Flightless

Watching Game 5 was heartbreaking. There's no other way to put it. After the fantastic performances the Pens had put together on home ice it seemed natural they would carry that momentum into the next game, but no such thing happened. If anything, they reverted to early season form, looking like they were a team freshly thrown together. It wasn't so much playing badly, but just making basic mistakes, taking stupid penalties, failing to clear the zone, and having absolutely no luck at the other end of the ice.

Seeing Flower get pulled three quarters through the second period after letting in five goals was hard; he was always such a happy, smiling guy that seeing him without that familiar grin felt like a sign of the apocalypse.

The one consolation was that the visiting team had so far failed to win a game in this series, leaving the next game in the Penguins favour, not that the team would take that for granted. If anything, this loss gave them more reason to fight for that next win, knowing that if they lost again their season was over. Sometimes knowing that a loss is all it takes to end things is motivation enough. There's nothing scarier than a team with everything to fight for, redemption being top of that list.

As bad as watching the game was, listening to Jordan vent afterwards was worse. He just sounded so frustrated and depressed, and there was nothing I could do except listen, waiting for him to get home and join me in my bed.

Except there was something I could do. Sure, it wouldn't bring his mood up immediately because I planned on keeping it a secret until the right moment, but it would definitely bring a smile to his face when he found out what I had up my sleeve.

Pulling my laptop out I surfed a few sites while keeping Jordan company until their flight was ready to leave.

"You on your computer babe?" Jordan asked out of nowhere, seemingly done with the loss for the moment.

Stupidly nodding, I also confirmed his suspicions verbally, "Yea, just emailing my sis." It was a lie, but while I was online I probably should... "Did I tell you her boyfriend Chris is a hockey ref back home? Haha, I should tell her to check out the cute Pittsburgh tekau ma tahi, see what she thinks of you."

"Te ko ma what?" Knowing his head would be tilted to the side a little in confusion, his eyes tired but amused made me smile as my heart swelled a little. His pronunciation wasn't far off either.

"Good job Jor, you said it right! It's eleven in Maori. Tekau is ten, ma is kinda like and, and tahi is one."

I listened as he sounded it out a few times quietly, various teammates questioning him as they were listening in. In seconds I was on speakerphone, being bombarded with numbers to translate.

"Easy boys, one at a time. Unless of course you just want me to spew them out and you have no idea who's is what?" Being barraged with numbers again I just ran with the guys as they came to mind. "Fine, Max is rua tekau ma rima, TK3 you're wha tekau ma waru, Tanger's rima tekau ma waru, Squid Vicious is waru tekau ma whitu, Papa Billy's lucky number tekau ma toru, Eats gets a simple wha, Scuds has whitu. What else do we have left? Flower wears rua tekau ma iwa, Geno is whitu tekau ma tahi"

I didn't know all these numbers in Maori off the top of my head; it wasn't an everyday occurrence to think or even speak the second national language of New Zealand, but because my dad's side of the family is Maori we used it a bit more than most pakeha (white) families.

To give the guys their numbers I quickly counted out the digits on my fingers: tahi, rua, toru, wha, rima, ono, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau. I suppose if there was one good thing, it was that there were only ten numbers to remember.

"Hey, you guys have no six's. That's odd," I laughed, hearing their boarding call in the background. "Max, you probably already know Lucy's at your place. Have a good flight guys."
A chorus of byes faded out as Jordan took me off speaker. "I'll see you in a couple hours," he sighed, back into depressed mode. "I love you Ray."

"I love you too, Jor." With that said I hung up, not waiting for Jordan's realisation that I'd said 'those three words' for the first time in our relationship. It'd give him something other than hockey to think about during the flight.