As promised, here’s the first part of Chapter 1.
“So Burke, do you understand the terms of your contract?” Thomas Browne, the team’s president asked his newest player. General Manager Louis Greenwood and Head Coach Douglass “Doug” Levy flanked the president as they looked over the rookie, their newest free agent acquisition to the hockey team.
“Yes, sir. Score goals, win games or go home,” Bobbie replied, sitting across from the three older men in a small conference room and trying to act cool, like this kind of thing happened everyday. The walls of the conference room were filled with team memorabilia and photos of greats from the past, intimidating any rookie hoping to eventually join their ranks.
“Then we have an understanding. Welcome to the Philadelphia Fire,” Thom said as they shook hands, sealing the deal and hoping they hadn’t shot themselves in the foot, again.
Inside the team meeting room later that September day, the members of the Philadelphia Fire had gathered, many for the first time since the end of previous season. The volume was louder than usual as the men caught up with each other, just like boys on the first day of school. Someone just looking in the room would see well-dressed men clustered in small groups. But if that person were to listen to the conversations, there were at least four different languages being spoken plus English, and many of those speaking English had accents so thick that they almost sounded like they were speaking other languages.
“Connor,when did you get in?” the massive Russian defenseman, Aleksander Volincoff asked as he shook the team Captain’s hand.
“Yesterday. How are Laura and the girls?” Connor McNutly asked the Russian with only a hint of his own Canadian accent showing. Even though Connor was six foot two, Aleks had four inches and at least forty pounds of muscle over his Captain. On skates, Aleks towered over most of the world, He looked like a big Russian bear with his chiseled chin and brown hair where Connor looked more like a business man than a hockey player with his deep brown eyes and black hair that he kept precisely styled when he wasn’t on the ice.
“They are good. Laura wanted me to tell you that you are coming over for dinner this week, Thursday. The girls missed you this summer. Have you heard about the new center? I think they just signed ‘em today.”
“Last I talked to Doug, they hadn’t finalized the roster yet. Where’s he from?” Connor asked, hoping that they had not stacked the deck with too many fresh faces from the rookie camp the week before.
“Boston. Burke’s the name. Bob… Bobby Burke… and he wasn’t at rookie camp either.”
“I remember my brother playing against a Brandon Burke in college, eh. He was from Boston too. Where’d he play before?”
“Rookie, a free agent too.”
“Then it can’t be the guy I’m thinking of. He was defense.” Connor brushed it off as they continued to catch up from their summer breaks. Aleks had gone back to Russia for a good part of it and Connor had returned home to Toronto for a few weeks.
Doug, the head coach, walked into the room with a small entourage of coaches, trainers and other miscellaneous staff following behind him as the team began to take their seats. “Okay guys. Sit down so we can get started,” said Doug. “They’re all yours, Thom.”
“Thanks, Doug,” the President of the team began and he stepped into the room and headed straight to the front of the team meeting room while the last men sat in their chairs. “Welcome back gentlemen. I hope you all enjoyed the off-season. As you have probably heard, the management and I are in agreement that this team needs some radical changes to be able to reach our goal of getting to the playoffs this season. The game has changed and so will we. We have many new faces on the team and finalized the roster today when we signed our newest player this afternoon. I will want all the newest players in the press room to meet with the press after today’s practice.”
“Thom, who is he? I don’t see him here,” Connor called out. He had seen all the new “kids” on the Internet over the break or via team emails but this new guy was a mystery to them all.
“I was getting to that, Connor. I would like to remind you that we are doing things a little different and all of you will have to adapt to the changes and that will now have to include the locker room,” Thom told the men and watched their reactions to what he had just said. The players looked confused and a quiet rumble began to fill the room as they wondered who the new mystery player was. “Guys, meet your newest team member, Barbara ‘Bobbie’ Burke.”
As he said her name, Bobbie took a step away from the group of coaches and trainers and looked at the shocked faces of her new teammates. At first, the seated men looked as if they were as frozen as the ice they skated on. Then the mumbling began. She stood in front of the team, all their eyes on her. Bobbie wore a plain gray pants suit, her only suit, with boring flat black shoes. Her long blond hair, cut all to one length, was tied back away from her face. Bobbie, as she preferred to be called, didn’t feel comfortable wearing makeup, not that she needed any for her icy blue eyes to shine. Even though she had no experience with the normal things girls liked, like make up and clothes more feminine than a hockey jersey and jeans, and would deny it if confronted, she was a very beautiful woman. She looked over the sea of professional hockey players that she had seen on TV and realized she was now one of them.
“Thom, you have got to be joking, right? I know we were in the bottom of our conference but she’s not for real, right?” Gene Stevens, a right wing man asked, not wanting to mention that they really ended last season at the bottom of the league.
“This is not a joke, Gene. Bobbie’s as much a member of the team as you are,” Thom responded, knowing this was just the tip of the testosterone iceberg.
“So where’d she play, the ‘Ice Capades’ or ‘Stars on Ice’?” a voice asked from within the ranks.
“I played for New England State and the leagues in the Boston area,” Bobbie finally said. She was getting annoyed but knew this was always how it went when she joined a team. She had to keep her cool in front of them, at least until they got on to the ice. The rumblings continued and she could feel their stares raking over her body.
Before Bobbie could say anything else, Doug interrupted her. “Okay guys, that’s enough for now. Be on the ice in twenty minutes.”
“She’s not changing with us?” another player asked, concerned.
“No, now get ready for practice,” Doug told them.
The team got up from their chairs and began to file into the joining locker room. Bobbie was shown down the hall to a small locker room where she could change. Alone in her locker room as she dressed, she was still in disbelief of the events of the past few days. Three days ago, Bobbie was working at the rink as she always did, teaching lessons and getting ready for the next season’s league to begin. She vividly remembered the scout coming up to her at the rink at the end of a private lesson she taught. Usually when a scout approached her, it was to find out where a teammate or student was, but this time he was looking for her and made her an offer that she had only ever dreamed of. She had convinced herself years ago that something like this would never happen to her but now it really was.
On the ice, Bobbie arrived with about half the team already there. She could tell they were all talking about her and not being nice or quiet about it. She was used to it by now. It wasn’t often that a team immediately liked the idea of their boat getting rocked by her presence. It didn’t bother her too much. She had learned to have a tough skin especially when it came to hockey. It was a good thing she gave as good as she got.
A few minutes later the team was ready to begin the first practice of training camp. After warm ups, the front line was separated from the defense to work. Bobbie knew this was going to be a tough practice and the others were not going to be giving her any breaks, not she wanted them to.
When she did get the puck, Bobbie did what she always did. She moved the puck around and made a quick and accurate shot on goal, right past the shoulder of the goalie, or she made a direct pass to one of the other players. Connor was pleased and impressed with what he saw in her game but wondered how she could take a hit by one of the massive defensemen. That didn’t take too long to find that out.
An hour after the team stepped on to the ice, the team was divided up for a scrimmage. Bobbie was Connor’s center as they began to play with the warning from Doug to keep it easy that day. They didn’t need any injuries before the season even began.
In the face off, Bobbie was up against Gene Stevens. “So, you think you can play with the big boys?” he asked as they leaned in.
She raised an eyebrow and said, “Played with bigger,” with a stone cold expression right before the puck was dropped. Bobbie was quick and was able to win the face off. She passed it to her left wing but he was unable to do anything with it. Bobbie thought even some of peewees would have been able to get that pass. As the scrimmage continued, she saw simple things happen that shouldn’t for players at this level.
Bobbie took some pretty hard hits, some of them knocking the wind from her, but every single time she went down she got back up and continued on as if nothing had happened. When she had opportunities to give hits, they weren’t devastating but they did knock a few of the guys from their skates.
