Timberwolf Revenge

by Sigmund Brouwer

  Tom got up on his skates again. He saw that everyone was looking at him.

  Johnny skated close to Tom.

  “Good job,” Johnny said. “The referee is going to give you a penalty shot.”

  “What?”

  “A penalty shot. If you score, we will be ahead.”

  Tom took a deep breath. He looked like he was nervous.

  The referee placed the puck at center ice. It was quiet in the arena. The referee blew the whistle.

  Tom took the puck and slowly skated up the ice. He crossed the blue line and picked up speed.

  The goalie came out of the net to make sure Tom didn’t have much to shoot at.

  Tom faked left. He went right. Then left again. The goalie fell for the move. Tom rolled the puck to his backhand and lifted it into the open net.

  Five to four!

  Tom lifted his hands high in the air. The crowd cheered.

  Three minutes later, the game was over. The Timberwolves had won.

  Tom and Johnny skated off the ice together.

  “I scored three goals in three shifts to win the last game,” Johnny said to Tom. “Now you helped us win this game. Do you think that makes us even?”

  “Not a chance,” Tom said. “Now we’re staying another night. So I have a lot of time to get you, don’t I? Just watch out, because something might happen to your Ian James hockey stick.”

  Chapter Six

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Stu said to Johnny.

  They were walking down the hallway of the hotel. No one else was there. Johnny had a can of shaving cream in one hand. He had a big envelope in the other. Stu carried Johnny’s hockey stick. Johnny was not going to let that stick get out of his sight.

  “You said that five times already,” Johnny whispered back. “But I notice you are still here with me. I think you really want to see me play this trick on Tom.”

  “No,” Stu said. “I’m here to try to stop you. Revenge is never a good idea. We are all friends, remember?”

  “I have to get even with Tom.”

  “You’re already even,” Stu said. “This would put you ahead in tricks.”

  “He said he was going to do something to my hockey stick,” Johnny said. “I need to get ahead before he tries something.”

  “Revenge is never a good idea,” Stu said. “The war will never end. And what if he does something to your hockey stick?”

  “No,” Johnny said. “I’m going to—”

  “I know,” Stu said. “You’re going to sleep and eat and shower with it.”

  “Yes.”

  They stopped in front of the door to room 207.

  “Watch this,” Johnny said.

  Johnny opened the envelope and filled it with shaving cream. Then he put it on the floor. He pushed the open end of the envelope a little ways under the door.

  “This is great,” Johnny whispered. “When Tom comes to answer the door, I’ll stomp on the envelope and shoot shaving cream all over him.”

  “Please don’t do this,” Stu said. “Revenge is not a good idea. Besides, I don’t think it will work. The shaving cream won’t shoot high enough. It will only hit his feet.”

  It was too late. Johnny had already knocked on the door.

  Johnny raised his voice to sound like a woman. “Room service,” he said in a high voice.

  He knocked again.

  Stu and Johnny heard footsteps on the other side of the door. Then they heard the sound of the bolt moving.

  “Now!” Johnny whispered.

  He stomped as hard as he could on the envelope. Whoosh. Then he quickly leaned down and pulled the envelope away and tucked it into his pants behind his back.

  “Hah!” Johnny said.

  Then the door opened.

  But it was not Tom. It was a woman with bright red hair. She was wearing a housecoat and she had shaving cream all over the front of her slippers. She also did not look at all pleased.

  “See?” Stu said. “I told you revenge isn’t a good idea.”

  Chapter Seven

  The woman in the housecoat stepped into the hallway.

  “What is going on here?” she asked. “That is exactly what I would like to know. I see a boy with a can of shaving cream in his hand. I don’t even want to know why the other boy is holding a hockey stick.”

  Just then Johnny and Stu saw Tom walking down the hall toward them.

  “Hey guys,” he said. “What’s happening?”

  “I think I should go,” Stu said. He tried to hand the hockey stick back to Johnny. “It was nice knowing you, Johnny.”

  Johnny didn’t take the stick. He grabbed Stu’s sleeve so he couldn’t run away.

  Tom said, “Hey, Johnny, why did you spray shaving cream on this nice woman’s slippers?”

  The woman looked down. She saw the shaving cream on her slippers.

  “What?!? My slippers!”

  Johnny looked at the woman. He pointed at Tom. “I was trying to play a trick on him.”

  “Do I look like him?” the woman asked.

  She was big, and she had shaving cream on her slippers. She also looked as mean as a buffalo. She definitely didn’t look like Tom.

  Johnny told the truth. “No, you don’t look like Tom. But I thought he was in room 207. That’s the room they gave him at the front desk. I was listening when they gave him the key.”

  “But you can see you were wrong,” the woman said.

  “I can see that now,” Johnny said. He was glad that Stu had his hockey stick. He was glad that the woman did not have it. “I am very sorry for stomping shaving cream under your door.”

  The woman frowned. “I should tell your parents about this.”

  “My parents aren’t here,” Johnny said. “We are here with a hockey team.”

  Tom said to the woman, “I can tell you what room our coach is in if you want to talk to him instead. Then our coach will talk to his parents.”

  “Thanks,” Johnny said to Tom. But he didn’t mean it.

  “You boys are lucky my favorite TV show is about to come on,” the woman said. “Otherwise I would talk to your coach.”

  She slammed the door shut.

  “That was very funny,” Tom said. “It’s too bad for you we had to switch rooms.”

  “Switch rooms?” Johnny said. Johnny hit his forehead with his hand. “You switched rooms?”

  “Sure,” Tom said. “This one is a smoking room. They gave it to us by mistake. So we had to go back and get another room.”

  “See?” Stu said to Johnny. “I told you the shaving cream wasn’t a good idea. Besides, it didn’t work. All you did was get her slippers.”

  “It was a great idea,” Tom said. “Just wait until I tell the whole team what happened. That lady looked really mad. This will get a big laugh.”

  “You’re right,” Johnny said to Stu. “Maybe the shaving cream wasn’t such a good idea.”

  “Neither is revenge,” Stu said. “Remember. We are all friends.”

  Chapter Eight

  Johnny and Stu got back to the hotel room. It was time to go to sleep.

  “Are you really going to sleep with that hockey stick?” Stu asked Johnny.

  “Yes. I’m going to eat with it and sleep with it and shower with it. It is not getting out of my sight.”

  “If you shower with it,” Stu said, “you might wash off the players’ signatures.”

  “Good thinking,” Johnny said. “Okay, I won’t shower with it. But I’m going to eat with it and sleep with it.”

  Stu shut off the lights and got into his bed.

  Johnny got into his bed on the other side of the room. He put his stick under the covers with him.

  “Hey!” Johnny said in the darkness. “What is this?”

  Stu got out of bed. He turned on the lights.

  Johnny was sitting up in bed. His feet and hands and the side of his face were sticky.

  “Honey!” Johnny said. “It’s on my pillow! It’s on my sh
eets! I’m a mess!”

  “How did honey get there?” Stu asked.

  Johnny noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under his pillow. It was a note. He pulled it out. He read it to Stu.

  “‘I wanted you and your hockey stick to have sweet dreams’,” Johnny said.

  “Is the note signed?” Stu asked.

  “Yes,” Johnny said.

  “It’s not from Coach Smith, is it?” Stu said.

  “No,” Johnny said. “It’s from Tom. He put the honey in my bed.”

  “Johnny,” Stu said. “Now you are really behind. You sprayed shaving cream on a woman’s slippers. He got honey in your bed while you were trying to get him. It would be a good idea to call a truce.”

  “No,” Johnny said. “I’ve got an idea. There is a store beside the hotel. Tomorrow I’ll buy honey to put in his skates and in his hockey gloves.”

  “Please don’t,” Stu said. “Think of our team.”

  “Our team?”

  “It would be nice to win the tournament. You shouldn’t do anything that will cause the team to lose. Remember. We are all friends.”

  “I know, I know,” Johnny said. “And revenge is never a good idea. But I don’t want revenge. I just want to get even.”

  Stu sighed. “Someday maybe you will understand that getting even is revenge. Maybe you will also learn it is never a good idea.”

  “You’re right,” Johnny said.

  “I’m glad you agree.”

  “You’re right that it would be nice to win the tournament,” Johnny said. “I’ll have to find a way to get even with Tom after the game.”

  Stu sighed again. “And what about the stick?”

  “My stick?”

  “So far he has only played tricks on you. What if he finds a way to do something to your Ian James hockey stick?”

  “Never,” Johnny said. “I’m going to eat with it and sleep with it. But not shower with it. I promise you. There is no way in the world he will even do anything to my Ian James hockey stick.”

  “Just remember one thing,” Stu said.

  “That we are all friends? That revenge is never a good idea?”

  “That when something happens to your stick,” Stu answered, “I am going to be the first one to say I told you so.”

  Chapter Nine

  The score was four to three. The Timberwolves were leading the Calgary Cougars. They were just about to start the final period of the final hockey game of the tournament. If the Howling Timberwolves won, they would be the tournament champions.

  “Hey, how did you get into my room last night?” Johnny asked Tom as they skated back out onto the ice.

  “Easy,” Tom said. “I just asked for another key. The guy behind the desk saw my hockey jacket. He probably thought I was you.”

  “Oh,” Johnny said.

  “Are you still going to try to get even?” Tom asked.

  “It’s more important that we win this game,” Johnny said. “Besides, remember what Stu said: We are all friends.”

  “Then let’s win the game,” Tom said.

  The Timberwolves played good defense and managed to keep the Cougars from scoring another goal.

  Now there was only three minutes left in the game.

  After a face-off, the puck went into end of the Timberwolves. Johnny waited for a pass. When the puck came to him, he tried to stickhandle by the Cougar center. The Cougar center was not fast enough to stop Johnny. So he reached ahead and tripped Johnny with his stick.

  Penalty!

  Coach Smith waved for Johnny and Stu to get off the ice because they were tired.

  Tom won the face-off in the Cougars’ end. The puck went back to the defenseman. A Cougar forward charged toward the defenseman. The defenseman couldn’t get a shot on the net. He fired the puck toward the corner. The puck skipped past a couple of players and went to Tom, who was standing behind the net.

  the other way. Before the goalie could get to the other side of the net, Tom had reached around and scored. It was a wrap-around goal!

  Tom pretended he was going to go one way. The goalie went to that side of the net. Tom quickly went the other way. Before the goalie could get to the other side of the net, Tom had reached around and scored. It was a wrap-around goal!

  The Timberwolves were ahead five to three!

  Time ran out for the Calgary Cougars. The Timberwolves had won the tournament!

  In the dressing room after the game, the players were very excited. There was a lot of noise and backslapping. Everyone was talking about the big plays that had won the game.

  Johnny dressed quickly. He didn’t seem to be as excited as his teammates. He looked around the room and saw that no one was watching him. He stepped outside and ran down the hallway. He opened the door that led outside.

  He reached into the snow and pulled out a plastic bag that he had hidden there before the game.

  Hah, Johnny thought. This will get Tom back.

  Chapter Ten

  The bus ride from Calgary to Howling took about two hours. By the time they were getting close to home, the boys were tired of celebrating their win. The bus had been quiet for about ten minutes.

  “Hey, does anybody smell anything weird?” Tom said. He’d been sleeping for the past half hour.

  “Yes, I do smell something,” Johnny said.

  The other players all looked away so that Tom could not see them smile. Johnny had told all of them about his latest trick.

  “What do you smell?” Tom asked.

  “I smell a winning team!” said Johnny Maverick.

  All the other players laughed.

  “No,” Tom said. He sniffed the air. “It stinks! It smells like fish.”

  “You must be imagining things,” Johnny said. “Why would there be fish in a hockey bus?”

  Tom sniffed the air again. “This is very strange.”

  He closed his eyes again and tried to go back to sleep.

  “See?” Johnny whispered to Stu. “Nothing went wrong. And I still have my Ian James hockey stick.”

  “Just wait,” Stu said. “Revenge is never a good idea.”

  Tom sat up again. He sniffed the air.

  “Guys,” he said. “I’m telling you. I smell fish.”

  This was too much for the other players. They all began to laugh.

  “What?” Tom said. “What?”

  “Remember the loonies and toonies you took from my coat pocket and dropped in the toilet?” Johnny asked him.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I put something back in your pocket.”

  Tom reached into his coat pocket. He pulled his hands out very quickly.

  Everyone laughed again.

  Tom smelled his fingers. “Fish? In my pocket?”

  “Sardines!” Johnny said. “I bought them before the game. They were frozen at the start of the trip. But they thawed out just like I planned.” All the other players laughed. Even Coach Smith. Coach Smith was in a good mood because the team had won.

  “Very, very funny,” Tom said. “But you’d better watch out. There is still time for me to do something to your Ian James hockey stick.”

  “Not a chance,” Johnny said. “I’m not going to let it out of my sight. Besides, look ahead. There are the lights of Howling now. We’re almost home. What could you possibly do now?”

  Chapter Eleven

  When the bus stopped at the rink, Johnny looked out the window. He could see all of the parents were waiting under the lights. Coach Smith had phoned ahead to let everyone know that the Howling Timberwolves had won the tournament. Even Mayor Thorpe was there.

  The players stepped off the bus. Johnny, of course, was still holding his Ian James hockey stick.

  “Hah,” Johnny said to Tom. “I told you. It’s too late to get even now.”

  Before Tom could say anything back to Johnny, Coach Smith spoke to the whole team.

  “Line up, guys,” Coach Smith said. “Mayor Thorpe wants to give each of you a town pin
for winning the trophy.”

  Johnny lined up with the rest of the players. Tom stood beside Johnny. Johnny was the only player holding a hockey stick. He was not going to let go of it. He was still afraid that Tom might try something.

  One by one, Mayor Thorpe shook hands with each player and gave each a pin.

  When Mayor Thorpe reached Johnny, he gave him a pin and shook his hand.

  “Good job,” Mayor Thorpe said. “I heard that you scored three goals in three shifts against the son of Ian James.”

  “Yes,” Johnny said. “ He even came into our dressing room after the game.”

  “I heard that too,” Mayor Thorpe said. “And I heard he gave you a stick that is signed by all the Calgary Flames.”

  “Yes,” Johnny said. “This is it.”

  “May I look at the stick?” Mayor Thorpe asked.

  Johnny gave him the stick.

  “This is wonderful,” Mayor Thorpe said. “Imagine, a stick signed by all the Calgary Flames. If I had something like that, I would hang it in my office.”

  “Mayor Thorpe?” Tom spoke up from beside Johnny. “I think you will be very happy.”

  “Why?” Mayor Thorpe asked.

  “Well,” Tom said, “on the bus Johnny and I were talking about you and what a good job you do as mayor in our town.”

  “Thank you,” Mayor Thorpe said.

  “You’re welcome,” Tom said. “You will be very happy to know that Johnny told me he wanted to give you that stick for you to hang in your office.”

  Before Johnny could say anything, the Mayor shouted to all the parents.

  “Look at this!” Mayor Thorpe said. He held up the Ian James hockey stick for everyone to look at. “Johnny Maverick gave me the Ian James hockey stick to hang up in my office!”

  All the parents clapped. All of the hockey players started laughing.

  Mayor Thorpe shook Johnny’s hand. “Thank you! Thank you!” Mayor Thorpe said. “This is the best thing I can imagine!”

  Mayor Thorpe walked away. He brought the stick over to the other parents so they could look at it.

  “I can’t believe it,” Johnny Maverick said to Tom. “I can’t believe it. My stick. It’s gone.”