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I puff out my chest and go toe-to-toe with Cash. He knows I’m the best scrapper on the team. He’d be a fool to call my bluff.
Cash stares at me, then blinks, then lowers his head and rubs his neck. The challenge is done. Now I’ll get the goods.
“Okay, okay, man, chill. It’s a long story.”
“I got time.” I point to a bench over by the Humanities building and we walk over.
There’s silence between us the entire way. I side-eye Cash, and his look is a mix of pissed and hesitant. It doesn’t make me feel good. Now I know something’s going on.
We plunk down on the bench. We both grab water bottles from our knapsacks and take swigs. Cash’s seems to be an excuse to bide his time and think. Mine is to drown the nervous fuzz in my mouth. I hold my tongue and let him talk first.
“Okay, well, it’s about our folks.”
“Okay.”
“Well, I only found this out myself recently, but it seems my dad and Wren’s mom hooked up years ago. Eighteen years, to be exact. It was a supposedly brief affair, but long enough, if you get my drift. Long enough to wipe out my folk’s marriage and her folk’s marriage, too.”
I look at Cash with a screwed-up face. “Sorry, man, you’ve lost me.”
“Hunter, wise the hell up, dude. Put one and one together. I saideighteenyears. Who do we know who is eighteen? Think.”
“Wren, of course, but what has that… holy shit. You don’t mean…”
“Of course, that’s what I mean. Fuck, for a fast skater, your mind goes at a snail’s pace. Yes, Wren and I are really half-siblings. By blood and shit. She is my half-sister, man. My dad’s kid.”
“Wow.”
“Wow is right.”
“How the hell did you find out?”
“I was going through my dad’s study, looking for the 3-hole punch, and I came across some canceled bank checks. At first the name didn’t ring bells ‘cause it was Wren’s mother’s married name. And like an idiot, I didn’t even know about Wren. I mean, why would I, right?”
“Shit, yeah, who would?”
“But the notation at the bottom of the checks said it all. ‘Wren, child support.’ I was blown away. I leafed through them all. There were years and years' worth. And every one of them had the same last name – Damaris – and had the same notation. To doubly confirm, one day, I snuck into Wren’s mother’s filing cabinet, and of course, it was her married name. Wren’s name. Case closed.”
Cash and I just sit there, both dumbfounded.
I can’t take it all in. No. Not all at once. But it’s slowly dawning on me that this is a connection which can never be broken.
Cash obviously reads my mind.
“Yeah, and of course, in some frigged up way, those two find each other again, rev up the heat, and decide to tie the knot. And I’m dumped into some sort of horrific Brady Bunch remake with Wren. To say I was pissed by this turn of events is the understatement of the decade. So, you know, like the twit I am, I take it out on Wren when I should be taking it out on my dad.”
“But you dad calls the money shots, pays for your tuition in order for you to stay in college hockey.”
Cash sighs. “Yeah, something like that. I mean, it’s either a hockey scout picks me up — and we both know you’re the better player — or a career in sports med as a fall-back. You know my brain isn’t cut out for anything else. Not like Wren. She’ll go far. It’s sports or nothing for me. Ultimately, after finding this out, I felt cornered and took it out on her. Real mature, huh?”
“Super, Dudley Do-Right.” I smirk and jokingly shoulder shove him.
Cash shoulders me back, and we chuckle.
“Listen, man, you can’t breathe a word of this to Wren. I figure the folks will tell her when they’re ready. It ain’t my place, and it surely ain’t yours.”
I silently nod my head, but I’m of two minds. Which is worse? Keeping Wren in the dark or letting her know? One is betrayal. The other is kind. And I’m not even sure I know which is which.
Over the next few days, I wrestle with Cash’s news.
