Anything to shut his ass up.
“You think about what I said now, okay?” He clapped my shoulder again and left.
I understood right away that I couldn’t avoid these suggestions forever. Sooner or later, I would have to tell him that I didn’t want to be the monster that would intentionally injure other players, let alone for pay.
But there was so much more. What did I tell Jakob?
Let me rephrase that:didI tell Jakob?
22
JAKOB
“Anything happens, you take their heads off.” Ryan Detenbeck spoke with his mouth full at Spot Coffee. Yes, he had approximately the same table manners as Levi Dunn, and even less self-awareness.
“Dude, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the Remington Riptides this Saturday. We’ve got to smash them in the mouth… in more ways than one.”
I paused to gauge how serious my teammate was about that comment. Did he mean physical and aggressive play, or was he calling for us to literally smash them in the mouth?
Or worse?
“I don’t think I’m following,” I said.
“How can you not be following? It’s Riptide week. It might as well be Christmas.”
“Well, deck the fucking halls. Didn’t we have Riptide week just a few weeks ago?”
He shrugged and said, “They’re our cross-town rivals. We play them a lot. The stakes are even higher now.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Despite the long and bitter rivalry, we’d somehow managed to raise the temperature even higher. Imight’ve been the only Larkin Lion not looking forward to the game. No explanation necessary, right?
“I know,” I said, “but didn’t Coach Hardison say that all games are the same? You know, that we’ve got to have winning in mind at all times and take the ice playing with passion and intensity?”
“I know what he said, but aren’t there exceptions to everything?”
“I guess.”
“And the Remington Riptides are the biggest exception to the rule I’ve ever seen. It’s personal. It’s about pride. I can’t believe our coach doesn’t get that.”
“Okay, so we’ll play for our pride. It doesn’t matter as long as we go out there and win, right?”
“But it can’t be just about that pride or winning one damn game. We’ve already shown them who the boss is both on and off the ice, but our position is fragile. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
I didn’t answer, but not because I didn’t want to. My search for an intelligent response to a ridiculous comment had turned up dry. What the heck would you do?
“Jakob, don’t you get it?” he asked. “I figured you’d be more gung ho than anybody to go out there and kick some serious ass.”
“Because of Zane Hirst?”
“No, because of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. OfcourseI’m talking about Zane Hirst. Think about it, Jakob. Think about it, Jakob. Wouldn’t you like to show the world your laying Zane out flat wasn’t a fluke?”
“Itwasn’ta fluke.”
“But they don’t know that. Zane Hirst sure as hell doesn’t. He wouldn’t have pushed you so hard for a rematch if that wholething at the Colter Bay Grill didn’t have some serious question marks around it.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
