Page 27 of Tropical Inferno

Her fingers shook as she clicked on the top link with the headline “Hawkins Gets Five-Game Suspension for Homophobic Slurs.” She had to take a deep breath before she started to read:

Ottawa, Canada—Ottawa Generals’ forward Garrett Hawkins received a 5-game suspension as well as a $10,000 fine for his homophobic slur during Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay.

The NHL made the announcement early this morning stating it would no longer tolerate this type of behavior from players. Hawkins’ only comment to the press was that he regretted the incident. He was not available for comment at the time of publication, but the Generals issued a statement that they do not condone this type of behavior and would ensure it didn’t continue…

There was more, but Maddie didn’t care about the NHL’s reasoning or Garrett’s scoring record last season. She was having a hard time processing what she’d just read. It was unfathomable to her that Garrett was homophobic. Jamie said they’d been friends.

She hit the back button and looked at the list of articles again, searching for video. She found one that explained that Garrett’s comment was most likely due to the dirty hit on his teammate Roger Culkin. The video clearly showed a player from Tampa Bay hitting Culkin in the back, shoving him face first into the boards, but the referees and linesmen had all missed it. Culkin was calling out to the nearest linesman when Garrett skated over. Maddie watched carefully—they didn’t have audio—but he said something to Culkin and then turned to the linesman who was shaking his head, pointing at the tunnel, indicating that Garrett was out of the game. He’d gotten a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike behavior and the player from Tampa got away with the illegal hit.

It made no sense. Garrett hadn’t been involved in the play and had just joined the conversation Culkin was having with the linesman when he was booted out. He’d barely had a second or two to say anything, much less something bad enough to get a game misconduct and suspension. Maddie had been playing and following hockey since she was practically a baby and knew the nuances of the game almost as well as her brothers. She hit the replay button and watched it again, pausing it when Garrett skated up to Culkin. The linesman’s head was turned, still focused on whatever else was happening on the ice. Culkin had been yelling, his face contorted with anger as he rubbed the back of his neck. Garrett skated up barely a second before the linesman whipped his head around, said something back and pointed to the tunnel. From this angle, Garrett’s head was turned so she couldn’t see his mouth, but it looked odd to her. Had he yelled something while skating over to them? And if that was the case, why hadn’t the linesman turned to look at him until he got there?

She flipped back to another page and tried searching for exactly what he’d said, but the only detail was that he’d compared the linesman to a gay player in the league and had said that the linesman should have been attacked instead.

“No, no, no,” she whispered. This wasn’t as horrific as she’d imagined, but on a personal level it was even worse.

Now it all made sense. He’d made a homophobic slur and then got involved with not just the sister of a gay hockey player, but specifically the one he’d supposedly referenced in his comment. She closed her eyes, remembering the look on his face every time he’d mentioned what was going on. His comments about his uncertain future. The sadness in his voice when he told her she would hate him. How sure he’d been he would hurt her. Yet what she felt now wasn’t hate; the only emotion she could muster up was confusion. The man on the ice, the one who’d said something terrible, wasn’t the man she knew.

She spent another twenty minutes perusing the internet, reading everything she could find about both Garrett’s career and the suspension. He had no history of this type of behavior, but because he’d named a specific player and referenced Jamie’s attack, the NHL had taken a hard line to send a message to all the players that this type of thing would absolutely not be tolerated. Because he hadn’t made any type of formal statement since immediately after the game, there was all kinds of speculation on his future with the Generals and in the league overall.

Her heart broke for him and for herself. She could never be with someone who felt the way he obviously did about the LGBTQ community, but she was still struggling to believe it. It was all there, in articles and video and every blog and sports site online, but until she heard the words with her own ears, she held out the tiniest bit of hope that there had been a mistake.

Not everything is black-and-white.

She’d torn up his letter, but still remembered what it said.

I hope I’ll have the chance to tell you my side of the story.

She wanted to hear his side. But he’d run like a typical guy, afraid to face her, to come clean. That was the part of this that angered her the most. Why hadn’t he told her? He should have admitted what he did and given his side. He should have trusted her.

Why? A little voice in her head was playing devil’s advocate. If he’d said those things about her brother, there was no coming back from that, so telling her would only have ruined what little time they had.

She closed the computer and got to her feet, pulling out her phone. She needed to call Jamie anyway, to reassure him she was okay.

He answered on the first ring. “What happened?”

“He’d packed up and left when I got back from my run.”

“Coward,” he muttered.

“I don’t get it,” she said, walking through the hallway towards the lobby. “I just can’t picture that kind of thing coming out of his mouth.”

“So you looked it up?”

“Yeah.”

“To be honest, I feel the same way.”

“Jamie, do you know exactly what he said?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me.”

“Why?”

“I need to know. When I talk to him, or see him, I have to have all the information.”

Jamie took a deep breath before responding. “He was yelling at Barkonov and said…a cock-sucking bastard like him needed a beatdown like the one Jamie Teller got.”

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