The Tales of a Professional Hockey Player

Epilogue

~Ophelia~
~2033~

My mother met my father when she was my age. At sixteen, she walked into a bar with my aunt Olive and she spoke to my father for the first time after having known him only by name all her life. Four years later, they had me. I was an accident. They didn't have much, but they still gave me everything and more. I know my father wasn't present for the first year of my life, but I don't hold it against him. He's here now, isn't he? He came back and that's all that matters. Five years after having me, my mother gave birth to my brother, Theo. Yes, a literary name and a hockey name because that's what my parents' life is all about: a compromise between hockey and literature. José Theodore is a Canadian goaltender that my father adored as a child and my mother refused to name my brother Sidney (Crosby) or Steven, after the player that visited them in school when they were younger. They settled on Theodore since it was common but linked to hockey as well.

I think my father was disappointed when, at age five, Theo chose baseball over hockey when my parents asked him to pick a sport to play. But he got over it quickly, especially when my mom reminded him that she hated hockey for the better part of her life, and that it doesn't mean that Theo doesn't admire him. My brother even insisted on choosing the number forty-eight, the number my father wears, for baseball. My dad switched his number from twenty to forty-eight when my brother was born, on January 28th.

We're happy. My mom is about to publish her new novel, her fourth one since publishing The Tales of a Published Author which is the sequel to her very first novel about her story with my father. I read the first one as soon as my reading ability was strong enough and I read it every year since. I find myself lucky to have my early childhood written down this way. I can understand things about my parents other kids never will.

My father signed another ten-year contract four years ago, so we'll stay in Seattle for at least six more years. It'll be good for Theo. It'll allow him to finish high school here. And me, since I head off to college next year, it'll give me something to come to. I still haven't picked a college yet, I want to wait and see where Felix, my boyfriend of one year, will go to see if I can go to the same college or somewhere close. For now, we're thinking about Washington State or Willamette University in Oregon. I knew my parents would be on board, they did worse when they moved all the way across the country.

Every year, for their wedding anniversary, my parents go on a trip together. Last summer, they went to Germany. It was the first time my father went back there since the year he spent playing hockey for the Ice Tigers. When they came back, he said that seeing the country with my mother helped him learn to appreciate it. One day, I hope I'll get to see the world with Felix too. When we were younger, they took us everywhere with them. I went with my mother on so many book tours and followed my father on the road for hockey more often than I could count. I got harder and harder over the years with school, but the one thing that never changed is Saturday night hockey. Every Saturday my father plays in our home arena so about twice a month, my mother, Theo and I go to the game, just the three of us. And then, with my father, we go for ice cream. I read about my mother's Tim Horton's dates with uncle Will and Grandpa Thom, but I am pretty sure ours are better because nothing will make it stop. No boyfriend, no girlfriend, no work or homework will ever get in the way of the time we spend together. My parents learned over the years that nothing is worth more than family. That's the thing they show us every day.

I always wanted to find the same love my parents have, and I think I did pretty good with Felix. I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up, but the one thing I know for sure, is that I want to be happy. I want to find something that makes me happy like hockey makes my dad happy and writing makes my mom. And I want someone who supports me like my dad does my mom and my mom does my dad.

The greatest thing life ever gave me was them and the greatest thing life gave them was each other. Not me. Not Theo. Because without each other, neither of us would exist.

It's possible to find love young and to keep it forever. It's possible to change. Ben and Eleanor Johnson are proof of that.

Thank you so much for this wonderful journey!! In less than a year, we went through two books, isn't it crazy? 13K reads here and 28K for the first one, I never thought The Tales would get so much attention and I have every single one of you to thank for that. Thank you for reading, for voting, for commenting, every single one is appreciated ❤️

There will be one more chapter, a bonus one that will be posted tomorrow. I love you all deeply, and thank you for what you made me accomplish: my first books!!