Chapter 24

Elia stood on the edge of a dock, looking into a sun rising over the peak of a canyon. Lake Powell sat atop the border of Utah and Arizona. It had been made by the damning of the Colorado River in 1963. It snaked through sandstone and shale, carving out canyons and arches, including Utah's famous Rainbow Bridge. The water was dark and blue, choppy with waves and seemingly infinite in depth. She watched as a jetski approached from the North, small on the horizon then larger and larger. Louder and louder. Elia was surprised to see blonde hair and blue eyes. That wasn't Paul.
“Hey little lady, you called for a ride?”
“Stammy?!” Elia called out to Steven Stamkos.
“Yeah, I was voted the only one sober enough to ride the jet ski. Out of the two other people awake.”
“Are you serious?” She asked as she leaned off the dock on to the jetski behind him. “Do I need a life jacket to ride this?” She asked cautiously. He wasn't wearing one either.
“Damn, I knew I forgot something,” He laughed. If he was the most sober one on the boat, Elia wasn't sure she wanted to see the rest of the crew.
“What about Abby Sharp?” She asked, concerned. Steven laughed again.
“Oh, all the girls took the smaller boat and headed up to see the Arch, they've already had enough of our shit. Yeah, they took off.” He laughed and started to tell Elia what had been going on the first two days. Night one started off fine. The boats were anchored close to the dock as they awaited everyone's arrival, and set sail around six (they weren't sail boats but Elia didn't correct him). They headed away from the dock across the lake for about twenty minutes, and then tied all the boats together to create a party barge. Dinner was really nice, everyone was getting along, throwing back brews and chilling. The next morning some of the couples went kayaking and came back around noon. That was when the trouble started. Up on the top deck Biz challenged several guys to a shotgunning contest. Nobody could beat Paul in a beer shotgun, he had a rare talent. First it was best of one round, then best of three, then best of five. A few rounds into the challenge Brent Seabrook brought out the wrestling belt and said a true champion wrestled, a true champion didn't shotgun. First it was one round of wrestling, then it was best of three, then it turned into boxing. When they started to get out of hand Abby and Dayna tried to get them to settle down. Instead of settling down Brent told Dayna to walk the plank, except they didn't have a plank, so he picked her up and carried her to the end of the boat and threw her overboard.
“So that was when the women decided to leave.” Steven concluded.
“Oh dear lord...” Elia said. They were coming up on the houseboats. One boat had a Blackhawks' flag flying, the other had a Coyotes flag with cross bones drawn over the coyote. The name of the boat they could see had been spray painted over. ““Another Payment” had been partially crossed out and just said “Another Crawford's Nuts”. That didn't even make sense, Elia thought. There was a spot on the back of each boat where two jetskis could be docked. They had a hard landing, slamming into the other jetski and almost falling in between them. A guy with long brown hair offered his hand in helping come aboard. He introduced himself as Erik Karlsson. Biz had invited him. Anyone who was awake was upstairs on the deck. They walked through to the front of the boat, passing small rooms with bunkbeds, where a small step ladder led to a mid level deck with a table and a grill, and up one more small set of steps was another deck with lawn chairs. Several guys were slumped in chairs drinking coffee or beer, or something out of cups. They looked up as Erik, Steven and Elia climbed the steps. Paul, Toews and Sharp. Jonathan stood immediately to give Elia a big welcoming hug. As they pulled apart Elia surveyed the other men. Sharpie was reading a magazine. Paul was sharpening a stick with a knife. Elia walked over to him and grabbed his hands, pulling him out of his chair.
“You've gone all Apocalypse Now, huh? I'm only two days late! Why would you spray paint the boat! We're going to lose the security deposit,” She yelled, giving him a hug, regardless.
“These were your exact words when I booked the boats El, 'My black card, they don't decline that,' I don't know how else you expected me to take that.” He replied, completely serious.
“I meant that in like a rapper song lyric way... Well fuck Paul, why didn't you just buy us our own boats then?” He furrowed his brow, thinking. “No, no, I don't mean that literally,” she added.
“Here.” Jonathan had gotten up and brought her a mug of coffee. She turned towards him, thanking him. Elia pulled up a lawn chair next to Jonny, set down her backpack and started to drink her coffee. She glanced at Toews. He was actually drinking a beer, not a protein shake smoothie thing.
“Hey, I brought something I thought you might be interested in reading.” She said to him as she opened her backpack.
“Yeah?”
She handed him the script she had been reading, “How I Live Now”. He opened it to the first page.
“You can just...ignore my notes. I...sorry, I like to write on stuff I read. I think I am going to produce it, and I would love to get your take on it.” She smiled at him.
“Yeah, thanks. I'll definitely read it. Hey, you know, the guy at the boat rental place was telling me about this little canyon you can find if you kayak through some plants. It's kind of hidden. Do you want to check it out with me later?”
“For sure.”
As the morning progressed, more people started to wake up and come upstairs or over from the other boat. Paul explained to her that this boat was the party boat, and the other boat was for people that wanted to go to sleep before two. Duncs, Seabs, one of the Staals, Elia couldn't tell them apart, she didn't know who invited him, Crow, Frolik, Hammer, Marcus Kruger, a couple guys Elia didn't recognize. There were several people she didn't know, probably friends with Biz. She wanted to see Patrick. After he didn't come up for a while, she got up and went downstairs to find him. He was laying on his back on top of a bottom bunk bed wearing jeans and shoes but no shirt. She lay down next to him.
“Patty?” She nudged him. He rolled onto his side and opened his eyes a tiny bit. “Hey, El...” He put both his arms around her and she leaned in close to his chest. “I missed you,” She said softly. “Missed you too El,” he said back, half asleep. He wasn't ready to talk or get up, so they fell asleep for another hour.
When they finally got up Crawford was making pancakes, eggs and bacon. Maybe it was a calm in the middle of the storm, but everyone seemed to be acting fine, contrary to Stamkos' story. Seabrook, Keith and Sharp were planning on going walleye fishing. The Staal was going with them. Crawford and Kruger were planning to jetski out to find the women's boat. New guy was supposed to go get more supplies.
“Who is this new guy anyways?” Elia asked.
“Andrew Shaw, we just drafted him, don't you pay attention anymore?” Patrick asked, disappointed. She had been too focused on other things to realize what was going on for the rest of the NHL.
They finished breakfast and Elia and Jon went downstairs to pack lunches for their kayak excursion. Sandwiches, chips, chopped vegetables (Jon's idea), and cheese and crackers (Elia's idea). They packed the lunches and some water bottles into the kayaks, along with a couple beers. Sunscreen was the last thing on the to-do list and they were ready to go. They set off across the lake towards the canyon wall, which they planned to follow south. The man in the boat shop had told Jonny that there would be a swath of thick reeds, but if they paddled through they would find a narrow canyon.
The red wall looked impenetrable, no matter how close they got they couldn't see an opening. They did come to a large area of water brush, however, and started kayaking through. After about ten minutes of paddling it seemed like they were getting nowhere. Elia wondered aloud if they should go back, but Jonathan wanted to persevere. It took nearly twenty minutes to get through the rest of the reeds, but eventually they started seeing a bend in the canyon wall. Elia's arms were burning from the sudden exercise. Finally they were in clear water again, and headed towards the stone. There was a small creek cutting through the rock.
They headed into it, turning as it bent away from the lake cutting off the view of the outside world. The water was clear here, and they could follow the red rock down into the water for at least ten feet. The walls of the canyon rose around them, and the water way was only about twenty feet wide. Elia imagined that they were the first people that had ever been down there, although that was probably not true. The water wound left and right, back further and further from the lake. It felt like they had been kayaking forever when they came to a wider opening with sandy shore on either side. Elia turned back to Toews, asking he wanted to land and check out the terrain on foot. They pulled the kayaks up on the small beach and started to walk. The sand was soft, saturated with water and eerily bouncing. They ran off the beach, jumping into the water and swimming. Elia sent a splash towards Toews face but he pushed her under water. To dry they lay out on the sand, basking in the sun.
“I'm glad you're taking a break for once, you deserve it.” Elia said, still facing the sun with her eyes closed. Toews sighed.
“Yeah, something like that.” He seemed a little down, more moody than he normally was. Elia wondered if it was just because they were knocked out of the playoffs so early or if it was something else. She didn't ask. They sat up and ate their lunch.
Behind them the rock sloped up less severely than the rest of the canyon, and they decided to try climbing up to the top. The shale was lined with ridges, telling the tale of thousands of years of erosion and water level changes. Some areas were cut apart where large chunks of wall had fallen. It made for great hand and foot holds. They reached the top and looked out, tracing the path they had come in on and looking in the distance towards the lake. Behind them was an endless plain of red rock.
“It's so desolate but so beautiful at the same time.” Elia said. Toews didn't respond, and when Elia looked over to him he was staring at her. As soon as he realized she was looking back he looked down. “I think we should go back to the boat now.” He turned and started to climb back down the wall before she could even respond. The kayak ride back was even more strenuous. When they were finally past the reeds they had to paddle against the wind and against the waves. Toews kept ahead of her and didn't say anything else until they got back to boat, where he declared he was going to the “turn down” boat to read for a while. As he walked past her to get to the other boat Kane was walking towards her from the other direction. Shaw and a blonde girl followed behind him. At least one person had been retrieved from the women's boat. Patrick introduced Andrew and Chaunette and told Elia they were going cliff jumping, and asked if she wanted to go too. Obviously she did.
The four didn't return until dinner time. After kayaking and swimming almost all day, Elia was exhausted and ready for some brews. Crawford was cooking again, grilling burgers and hotdogs, and a couple fish that Duncan and Sharp had brought back. Elia and Pat sat down in the lawn chair circle with some beers. A small table had been set up in the middle and the guys were playing card drinking games. They stopped playing for a moment to work Elia and Pat into the game. Elia sat with her feet up on her chair and her knees on the arm rest. After a few rounds, Paul suddenly made everyone put the cards down and started talking.
"Okay I'm going to address this elephant in the room. El what the fuck are you doing with Brad Marchand?"
"Biz, come on." Elias face revealed nothing, but her hands started fidgeting with the seams on her sandal straps.
"No, I'm actually worried about you, this guy is a piece of shit."
"You don't even know him." Elia answered quickly, as if she had rehearsed the scenario in her head. She looked down at her feet.
"I know he's a dirty player that takes cheap shots, so yeah it's not going out on a limb to say he's a piece of shit."
She put her feet down on the floor of the boat.
"It's not his fault if that's the way the game of hockey works," She said. Several of the guys started shaking their heads.
"El, come on, we taught you better than that, that's not the game." Pat said, frowning.
"Can we just drop this, please?" Elia asked, breaking her composure. She knew there would be disapproval of her relationship but she hadn't expected an intervention style attack. Nobody spoke for a while, everyone watched the sun going down over the canyons, casting a grey shadow over the vibrant red earth. Paul wasn't done though.
"Sorry I just really don't get it, I met some of your exes on that island. Emile and that Mexican dude Gael? They were cool dudes, intelligent and creative and into like activism and crap and... Ok let's look at it this way, maybe Brads not a bad guy, but you deserve so much more--"

"Yeah, you think they're such cool guys? I didn't break up with them, they dumped me and now they're both dating models, so maybe you should talk to them about what I deserve." Elia got up from her chair and walked downstairs, and across to the other boat. She took her cell phone out of her pocket. There were no new texts or calls from Brad, but the cell service in the lake was pretty bad. She wondered what he was doing, and wished he could have been there. “Hey,” a voice called from the door. Elia looked up at Chaunette. “Do you want me to take you to the other boat?” She asked sheepishly. Elia nodded, and the two headed to the jetskis after grabbing Elia's backpack.

Notes