andy cannon
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Everything posted by andy cannon
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Noah We were down three-nothing midway through the second period. Coach Hayes called the timeout. Nobody said much. Nobody needed to. We all knew we'd been outworked. Hayes looked around the huddle. "They're faster because you're trying to be clever." Silence. "So stop." He jabbed a finger toward the whiteboard. "Simple hockey." One pass. North. Get pucks behind their defense. Shoot everything. Crash the net. He looked at Jackson. "Lemaire." Then at me. "Lindholm. Keep doing
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Both at the team barbecue and the hospital visit, children seem to recognize these guys as kindred spirits
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Jackson The game in Detroit had finished just after nine. By midnight we'd finally reached the airport. By one in the morning we still hadn't left. Something about a mechanical inspection. Coach Hayes had accepted the news with the resignation of a man who'd spent twenty years living at the mercy of airlines. The rest of us scattered across the charter lounge. Ben, Eddie and Aleksander had somehow found a deck of cards. A handful of the younger guys were asleep with their feet propped
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You and me both, brother!
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Yeah, but then the other one would just be focused on retaliation, and the lesson would be wasted on them.
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Noah The children's hospital visit was scheduled for our first off day in almost three weeks. Apparently community outreach was important. So was punctuality. Unfortunately, those two concepts had collided with Emily. Emily was filling in as the community-relations intern. She carried a clipboard, a color-coded itinerary, two pens, a folder and a look of determined optimism that suggested she still believed professional athletes could be organized with enough planning. I alm
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They do seem to be on the verge of a break through.
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We know from the prologue that Noah is attracted to Jackson but ruthlessly buries that under a mound of 'I hate him.' Jackson's feelings are still a little ambiguous, although his gobsmacked reaction to seeing Noah with his hair loose is a good clue.
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It's the unwritten rule of hockey that you retaliate to a cheap shot against a team mate. Time was that if the retaliation didn't draw blood it didn't count, but this is a more genteel era.
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Jackson Practice had barely ended before half the team disappeared towards the showers. I headed for the players' parking lot. The autumn air was cool enough that I shrugged into my jacket as I walked. My car sat three rows over. Something made me stop. Noah's truck. Its front left wheel was off. Noah himself was kneeling beside it, sleeves rolled above his forearms, wrestling with a jack that looked older than both of us. My first thought was that Noah owned t
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Spoiler alert: yeah, no. Not happening, LOL.
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One of the great declarations of love, IMHO.
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Noah Winger Justin Piatkovich's barbecue was held every October. Apparently attendance wasn't technically mandatory. Apparently Coach Hayes also had a remarkable memory for who had chosen not to attend. So. Mandatory. Justin's house sat on the edge of a small lake about forty minutes outside Philadelphia, with a wide deck overlooking a lawn running down to a dock where half a dozen children were attempting to catch fish while three golden retrievers enthusiastically complic
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They are starting to show a hint of self awareness.
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They are the poster children for cluelessness. Move over, Alica Silverstone!
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They have progressed far enough that they don't have to renege on their agreement. At least I think they can agree at this point.
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My money would be on Ben. He's the chaos gremlin.
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It's all in the journey and the friends we make on the way.
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Other than the coaches, Jackson is as close to an actual grownup as you will find in this story.
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Jackson The first real win felt different. Preseason games barely counted for anything, but for the first time since I'd arrived in Philadelphia, our line looked less like three talented strangers and more like three players who actually belonged together. Coach Hayes had left the combinations untouched. Lindholm. Lemaire. Lefebvre. Apparently he believed in suffering. --- The first period was uneventful. Noah and I were still trying far too hard to prove we could s
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They are on adjacent tracks that are s-l-o-w-l-y converging. Jackson has thought they were becoming better friends and is coming to realize they are also better team mates and more. Noah thought they were becoming better team mates and is now realizing that there is more going on. Everyone else is saying, "Just kiss already!"
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They'll get there... eventually.
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I think Noah is the harder sell in this relationship because he has repressed his attraction for so long.
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Baby steps, right?
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Yikes! I had no idea that was going on until you pointed it out. Insofar as I have a writing "process", I usually cobble together a first chapter based on an idea, let it marinate for a while, then outline how each chapter should advance the characters and the plot, then go back to flesh out the chapters. This subject seemed to need a lighter, breezier voice than the more ponderously literary style I've used with other stories. Somehow in this case that translated into a brief drive-by story! It puts me in mind of a chapter in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, which was, in its entirety, "My mother is a fish." I doubt Mr. Faulkner would be flattered by my appeal to his precedent, but there it is.
