Page 36

"Did it have the thing about the thermostat? Mine had a whole thing about the thermostat."

"No thermostat," I say. "He must be going soft."

Webb laughs so loud that people at the next table turn around. "Soft. Owen Hale. Kid, I've known him twelve years, I have seen this man eat a raw egg out of the shell on a dare in a bus in Moose Jaw⁠—"

"Marcus," Hale says.

"—and I've never once seen him go soft on anything."

"Go sit down, Marcus."

Webb goes, still laughing. Hale stares at his coffee cup like it did something to him.

"A raw egg?" I say.

"I was twenty-two."

"Out of the shell? Like, the shell too?"

"Eat your waffle, Castel."

I eat my waffle. I'm going to find out about Moose Jaw if it kills me.

My dad calls at two, during what's supposed to be my nap.

He calls every game day. He has since I was fourteen and started playing major junior eight hours from home. It's always the same time, and it's always the same length, eight minutes. I don't know why eight. He's a plumber. Maybe that's how long a plumber thinks a phone call should take.

I take it out in the hallway so I don't wake Hale, who's asleep on top of his covers in his clothes, flat on his back, hands folded on his stomach like he's been laid out for a viewing.

"Salut, Papa."

"Rémy." My dad's voice is always a little too loud on the phone, like he doesn't trust it to carry. "You're in Phoenix."

"Yeah."

"Hot?"

"It's nice. There's palm trees."

"Your mother says you went out last night."

I close my eyes. I lean my back against the wall. Of course she told him. Sorel posted a story of the tacos, with me in the corner of the frame holding up a hot sauce bottle like a trophy, and Maman watches Sorel's stories like it's her job.

"We went to dinner. It was tacos."

"It was late."

"It was a little late."

"Night before a game."

"It was an off night, Papa. The game's tonight."

He's quiet for a second. In the background I can hear the radio in his truck, the Rimouski station, some guy doing the weather.

"The thing in Denver," he says. "With the music."

"It was one play."