Emergency Medical Dad

LXIII: present, early november

JORGEN

November fifteenth. Chicago O'Hare, Toronto Pearson, Regina International. Six hours and twenty minutes. 9am departure, they arrive by three thirty my time. I had to change it a day in advance because I'm off the ground at the same airport no more than twenty four hours later headed to Dallas.

That's twenty days.

JORGEN: five hundred hours almost exactly.

JESSIE: that's a ton

JORGEN: I know but it's not forever

She sends a first big box at the end of the week that we figure out the dates. It's a box of clothes that her Dad managed to get out of her Mom's house when he left. I unpack it, sorting the clothes into each of their closet's respectively.

The next comes five days later with only 13 days to go. It's Connor's Legos. I put them in a corner of my finished basement, hoping that it's a good spot for him to keep playing and maybe have more things down here to goof off with.

The next is four days after that, nine days until they arrive.

I get it with seven days left, on my way home from the airport after an Atlantic Division series of games that bounced us up the coast.

With five days left, my uncle comes over for the afternoon after we're done with practice.

"I forget how adorable your little cottage house is every time I come visit," he kicks off his boots in the front entrance. "I mean, come on, the front door is in a little arch."

"I get it, I get it," I laugh, slipping my hands into my pockets.

"You've changed a few things in here since you got home," he looks around. "I like how the living room is more of a living room now and not just a couch and a TV. Looks less bachelor-pad-ey."

"Shush," I respond. "It was a bachelor pad as far as I'm concerned."

"It was cleaner than one," he walks into my kitchen, looking around for the stuff to make coffee. "Has she shipped anything up to you yet?"

"Yeah," I lean my hip against the counter. "She's sent a couple packages, not many considering they got out of her Mom's house with basically only the clothes on their backs and a box more, so they don't have a ton of things to send me."

"Yeah, that'll be part of the resettling, getting them a more material sense of belonging to a spot. How's your leg, you're getting it looked at for neuromas again you said at the beginning of the year, I haven't checked in on it since."

I puff out my cheeks, "I go in tomorrow for them to take a look. If I have one, which I might, I'll probably push to get it out during our home stretch in January because I'll be off my leg for a couple weeks. As for the refitting, we reshaped a little and changed padding but my doctor and I are waiting to hear about the neuromas, because if I have one and they take it out it'll change my leg enough that I'll need to get a new socket."

"It won't really matter when you're doing it," he looks over. "I won't want you moving around with us through the whole game and everything, and if you don't take time off, I'm certain Nico will force you to."

I wince, "part of the reason I wanted to do it in January. She'll be with the olympic team during that stretch. I can overpower you so that I can work, but I cannot overpower her."

He shakes his head, laughing, "no, you're right. But I do want you to take it easy if you do have to get surgery."

"And I will, I just won't miss anything if I don't have to. I've done crutches on the bench before."