Touching Spirits (Sidney Crosby)

Chapter Nine

‘…How the hell is this gunna work?...’ I thought as I stood in front of this Russian giant. He stood taller than Sidney and even Luka. I was five feet eight inches, Luka was six feet and Sidney was at least an inch or two shorter than my brother. But this guy, who by the way didn’t speak a lick of English, stood at, at least, six feet five inches, ‘…This can’t possibly work…’

“Isabella, this is Evgeni Malkin, he is going to be your responsibility,” my father said and I nodded my head and then shook hands with the man.

He spoke in Russian and I sighed, “This’ll be fun.”

“Sorry, Iz, I didn’t realize he didn’t speak any English,” my father said and I nodded my head and smiled towards the man, “I’ll find you a translator.”

“Thanks,” I laughed and then grabbed the guys hand and started to drag him towards the room where Sidney trained.

“What are you going to do, Izzy?” Luka asked as he and Sidney walked into the room.

“See if he knows how to shift,” I said and Luka nodded his head, “Wait here,” I said slowly while holding my hands out towards Evgeni, “Stay!”

“Izzy,” Luka shook his head and I walked over towards the door and opened it.

I took my clothes off and then shifted and then walked out into the room to see the Evgeni’s eyes were wide. He smiled and the nodded his head, understanding what I wanted him to do. He stripped his clothes and then started to undo his belt but then looked at me motioned for me to turn around. I scoff and rolled my eyes and sat down.

“Whoa,” I heard Luka say and I turned my head to see a huge grizzly bear in front of me, “That explains why he’s a giant.”

“He’s at least seven hundred pounds right there,” Sidney said and I walked over towards Evgeni and rubbed up against him and crawled underneath him, “Be careful, Iz.”

‘…Please, he’s a teddy bear…’ I thought as trotted away going back into the room and changing. I put my clothes back on and walked out to see that Evgeni was buttoning his pants, still shirtless, “At least we know he’s familiar with his spirit.”

“Yeah, that’s one less thing,” Luka said and then we looked at Sidney, “He’s not as bad as you.”

“Shut up,” he muttered and I laughed and turned back to see Evgeni buttoning his shirt back up.

“I don’t speak Russian and he doesn’t speak English,” I said and then sided, “This is going to be a problem.”

“Hey, as long as he can perform on the ice, I don’t care,” Sidney said and I punched his side, “Ow!”

“Evgeni!” I called and the boy looked at me.

I waved for him to follow me and he nodded his head. We walked out of the room and I headed towards my father’s office and knocked on the door. I opened the door once I heard him say ‘come in’.

“Ah, Izzy, I was just about to come and find you,” he said and I nodded my head, “I found someone to translate.”

“Really?”

“Yes, right this way,” my dad said and then stood up and walked out of the door.

“Sir!”

“Ah, there he is!” I looked up to see someone walking towards us and I heard Evgeni laugh.

I look at Evgeni to see that he was smiling towards the man, ‘…Guess he knows him…’

They spoke in Russian for a few moments and my father and I kind of look at each other feeling awkward. My father coughed and the translator turned away and smiled towards me, “I am Evgeni’s cousin, Anton. My Aunt told me that Geno would be here, so I’ve come to offer my assistant.”

“That was fast,” I muttered looking towards my father, “Wait- Geno?”

“It’s a nickname,” Anton said and I nodded my head.

“Anton here was already on his way when I placed the call, so I let it go and allowed him to come,” my father said and I nodded my head, “He’s well aware of our darkling situation and is prepared to help in any way, as long as he gets to play his hockey.”

“Of course another one,” I laughed and Anton smirked.

“Geno has a meeting to attend in two hours,” Anton said as Evgeni handed him a piece of paper, “His hockey schedule.”

The paper was handed to me and I nodded my head while looking at it, “This is similar to Sidney’s, this will not be a problem.”

“Sidney,” Evgeni tried to pronounce and I nodded my head, “Sidney Crosby?”

“Yes, he was in the room with us when you shifted,” I said and Anton translated for me.

Evgeni looked at Anton and then spoke in Russian, “He says, ‘Yes, he thought that it was him. He didn’t realize that Crosby was a spirit’.”

“I hear my name,” I heard and turned to see Luka and Sidney coming our way

“Evgeni, this is going to be your teammate, Sidney,” I said and while pointing towards Sidney and Anton translated.

“Nice to meet you,” Sidney said as he stuck out his hand.

They shook and I felt my father take the paper out of my hand of Evgeni’s schedule and looked over it, “You better head out if you want to make it to your meeting on time and not run into trouble.”

“Yes, father,” I said and Luka nodded his head towards me, “Are you ready to go to the meeting, Evgeni?” Anton translated to him and he looked at me.

“Da,” he said and I smiled, at least knowing one word in Russian.

“He said-“

“I got that,” I smiled and he nodded his head.

Luka, Sidney, Anton, Evgeni and I walked out of the house and headed to two separate vehicles. We didn’t want anyone to know that Evgeni and Sidney knew each other. We drove to the arena and Luka and I got out of the cars letting Sidney and Anton to drive, so that no one would see us. I was surprised that Anton knew how to drive in America, because I thought it was different in Russia.

Anton and Sidney parked the cars and Luka and I climbed up the igloo to the roof. Luka opened the door and we jumped down to the jumbotron, something we did hundreds of times now. We jumped into the stadium and then swung down to where the locker rooms were.

We needed to find where this meeting was going to take place and make sure that nothing happened to our boys. Sneaking through the halls was easy, making up an excuse as to why you were here and who we were was the hard part, if we ever got caught.

It actually wasn’t that bad knowing that the owner of the Penguins was a spirit. I hadn’t known at the time, but Mario Lemieux had bought the team in out of bankruptcy in 1999, and then played for them until this year. I had met Mario a while back; I wanted to make myself known and to tell him that I posed no threat to him. He was very helpful by ‘leaving the back door opened’, and giving us records of the other players to make sure that they were safe.

Luka and I heard guys walking through the halls and quickly tucked behind the wall and watched as they walked down the hall, completely not noticing us, ‘…Humans…’

“Maybe we should follow them, I think they were players,” Luka muttered and I nodded my head.

We snuck down the hall and found the boys heading into a large room that looked like a press conference room. I sniffed the air and sensed Sidney and Evgeni coming and around to find a place to hide while this meeting went on.

Luka grabbed my hand and then pulled me into the room that was next to the one that everyone was heading towards, ‘…Nice one…’

We had to have been in that room for at least an hour. We listened to everyone talk to each other and try to communicate with Evgeni. Apparently there was another Russian on his team, a human, his name was Sergei Gonchar, and he offered to help teach Evgeni English.

“Thank god,” I muttered and Luka smirked.

The meeting was over and everyone was heading out. Luka and I waited until everyone was gone before we left the room and headed back out towards the ice and jumped back onto the jumbotron, making sure to look around to see if anyone was there first. We climbed through the roof and then headed over towards where the cars were parked and snuck into the backseat of our cars.

“Hello Isabella,” Evgeni said in his broken English and I smiled at the fact that he didn’t have to even look at me to know I was there.

“Hello,” I muttered as I sat up and looked to see that Anton was smiling towards me, “Let’s get out of here.”

“All right,” he said and then started the car and followed Sidney back to home.

‘…He’s definitely not like Sidney. He’s actually connected with his spirit…’