Broccoli

#8

PARIS

"THX" was all the message said. I couldn't believe it. My plan worked out perfectly. Sometimes an uncle running an important academy was good.
Two days ago, I already had the feeling of something being wrong with John. He called me and yelled at me. That wasn't John. That has been the horror version of John. Not the one I know. In consequence I phoned my uncle. Immediately I found out that John hadn't been to the casting. Finally it was Nathan giving me the final input. All in all a perfect idea in my opinion.

Unfortunately that didn't solve anything. I wanted to meet John. On the other side I was afraid that he won't. Perhaps when we meet again, it wouldn't be the same.
I stopped counting the days since I left Arizona. It made me depressive. Gary and John had broke up. That's what Gary told me while crying into the phone receiver. Poor Gary. Life has to be hard for people not having friends like Gary.
Sometimes I feel sorry for him.

My phone vibrated. It has received a new message. It was from Nathan and not from John what I hoped.

"Hey Paris,
U wanna go to the Niagara Falls with me? Cya N."

I wasn't sure what Nathan wanted me to be. All in all I liked him and he liked me. So we were doing fine. At least he decided to not open a store and invested his free time in ice hockey. That made his dad happy and brought Nathan always an accuse for not participating in any university sport activities.
Perhaps Nathan was crazy. Even though I liked him a lot.
That's why I agreed to his idea.

An half hour later I was sitting in his car going down Queen Victoria Drive to Niagara Falls. Nathan spoke all the time and I listened. Normally I listened to his explanations like other people listen to radios. Then I asked him to repeat a fact.

"Yeah, I saw John's brother in the ice rink yesterday. It was in New York. You know my brother is living there. So I visited him for two days and I saw him skating with an ice hockey racket. It was a really old one. In cause I asked him for it. He told me yours and his brother's story and everything about his dream of becoming an ice hockey champion. That's incredible. Yesterday it was his first time on ice and he skated like a professional. I don't know where he learned those skills. For sure I showed him some more. If he wasn't 16, I would have taken him to Canada for joining our hockey team. Remember we don't win very often. If he was part of our team, we would win every game I'm sure."

"Okay. I don't think so."

"You haven't seen him..."

The rest if the trip Nathan talked about John's brother. Since he played ice hockey, ice hockey was is favourite topic. Nathan could talk ages about it. To be honest, I never get all what he is saying because of not being a fan of ice hockey. In my opinion there is too much violence and aggressiveness in this game. A lot of players get hurt.

That was actually what happened to Nathan two days after our trip to Niagara Falls being very beautiful by the way.
It was a Saturday when Nathan's accident happened.
My friends and me had arrived to see the game. Just because of Nathan. In the fourth minute an other ice hockey player crashed in Nathan. Immediately he felt on the ground and his his head. After that first-aid attendants had to come and had to carry him away.
They brought him to the hospital where he had to stay longtime. First he lied in a coma. Than he awake three days later.
After the accident Nathan had lost his ability to speak. The doctors said it will come back. Perhaps it will. For now he can't speak. That's perhaps the biggest issue for Nathan.
Nathan used to speak all day long.
Often nobody listened. Now everyone missed him speaking all day long.
Days became quiet.
Thousands of papers were used for communication.
We waited and waited.
Nathan never spoke like before.

Not speak Nathan became even more unhappy every day.
His life has lost it's point in his opinion.
Everyone prayed for him. Nobody are successful.
But Nathan never gave up.
He trained hard.
He became a swimmer and became successful.

All this happened two years ago.
Normally it would have been time to move for me. But I stayed for Nathan.
He needed my help. So won't do the same mistake again. Leaving Arizona was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made.
Otherwise if I had stayed in Arizona, I wouldn't have meet Nathan.

One day I received a message. It was from John.
I was surprised in cause of not having contact since an entire year.
It was a short message.
Nothing important.
Just some letters written on paper.

"5 p.m. Rainbow bridge, Niagara Falls (Canada)"

Rainbow bridge - a bridge between Canada and the United States of America. In the U.S. our story began. Long time a go in a Bavarian meat store not selling Bavarian meat. Somewhere in Arizona.
All those seemed so far away.
In Canada my story continued.
I have no idea where John was living now. All I knew was that he left the Academy of Performing Arts after graduating early.

For sure I finished University in Toronto. Now I'm living in Toronto together with Nathan. I'm the only one who never left him alone. Sometimes I imagine how it would have been with John. If John and me had been more than just friends, would it be different?
In fact that's not important.
Now it's Nathan and me living together. We are just friends. Nothing else. Just like John and me.
I answered John's message.

Yes, I'll be there.