Hate Is A Strong Word

27.

It's quiet around me, even though it's not. I just don't notice the noise. I'm sitting in the corner of the sofa, clutching a pillow in my hand, just watching. In the reflection of my eyes, I can see the guys skating on the ice and fighting for the title of world champions. I'm teary-eyed, too. Tears fill my eyes, but somehow they're not streaming down my cheeks yet. But soon my cheeks will be wet.

My Sebastian. My little Sebastian, I'd now literally fighting for the gold against the runner-up from the last championship. The boys are really struggling, but they're giving up. Everybody can see they're tired because they've done amazing in the last two games. Against the Swiss, they were completely dead for the first two periods. Yeah, it was because of their party. They did a good job of hiding it from the public, but the performance they gave in the first 40 minutes was horrendous.

It was terrible. They were held there by three people. One defender, Sebastian and Luke. The defense was completely useless, and I'm talking about decently. That's why they got four goals. The commentators didn't know what was wrong with them either. Nobody knew the truth except the two national teams and me. Thank God, they turned it around in the last period, scored nine goals and went through to the semi-finals, where Sweden was waiting for them.

When I got to school this morning, I almost started crying with happiness. Again. They won. The Czech boys had won, but by a whisker. All I've been hearing about these days is hockey. At school, at home, on the bus, in the shoos, when I walk around the village. It's everywhere. We came back from the Tatras, we went straight back to our old ways, the only spark in our lives now is hockey, but that ends today.

Viktor is so fed up with my talking about hockey, especially about Sebastian, that he has bought himself some porridge and whenever I say the word Sebastian or anything to do with hockey, I give him five crowns. We have enough money in there already. Victor gives money again the moment he mentions a guy he likes. I guess I can be glad the juniors are ending.

I can't stand listening to Juraj and especially Sebastian talk about their beloved ice sport. Over and over again. I'm about to go crazy from hockey and the Olympics are a month away and he'll be halfway across the world again, but this time on the other side. China. That'll be great, too.

They made the quarterfinals in the end. The semifinals were tougher, as I mentioned. I never thought I'd cry every time some blond kid scored. But. Yeah, that's the way it's gonna be. They also turned it around with Sweden in the final minutes, but I don't know if that will happen today.

I trust them, they're smart guys, but. They have three minutes to turn the game from two nothing to at least two two. Yeah, they didn't score the whole fifty-something minutes. Canada came out to get revenge for that first opening game and unfortunately they're getting it. They're playing as well as they can, but luck is not on their side today. They've probably had too much luck, but why shouldn't they have it now. At least a little bit.

I'm looking at the screen, and a tear has rolled down my cheek. Juraj is sitting next to me and quietly says come on over and over, mom and dad sit close together, holding hands, and suddenly it's really quiet in here. Only the commentators on TV are shouting at the top of their lungs and remotely supporting our representatives. Come on, Seb, come on.

He waits for the boys to make a substitution, standing behind the Czech goal, nervously holding the puck on his stick. The boys make their substitution in a second and get into action. Sebastian is determined to win. He promised me and ten million people, but here's where he's going to blame himself for promising me. He wouldn't give a shit about the millions of Czech citizens, but me.

We talked for about two hours last night about how he feels. He told me how scared he was that they wouldn't make it, wouldn't succeed, would fail. But mostly Sebastian. He's still leading the charts, I'm not even counting his goals and assists anymore, just in a word, he's a star. Literally. He's terrified of how everyone will react if it goes wrong. Second place is wonderful, but first.