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"No. Stay and be there for the team. Slade would want you there and I'm not much company right now. I'll let you know when I hear from the doctors."
In my peripheral vision, I see a man I already recognize as an older Slade practically running through the hall with his wife's hand in his as he pulls her behind him. She can barely keep up in her heels, but I see the worry immediately on both of their faces.
"Penelope!" I hear Lisa, Slade's mother call out my name.
"I have to go," I tell the girls. "His parents just showed up."
"Let us know if you change your mind. We'll be ready to leave here the second we get your call, ok?" Tessa says.
"And I'm sure we'll be down after the game. The guys will want to see Slade," Autumn adds.
"Thanks, girls. I'll talk to you later."
We all hang up, and I stand as Chad and Lisa approach quickly.
"Where is he? Is he ok?" Lisa asks in a fluster.
"He's still in the back. They haven't told me anything."
"I'm going to see what I can find out. I want only the best surgeons working on my son. I'll pay to fly them in myself if I have to," Chad says, though more to himself than to either his wife or me.
Then, he releases Lisa's hand and makes a beeline for the nursing station.
Hearing him mention surgery has me even more worried than before. Could Slade really need something like that? How bad are Slade's injuries that he would need to be operated on?
Lisa stays with me, and she draws closer.
"Does Chad really think that Slade will need surgery?" I ask.
She rubs my arm quickly and then offers a forced, polite smile. Her son is behind the doors of the ICU, and he hasn't heard anything; of course, her smile is for the show, and I don't blame her.
"We know even less than you do at this point, but my husband is distraught and tends to bark orders to cope when feeling out of control. We left the minute we watched his stretcher get pulled off the rink, but Chad couldn't get through the mob of people to make it to the ambulance before it left, and getting our car out of the parking garage delayed us."
I nod, "Downtown Seattle is tough to get around. Especially on game days."
"He almost left me in traffic to run the rest of the way to the hospital. We're so worried about him."
This is a different sense than what I got from Slade about his parents. The picture he painted is of parents who couldn't be any more unattached to him if they tried. And hearing the way Chad talked to Slade earlier near the locker room… I was beginning to see that. But this version of them seems polar opposite of how Slade described how much his parents care for him.
"Forgive me for asking, but I thought Chad and Slade didn't get along. In fact, the way that Slade describes his father's disdain for his chosen profession, I was surprised to meet you at a game."
She sighs and then shrugs. "Those two are cut from the same cloths, Chad and Slade. Headstrong, hard-working, inability to let go or give up on the things that are important to them. But they are different, too. Slade has a protective spirit and the ability to love in difficult circumstances," she says. "He may have a hard time understanding his father, but make no mistake that Slade still loves him… he's just tired of feeling that his father holds prerequisites for his affection. And that's not fair of Chad to do because Chad's actions come from a place of fear. A fear that Slade will have nothing to fall back on and no true skills if something ever happened to the trust fund."
If something ever happened to the trust fund?
A fear that Slade won't have something to fall back on?
"I don't think I'm following your meaning. What do you mean that Chad comes from a place of fear?" I ask.
"Slade and Chad are both trying to disassociate themself from their upbringings. One from being a rich kid with a privileged life, and the other from growing up poor and moving from foster home to foster home and having to work hard for the scholarships to get into that Ivy League school—the same Ivy League school that his son rejected."
"Slade didn't tell me about Chad's upbringing."
"That's because my husband doesn't talk about it if he can avoid it. He doesn't want to associate himself with his past. He thinks it makes him look weak amongst his peers," she says, giving me a sad smile. "I've loved three men in my life, Penelope. My father, my husband, and my son. And none of them have come complete without flaws, though I will tell you that my husband's imperfections hurt me the most because those are the ones that hurt our son. But they are also the ones that hurt my husband in return and rob him of a relationship with our only child."
Hearing her say this shocks me. She's so much different than how Slade described her.
He made her seem weak and controlled, but really, she's a woman torn between the two loves of her life and she has to wait for them to resolve their issues before there will be peace.
