Epilogue – The Don't Bothers
"You're telling my son, 'Don't bother!'" Alex Morrow's voice rose through the arena as she went off on Coach Tingman, echoing off the walls. "You're telling my little cousin, 'Don't bother!'"
"Here she goes again," Charlie Conway commented, cringing as his cousin shrieked at Cole, which prompted almost all the kids on the Ducks to pull out their cellphones – they were really taking the figure of speech of "Take a picture, it'll last longer," quite literally, though Charlie had the distinct feeling they weren't just taking photos.
Looking at his eldest and only daughter, Teddi, he saw her face going as hot red as her hair as she blushed all the way up to her dark auburn hairline at Alex bringing her into this. Truthfully, he felt embarrassed for her. Alex's behavior right now was out of control (which didn't surprise Charlie in the least – Alex had been out of control since the day he met her). He knew part of it was because she was an overprotective single mother. But even his own mom hadn't been this overprotective of him (Alex forced Evan to wear sunblock indoors in the wintertime; seriously, how paranoid could you be?)
When he learned years ago that his biological father had a sister who had a daughter, he'd been ecstatic. While he adored Alex, he had to admit she was too much, especially when it came to his second cousin, Evan, who stood there open-mouthed as his mother railed off on Tingman.
But he also couldn't blame Alex in the least. When he, Alex, Adam, Julie, Connie, and Guy went to the Hendrix Pavilion – the new pond of the District Five Ducks (apparently, Eden Hall had been very quick to make sure the Ducks were dead after Coach Orion quit coaching, which meant the Ducks would only ever be known now as a small-time district-based team) – Teddi and Evan had been approached by Tingman, who told them in the bluntest way possible, that they weren't good enough to play for the Ducks, who were on a hot streak with many wins under their belt, something Charlie didn't understand, or maybe he did, considering Teddi nearly cost the team the state championship a little over a year ago after the car accident that took his wife's life. If it hadn't been for Gordy being pulled in as a substitution, they would've lost for sure.
It was clear Tingman didn't want any losers on his team. As far as Charlie could tell, Billy and Gordy were safe (probably because of who their parents were).
But Evan and Teddi were not.
It was no mystery that there were people out there who had little respect for Charlie, one of the Minnesota Miracle Kids. Inducted into the Eden Hall Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016, Charlie chose not to go pro but rather to teach English at the District Five Middle School. Many accused him of throwing it all away because he could've gone all the way and played for the Wild like Rick Riley did. He knew Tingman was among those who were confused by Charlie's choice to become a public school teacher; when he first met Coach Tingman, the man looked at him in disdain. He could still remember that guy's sneer when they shook hands the day Charlie signed Teddi up to play hockey. Tingman had it in his head that he disliked Teddi because he disliked Charlie.
And the feeling was mutual.
Alex heard Charlie's comment because she whipped around on him, brown eyes blazing. "No, Charlie! Maybe he just 'shouldn't bother.' That's right, you sir, 'Don't bother!'"
"Are you done yet?" Charlie snarked at her, rolling his eyes, and he saw Evan blushing profoundly; Evan had inherited his attitude from somewhere. Charlie guessed it was from both himself and Alex.
"No, I'm not done yet!" Alex declared.
"Alex, enough! For the love of God!" Charlie shook his head, walking off the ice and leading Teddi away, who already had tears falling from her eyes. "Come on, baby, we're gonna visit Grandpa at work. Besides, you're too good for these Ducks, anyway."
"I saw this coming, Charlie. I saw it coming when Tingman got brought in from the start, and the Ducks started only caring about winning," commented Gordon Bombay as he handed his stepson and step-granddaughter two cups of hot chocolate.
After abruptly leaving the Hendrix arena, Charlie and Teddi went off to the Ice Palace. Nearly twenty-six years after old Jan had bought the property, Gordon had taken over as a full-time business owner, especially after Jan passed away and he'd been let go from the coaching position. Years ago, when Charlie was in his sophomore year, the Ice Palace barely stood upright and looked close to collapsing. Now, it was fully functioning, but there was a downside: the place was almost in debt.
Ever since the District Five Ducks moved to the Hendrix Pavilion, the Ice Palace was no longer their pond. As a result, not many kids went to the Ice Palace to rent skates (due to the increasing cost in this crappy economy), and there was no official ice hockey team to represent the space. As a result, Gordon was coming close to needing to consider shutting the place down unless the kids from in and out of town would suddenly express interest in coming there to ice skate. Gordon had even taken a loan from Adam and Julie at one point, and he still needed to pay them back. Even Ted threw some of his retirement funds into it, and they were working on making Ted's son, Hans, a potential partner in the business since Hans was in school for finance and athletic training, wanting to open his own personal training business in the future and run it from inside the Ice Palace. But that meant Ted had thrown away at least half of his and Bella's retirement fund, which Bella was positively infuriated with him over. Charlie still remembered the look on Bella's face when she learned Ted pooled out their retirement to put money into the Ice Palace; it still amazed Charlie how such a sweet lady – the woman who'd taken care of him when he'd been in the hospital after that car accident and took him into her and Ted's home to make his recovery easier – could resemble a sabertoothed tiger when she was angry.
Charlie was just relieved that Gordon had kept in touch with the Ducks, even after he lost his coaching job at St. Paul State. But he didn't have a choice. Charlie had recently gotten married, and his wife was pregnant with Teddi. And Charlie wouldn't have it if Gordon refused to have a relationship with his own grandchild. Charlie still vividly recalled how, after Gordon lost that job, he went to a liquor store and bought a quarter of Jack Daniels, but it had been Charlie who grabbed the bottle and smashed it against the wall, telling Gordon he wasn't going to let his stepfather run away from his problems and bury them in alcohol; Gordon hadn't let him sink into addiction, so Charlie had been determined to return the favor.
"I never thought I'd see the day the Ducks would turn into a bunch of cake-eaters," sneered Charlie, sipping his hot chocolate. "It just sucks that you can't coach them, seeing as you did that good deed that bit you in the ass."
"And I'd do it all over again," Gordon said, sitting at his desk. "So, what are you gonna do about it?"
"What can I do about it, Grandpa?" Teddi asked. "I'm off the team. And so is Evan. And Alex's rant didn't help at all. You should've been there to see it! It was humiliating!"
"I'm sure all your teammates will forget about it in a couple of weeks," said Gordon, but just as he said that, Teddi's cellphone dinged with a text message from Evan.
"No, they won't." Teddi thrust her phone out, and Gordon and Charlie saw a link to a YouTube video of Alex going off on Tingman. "This will be on the internet forever! Talk about even more humiliation! God! What's gonna happen when I go back to school next week?" Charlie watched as tears jumped to Teddi's eyes, and she burst out of Gordon's office, nearly running headfirst into Orion, who stopped short.
Orion sighed. "Let me guess. She saw the video?"
"Did you?" Charlie asked.
"No, but Hans did. And he texted it to me. I've gotta say, Conway, I can see how you and Alex are related. I don't think I've ever met someone as hotheaded as you."
"It runs in the family. Dear old Dad passed that along." Charlie's breath caught in his throat at the thought of Robert Galloway. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still see his face, how he looked almost exactly like him, but that was where the similarities ended, or rather, where they could've begun, considering Charlie nearly abandoned his chosen family the same way Robert had abandoned him. The only thing Charlie didn't share with Robert was his drug problem because Ted and Gordon had saved him from that years ago.
But there were things from that time that he could never erase. Some of the scars that Robert had left on him were there permanently, particularly across his back; as soon as he'd turned eighteen, he'd gotten tattoos to cover the worst of them. And after he, Cheryl, Teddi, and Henry got caught in that auto wreck (which Adam had helped save him from the same way his dad – and when he said his dad, he meant Gordon; Gordon was his dad – helped Ted years ago), that had been a bad time; it wasn't helped that the driver who'd collided with them had been intoxicated, something that reminded him of Robert driving under the influence of cocaine and fentanyl with Charlie in the back of the car. In fact, one of the first things he'd felt like doing had been to go to a bar and drink after he learned his wife had died (similarly to how things had been when he and Linda grew further apart due to them realizing they wanted different things; Linda didn't want kids while Charlie always envisioned himself becoming a father; when he and Linda were falling out, he'd been tempted to sneak off somewhere and try drinking). Instead, he ended up calling his old sober companion, Harris LaRue, who caught him up on what was happening in his life that was causing him to fall into a depression of his own: he learned his now-ex-wife was having an affair, and he was going through a custody battle over his son Logan, and that he and Logan would more than likely have to move from their home in Toronto and come live in Minnesota with Harris's aunt, Zoey, should he win the court case, because Harris needed to find another job. Over the summer, Harris and Logan moved to Minneapolis, giving Charlie the peace of mind that he had Harris to lean back on if he ever felt like falling off the wagon again.
"You're nothing like that bastard." Charlie felt Ted's hand leaning on his shoulder, bringing him out of his reverie, and he glanced up to see Orion glowering at him with a furious sort of determination to prove that he was right. And Charlie knew Ted was right; Charlie had built more or less the all-American family of a daughter and a son and hadn't given up on them, even after his wife died in the car accident. The only thing he'd done once, and only once, after the accident was trying marijuana, but he hated the effect it left on him. It reminded him of what he'd gone through with his biological dad forcing him to do drugs, and he quit after that first time.
Charlie, who'd felt the tears press behind his eyes, nodded. "Yeah, I know that. I'm just saying –"
"And I get it," Ted said, rubbing his shoulder.
"I just wish there's something I can do." Charlie buried his face into his hands. He could protect his kids from almost anything. But what he couldn't protect them from was Tingman being a dick, as well as the grief that came from them losing their mother.
"There is something you can do, Charlie," Gordon said. "If Tingman says Teddi isn't good enough and that she shouldn't bother with the Ducks, make your own team. You're a better coach than you were a player; you've said so yourself years ago."
At Gordon saying that, Charlie lifted his head up. How had he not considered that? He recalled a certain pep talk Ted had given him when he'd been going through physical therapy about how he was going to recover no matter what, and he would show anybody who ever underestimated him what a mistake they made, how he shouldn't settle for second best because there wasn't anything average about him. Because of that confidence speech, Charlie worked even harder through his physical therapy and recovered in time to play in Varsity during his junior year. Charlie carried that advice with him all throughout college when he was going to school to get his teaching license.
And to prove how much respect he had for Ted, who'd helped him through everything after his kidnapping and the car accident that nearly took his life, Charlie named his daughter after Ted. He still remembered the day Teddi was born and how Ted burst out crying when Charlie said her name was Theodora Constance Conway.
He knew Ted was right. Ted had never steered him wrong before. "Yeah, you're right." Charlie cast a smile at Gordon. "Could we have the Ice Palace for practices?"
"Yes, you could," Gordon said. "But we'll need someone to sponsor the team and put some money into this place."
"Adam, Julie, and Goldie could," Charlie suggested. "So could Connie."
"I'm not gonna borrow any more money from Adam and Jules," Gordon said, shaking his head. "I still have to pay them back two thousand dollars."
"But once you have a fully sponsored team here, maybe that'll generate some traffic, and more kids will come to use the rink. You could have all the debt paid off in a year," Ted pointed out.
Gordon sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"So, I guess we're doing this," Charlie said, and when he turned his glance outside Gordon's office window, he saw Teddi skating around the rink, and he knew with no doubt that he and Alex would be able to work something out.
If Coach T was going to tell his daughter, "Don't bother," then that was exactly what he and Teddi would do. They were not going to bother, and they were going to show that she was good enough with a team of her own. And he already knew the name that he wanted to give this team.
When one has not had a good father, one must create one. –
Friedrich Nietzsche
And this is the end of When the Heart is Missing. My vision for the epilogue was to have it start off with Alex's "Don't bother" speech, which I actually had to search through the depths of the internet to find it since I do not believe in using third-party websites since those sites will just bring a virus to my laptop, and I'd rather not risk such a thing.
I hope those of you who took the time to read it loved it; it's one of those stories that was a joy for me to write, and one that I'm really proud of. I hope that you all take the time to check out my other Orion and Charlie story, The Young Man Who Fought Like Hell, and to also read and comment on the fourth installment of the Game Changers rewrite saga, The Mighty Hens of Minnetonka.
Quack, quack, quack!
