Reality Check in Detroit (4 page)

Weren’t there supposed to be some inspirational European or Russian coaches on
Goals & Dreams
? Travis remembered Muck being interested in that. But if they were here, shouldn’t they be out on the ice? Travis looked over at Muck and noticed that the muscle on the side of Muck’s cheek was flexing in and out. His jaw only flexed like that when he was working hard not to say anything.

Travis and Sarah skated over to where the other Owls were taking shots on Jenny just as Mr. D called them over to the Owls’ bench. They all crowded around.

Inez, the producer who had come up to their hotel rooms with her clipboard, was standing beside Mr. D. She looked so out of place at a hockey rink that Travis had to tell himself not to giggle. She had on three different necklaces and was wearing rings so large she couldn’t have pulled on hockey gloves. She looked as if she were dressed for dinner at an expensive restaurant, not a cold and drafty hockey rink. Travis could see there were goose bumps all the way down her neck. Her neck seemed strained, as if she were yelling but not yelling.

“Inez wants a word with you all,” Mr. D said, turning to the woman as his mustache bounced into a welcoming smile. “Inez?”

“Thank you,” Inez began. “I wanted to explain something important to all you children.”

Children?
Travis winced. The Screech Owls weren’t babies.

“You may have noticed that the other side doesn’t entirely match,” she said. “It’s really quite unfortunate, but the supplier didn’t come through as they did for you. Their new equipment is on back order and we’re hoping it will still get here in time. I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything about it – about the fact that you got all this great stuff for free. We want to be able to capture their surprise on camera, when their new equipment gets here, understand? So can I have your word that you won’t bring it up? Promise?”

“We promise,” said Fahd.

Several of the other Owls muttered their agreement.

“Fine,” said Inez. “I appreciate that. Not a word, then, okay?”

“Okay,” Fahd said.

Inez turned and began to walk away, likely heading for a warm production room. Travis shook his head and looked at Sarah, expecting her to say something about the way Inez had been dressed.

But Sarah wasn’t thinking about any such thing.

“Why is it I don’t believe a word that comes out of that woman’s mouth?” Sarah said to him.

“Oh, and one more thing.… Wayne?” Inez said, hurrying back as if she’d forgotten something. She had a fake, pained-looking smile on her face. She walked right up to where Nish was standing in front of the bench, about to step back onto the ice. “We love the chatter. Your one-liners are great. Keep it up. We hear you’re calling yourself Hollywood. True?”

“That’s right,” said Nish, puffed up with pride like a bird during mating season. “It’s got star quality.”

“Yes, well, we like it, but it’s just not the right name for you,” Inez purred, trying to sound like she was giving Nish a compliment. “For the purposes of the show – for the dramatic arc of
Goals & Dreams
– we’re going to give that name to Cody Kelly, number 22 on the Detroit Motors. I’m sure you understand. You we’ll call … Money.”

T
ravis had never seen Nish on such a roll. The Owls were walking around the concourse of the Joe, waiting for the first round of competition. Several of them were looking for the statues of Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay – Travis wanted a photo of himself with Terrible Ted – and Nish was well into a nonstop monologue about himself.

“Love it!” Nish was saying. “
Money
is the perfect nickname for me. I’ve been a ‘money player’ since my first season, you guys all know that. If Muck needs to turn a game around, who does he turn to? Me, of course! The old Nisherama is who! Money! You get into overtime, who do you want on the ice? Money, that’s who. You go to a shootout, who’s Muck gonna call on to settle the game? ‘Money’ Nishikawa! Me! The master of the spin-o-rama. The one guaranteed
NHL
-bound superstar, hero to millions of little hockey players – me!”

“Oh, put a cork in it,” Sam hissed. She’d had enough of the World’s Biggest Ego.

“Why is it always about you?” Sarah asked.

“Me?” Nish answered, faking puzzlement while at the same time starting to blush.

“You! It’s always about you. You! You!
You!
”

Nish shrugged. He looked genuinely confused. “Well, you wouldn’t want it to be about Trav, would you? I mean, how boring would that be? Sorry, Trav.”

Travis just shook his head and continued on in search of the statues. Up ahead, he could see Gordie Howe’s bronzed head. Terrible Ted would be right beside Gordie.

But there was someone else there. The tall kid from the Motors was taking photos with his phone. He was with another player, a smaller kid, but tough-looking, dark, and brooding. He scowled when he noticed the Owls coming. But the big kid smiled when he saw Sarah and Sam.

“Hi!” he said. He had curly blond hair, an open smile, and, it seemed to Travis, an accent. He couldn’t quite place it.

The tall player’s teammate didn’t smile. He didn’t say a word. He pretended he was busy taking a selfie with the statue of Gordie Howe.

Data pulled out his smartphone like the rest of the players and snapped a photo of Gordie’s head, then started typing a message to put with the photo. As part of the “reality” experience, Inez had asked both teams to tweet about their experiences in the competition so the other peewee teams watching as the show segments aired each night could follow along. Data, the Owls’ resident technology expert, had taken on the task – even though he’d confided in Travis that he didn’t think he’d have much to say.

“Hey, what did you type?” asked the big kid, smiling – any hint of an accent now gone.

“Where did you learn that skating move?” Sarah jumped in, trying to give Data some time to finish typing his update.

The big player’s eyebrows rose in question. “What move?”

“The heel-to-heel move when you circled that final pylon,” Sam said.

The player nodded. “My parents used to own one of the large malls here. It’s pretty much shut down now. It’s a great place for in-line skating. That’s where I learned it. It’s an in-line skating move. We don’t live so close to the mall anymore. We had to move to an apartment when the business started failing. But I still go there a lot on my bike. We do tricks. It’s cool.”

“In-line skating? Looked a lot like figure skating to me. Maybe you could teach Money here how to land a quad,” Sarah said.

The big player looked at Nish. “Money” Nishikawa was turning the color of the Joe’s bright red walls. “I saw him try one. He just needs a little more practice.”

“It’s not some fancy-dance figure-skating move,” Nish spat in protest. “It’s the spin-o-rama – my shootout move.”

“It’s not your
move
, Big Boy, till you actually do it in a game,” said Sam, drawing a quick raspberry from Nish.

“My name’s Cody Kelly,” the player said, sticking out his hand to shake Sarah’s and then the other players’ hands.

“I thought it was Hollywood,” said Sam.

Cody shook his head. “Yeah, right – not my idea, believe me. They want us all to go by nicknames like we’re some
NHL
team or something.”

“I’m Money,” Nish announced. “I’m our top player.”

Cody’s quiet teammate looked at Nish, bewildered. Cody ignored Nish and kept talking. “This here is Jerome Smith – Smitty – and he’s probably
our
best player.”

Smitty nodded at the Owls but didn’t move to shake hands. Smitty was as dark as Cody was golden. He made Travis feel like the Owls had no business being around the statues because Smitty and Cody had been there first.

“Hi,” Sarah said, deliberately walking over with her hand out. Sam followed.

Smitty shook their hands and nodded hello. “You got sick equipment,” he said.

Data looked up for a second, nervous that the Owls were going to find themselves in an awkward situation, but then went back to snapping photos and typing.

“Yeah,” echoed Cody. “All Bauer. All top shelf, man. Sweet.”

Sam seemed about to say something, but Sarah lightly pinched her arm. They had to remember the promise they had made to Inez. They weren’t to say anything about the swag, because then there would be no surprise when the Motors finally got theirs.

To divert their attention, Travis began getting his smartphone ready to take the photos he wanted. He’d get one with Terrible Ted and send it to his dad, who always claimed Ted Lindsay was a cousin of Travis’s grandfather.

“Do you mind, Sarah?” Travis said as he handed her the phone and began moving to the side of the Ted Lindsay statue.

“Well, see you around,” said Cody, backing off with his hands in his jacket pockets and offering a parting smile, just for Sarah. Smitty was already walking away.

“Yeah, sure,” said Sarah. “Good luck in the competition!”

“You, too,” Cody called back before following Smitty down the concourse.

Sarah began fiddling with the camera.

Sam was giggling. “You’re blushing!” she shrieked.

“Am not!” Sarah said, hiding her face behind Travis’s smartphone.

“Are too!”

Sarah concentrated as hard as she could on capturing the perfect photograph of Travis with his great idol. But she knew her cheeks were bright pink.

“I
thought the idea was to develop our skills,” Muck muttered.

“Maybe if we put the bus in a ditch, Nishikawa can haul us out,” Mr. D said, trying to make light of the matter. But all the same, Mr. Dillinger always knew when Muck was not amused.

The two men were going over a flip chart detailing the various skill competitions the teams would be taking part in this afternoon. The producers had left a movable blackboard in the Owls’ dressing room at the Joe, with a description of each skill competition written on it and the names of the players who would compete. Each contest was a segment of
Goals & Dreams: Part One.

Travis sat beside Sarah at their lockers – complete with each player’s name and number tagged at the top, just like in the
NHL
–
and together they read through the list.

“Our whole line,” Sarah said, smiling. Travis smiled, too. He wasn’t nearly as fast as either Sarah or Dmitri, but he knew they were considered a fast hockey line, and he was proud to be included.

They read on:

“I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t hockey,” Muck grunted. He walked away, closing the door to the dressing room as he left. Mr. D went back to his portable skate-sharpening machine and began whistling while he worked on the players’ new skates.

“Love it!” Nish shouted, once he was sure Muck was out of earshot. “I get the final event – the climax of the whole skills competition. Me, Money, all alone. It’ll be like my guitar solo – give me a little time to show off!”

“As a tractor?” Sam said.

“The only thing
tractor
about you, Money Boy,” said Sarah, “is you both give off bad fumes.”

Nish shot a raspberry at her and went off to the washroom, almost hugging himself as he walked.

“Only some of the skills are hockey,” Fahd said.

“Yeah,” said Andy, “but don’t forget it’s a
TV
show. It’s really about entertainment.”

“Some of the competitions sound like fun,” Data added. “I just wish I could play.”

No one said anything. There was nothing anyone could say.

The ice was freshly flooded when the Owls went back out for the first round of the competition. Roger, the cameraman, the older man with curly white hair, who said he used to work on
Hockey Night in Canada
, stayed with the Owls, shooting everything: Travis getting dressed in his ritual way – right, left, right, left – pulling on his new Owls jersey with the
C
on it; the various shin-tapping rituals all the skaters went through with the two goalies. And then they all filed out onto the ice following Jeremy and Jenny.

Roger came right out onto the ice with Travis. He held his camera down low to catch Travis’s stride as the Screech Owls’ captain dug in and flew down the ice, turning hard into the corner. Travis looked up into the stands, surprised to see fans taking their seats for the competition. They must be family and friends of the Motors. None of the Owls’ parents had come, knowing they’d get to experience the trip on television as the episodes aired. Still, there seemed an awful lot of fans in the building for an event like this.

First up was the speed challenge. The Owls’ top line of Travis, Sarah, and Dmitri against the top line of the Motors, which included both Cody “Hollywood” Kelly and Smitty. It was a relay race. They had to carry a puck around the rink, navigate some pylons, and then hand off the puck to the next skater.

“Dmitri’s fastest,” Sarah said. “He should anchor us. You go first, Trav, you’re captain, and I’ll go second.”