
"I am. And you are coming with me," Bombay announced.
Portman sighed, exasperated. "I told you…"
"And I told you I'd fix everything." Bombay handed him what Bobby had given him the previous evening.
"What's this?" Portman asked. He could barely keep his eyes open.
"Full subsidy for daycare for Jacob. Among other things."
Ashley heard the last sentence. She took the paper out of Portman's hand and read it. "This is just too much!" She rushed over to Bombay and hugged him. "I don't know how to thank you."
Bombay looked over to where Portman was sitting. "Pack your things. We have a flight to catch."
Portman started to protest when his sister cut him off. "You heard him. Pack your shit and get on that plane. You've already sacrificed enough for me and your nephew. Go get the education that I never got to have."
Bombay pulled out a contract for Eden Hall and gave Portman a pen. "What do you say bash brother?"
"Quack."
Working on some more chapters. Not in any order. Just likely missed scenes from D3.
Bombay and Orion - 100% happened. Bombay referenced a conversation with Orion
Bombay and Casey - 99% happened. While not 100%, Bombay would have had to speak with Casey beforehand if he was going to pick up Charlie at 6 am.
Fulton Returning to Team - 100% happened.
Ducks finding out about Hans - Happened.
I have another idea for a story but I'd like to finish these first.