Thor's Child ©

by K Pelle

Chapter 9

Tor and his dad were just remounting the gate into the lower pasture when Tor happened to glance at the road and saw an RCMP car turn into the driveway.

"We've got company, Dad."

"I see that.  I'll talk to 'em, but unless I call you over, I want you to keep working on the gate.  When it hangs right and swings freely I want you to go over and burn that pile of branches that we piled in the middle of the pasture."

"Okay." Tor nodded.

Ollie walked out the few steps to the driveway and paused as the car drove up and stopped.

"Mr. Eklund."

"Officer McDonald.  Did you forget something last night?"

"Well yes, I did.  I'd like to know what you did with the wood you removed from the shooter's position yesterday.  I'd also like to apologise for coming on so strongly, when I first approached you last night.  I had made the mistake of assuming that I was dealing with a static situation concerning the condition of your farm, which is why I didn't speak to you about that area.  I don't really blame you for getting angry with my attitude and I can't blame you for being less cooperative either."

"Thank you and I'm sorry I got annoyed with you so easily, but there does seem to be some disparity in the enforcement of the law.  It seems to me that the lawbreakers get all the breaks and I can't say that I like that." Tor's dad said quietly.  "You'll find that my family is quite protective of one another, so from now on we're going to volunteer absolutely nothing unless we know we will be safe in whatever we say or do."

He held up his hand then because Officer McDonald seemed about to speak.  "You asked about the wood, so I'm going to assume from what you said last night that you weren't the person who used a dull axe to chop out the areas where the bullets had hit the logs.  It was natural to assume it was you or your officers and we were a bit annoyed at the mess that was left behind.  Since the area wasn't marked off with crime tape, we assumed that you were finished investigating, so we cleaned up the mess.  All the wood we salvaged was split and stacked in our woodshed by the house.  You're quite welcome to go through it piece by piece if you want, but if you haven't got those slugs already, I don't know where you'd want to look next.  We kept our eyes open and there were definitely no signs of any bullet holes in any of the wood we stacked in the woodshed."

"Oh!" Officer McDonald frowned.  "Dammit, I'll bet those pieces were cut out by someone hired by Carruthers' lawyer or his family, probably to use in some fancy defence strategy.  Was your family away from the farm at any time between the period when the shots were fired, and the time you started to clean up the mess that had been left?"

"Yes, we were.  We went to town to take Tor to the doctor's, then to the hospital to have his foot x-rayed and after that we came to see you to swear out those complaints.  We left here about one and got back about four, so there was no one here for about three hours."

Tor had to fight off a smile at the words his father had used.  What he'd said was the truth, just not the whole truth.  One of the slugs they had found was deeper in the log than the police had chopped and the other one had been in the pine branch, but neither of those pieces went into the woodshed.  The only discrepancy was that those pieces had been burnt, not salvaged, so technically his father had told the truth.

However, Tor had eavesdropped as long as he could, but the gate was adjusted to hang straight and he'd seen his dad glance his direction as if warning him to get out of there, so he moved off.  Although he wanted to hear what was said, Tor knew he'd better go over and set fire to the pile of branches and rubbish they'd cleaned out of the tree line.  Tor never did find out what his dad and Officer McDonald talked about after he left, but from that day onward the two of them were cordial, but rather stiff with each other.  He blamed himself for that, because he felt the shooting incident had destroyed a budding friendship between his dad and Officer McDonald, but he didn't know how to repair their hurt feelings.

But then, Tor couldn't even solve the problems that cropped up in his own relationships with other people that year.  Sunny and Tor hadn't gotten back to being as friendly as they had been and since Emily became best buddies with Sunny, a slight hitch developed between Emily and Tor as well.  Tor wasn't sure if it was because of the original rumour or not, but he and Sami hadn't gotten very close either.  On top of that since Kevin was two years older than Tor, their friendship was somewhat limited, just because of the age difference.

At school, Tor was odd man out, starting with the time lost at school because of his injuries and complicated by his supposed feud with the Tommy and Johnny Carruthers.  Then too some of his classmates had a problem with the fact that although he had missed a lot of school, his grades remained high.  Not only that, but he was allowed to carry a cane, an obvious weapon according to some, and to make matters worse he was taking classes in martial arts.  True, it was Jiu-Jitsu, which was supposedly meant as a defensive skill, but it was still an oriental fighting style and somehow that seemed to bother other classmates.

On top of that, although Tor didn't actually play hockey, he seemed to be as close to an expert as anyone his age could be.  All season long he sat right behind the player's bench and anyone sitting nearby saw him commenting to various players and even the coaches.  During the local playoffs he'd actually been made 'stick-boy' for the team so he could stay in the player's area and pass on his observations about the game and the players.  The fact that the members of the local under-seventeen hockey team treated him as one of their own while they were at school probably seemed strange to some students too.  Since hockey was a matter of personal pride in the local town, that acceptance by the members of the hockey team seemed to astonish people around the school.

On top of all that, Tor was big, the largest guy in the class.  By the first of June that school year, which happened to be his fourteenth birthday, he stood five-foot eleven-inches tall and weighed in at a hundred and seventy-seven pounds.  So in one year he had grown nine inches taller and added sixty-five pounds to his weight.  Dr. Mueller more or less shrugged off his growth, but it still seemed to bother Tor's mom.  Health wise though, in the last few weeks before his birthday he'd been able to set aside his cane since his leg no longer hurt at all.  So after going for his birthday visit to the doctor's office, he decided to take up weight lifting, because he felt 'fat and sloppy,' even though he knew he really wasn't.

Tor graduated from junior high school that spring and would be entering grade ten that fall, but during the summer he felt compelled to make several decisions concerning his future.  He wasn't certain why the feeling was so strong, but somehow he had grown certain that he needed to make a concrete decision about his education that summer.  When he'd first seen the farm his dad had bought, he'd felt that the location was perfect and fit in with his plans to work on the farm with his dad after he got out of school.  Then after he'd gone through the sessions with the Carruthers, and the fiasco with the RCMP, he'd almost convinced himself that he needed to become a lawyer in order to change some laws.  However during the winter he'd discovered how much he enjoyed working with the hockey players as a coach – well, he hadn't really been a coach, more of an advisor, but that was close enough to know what coaching would feel like.

Of course he realized that most professional coaches were retired players, so he knew he might need to play professionally in order to become a coach.  However, since his ankle had been injured he worried about reinjuring it.  He even asked his mom to arrange for an appointment with the physical therapist who had worked with him when he'd had his cast removed.  Then after he'd been reassured that his ankle was as healthy as if it had never been injured, he began to actually contemplate playing hockey again.  That's when he began to wonder if losing a year of play might have changed the way he skated and he worried that he might have lost his edge in speed because of the weight he'd gained.  So he began to push himself even harder while lifting weights and he began to run again, trying to do five or six miles every other day.  Tor even borrowed his sister's stationary bicycle and set it up in the basement next to his weight set, slowly increasing his time spent on that each week as well.

He was sure his family thought he was going overboard and pushing himself too hard because besides working a full day on the farm, he was working out an extra hour or two every day.  It didn't matter what kind of work they'd been doing on the farm, he still found time to lift weights, ride the exercise bike or run a few miles.  At any rate, his family arranged for him to go off with Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna on a two week trip to their new mountain hideaway.  If his folks thought he'd have an easy time of it on that trip they were mistaken though.

In the first place it took a day to get packed up and ready, then another day and a half just to travel to their hidden valley.  They had to drive to Vancouver, take a ferry over to Vancouver Island, drive up-island into the mountains, then load everything they were taking onto four wheeled ATVs and trailers.  After that they had to drive up and over a mountain pass on a trail Tor was positive was cut by mountain goats.  The machines and trailers were loaded to the hilt with tools, supplies and building materials, so they were forced to drive quite slowly and very carefully.  Once they had driven to the valley, they set out to build a large one room log cabin, all the while living in tents and eating food cooked over an open fire.

Since Uncle Nils and his cousin, Kai had visited the spot late in the fall the year before and felled all the trees needed, they were able to use dry timber, but they definitely got a workout. First of all they had to limb and peal the bark from all the logs, then move each log to the building site.  During the time they worked on that job, the come-alongs and chain pulls they'd brought with them were worth their weight in gold.  Luckily they were able to move the smaller logs with the ATVs, but the larger logs all had to be dragged or rolled to the site.

When Uncle Nils and Kai had been there in the fall, they'd managed to build a 16 by 24 foot stone foundation with a rough stone slab floor, all laid down using local slate.  Still, building the cabin was no easy task, but considering the fact that they used nothing but chain saws and hand tools, the walls went up very quickly.  They cheated with the roof, using long straight poles roughly trued with an axe in place of rafters, then they fastened two foot by four foot sheets of corrugated aluminum roofing to the poles.  It was waterproof, slippery enough to let snow slide off easily and would last several years.  They even managed to get a door and two windows installed before they ran out of time and had to head back to civilization.

Soon after they had arrived Tor had seen why Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna loved the place, and he hadn't been there more than a few hours before he appreciated the area just as much.  Their camp and the new cabin sat on a small, nearly level plateau, at the base of a stone promontory.  The stone face behind the new cabin was riddled with veins of shale, slate and an occasional vein of quartz.  It was that quartz which had led Uncle Nils' to his original discovery of gold.  It wasn't the gold or the old mine that drew Tor's admiration for the surroundings though, it was the sheer beauty of the place.

While he was there he'd probably spent as much time enjoying the view of the valley below them as he'd spent working.  If he faced away from the camp and the cabin, the only sign of humans in his view were a few of the stumps left behind when trees the had been cut down to be used for the cabin.  In the week and a half they were there, he saw moose, bear, cougar, deer, mountain sheep, fox, and hundreds of different birds.  A quarter mile downhill from them was a quiet mountain lake and if Tor was watching either in the early morning or the late evening, he could see trout rising to the surface to feed on insects.  Higher up the slopes, in any direction he looked, there were mountains which had never been cut for timber, because they were too steep and the trees too sparse to make it worthwhile.  However Tor's greatest fascination was a band of wild horses that ran free in the valley and when he wasn't busy, he watched them for hours.

So, when the cabin was finished and they were packing up to go home, Tor was feeling rather sad about leaving, but he promised himself that somehow he'd be back.

"You don't look like you want to leave." Aunt Hanna said as Tor looked out across the valley one last time.

"No, I want to go home, but I'd sure like to come back."

"Vee tought dat yew vould." Uncle Nils laughed.

"Before we bought the homestead we thought you might need a place to hide out since you'd just gone through that thing with that thug who shot at you.  So we had a talk with our boys and they suggested adding your name on the title.  Legally, we didn't need your signature since you're a minor, but we needed your parent's permission to add your name to the deed for the homestead." Aunt Hanna laughed softly.

"Arne und Kai tink vee are crazy to come here und vant notting to dew vit dis place.  Vhen vee bought it, vee only bought da homesteadt vhere da cabin sits, but da rest uf da valley iss a lease und da voman who has dat lease vill sell it to us.  Since dat lease has eighty-eight years to run, vee haf decided to take it und vee vill add your name to dat too, dat vay if anyting happens to us, vee keep it in da family, Mostly it iss so vee can protect dem vild horses a liddle bit," Uncle Nils grinned.  "So vhat do ya say?  Dew ya vant to join vit us dreamers und raise vild horses?"

Tor was completely speechless and just stared at them for a few moments, all the while nodding his head enthusiastically.  Then he grinned, hugged Aunt Hanna, and shook Uncle Nils hand.

Since they didn't want to be caught on the steep parts of the trail after dark they were soon on the way down the trail on the ATVs though.  By the time they had returned the rented ATV's and trailers, then had driven to Nanaimo, they found they'd missed the last ferry of the day.  So they found a campsite and threw up a quick camp for the night, but as they sat around the campfire that evening they told him a little about the homestead and the valley.

That's when Tor learned that the homestead had originally belonged to a Metis family, the LeClerks, who had settled there in the late 1890s.  They had proved up on the homestead, then had quietly lived in that isolated setting, making their living by farming a little, but trapping a lot.  Uncle Nils had met them when he was prospecting, because his original claim and the resulting mine was just outside the edge of their homestead.  He had visited the LeClerks on many evenings while working on his mine, so they'd become friends in a big way.  The mine itself had never been a major producer, so there was never any threat of it being bought out and developed by one of the larger mining companies.  That suited both Uncle Nils and the LeClerks just fine.

That night he also learned that another rumour was wrong, Uncle Nils hadn't lost the title to the mine in a poker game.  Instead he'd let the claim slide when the mine played out, but he had kept in contact with the LeClerk family.  The older couple had died years ago, then recently the only LeClerk still living in the valley had died while living in a ratty cabin he had built near the lake.  Since the man had been a virtual hermit, his death hadn't been discovered until months later, sometime the previous spring.  His only surviving sister had contacted Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna for help and while they'd been helping her arrange the funeral and burial, she'd sold them the old homestead.  Before she had let them take possession though, she'd insisted on burning the old cabin to the ground because she felt there was something about the cabin which had caused her brother's death.

During their talk that night he discovered why Uncle Nils felt so strongly about owning that homestead.  The mine had earned him enough that he'd been able to pay the fares which had brought Aunt Hanna and Tor's parents to Canada.  Tor's dad had come to Canada first and worked in the mine with Uncle Nils for two summers, then they had sent back for their wives and kids.  They had even made enough money from the mine before it played out that both Uncle Nils and his dad had been able to put down payments on two farms.  Both Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna felt that the valley should remain in the family since it had been the source of the money which had brought everyone to Canada, well everyone but Tor.

Tor hadn't known before that he was the only person in the family who had been born in Canada and he learned that Aunt Hanna had been there when he was born.  She said that when he was born, the doctor held him up just as lightning struck, then both he and the doctor squawked.  The doctor claimed he'd gotten a shock, so everyone had worried that Tor had been hurt in some way, but he'd been thoroughly checked over and declared perfectly healthy.

As Tor settled down in his sleeping bag that night, he couldn't help wondering about that last revelation though.  Was that lightning strike the reason he was able to do so many strange things now?  Had that initial electrical shock to the brain of a newborn child been the trigger for the abilities that he had been discovering over the last year?  Did his brain work differently than others because a bolt of lightning had happened to strike the hospital at just the right instant?  The thought rolled over in his mind again and again, in a dozen different ways, but he couldn't come to any resolution to the question and he didn't know if anyone could.  Finally he just shrugged and closed his eyes to drift off to sleep, if nothing else, that story certainly explained why his mom and dad had chosen the name they had given him.  That night he had dreams of playing for an NHL team during the winters and hiding out away from the public during the summer in a cabin on that old homestead.  Right about then that appeared to be an idyllic situation to him.

When he got home he decided to ask his mom and dad about their reasons for allowing Uncle Nils and Aunt Hanna to put his name on the deed for the old homestead they'd bought.  Tor's dad laughed and said it was so his mailing address was out of town, telling him that it was a legal dodge and meant to give the lawyer additional time in case of a trial.  That just didn't make sense to Tor though, so he asked how that would work.  His dad just shrugged and told him that he'd have to ask the lawyer, but that it was a legal gimmick.

Then he asked his mom about what had happened in the hospital when he was born.

"That whole day was strange.  The doctor had insisted I stay in the hospital for a few days because it had been so hot that spring and I wasn't dealing with the heat very well.  Then just as a thunder storm built up, I went into labour, so I was in the delivery room when the storm hit.  In fact there was a hailstorm beating on the windows of the hospital at the time you were being born," his mom snorted.  "The doctor was just lifting you up after the birth when the whole hospital boomed like a big drum and every light in the delivery room flashed almost blindingly bright.  At the same time the doctor gave a yelp and you squawked.  Well actually, you screeched as if you were being killed.  A nurse caught you then, because the doctor almost dropped you, then afterward he tried to say you'd almost killed him with an electrical shock.  To this day I'm not sure if he was joking or not, but I noticed that he never held you after that, not once.  Meanwhile though, all the lights and machines in the room had been burned out, so the nurses had to use flashlights and lanterns to do your postnatal check.  I'm not certain who said that you must be Thor's child to live through being hit by lightning, but I thought it suited you.  So when they asked me for a name to put on the birth certificate, that's what I said we'd call you."

Tor's dad took over the story then.  "That hailstorm was abnormal, because it came up out of nowhere and it happened in early June, which is extremely rare.  I'd gotten a call that you were coming, so I was on my way in to see your mother and drove most of the way to town in bright sunlight, then the clouds rolled in.  Suddenly it grew dark, then there was thunder, lightning, wind, rain and hail.  It was so bad I almost pulled over.  I happened to be looking up and saw the lightning bolt that hit the hospital.  It was such a bright flash that I could see it through the storm from almost a mile away.  By the time I got to the hospital though, the clouds were breaking up and by the time I got to the delivery room, the sun was shining through the windows," his dad laughed.  "Your Aunt Hanna met me at the door, telling me I had a third son and that he'd already been named.  I've always felt that the doctor and the nurses who were there that day were a bit weird, especially for naming you after a pagan god, but your name seems to suit you somehow.  You don't mind it do you?

"I've never really thought about it, not unless I was being teased about it by some yahoo," Tor shrugged his shoulders, then grinned.  "Just don't ask me to hook up a pair of our goats to a wagon and hand me a hammer, okay?"

That got a laugh anyway and hearing his mom's account gave him a much better understanding of what Aunt Hanna had hinted about.

Before school started that fall his mom had him go see the doctor again.  Tor assumed it was because she'd heard him mention that he planned to try out for hockey and wanted to be certain that his ankle was okay.  Instead it seemed she was keeping track of his growth, so he was weighed and measured once more.  He'd gained a quarter inch of height and a couple pounds in weight, but nothing astounding.  Dr. Mueller just laughed when Tor asked him if he was fit enough to play hockey.

"If you were any more fit, I'd worry about you being musclebound," the doctor snorted.  "But, if you're worried about your ankle, don't be.  I'd say that it's in better shape than it ever was, but then it was probably your sudden growth last summer which caused the original problem.  At that point your bones had grown too quickly for your musculature to keep pace, so although the muscles and tendons were functional, they weren't at optimal strength for your size.  When that old scum bag kicked you, the muscles weren't strong enough to hold the bones in place and they fractured under the stress.  However, this year you've managed to build muscle everywhere on your body, including in your legs, ankles and feet.  Your reaction time is not just excellent, its astounding.  Your eyesight is perfectly normal.  You move well and aren't overly muscular considering your height and weight.  In my opinion you're in excellent physical condition to play any game that you have the desire to undertake."

"Thanks, Dr. Mueller, but I have question for you.  A lot of people have mentioned how good my reaction time is and there's an old story that just as I was born, the hospital was hit by a lightning bolt.  Supposedly I received an electrical shock just as my doctor touched me.  Is there any chance that something like that could have caused my brain to work faster or differently than normal?"

"Oh, I wouldn't credit anything like that," the doctor shook his head and chuckled.  "Where did you hear about something like that anyway?"

"Mom told me," he repeated part of the story, then shrugged his shoulders.  "I just wondered if it was possible for something like that to change a person, that's all."

"Tor, I wouldn't give an accident like that one chance in a million of changing your reaction time in any way, shape or form.  The only thing that can make a change such as the one you've suggested is genetics, so I'd have to say that your parents are responsible for your accelerated reaction time and your general intelligence."

With a clean bill of health, Tor went back to working on his training regimen.  Over the next while he reduced the amount of time he spent lifting weights and increase the amount of time he spent on the exercise bicycle, but he added some time playing with a hockey stick.  He went out to the machine shed and cleared a space that was twenty feet wide and about fifty feet long, then built a timber frame the size of a hockey goal, hanging a fish net behind that.  He practised firing the puck at that frame until he could wheel and slap the puck into it from various areas, aiming at various parts of the frame and hitting the area he was aiming at nearly every time.

Tor mentioned what he was doing to Kevin and it wasn't long before Kev started coming over about three evenings a week, so they worked out and practised together.  One day in late September, Tor came home from school to find that his dad and Uncle Nils had levelled an area half the size of a regulation hockey rink in one corner of the lower pasture.  It was near the water trough for the cattle, so flooding it would be easy and they'd even built a foot high berm of soil around the outside, then fenced the whole area to keep the cattle out.  Tor's dad grinned at him and said that while the ground temperature wasn't cold enough to freeze water yet, they could hope for an early winter.  That afternoon they went to town and he bought a new set of skates and a couple of hockey sticks.

By October 1st, the skating arena in Eagles Bluff was making ice and as soon as it was open for public skating, Keith and Tor began to spend time there to break in their new skates.  They weren't playing with hockey sticks or working hard, but they were both making certain that their skating skills weren't rusty and that their skates were broken in properly.  On October 12th, when sign-up and tryouts for the local hockey teams were held, the two of them were there early and both of them were ready to get on the ice with freshly sharpened skates.  That day was sign-up time for both Bantams and Midgets, so Tor winked at Kevin, then headed toward the sign-up area for the Bantams, the fourteen and under team.  He had hadn't even gotten close to the Bantam sign-up area when he heard a bellow from behind him.

"Eklund, get your butt back over here.  You're so dang big you'd probably put the first fourteen year old kid you hip-checked into the hospital." It was Johnny Simcoe, the coach of the midgets and when Tor approached him, the coach grinned.  "After you helped improve this team for most of the season last year, did you really think I'd let any other coach get his hands on you?  Sign that sheet of paper, get your skates on and get out on the ice . . . and take Craigmiller with you.  I've seen the two of you sneaking in here and playing ring around the nose hairs with each other, but now we need you two to show some of these yahoos what you were teaching them last year."

So they got on their skates, then Kevin and Tor skated around on one half of the rink.  Since there were only the two of them out there for a few minutes, it was fun to really let loose and just go-for-it as they chased each other around.  That only lasted for a short while though, then the coach called them over, handed them their hockey sticks and a couple dozen pucks.

"Okay, we know that you two birds can fly low, now show these guys how good you can shoot.  The net is set up, so have at it."

"No goalie, coach?"

"Naw, just open net, if you want to make it interesting, then one guy can feed the other one the pucks and take turns making one-time slap shots."

So they did that for a while.  he thought the guys who weren't on the ice yet would raise the roof when Kevin sank twenty shots out of twenty-four as Tor fed him pucks.  Then when Tor did just as well, they hooted and hollered and yelled as if the team had already had a winning season.

Officer McDonald arrived late and the first thing he did was signal Tor over to the boards and away from anyone else so they could talk quietly.

"Tor, this is a hockey team, you're a player and I'm the assistant coach.  Have we got that straight?  While we are here for games or practise, I am Coach McDonald, not Officer McDonald, okay?"

"Yeah.  I never thought otherwise, Coach."

"I know you don't care for me personally, but can you set that aside while I'm coaching you?"

"Hey, I do not dislike Officer McDonald as a person and never have.  What I do dislike is one or two stupid laws which you have to enforce during your regular job.  You've always been straight forward and honest with me, which I admire – a lot!  However I consider some of the laws you are required to enforce to be sheer stupidity and while I will always try not to break those laws, I may bend them severely.  If you catch me doing that, I expect you to arrest me, because that's your job," Tor shrugged then.  "As far as hockey is concerned, you're the Coach and though I may argue about it afterward, I'll do what you want – within reason.  The exception to that you already know.  I will not play the goon, or by your name for him, the enforcer, who is sent out on the ice to hurt other players for no other reason than intimidation.  However, if I see one of our guys being roughed up, I'd like to know that I can retaliate, if I do it inside the rules of the game.  I won't use an intentional high stick, no hitting someone from behind, no vicious crud, just because I don't play like that.  I do want to be able to deliver a decent hip check or a clean boarding – if and when I need to warn someone to lay off using the rough stuff."

"I'll go along with that, but you do realize that the other teams will do their best to retaliate and it will be your back that carries the target, not mine."

"I'll accept that.  Like I told you last year, they have to catch me first and after they catch me, they have to hit me.  After they've hit me, probably outside the rules of the game, I just might drop the gloves and hit back, depending on my mood.  It will only happen once or twice in the season though." Tor grinned, trying to snarl and make his face look vicious.  "If you don't believe me, ask my cousin Kai what happens to people I intentionally hit.  I've set him on his butt a time or two."

"Kai Eklund, the Golden Gloves Contender, is your cousin?"

"Um hmm." Tor nodded, still grinning.  "He's still a contender because I'm too young to compete and besides, he says I lack the 'killer instinct' that I'd need in the ring."

"Oh shit!" he stared at Tor, then a grin slowly spread across his face.  "Now I know why you're so damn cocky.  By the way, Coach Simcoe and I have talked over the people we knew would be coming and we'd like to put you on our number one line with your buddy, Kevin, on your right.  Do you have anyone picked out to be your left winger?"

"You're planning to send me in as the centre on your number one line?"

"We're going to try it, just from what we've seen you do and what we've heard you explain to all the players."

"What about Davis, he was centre on the first line last year and did well at it?"

"We lost our centre on the second line during the summer, because his family moved to Calgary.  Davis asked to take the second line when he saw you were here today.  If you remember, Davis was one of those who listened and learned last year, so he already has a good idea of what you can do." He grinned then.  "We've got half a dozen good wingers, so that effectively gives us at least two top lines.  Oh, I should warn you too, since you were virtually our third string coach last year, I expect the players will ask you to be Captain."

"Coach, do they know I'm only fourteen years old?"

"Yes, Eklund, but they knew you were only thirteen last year too.  They also know that with your coaching, Craigmiller got so much better that we moved him from the third line to the first. Then to top it off they know that with your help we went from a team that wasn't expected to make the local playoffs to a team that placed third in the whole division.  So Eklund, welcome to the Eagles Bluff Falcons." Coach McDonald held out his right hand.

Tor shook his hand, then Coach McDonald sent him off to get fitted for a team jersey and pants.  After he'd been signed in, his mom took him downtown to buy new equipment, since nothing he had from before would fit.  In fact he'd followed family practise and donated his old equipment to the Bantam team before he left the rink.  Perhaps they could give that gear to some kid who couldn't afford to buy skates, pads and stuff, but still wanted to play.

At the sporting goods store he was reminded just how expensive good hockey equipment could be when a player needed a full kit.  He was certainly glad that his parents insisted on paying for it or he wouldn't have been able to afford to play either.  In fact he was certain his mom's credit card groaned that day, but she insisted that he get the best equipment available because she didn't want him to get hurt.  Tor wasn't about to argue with her on that subject either, not after the amount of pain and inconvenience he'd gone through the year before - even if he hadn't been hurt while playing hockey.

The coaches managed to slip in a half dozen hockey practises before their first game, and they had two really good forward lines, as well as a third line that fired on about two thirds of its cylinders.  None of their defencemen were great, but none of them were terrible either, so with some help from the forwards, Tor thought they'd do well.  The Falcons had one hotshot goalie and a wanna-be who didn't have much experience, but he was athletic and had great reflexes - in other words he was trainable and getting better with every practise.

Tor was relatively confident in the teams chances even before they had their first game and it turned out he was right.  Tor got one goal and four assists while Kevin got a hat trick and an assist on the fourth goal from their line, which came from a defenceman's slap-shot just inside the blue line.  The second line got three goals and even the third line got one.  Then a defenceman on the other team scored on his own goal by making a bad pass, but in the last period the opposition got a goal on each of the Falcons' two penalties.  Final score, nine to two, penalties for the home team - two, penalties for the visitors - seven and the Falcons capitalized on most of the other team's penalties, scoring six goals during five on four play.

The only real excitement for Tor came during the last period.  The other team's biggest enforcer decided that he wanted to hurt Tor, so on a play deep in the opposition's zone, as he was heading into the corner, the opposition's goon planned to blind-side him.  Only Tor 'felt' the guy coming in fast and at the last instant he raised his head and hit the brakes.  The other player had left his feet so he could hit Tor while in the air, which might have hurt Tor badly.  Only Tor wasn't where he could have been, so the goon virtually flew into the boards, passing so close that Tor felt the wind.  They had to help the goon off the ice, but Tor was sure everyone in the arena knew he hadn't touched the guy.  In fact he'd even knelt at the goon's side to offer assistance, but only after the whistle blew.

Tor was back on the player's bench when he felt Coach McDonald lean down and whisper in his ear.  "Now I know what you meant.  I was sure we were going to have to scoop you up off the ice with a shovel."

Tor lifted his hand in front of his mouth and answered quietly.  "If you heard a steam locomotive, huffing and puffing behind you, wouldn't you look up, then try to avoid it?"

Coach McDonald just snorted, then pulled back and moved away.

Kevin was sitting next to him and chuckled.  'I know I shouldn't laugh, but darn it, that was funny.  I saw his face when you stopped and he couldn't.  He was intentionally trying to hurt you, you know."

"Yep and now he knows that a stupid play like that can backfire.  You know, I might have accidentally ruined a perfectly good goon tonight, because the next time he gets sent out to do something like that he's going to worry that he might get hurt."

That brought another snort from Kevin and chuckles from the guy besides him.

The coach on the other team hadn't understood the lesson that his enforcer had learned though.  The next shift that Tor was on the ice, the coach sent out another goon, but Tor just skated away from the amateurish attempts to hit him.  He avoided the nuisance three times before he got tired of playing games.  The next time the goon came at him, he let the guy find him.  Just before they made contact though, Tor bent downward slightly, then shifted his shoulder into the goon as he hit, then Tor heaved upward and outward.  The goon bounced off Tor's shoulder like a rubber ball, and was so shaken that he lost his footing and fell.  Tor skated away while the 'enforcer' lay on the ice.  He still had the puck and skated quickly toward the opposition goal on the glove side, drawing the goalie toward him and out of position, then he flipped the puck to Kevin, who scored his third goal of the night.  As Tor skated back to their bench he had to pass the other team's bench, but he didn't smile or even look at them, which probably annoyed their coach more than anything else.  In fact the coach screamed as if he'd been jabbed with a red hot poker, but Tor just went to his bench and took a seat.

In the locker room after the game most of the guys acted as if they'd won the Stanley Cup, but while Coach McDonald settled them down, Coach Simcoe took Tor aside.

"I was just talking to Hank, or as you know him, Coach McDonald, and he was saying that you know what's going to happen, but I'll repeat his warning.  You've just painted a bullseye on your back and every enforcer in the division is going to be after you.  The next time it will probably be something you can't avoid and fists will fly."

"Well, I've had a black eye and sore knuckles before," Tor shrugged.  "I lived.  I guess I could live with the same thing another time or two."

"I thought you said you wouldn't be an enforcer?"

"I won't," Tor snorted.  "I didn't go looking for either one of those guys tonight, instead they came looking for me.  I didn't say I was going to run off all the time either.  During the season I know I'll get checked by guys and I'll probably get hit too, but I'll do my best to give as good as I get.  Only I'm a bit generous and sometimes I give just a little more than I get."

"Hank is right, you are a cocky little bugger - only you're not all that damn little," The coach growled and stomped off.


Tor was surprised at how much that first hockey game changed his school life.  The year before he'd been the school gimp, the guy with a cane, the new kid, the brain, or even the teacher's pet, but mostly he'd been ignored by a lot of the students and some of the teachers.  The Falcons first hockey game had been played early on a Friday night and Tor hadn't noticed all that many of the local high school kids in the seats at the arena.  He certainly wasn't prepared for the greeting he and Kevin got when they arrived at school on Monday morning however.  Word had gotten out that the two of them had led the Falcons to a blowout victory over the same team that had wiped them from the playoffs the year before.  So when Tor and Kevin stepped out of the school bus they were greeted with hoots, holler, cheers and whistles.

People who had never seemed to know Tor's name before, not only knew his name, but they knew he was Captain on the Falcons hockey team and centre on the number one line.  Some of them were like Sunny, who could recite every play he'd been involved in and even most of the moves he'd made while on the ice.  They knew how he'd scored his single goal and they knew he'd made two of the the feeds that had helped Kevin to get his hat-trick.  They knew about his tangles with the two enforcers and what he had done to counter their moves.  It seemed Tor had gone from being a nobody to high school hero over the weekend and he wasn't sure he enjoyed the notoriety.

One other thing had changed as well.  When he got off the school bus, he found he was being escorted by two females.  As he stepped off the bus Sami was suddenly walking on his right side, but it seemed that she'd brought along company since Emily took up position on his left.  He wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, but he didn't think Kevin was certain what to make of having Sunny hanging on his left arm either.

All three escorts only remained at their sides during the trip across the school yard though. Emily and Sami were in grade nine, which was classed as junior high and in a separate wing of the school, so at the main entrance, Kevin, Sunny and Tor turned right while Sami and Emily went left.  Sunny and Tor were in grade ten, the first year of high school, while Kevin was in grade eleven, so they walked into the high school wing together.  If the school yard had been noisy and boisterous, the main hall of the high school was bedlam, probably because most of the players on the team were in high school.

As you can probably tell, hockey was important in the town of Eagles Bluff and the Falcons had just won a blowout game against one of the town's most intensely disliked rivals.  All the players on the team were suddenly heros, and none of them had been in that position before.  Kevin and Tor were mobbed, both by other players who were still sharing the high of winning and by fans that they hadn't known existed before.  Tor had been through something similar when he'd played before, only to a lesser extent, but he still felt as if the celebration that morning was a bit much.  Even their teachers were making a fuss over their win.

Tor was glad that everyone seemed to calm down after a day or two, but he seemed to have picked up two female attendants whenever they could be near him.  He noticed that Sunny was always near Kevin as well, so he asked Sami and Emily just what was going on, and they both broke into giggles.

"We decided you and Kevin need us," Sami grinned once she had her giggles under control.

"Sunny told us how the girls used to crop up around you back in Saskatchewan and we don't want either you or Kevin to get into trouble," Emily smiled.  "Just consider us to be acting as your guard detail who are here to keep the hussies away."

"Suddenly all the opportunists have decided you and Kevin will make it big, so we're keeping away the gold diggers and reputation seekers," Sami added.  "Besides, it's a lot of fun to be around you when they show up.  You two are suddenly stars, but at the same time people are realizing that we've been your buddies all along."

Tor actually had noticed that he was getting more attention from the girls in his class, especially the ones who seemed to be 'social butterflies' so he didn't complain any further.  In fact he had a bit of fun acting shy and alluding to the idea he a 'friend or two,' but he wouldn't say any more than that to any of the girls who asked.

Actually except for weekend, it seemed to Tor that either Sami or Emily, and sometimes both of them, were with him almost all the time.  On the days that he didn't go to early morning practise Sami was already on the bus when he got on, then Emily got onto the bus only two stops later.  On Tuesday and Thursday evening, they had Jiu-Jitsu practise, so Sami and Emily went to practise with Kevin, Sunny and Tor.  On the other evenings Sami would hop off the bus with Tor and stay until after they'd eaten, then a short time later her dad would pick her up and head for home.  In combination with the fact that he and Sunny took many of the same classes, he felt as if he was being shadowed.

Finally on Thursday he mentioned the idea to his folks and his mom just smiled, so he decided she might have had something to do with his 'girl guards' being around.  His dad just laughed and told him to enjoy the perks of whatever fame he was getting.

"Well, if the girls don't ease up for the rest of the week, I'm going to head into the men's room as soon as I get to school, then I'll just wait for the bell to go to class.  Instead of eating lunch, I'll go for a run.  I do not need a pair of baby sitters." Tor growled and left for a walk.

His parents must have said something to the girls because they eased off, but then the furor about the hockey team had eased off too.

The team's next game was fifty miles away from Eagles Bluff, so Tor was astounded at the number of hometown people he saw in the stands.  On the opening face-off, Tor managed to flip the puck to his left winger, Charlie Adams, who took about two strides over the centerline, then raised the puck into the air and over the opposition.  Tor saw it flip in the air and sprinted forward, catching up to the puck just past the blue line, then realized he was all alone on a breakaway.  He poured on the speed, cutting to the goalie's glove side, then about ten feet from the goal he turned and swung to the goalie's off side, flipping the puck over the goalie's blocker and into the top corner of the net.  The clock was stopped only five seconds into the game with their team already ahead by goal.  Tor wheeled and grabbed Charlie, letting out a hoot as he spun him around, then the two of them grabbed Kevin and all three headed for their bench.

"After five seconds of play, you three want off?  Like hell!" Coach Simcoe greeted them with a grin as they skated up.  "Get back out there, but watch your backs.  Eklund, you've drawn blood, so expect a couple of enforcers."

"Okay, but don't be surprised if I draw a penalty." Tor winked at him, then skated away.

The second face-off went much like the first, but the puck squirted into the opposition's territory and Tor went after it.  Seconds later he had to duck as a high stick hit the upper part of his mask and although he wasn't actually hurt, he dropped to the ice.  He hadn't even hit the ice before the whistle was blown.  He got back to his feet and glared at the guy who'd hit him, which was all it took to start things.  The opposing goon threw off his gloves and came at him, so Tor dropped his.  The guy got in one swing, knocking Tor's helmet right off, then Tor clocked him on the chin.  One blow, that's all, then he had to grab the big bruiser and ease him to the ice.  A linesman was there almost instantly.

"I think this goon has a glass jaw." Tor grumbled quietly.

"To hell with that!" the linesman whispered.  "I heard that punch from ten feet away.  That slug would have dropped an elephant, but I will say he had it coming and he swung first.  Now get out of here.  Go to your bench."

Tor tried to get to his bench, but by the time he'd picked up his gloves and his helmet, he'd been on the ice long enough to be intercepted by a second goon.  He heard a warning call from Kevin just as he 'felt' another guy coming at him and ducked just as the new goon took a swing at his head.  Tor wasn't hit, but he was getting annoyed.  He dropped his gloves and helmet again, grabbed the guy's jersey and heaved, first one way, then the other, but at the end of the back-swing he let go.  The goon was suddenly off balance and couldn't get his feet under him.  He flailed his arms wildly as he tried to catch himself, then flopped backward and sat down like a four year old kid on skates for the first time.  The whole arena rang with hoots, hollers and loud laughter.

Tor just bent and scooped up his gear for the second time, then quietly skated to the bench.  He'd hardly taken his seat when the referee skated over.

"You okay?" he looked Tor in the eye.

"Yeah, just a bit P'd off.  Where did they get these guys, some alley in the ghetto?  They ignore all the rules and can't skate for shit, but they can't fight either.  What's next clubs, knives, guns or what?"

"Not while I'm officiating." the referee snapped.  "You'd better not retaliate or you'll be in the box next."

"I only hit back, so go warn those idiots that they get one free swing and it had better be good, because after that first swing, it's my turn."

"I noticed that." the referee's lips twitched into a very brief smile as he turned away.

Then the referee skated out into centre ice and announced two penalties for the other team, which gave the Falcons a five on three power play.  It only took twenty-five seconds for the second line to score, which negated one of the penalties but they didn't score on the other penalty.  By that time though they had the other team demoralized and on the defensive.

Less than five minutes into the game, Tor scored again on a feed from Kevin, so the team was up by three goals and by the end of the first period they were up by four.  The whole game was like the first period and by the end of the game, they won by a score of 11 to 1.  Tor got a hat-trick, Kevin got two goals and each of them had been in another fight, but neither of them had been in the penalty box and neither of them had been badly hurt.  Tor had a puffy cheek and bruised knuckles.  Kevin had taken a blow to the nose and had bled all over his jersey, but he'd decked the guy who caused it and was wearing a grin a mile wide after the game.  In fact the whole team were almost giddy as they hopped on the bus to ride home.  Kevin and Tor were sitting together and Coach Simcoe bumped Charlie Adams out of the seat across the aisle from Tor.

"Eklund, where the hell did a guy who says he doesn't want to be an enforcer learn to fight like you do?"

"I've got a cousin who thinks he's a boxer." Tor shrugged and kept a straight face.  "Besides, I told you when I started playing for you that I'm generous.  I always try to give back a little more than I receive."

"I saw that." the coach snorted, then he broke into a grin.  "You know that warning I gave you last week to watch out for enforcers?  Forget it!  I think the coach of the other team is going to be sending out a warning to other teams about you two.  I heard a rumour that you broke that one guy's jaw, which isn't good, but it'll make enforcers think twice about tackling you.  What I liked was that you and Craigmiller both played great hockey and fought as well as you played, but you didn't instigate one fight all night long."

"Yeah, it was an okay game, but I'd rather not have to fight at all." Tor shrugged again.  "I just like to play hockey, and I really don't like hitting guys with my fists.  I'd rather check them into the boards, because it's harder to break bones that way and if you do it legally, no one get's a concussion either."

"Well if you noticed, the other team wised up in a hurry." the coach shook his head.  "If you two didn't play so damn well together, I'd switch Craigmiller to the second line, but the pair of you work together too well for that."

"Well, I'm surprised you haven't switched us around a bit, at least in practise." Kevin commented.  "In the game, when we're up by three or four goals, why not swap us around with other players?  What do you think Tor?"

"Sure, why not?" Tor finally cracked a grin.  "Next practise, why not try us on defence and next game, put one of us on the second line and the other on the third, at least for the first period, then bump the other lines up?  That will screw the other coach up royally."

"You two are willing to play defence too?" the coach laughed.  "Oh, that would be mean."

"Coach, I can play every position on the team, even goalie, but I don't have the gear for that.  Another thing you should know too, I'm ambidextrous, just not quite as good with the left as the right, but I can play left handed if I need to." Tor smiled.  "I'm sure Kev can play defence too, so you could drop either of us to the back and I can take either side if that's what you want.  That would let you play some of the other guys up front for a change."

"Well, we can try it at practise, but I like you taking face-offs, Eklund.  I think I'll save the complete line swaps for later in the season, but we might try a few position switches, just to change things around."

It wasn't long before they had about half of the team involved in a discussion that lasted most of the drive home.  During a few practises and even during the next game, once they were a few points ahead of the other team, the coach did try switching a few positions.  However, Tor and Kevin were dropped back into their old positions as soon as the other team's score approached theirs.  The coaches had decided they had a winning combination and didn't want to take a chance of upsetting things too much.

During the second week of November the temperature dropped and snow fell in the valley where the Eklunds lived, so Tor and his dad began to flood the rink in the cattle pasture.  By the first weekend in December they had over two inches of ice all across the rink and Tor put out the word that he'd like his friends and teammates to come out to the farm that Sunday afternoon for a skating party.  They even had a 'no hitting, no checking' game of hockey with the girls included and everyone had a ball.  The place was a madhouse, but they had fun and everyone saw Tor's mom in her glory as she made coffee, tea, cocoa and served cookies for the whole crew who arrived that day.

After that, for the rest of the winter, that sheet of ice was busy for a few hours most days.  Several of the members of the Falcons hockey team got together there at odd times to try to practise several set plays and they used those plays during their regular games.  It became quite common for both coaches to drop around on a Sunday, just to check on their players and offer advice.  The one thing Tor and his family insisted on was that there be no fighting and that no one was to be kept from enjoying a skate on their rink.  Fun came first, hockey came second, but the skaters soon learned that there was enough ice to have free skating on one half of the rink while a three man to a side hockey game was played on the other half.

Things settled down quickly around the school too and after a few weeks it wasn't earth shattering news that the team was winning the majority of their games.  Kevin and Tor did develop a few fans that could quote chapter and verse of every move they made on the ice though.  The two of them were doing quite well, so it was inevitable that they would be approached by Heinrich Schneider, the coach of the local Juvenile hockey team.  He knew Tor was only fourteen, so he wasn't really trying to draft him to his team, but he was certainly interested in Kevin.  He was surprised when Kevin just shook his head and almost laughed at him.

"Next year or the year after, maybe." Kevin snorted.  "I'm only sixteen and my birthday is in January, so I'd rather stay and play with Tor this year, thanks.  He's the guy who makes me look good and if you don't believe me, just check my stats.  Tor has an assist on most of the goals I've scored during the year, besides, I really like this team and its coaches.  I'm still learning from them and I want to stay right where I am for now."

"Hmph," Schneider grunted.  "From what I hear, Eklund is really the coach of your team anyway.  How do you like being coached by a kid who is so much younger than you?"

"Nope, like a lot of other people, you've got that wrong." Kevin laughed.  "We've got two great coaches, a couple of dozen players that are willing to cooperate as a team, and all of us watch the other team for their weaknesses.  We tell each other what we've noticed, then we exploit their mistakes."

"If I really was the coach, I'd argue with any decent player who was thinking of transferring to your goon squad anyway," Tor added.  "Haven't you noticed that any skilled players you do manage to talk into playing for you decide to quit after only a few games.  One day you'll realize that brute force and muscle bound thugs don't win many hockey games, it takes a little skill as well."

"Eklund, I wouldn't have you on my team if I was paid to," Schneider snapped.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about me ever playing on a team you coach, I prefer to play for teams that win more often than they lose and don't fight amongst themselves," Tor snorted and made a wry face.  "Besides, I heard a rumour that you won't be coaching next year anyway, so I won't worry about that nightmare either.  See ya."

With that Tor just turned and walked away, leaving Coach Schneider to glare at his back.  Kevin caught up to him a moment or two later.

"Nice going, you walked off and left me with that idiot, after you'd wound him up like a cheap cuckoo clock, you dork," Kevin punched Tor on the shoulder.  "Now where did you hear about him being canned as coach?"

"At the hockey game the other night." Tor shrugged his shoulders.  "It was just a rumour, so I didn't pay much attention to the details.  I'm not even sure who was involved in the discussion since I was watching the action on the ice.  I guess I shouldn't have mentioned a darn rumour, but that idiot annoys me.  I think he's ruined more decent players than he's helped."

"Well, I agree with your method of play, keep it clean, but if you're get a dirty hit, fight back." Kevin grinned.  "Besides I loved the look on Schneider's face when you told him that he might get canned.  I'm betting he complains to our coach about you saying anything though."

"Which one, Simcoe or McDonald?"

"Probably both and I can bet what they'll say to you, almost nothing.  Maybe a warning not to pass on rumours to other coaches, but if it's McDonald, it'll be followed by a wink and instructions to let him check out the rumour first."

Actually they never heard anything official about Coach Schneider until the end of the season.  They'd heard a lot of rumours by then though, so it wasn't a big surprise to hear that he was stepping down and a new coach was going to be selected in the off season.

Meanwhile the Eagles Bluff Falcons had an excellent season.  They had lost four games all season long and went into the playoffs as top dog in their division.  In fact it was April before they finally finished playing and by the time they did, they finished in second place in the provincial finals.  Not bad for a team from a little town that had a population of less than fifteen hundred people.

On the ride home Coach McDonald slid into the seat beside Tor and turned to him.  "Do you remember the day we first met?"

"Yeah, it was in the hospital." Tor nodded.

"You said something that day I've remembered every time we played a game this year.  You said if I could put together a team that cooperated and played clean hockey, you'd play for me, then you said we could be the best team in Canada.  I'm not going to hold you to that promise though, because just getting to the Provincials is enough hockey for me to handle for one year."

Tor couldn't help but laugh, because he'd had enough hockey for the year as well.  In fact he was very happy that he could spend some extra time at home.  The fact that there were no more early morning practises and no more late evening games once a week made his first week or two feel like a holiday.  Of course he didn't have much of a break before he had to start thinking about finishing off his final reports for school and he even started rereading his texts for final exams.

Actually one evening, the sun set while he was studying in his room, but instead of walking over and turning on a light, he used his talent and 'flipped' the switch.  Only seconds later he happened to read about photons of light and how they could be redirected by either gravity or a magnetic field.  He'd always considered light to be a form of energy and there in his physics text was a direct quote, saying that light appeared to act like a material object at times.  It might not have meant much to him if he hadn't been reminded of his talents just a moment before.  He paused and reread the paragraph, then he frowned thoughtfully.

"Holy doodle!  Light can be viewed as a form of matter in certain conditions, since it can be affected by outside influences such as gravity and magnetism," Tor mused to himself.  "If my shield can handle falling rain and flying bullets, I wonder if it could act the same way on light?  If the field can bypass light the same way, just imagine what I could do!"

Chapter 10