Find the Horizon

Sidney and the boys came home the next day, the Cup in tow. The parade was set to be on Tuesday, which Sidney was thankful for. That way, he could spend a few days checking up on Katie.

He got to her house and the door flew open. This time, it was Andrew. He attacked Sidney with a hug and dragged him inside.

“Mom! Mom, Sidney’s here!”

Andrew ran into the living room and jumped on the couch bed beside where Katie was sleeping.

“Katie, wake up! Sidney’s here to see you!”

She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. Her body still ached, but she wanted to see Sidney. He came over to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“How’s your knee?” she asked as he sat down next to her, his Stanley Cup Champions baseball cap perched on his head.

“It’s feeling better,” he said. “It still hurts a little bit, but you know how it is. We’ve got the Cup now, that’s all that matters.”

Katie smiled and held her hand out for Sidney to take. They interlaced their fingers. Then she said, “I’m so proud of you, Sidney. I really am. You carried your team the whole year and made everyone in Pittsburgh proud. I’m just so glad that you happened to wander by my hospital room that day before the playoffs started.”

“Me too,” he replied. “You know that the parade is on Tuesday, right?”

She nodded.

“Do you think you’d be able to ride with me in the truck?”

Katie hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know if I can.” Sidney’s face fell slightly, but she knew that he understood. “You know that I would love to, but I can barely even get out of bed these days. And the shingles are giving me a lot of pain. I promise you though, I will be here when the parade is over.”

Sidney nodded and kissed her on the forehead again. Then he said, “You know that I’m going to go back to Cole Harbour for the summer, right? To be with my family?”

She nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that for a while, actually,” she confessed. “But it’ll be good for you to go back home with the Cup. It’s your time to celebrate. I’ll still be here. Besides, it’ll be good to have time to just try and recover, you know? I’ve still got ninety-three days until I reach one hundred.”

“Have you marked down when day one hundred will be on your calendar yet?”

“I have actually,” she laughed, her face brightening. “It’s going to be one hundred days on September 13th, 2009.”

“I’ll be back in Pittsburgh by then and I’ll come and celebrate with you,” he decided.

“Thank you, Sidney,” Katie beamed. “For everything.”

“I’m the one who should be thanking you,” Sidney said. “You’ve taught me so much in such a short time about the value of life. You’ve got such a great spirit, Katie. Never let that go.”

Sidney’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

“I have to go,” he said, checking his messages. “I have some press to do at the arena.”

“Understandable,” Katie mused. “Go get ‘em, Mr. Stanley Cup Champion. I’ll make sure I watch the parade on TV.”

Sidney stood up to leave. But before he did, he leaned over and kissed Katie firmly on the lips, his thumb running across her cheek gently. When he pulled away, he whispered to her, “I love you, Katie.”

“I love you too, Sidney,” she replied breathlessly. He smiled and waved goodbye to her as he walked out the door. Katie’s hands flew up to her lips, blushing to herself as the sensation of Sidney’s kiss still lingered on her mouth.

Rita poked her head into the room and smiled down at her daughter. “I don’t know if I’ve ever met a boy quite like him.”

“Me neither,” Katie agreed. “He sure is something else.”

* * * *

The day of the parade came and Katie watched it from inside her living room. Her shingles were slowly clearing up and were giving her less discomfort and the new medication she was given had stopped giving her so many hallucinations. She was still constantly tired, but her counts were starting to rise.

She watched as Max and Bill ran around giving people high-fives, even picking up Dan Bylsma and carrying him around on their shoulders. Sidney was in a pickup truck with Marc-André and the Cup, lifting it over his head and showing it off to the crowd.

Katie smiled to herself, knowing that he had accomplished everything he could have ever wanted. She wished she could have been there with him during the parade, but she knew that she had to sway her focus from hockey to her own health.

Katie had a long summer ahead of her and she knew that it was going to be tough with all the medication and doctor’s visits. But still, she was looking forward to seeing Sidney again in the fall. All she needed to do now was count down the days.