Page 135 of Slew Foot
“Hey.”
The bench vibrated and Mickey glanced up to see Tom Bass slide in beside him. He was kind of an average-looking guy, with soft brown skin, a nose that looked like it had been broken a time or two, and kind dark eyes.
“Hi,” Mickey managed past the tightness in his throat.
He had no idea what Tom was doing here. He was a nice guy and fit into the locker room well, but he’d been busy getting settled in a new city with his family and Mickey hadn’t had any personal interactions with him yet.
“It’s tough, huh?” Tom nodded toward the ice. “Being away from it.”
“Yes,” Mickey whispered, looking down at his hands.
“You feel like a part of yourself is missing.”
Mickey nodded. Unable to say it aloud this time.
“And then you start spiraling. What if this is it? What if I never play again?”
He nodded again, because what else could he do?
Tom laughed but it wasn’t loud or mean. There was nothing mocking in it. Just soft, rueful understanding.”Yeah, I’ve been there.”
“Concussion?” Mickey managed to squeeze out.
“Yep. Got a pretty nasty conkie when I was about your age.”
Mickey huffed out a laugh. He wasn’t familiar with the term conkie but leave it to hockey players to come up with cute little nicknames for a life-altering condition.
“So what happened?” Mickey asked, the stranglehold grasp on his throat finally easing a little. “How’d you fix it?”
Tom shrugged. “I didn’t. I had to wait until my brain healed.”
“How long were you out?”
“A season and a half.”
Mickey gaped at him. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“How did you not go crazy?”
Tom grinned and winked. “Who says I didn’t?”
Mickey’s laugh was a little louder this time. Came a little easier.
Tom shrugged again. “You have any hobbies?”
“Uhh, not really. Not ones I can do right now, anyway.”
“Well, think about finding one or youwillgo crazy.”
“What did you get into?” Mickey asked.
“Oil painting.”
“Really?” Mickey blinked. He hadn’t seen that one coming. He didn’t seem like the artistic type.
Tom shrugged. “Look, I was really fucking bored. And that shit takesa lotof time, so …”
