Patrick Kane, Things Will Work Out

Back in Chicago, I met Mr. Bowmen who gave me a ride home, “Hey Patrick, how are you feeling?” he asked as I got into his car. Getting into the car must have been pretty funny to watch, for I had to hop from door to door to put my crutches in the back seat, and my bags and then get to the passenger seat.

“Umm better, better than before, Thanks for picking me up, How are you?”

“I’m good. You scared the crap out of me tonight when you went down.”

“ohh sorry,” I responded making myself comfortable in my seat.

“You are wrapped pretty heavily, it must be pretty bad”

“Ya, well it was about three times its normal size, by the time they got my skate off.”

“Good one Patrick!” he said sarcastically. “Will will be up when you get home, because he wanted to make sure you’re okay. You know he really looks up to you, he thinks of you as an older brother.”

“Does he want me to tuck him in?” I asked, thinking sometimes I tuck him in when his parents are out at an event. I also thought about all the times I played shinny hockey with him in the basement, or he curled up in my bed downstairs when he was having bad dreams.

“Ya I think so, You know how kids are when they wanna make sure someone is okay. They ask a lot of questions, and quite frankly I said that you would be able to answer them before he went to bed.”

As he said this, we were pulling into the garage. Once I got into the house, I heard Will come running down the stairs yelling, “Patrick you are home!”

“Hey buddy!!!” I responded in a quiet voice, as he gave me a great hug. “Come, on lets go to your room, and we can talk about your day?”

“Okay” I heard a cheery voice and then watched him scamper off into his room in his buzz light year PJ’s. As I made my way over on crutches, I got a smile from Mrs. Bowman as we exchanged greetings.

“Patrick! Guess what!”

“What!” he was always full of surprises.

“I made this picture for you at school today.” He handed it to me. It was a picture of us playing hockey in the basement.

“This is so cool Will! What else did you did you do at school today?”

“I learned how to subtract and tell time”

“Sweet man, “ said as I laid next to him on his bed. We laid nex to each other in silence, for we were both really tired. But finally Will said, “Patrick are you going to be okay?”

“I’m gonna be fine Will, there is nothing to worry about.”

“Can we still, hang in the basement and watch TV and play knee hockey?”

“Of course, I just can’t run around or be super active for a little while.”

“Good” he said and closed his eyes, I hoped I satisfied him with the right answers. I waited with him until he fell asleep then I slowly got up and quietly as possible left the room.

When I came out, the kitchen light was still, but it seemed to me that the parents had retired for the night so I did too. Early the next morning I was awoken by the sound of my phone buzzing on my night stand on my left. It was Mike calling, “Hey Mike,”

“Morning Pat. I scheduled you to have an X-ray on Monday at nine.”

“Does that work for you?”

“Yes, Can you pick me up?”

“Yes I’ll be there around eight. Today I want you to elevate your foot, try not to overdo it. Stay on Ibuprofen and Tylenol to try to keep the swelling down.”

When I hung up I smelt pancakes and bacon being made up stairs. Slowly, I got ready and made my way up, where I was immediately greeted by Will asking if I would watch Sponge Bob with him in the family room. I said sure, as I usually did on my weekend mornings with him. I actually enjoyed watching Sponge Bob, even though I was almost twenty. It brought back a ton of memories from my childhood. Within ten minutes or so Mr. Bowman shouted, “breakfast is ready!”

“c’mon Will lets go eat” I said, as I turned off the TV and started heading towards the kitchen
table. “good morning!” I said when I saw Mr. and Mrs. Bowman.

“Good morning Pat” they responded. “ How’s the ankle feeling?” asked Mr. Bowman.

“Same as before, thanks for asking. What do we have going on today?’”

“Will has practice at Noon, I was going to stay and watch want to come?”

“Sure, I’ll go and watch.” It wasn't like I had anything better to do.

I sat down at the table, and pulled up another chair to raise my ankle. Will walked into the room and sat down in his chair, as breakfast was placed on the table. Breakfast, was scrumptious, as usual at the Bowman house on Saturday morning. After breakfast I went downstairs and watched TV while I sat on my bed. My phone started to ring, I wondered who it was, I picked it up not looking at the caller ID

“hello?”

“Hey pat. You free?” It was my sister Jacqueline. I had no idea why she was calling me now, but her voice was sad and I could tell she had been crying.

“Yes, what’s wrong?”

“Well, first you need to tell me that you are going to be okay. More that you don’t need surgery.”

“I’m gonna be fine, and I don’t know if I’ll need surgery, I see a doctor on Monday.”

“Okay” her voice dropped. There was silence over the phone, and I knew she wanted to really talk about something else.

“Jacqueline, what did you really call to talk about. You know I’m always there for you.”

She took a deep breathe, “Remember Abby?”

“Of course, you guys did everything together”

“She was diagnosed with cancer on Thursday.”

“Oh my God, Jacqueline, I had no idea. How bad?”

“She starts treatment on Monday, leukemia.”

I could her that she was trying to hold back her tears. Ever since I could remember, Abby and my sister did everything together, from sports to plays to school projects. “Listen Jack,”(her nickname) “tell her I send my wishes. The best thing you can do right now is to be there all the time for her.”

“I know, but…mom and dad don’t get it, they said the same thing, so I was hoping that you would. I want to be there during her first day of treatment, but I would have to miss school, mom won’t let me.”

“Well, do you want me to talk to them, your request is reasonable. Did they say why not?”

“No, I…don’t talk to them; I want this to stay between you and me. Mom said she said no because then I’ll ask to go to the next one and the next one and I will miss a ton of school that way.”

“I guess, well, I may be able to come to Buffalo and pull you out of school without mom and dad knowing.”

“Really? You would do that for me?”

“Well, of course, remember I’ll always be there for you. I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do.” My voice trailed off.

“ohh," she said, "Well please think about it, if anything could you take me after school or during my lunch and free?”

“okay I’ll think about it. I’ll let you know soon.”

“thanks soooooo much Pat talk to you later.”