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Sixteen hours ago, Dad left for a work trip in New York by plane. I still don’t know what he does, or I guess what he did. Am I already talking in past tense about Dad? Why aren’t I crying? Why can’t I figure out what’s going on?
The news lady keeps talking about something called the DEA, saying they shot down his plane. But why would they do that? Then they show a picture of Dad holding a placard in front of a weird backdrop that shows his height, 6’5”. He’s smiling in a way I’ve never seen before. It’s almost like this man on the TV isn’t my dad. Yet, when I see those distinct wrinkles where he smiles and his peppered black hair, I know that that man is indeed, my dad.
Mom wails, and I wonder if the neighbors can hear her across the street. Jax gets off my lap and runs up to her.
Cocaine dealer, Adrian Hayes, dies in a fiery plane crash twenty miles north of Lewistown, Pennsylvania, into Bald Eagle State Forest.The footage pans over smoke billowing from a lush forest and helicopters flying above the scene.
16
ELIJAH HAYES
Present day
Idream of Dad’s death. I’m sitting next to him as he works the controls. A bag of opened cocaine spills throughout the cabin, seeping through my pants and dusting into my face. He knows we’ve been made so he alters the flight path to throw the cops off, but they reach us before we can land. I look out the window to see a launcher headed towards the plane. Dad looks at me, fear in his eyes as he grips the controls.
Elijah, it’s time.
“Elijah.” Levi shakes me awake. “It’s time to get up we still have classes today, remember?”
Classes are the last thing on my mind. I grab my clothes and head to the communal showers with Levi before we go off in our own direction. I’m almost late to my business management class when I walk in a take a seat at the far back.
Everyone here is either a hockey player, football player, or actual business nerds who want to become Bill Gates one day. The professor goes over the past week’s work and starts on a new lesson in managing a multi-team company. We role play scenarios, going over the proper ways to interact with employees and bosses. Not that I’ll ever need this crap.
After my next class, I walk to the food truck and order two burritos. I stuff my face while seated on the bench behind the truck, barely stopping for air. My stomach twists in knots but I haven’t eaten since Steven’s cheeseboard last night. I just hope I can keep my food down before the flight today.
I meet Levi at the locker room, along with the rest of the guys, to grab my gear and head for the bus that takes us to the airport. Everyone is hollering and excited, but I can’t wrap my head around what happened last night. Did Derek show up to Taylor’s class today? Is she okay? Is he in the hospital?
“Whoa, check this out. Some psycho threw a guy into a building on Second Street,” Braylon laughs as he shows everyone his phone. There is a blurry video of me running up and shoving Derek into the building. Luckily, the footage is too fuzzy to catch the rest or to make out Taylor lying on the floor in the shadows.
“My mom said it was probably just a drunken fight. The dude just got up and walked away. That’s some super villain shit right there,” Braylon adds with a throaty laugh. The rest of the team joins him, and I hide behind my locker.Good. Nobody will be able to pin it on me. The footage is barely usable.
After grabbing my bag from Levi’s dorm, I meet the team outside the main campus lot and hop onto the bus. I wait for everyone to exit before popping two Xanax for the flight. My rule of thumb is one Xanax hypes me up, two calms me down. Don’t know why, but it seems to work for me. I follow the team through the airport to the plane, immediately passing out next to Levi for the short flight to Buffalo.
* * *
We jog into the guest locker room for the Buffalo Vipers rink. When the Xanax has worn off, I’m ready to play and get some of this excess adrenaline out of me. The only thing I have to worry about is the St. Paul Royals versus the New York Buffalo Vipers. They’re a mid-tier team, anyway. The slaughter will be easy.
I lace up my skates before taking position as first line center beside Braylon and Levi. The rink’s lights are blinding on the white ice. The crowd is cheering furiously. I look to my right where Levi stands ready, the demon coming out of him on the rink. He knows this is about to be a bloodbath for Buffalo and he gives me a sinister smile.
The overweight ref skates to the center and the face-off begins. I steal the puck in a sweep so swift that the Vipers’ center doesn’t know what hit him. I barrel through the first line and pass to Braylon, who makes an early play for the goal but gets knocked back by their aggressive defense. Braylon stands back up and rushes towards the puck still on his side and whacks the right wing with his stick, sending the opponent flying helmet-first into the ice.
The buzzer blows and the ref escorts Braylon to the penalty box. This is about to be a long game. After a brutal two minutes of Levi and I trying to keep the puck in the center, the timer goes off and Braylon is back in the game. We push back harder, now equally matched. Levi skates across the opponent’s red line. I swipe the puck across the ice, barely missing two Vipers’ sticks as it falls perfectly into place beside Levi. He goes for the shot, but their defense is on his ass before he can even make the final swing to the puck. Levi is sent flying by brute force but the ref doesn’t call a penalty.
I can hear my team booing from the sides and the crowd for the Buffalo Vipers goes absolutely wild. We are evenly matched for the first and second period; a fact that doesn’t sit well with anyone.
“Who is the new guy on defense? When did Buffalo become an actual opponent?” Abel from second line defense remarks.
Levi and I sit down as Coach throws in our second and third lines to tire them out. As soon as the brute defense is swapped, Coach sends us back out to take the point.
I tell Levi it’s up to him to make the shot. He has a couple of tricks up his sleeve, including being ambidextrous. Having a left-handed right wing isn’t unheard of, but it’s definitely a power move they don’t always expect. Especially when Levi plays with his right most of the game.
Halfway through the third quarter, it’s still a painstaking zero to zero. I take the puck from their second line center and swing it towards Levi, who is ready to hit with his left. He runs with the puck, meeting it over the halfway mark and swings. The defense reacts to the wrong side. The puck connects with the Vipers’ net. Coach sends out the third line to finish the game when the buzzer goes off.
Levi and I skate back to the sidelines cheering and punching the air. That’s why he’s my right wing.
After the game, we all go to our shared hotel rooms next to the airport and celebrate. Levi and I walk to a bar across the street and order, upon his request, Sherley Temples.
We take a booth across the bar, sipping our girly little drinks. He has a round of wings sent to the table and devours them before I can get a bite, so I order a cheap burger.
