Northern Wind

The next day I didn't see Jonathan. I didn't expect to, but I had hoped. But what did happen that made me very excited was when Travis came home at six o'clock yelling at me.

“Princess, bow down to your King because I've found you a job!”

“Trav! I am not going to be a hooker!”

“You're so funny Stella.” He mocked me with a fake smile. “But no. As you might remember, I'm working on some rooms in the United Center. And -”

“The what?” I enquired.

“It's an arena. Anyways, and I was talking to the lead photographer for the Blackhawks hockey team and he said they could use another assistant and I was like BAM! Stella's a photographer. And he said 'Fantastic, have her come down on Wednesday.'”

I was stunned.

“Are you... are you serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“That's fantastic!” I exclaimed, jumping up from the couch and hugging him. “Thank you so much Trav.”

He was blushing as he squeezed me tight. This was really the best thing that could have happened. Perhaps luck really was on my side in this city. Getting back into photography was going to be fantastic. Though I didn't know anything about hockey... I voiced this
problem to Travis and he didn't seem worried at all.

“You'll pick it up. I still can't believe you're a Canadian who doesn't know how to play hockey.” He shook his head laughing.

“I am not sports oriented.” I defended myself.

“That, and you're accident prone.”

Upon the word accident my heart dropped. An accident is what they said to me when Carine died. It was a horrible, horrible accident. No one's fault, except mine of course. I assumed Travis was hugging me and apologizing now because I was crying. As I felt the tears on my face I knew I was right.

“I'm sorry Stella... I didn't mean...”

I repeated that I was fine, a well rehearsed line I'd been using quite often. It took all I had in me to push Travis off of me and tell him I was going to make dinner. Cooking was therapeutic for me, I wasn't an amazing cook, but I wasn't looking to make anything amazing either. Trav backed off. He understood I wanted my space so he left me alone for the next hour and a bit as I prepared him a steak and twice baked potatoes, also a salad for me.

I thought back lightly to what Travis had said, I knew he hadn't meant it the way that I had recalled, but it still hurt me so much. Accidents happened all the time, but when I hear the word accident all I can think about is car accidents and the one I was in with my sister.

It was around the beginning of December last year. Snow was everywhere and some people had already put up their Christmas lights. Carine and I were driving to our family's cottage to meet up with the rest of our relatives who were already there, a bit of a reunion I thought. I had wanted to stay an extra day in the city and drive down with my sister to just catch up on life. She had started a new job as a waitress and I hadn't seen much of her the few weeks before that.

The deer just came out of nowhere. I turned a sharp corner in my old truck, hit it, swerved, tried to break and the hit a tree. Carine was propelled forward and out the windshield. It all happened so fast, I don't remember much about the impact, but what I do remember is waking up to see my sister's blood trail from where she skimmed across the pavement on her face.

I placed Trav's food in front of him and he muttered a quiet thank you, hoping to avoid upsetting me I guessed. I took my salad and sat on the little black sofa facing the tv. Trav had a hockey game on. It said Blackhawks vs. Oilers, I wondered briefly where the other was from, but decided it didn't matter at the time being, the Blackhawks were winning 5-3. Things on the screen were moving at a rather fast pace, I found myself lost in the cheering and movement on the ice. I was absorbed, until I heard a statement by one of the commentators.

“What a fantastic night for the Blackhawks, two goals each from Steve Montador and Jonathan Toews...”

I snapped my head in Trav's direction. He was smiling at me.

“It's not live just so you know, this is the game from yesterday. Who would have thought eh? Jonathan Toews goes to Starbucks.”

That game must have happened after I talked to him yesterday. Well it turned out Pat was right, they were 'kicking ass', as he had put it. There was a close up shot of Jonathan on the bench, talking to another player beside him.

“He's the captain you know.” Travis said casually from beside me.

“Captain?” I muttered, slightly impressed. “But he's so young...”

Travis said something else that I didn't pay attention too. I was too captivated by the information I had just gained in the past 2 hours. I found myself hanging on the edge of my seat, watching until the end of the game. When it was over, I wanted to know more. More about hockey, but mostly more about Jonathan Toews. All thoughts of Carine had slipped my mind as I dove deeply into the internet to find out as much as I could about all of this before Wednesday.