Brother Broken
Don't miss the hockey game:
Out-of-town games were rare, so most of the hockey action
happened during practice or while playing shinny. Road hockey was
common—especially when ice at the rink was junk.
Between siblings and cousins, we fired up a game of shinny
on the street in front of our home. The road had gravel mixed in with packed
snow, so the surface was coarse. We didn’t have protective gear like pads,
helmets, or gloves. Winter boots encased our feet instead of skates. The goalposts
were gunny sacks partially filled with straw, and it didn’t matter if a car
drove over top of them. I was the only girl player, and they let me drop the
puck at center ice to start the game.
“You stand close to the goal and wait for me to pass you the
puck.” My teammate was lining me up to score goals. Nobody played goalie,
because no one was worried about players whose long shots were mostly off
target. I felt like the Rocket, waiting to earn a hat trick.
I stood near the goal watching the players pass the rubber
disk between them and then lose it to the opposite team. Someone yelled, “Car!”
We scattered to one side of the street as a Buick approached
and passed. The driver waved to us, and we showed him our hockey sticks.
Again I dropped the puck for the game to resume. The boys
chased after it and converged like cats in a frenzied skirmish. The mob drifted
to and fro across the playing field, moving as one to the rhythm of puck. With
heads down and eyes on the ice, the boys waggled hockey blades and elbows, like
duelling chopsticks.
The puck flew out of the din toward me and I froze in the
excitement. I couldn’t respond fast enough to score a goal before the players
closed in on me. I was caught in the center of the hockey storm without a hope
of regaining control of the puck. The butt end of someone’s stick met my face.
I spit out a fragment that looked like a Chicklet. My tongue found the gap
where my upper front tooth used to be. If I couldn’t play like a hockey great,
then I was surely going to look like one.
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