We Can See STARS

Future Chapter 22: Liiga, Pt. 2

Contacting friends and family back home could be difficult. The time zones were just far apart enough to force one or both of us to talk too early or too late. One weekend though, we kept Jojo up long enough to join on our call to Ana and Benn. Ana and the twins immediately showed up on the screen with Benn in the background. I had Jojo in front of me and when the kids saw each other, they excitedly waved and yelled to each other. They talked to each other and showed off their toys for a little before they were each eventually over it and left one by one. Benn eventually moved next to Ana prompting Jojo to come back.

"Uncle Jamie!"

"Hey buddy! What's up?"

"I learned some new hockey tricks!"

"That's awesome!" Benn turned to me, "is he still playing over there?"

"Not officially yet. He's met some of the players on Lukko who show him new things to try. There's a program starting in a few months though so we'll probably get him in that."

"That's great! Hey, where's Riggy?"

"He had to go to sleep early, they've got a road game tomorrow and are leaving really early for it."

"Alright, well, I'm outta here. You ladies enjoy."

I rolled my eyes, "nice chat Benn!" Once he walked away, Ana and I caught each other up on our lives. I told her about Finland, that it was getting chillier and how much I wish I was in Dallas again. She told me about how the team was doing, the dman that was called up to take JO's place, and how much she wished she could visit us in Finland.

"That would be amazing! Would you be able to??"

"I wish, but the season has started over here and Benn is already going back and forth."

"Oh yeah, good point."

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course. I'll probably share it with JO though, you know."

"Obviously. So, Benn is talking about retiring at the end of this season."

"Really??"

"Yeah. It takes him longer to recover from games and he's worried about slipping down to the 4th line. But he's talking to the GM about filling another role starting next year."

"What kind of role?"

"Kind of like a part scout, part mentor role. Like being a different kind of captain without the 'C' and in a suit."

"That's awesome! I can see him doing pretty well in that position."

"I thought so too. I'm excited for him. Have you guys thought about what JO will do when his 2 years over there are up?"

"He hasn't really talked about it. I don't even know if he's thought about it. I can't imagine what he would do..." I pondered this for a second before deciding that, although we've got time to think about it, I was curious to see what he had in mind. We spent the next few minutes talking about what we should do this summer before it was time for me to get Jojo to sleep.

I had thought about what Jamie would do next before but mostly in passing, like in a far far away kind of sense. But talking about it with Ana made it feel so much closer and more real. The fact that he had never mentioned it to me before made me a bit nervous. So, of course, that was the prevailing thought while I struggled to fall asleep. Usually I would wake Jamie up to talk about it but he really did have to wake up super early and he'd lose his top if I were to wake him up about it. So I tossed and turned for the next hour in a futile attempt to fall asleep.