Sweet Caroline (Corey Crawford)

Defending His Honor

Corey

Caroline sits with her hand on the inside of my leg. Her little fingers reaching the inside of my thigh. My arm is wrapped around her as she rests her head on my shoulder. We had been in the waiting room of the hospital for about forty minutes, her appointment was supposed to start over twenty minutes ago but as per usual, they were running behind. On one hand it was good that they weren't in a hurry to checkup on her. And on the other hand we have spent so much time in a hospital I think we were both just about over it.

I softly rub her arm as she fights off sleep in the chair next to me. It was 8 am but she had a rough night and was starting to feel it now. I know her check ups are important, but right now they weren't helping, just hurting her.

Finally they call her back and she goes by herself. I sit in the waiting room and... well I wait. I wait and wait and wait some more. Eventually I find a magazine and decide to read it. It was a older one, probably from the 90's, I wonder what this is still doing here? I go through the Montreal based magazine and my childhood hits me like a train. All the political issues and sports headlines were there. It was back when being a Canadiens fan was cool and everyone around here was so into it. I mean they have something to put their faith into now with Carey leading his team, but it was nothing like those 90's teams, they were so much fun.

Naturally I turn to the middle page and stop. I nearly drop the magazine as I quickly try to comprehend what the big story that covered the center fold was. Over both of the pages was a picture of Patrick Roy and his wife and Caroline from whenever this magazine was. I turn back to the front and see it was from October 1993 which was right after he won his second cup and playoff mvp. I turn back to the page and stare at the picture. They were at the home they keep here sitting on the porch during a beautiful sunny Montreal day. The Stanley cup and conn smyth trophy sitting on either side of the couple. Patrick had his wife sitting in his lap and she was holding his face as he stared back at her. It was the same way I looked at Caroline, like she was the best thing to ever happen. Her mom was resting her forehead on his as they look into each other's eyes so deeply. On the step in front of them was Caroline with both of his rings on her little had. She was only 8 at the time but she was still adorable. She had the same style glasses on as she does now, her dirty blonde hair free for all to see. She had her arms in the air and confetti was falling all around them. They seemed so perfect, I mean I know they weren't. But they knew that they weren't, and that's what made them so amazing.

The caption say "All or Nothing" and it went into details about how they made it work. About what it was like trying to raise a kid under these circumstances and how it worked with both parents working. It was actually a good read and it explained a lot.

"What did you find" a soft voice asks and I look up. A pair of big brown eyes stare down at me as I was about I finish my reading.

"I found a old magazine and it had a huge excerpt on your family" I explain.

"I hope it's good" she says.

"It was amazing really. This whole city kind of loved you guys" I admit.

"And we love them back. Sure things got ugly, but thinking back to those times before shit hit the fan, they were some of the best of my life. I was so innocent, so oblivious to the reality of the harsh world. My parents wouldn't let anything bad come within a hundred feet of me. I usually didn't get put under the spotlight, but I never stayed quiet when it came to me voicing how proud I am of my parents. I will defend my father until I take my last breath. People around here love him or hate him, there's no in between. They have their right to be upset with him, but no one can deny that he was this cities hero for over a decade. He is the bright spot in a seemingly dimming organization and we all know it. People don't have to love my father, but they do have to respect him" she insists.

"If people read this there is no way people would hate him. This is the guy that I know" I say pointing to the picture.

"Not everyone is so accepting, they're looking for someone to blame for the downfall of hockey in this town and it's easy for their finger to rest on my father. They want someone to be mad at about the tremendous amount of failure from this team, and it's easy to blame him since they haven't won since he left. But my dad didn't just leave because he didn't like the coach or because he got scored on nine times that game. He wanted out because he deserved better and he knew it, he didn't want to keep going through that and have people constantly tagging on him. Say he stayed, people would never take it easy on him. If he played bad it was his fault, if he played good then he didn't get credit. It was getting messy and he knew he couldn't stay. He didn't want to leave but he really couldn't stay" she explains.

"I wish something could have worked out" I admit.

"Me too. So much would be different" she sighs.

"I kinda like how things turned out though" I smirk and she laughs at me.

"Yeah, me too" she agrees.

I set the magazine down and we head out to meet her dad at the rink. He was volunteering with a bunch of kids from around here and asked us for some help.

"So what did the doctor say" I asks as we set out skates.

"Just to keep it easy. The X-rays came back negative for anything bad. I will have MRI to go into more details and be more precautions but I was healing well. He refilled my prescription and we set up a little more physical therapy but other than that I should be set to go" she explains.

"So you're still coming back to Chicago with me" I ask.

"Most defiantly" she assures me.

We spend the rest of the day doing off ice drills with some kids at the community rink. She would explain what to do and I spiel show then. There was some bright young goalies out there that are one day going to be in the same shoes as me.