The Hockey Mom

Kate walked back towards the stands and stood in front of the other parents, her lack of undergarments very noticeable to her because of her wetness and the way the air got colder the closer you were to the ice. Kate stood near the boards, rather than sitting down and risking giving anyone a Basic Instinct moment and surveyed the ice. The Bantams were good, not great this year. None of the boys had gotten very big and the most talented forward, Colby Cavanaugh, was a boy who often had trouble keeping his head in the game. The Cavanaughs were neighbours and Colby's mother had often complained to Kate over coffee that her son couldn't keep his mind on anything for longer than a minute, often simply stopping to day dream. Before, Kate had told his mother to not worry, that he was a sweet, funny boy who just might not be cut out for the game. Now, Kate decided bitterly as she watched the game, she hated Colby Cavanaugh with a fiery passion. He was just a scatter brained slacker who wasted his talent.

Ellisburg's boys were bigger and they dominated the Badgers through most of the third. Every second that ticked from the scoreboard while the Badgers were behind almost making Kate scream in frustration. Worse, they committed all manner of hooks and holds. As much as Kate hated Colby Cavanaugh, she hated the refs even more.

"God damnit, un-keester your whistles and call a penalty!" Kate yelled at the 17 year old volunteers who were officiating the game. This mild cursing bringing a bit of surprise from the crowd.

"Gosh, Kate," said Dave Richards, a heavy set man who'd had a son who'd played with Kate's twins. "You didn't even swear the time that player from South Dixon broke Casper's wrist with that slash. What's got you so fired up?"

"Just...." Kate composed herself a bit, smiling at Dave but still feeling that electricity inside her. "I hate lousy reffing."

"Tell me about it, remember that game..."

But Dave's words were interrupted by a gasp from the crowd. One of Ellisburg's defenders had caught Colby Cavanaugh with a heavy check, sending him crashing against the boards. It was a clean check and Colby seemed unhurt though, so play soon resumed. When it did though, something changed. Whether he was angered by it or it'd simply knocked something loose, Colby Cavanaugh came to life. He stole the puck off of an Ellisburg player and burst through the zone, effortlessly weaving around defenders with a long, easy stride. He tucked it into the top shelf, over the goalie's glove. The score was 4-2 now, and the Badgers still had some time. Colby wasn't finished. He remained out for the face-off and won it, kicking it to a line-mate who passed it back to him. Colby scored an almost easier goal, just wristing through the goalie's legs as soon as he gained the zone. 4-3. Kate practically squealed with excitement and looked at the scoreboard. It was 4-3 with five minutes to go.

Kate felt herself nervously biting her nails the way she did when her boys had played a big game. She was embarrassed by it but this game, that she barely cared about an hour before, now seemed like the most important game of hockey she'd ever watched in her life.

Colby Cavanaugh was not to be denied. He scored again two minutes later, on a blistering slapshot that rivalled any Kate could remember coming from Riley and, at the last all-star game, Riley's shot had been clocked at almost a hundred miles an hour. Kate practically thought the net might tear as the puck flew in. Kate, along with the rest of the crowd, roared.

The mood in the crowd lightened. Everyone else, clearly, would have taken a come-back like that to tie the score as a great achievement for the boys. Especially over their rivals from Ellisburg. Kate wouldn't. Andrea hadn't said tie. She'd said win. And so, as Kate watched scoreboard keep ticking down, she was as nervous as ever. It would be too cruel to come so close and to be denied on a technicality. The rink announcer's voice rang out, saying it was the last minute of the game, and Kate practically cried. Especially when Ellisburg kept the Badgers hemmed up in their defensive zone for the first 30 seconds. Now Kate was almost hoping for a tie. That it might be good enough to convince Andrea to have a little compassion. She saw the clock tick down. 30 seconds, then 25, then 20. Kate felt like strangling someone.

But then something remarkable happened. Ellisburg passed it from defenseman to defenseman dangerously and Colby Cavanaugh burst free, intercepting the puck and tearing down the ice, a clear path to the goal. Kate looked at the clock, 15 seconds. Her last chance.

Colby skated hard at the enemy net, Ellisburg's goalie played the breakaway perfectly by skating out before backing up as Colby skated closer. Colby got into the slot and faked hard to his backhand, the goalie moving with him, then to his forehand and the goalie stayed there too. Then, with practically no room to move, Colby went back to his backhand and the Goalie stayed frozen. Colby lifted the puck past the goalie's blocker into the top of the net with such force that the goalie's water bottle went flying. There were only two seconds on the clock when he tossed his gloves up in the air in wild celebration. The crowd leaped to its feet, furiously applauding, whistling and cheering. None of them were louder than Kate, banging her fists against the glass and practically screaming. Colby's team mates piled on him before they took the last face-off and the last two seconds ran off the clock without incident. Kate was busy thanking whatever goddess had done her the favour as the two teams shook hands and made their way off the ice. Kate made her way to the exit, getting there just as the Badgers were getting off the ice and headed to the locker rooms. She saw that she'd be getting there just as Colby Cavanaugh got off the ice. The Mayor was already there, excitedly patting the team on the back and proclaiming it a wonderful game. Kate reached into her purse for her car keys and wallet.

"God, you wonderful, wonderful boy," Kate said as she eagerly and excitedly pressed the entire cash contents of her wallet into Colby Cavanaugh's hockey glove. It was several hundred dollars. "Go buy yourself an X-box."

Colby looked down into his hand and his eyes bulged.

"Really Mrs. Stew?" He smiled broadly. Kate ruffled his hair. She loved the sweet, spacey boy again.

"Buy two!" she called as she left the celebrating players behind, making her way for the glass doors.

"We're really not supposed to do that, Kate!" the Mayor said, calling out to her vainly, as she was practically running to her car.

Chapter 4.

It was January now, the middle of the season. Kate and Andrea's relationship had never relented, not for a second. Doug was out of town now so often and Andrea's father worked late so frequently that the two were naked in each others arms at least three or four times a week. Despite that, it was never predictable, Andrea would often happen upon Kate in the rink and drag her to some deserted room where the two would hungrily go at each other. Kate would get text messages and emails at all hours, telling her to either be ready for Andrea to arrive in a few minutes or to get into her car and drive over promptly.

Once, with Doug and Kelsey asleep upstairs, Kate had been hungrily eaten by Andrea while sitting on top of her washing machine, those same silken pyjamas flung carelessly in the corner. Kate loved every spare second of it. She never asked Andrea for anything, she just waited for the calls and texts and reacted excitedly and obeyed them to the letter. In fact, even as she would video chat with her sons, Kate found herself hoping for the alert that Andrea would come online and she might get another message.

That was what she was doing now. Parker was the son this time. He'd just been suspended for 5 games by the League for another disciplinary problem and Kate was half-heartedly upbraiding her son as she glumly looked at the grey little icon telling her that Andrea was off-line.

"You just can't do things like that Parker," Kate sighed. In his previous game, Parker had challenged a player to a fight who'd refused. Rather than accepting the refusal as was the custom, Parker had simply punched the player in the face, knocking him senseless to the ice.

"Come on," Parker said angrily. Kate idly marveled at how different her twins had chosen to look. Unlike Casper's clean cut look, Parker had an unruly mop of black hair as well as a 70's style handlebar moustache. Kate thought he looked ridiculous with it but she knew that the look had made him a fan favourite. "Did you see the way that piece of crap went after Pierre's knees?"

"You can't just hit people, baby," Kate said. She did want him to act better but couldn't help but smile a little. Despite his being a handful, Kate never could stay mad at Parker. As rough as he'd been around the house, he could not have been a more fiercely protective brother. When Casper had gotten his wrist broken with a slash, Parker had broken the offending player's nose. When Kelsey had come back from a date with a boy from school, her sweater torn and crying because he'd gotten too grabby, Parker had been furious. Kate and Doug had been called into the school the next day to meet with the boy's parents and, after some discussion, agreed to pay for the significant dental work Parker had ensured he'd need. He was a goon, Kate smiled, but he was her goon.

"Eh, screw that Swedish faggot if he can't take a punch," Parker said, causing Kate to again veer from loving him to wanting to smack him.

"Parker Stanley Stewart!" Kate exclaimed "I don't know what made you think that sort of language is acceptable but it most certainly is not."

"He is from Sweden!" Parker explained "I checked!"

"The other word you used, Parker," Kate continued, rolling her eyes.

"Oh."

"I don't ever want to hear you saying it or that you did say it, do you hear me?" Kate continued

"Jeez, mom. Don't blow a gasket. Alright," Parker said "What's the big deal?"

"That's an incredibly, hateful hurtful word and we certainly didn't raise you to hate anyone."

"Wow, ok. Fine," Parker held up his hands in surrender. "Didn't know the PC police were here."

"It's not that Parker. But you use that language and you don't know who you might really hurt."

"I don't think he's really gay, mom."

"But you don't know who is or isn't," Kate said "You'd be surprised to learn who's gay."

"Okay. Who's gay that I know besides Casper?" Parker smiled. Kate frowned again. She wanted to say "Me" but, well, she didn't know if that was true. She hadn't labelled herself one thing or the other. She was in a lesbian relationship though.

"Well, there's....." Kate paused, not wanting to out herself to her son but wanting to make the point. She strained to think of who Parker knew that was gay. "There's Mr. Alexander in town."

"Really mom?" Parker said sarcastically "The guy who owns your hair salon? Who brings his boyfriend to the movies? He's gay? You're turning my whole world upside down here."

Kate wanted to slap Parker again.

"Jesus Mom, who cares about that stuff? I just use it to mean, you know, a pussy."

Kate frowned harder.

"Ok, synonyms I'm not allowed to use for 'weak' are both the f-word and the p-word," Parker said

"I raised you better than that, Parker," Kate kept at it.

"Yes mom, you did," Parker nodded, wearily but sincerely "I don't care who anyone else wants to sleep with. Do you really think that If Casper really were gay I'd feel a tiny bit differently about him? He's family. End of story. Unconditional love and acceptance and all your movie of the week stuff."

Kate smiled at that. She knew he meant every word and, though Parker didn't know it, that comforted her greatly. She loved Parker very, very much. She still wanted him to behave better though.

"And if someone called him that word?"

"I'd make sure the next time they did it was mumbled through a wired jaw," Parker explained, same patient smile on his face "We good?"

"That Swedish boy has a mother, Parker."

"Soapboxes were on sale at the market today I see," Parker rolled his eyes.

"Just smarten up, baby. Love you," Kate said

"Bye mom," Parker said with a little wave.

Kate sighed. It'd been a conversation that was both frustrating but re-assuring. She made one final check to see that Andrea was off-line and then collected herself. Parker's crack about soapboxes had reminded her that she needed to get to the supermarket today. She got up from the computer, checked her hair a little in the mirror, and headed down to dig out the car from the snow.

She was on the road a few minutes later. In her mind she was thinking about the brief moment she'd had where she'd wanted to tell her son she was gay. She'd become more and more attracted to women over the last few months. Her sexual attraction for men, which had always been entirely limited to hockey players, was fading. She now found herself fantasizing about women she'd see in movies and on TV. She flirted with cute salesgirls when clothes shopping.

I never would do anything with them, Kate thought as she idly fingered the necklace Andrea had given her, but the thought is nice.

The thing was, Kate harboured no illusions about her relationship with Andrea. It was romantic only in the vaguest sense of the world. She didn't love Andrea. Well, she did, but in the same way she'd always loved the girl she'd helped raise. Their conversations weren't any different now that they were fucking. She still fretted over her and worried about her getting too skinny. It was just frequent, exhilarating sex. Sex where Kate felt incredible release at the way that Andrea would order her around and take her when and how she wanted. Kate had looked that up online too and, after spending some more time masturbating to what she found, decided that made her a "sub". For a woman whose last twenty years had been all about making precise schedules to be at specific places at specific times to ensure everyone in her family got where and what they needed, it was such a tremendous release to simply get to be told what to do. To lie back and take what Andrea gave her. She knew Andrea was leaving in a few months for Harvard, knew they wouldn't be together forever. She was just thrilled by the relationship and even kind of appreciated its built-in expiration date. She'd want to keep dating women but thought it would be best that, when she told her family about that, it didn't also come with the discussion concerning her daughter's best friend.

Kate checked her phone as she pulled into the Supermarket parking lot to see if Andrea had called or texted and, disappointed to find she hadn't, got out of the car and held her coat tight around her. It was a mild winter but, for Port Ferry, that just meant that you didn't need a snowmobile to get into town. She walked towards the store quickly to get out of the cold and, despite its heated confines, kept her tight and bundled coat on as she began making her way around the store, cart in hand. She got most of the things on her list and was making her way to the front of the store when she was stopped by the sound of her name.

"Mrs. Stewart! I thought I recognized you."

It was Ms Michaels, Lucy, Kate remembered. She was a new teacher over at the high school and had Kelsey in her Art class. She was fresh out of teacher's college, couldn't have been more than 25 years old. She was beautiful too. Long brown hair and with skin so creamy and smooth you'd have thought she had stepped right out of a Moisturizer commercial on TV. A gorgeous body to boot. Almost impossibly busty and curved. Very much the kind of woman Kate would have found herself immensely attracted to if it weren't for the fact that Kate's attention was entirely focused on one thing that the two women had in common.

"Nice necklace." Kate said, staring at one that was identical to her own. Kate's was hidden under the high collar of her coat and tucked into her sweater. Lucy Michaels fingered it and smiled. Kate knew the smile. It was the very same one she'd smile when she'd touch the necklace.

"Thanks. A gift from a friend." Lucy Michaels smiled dreamily. So did Kate. "I wanted to ask you, Mrs. Stewart, if Kelsey had mentioned that we were doing a showing of the students works next week? Some really great stuff."

Kate barely heard her. She was staring at the necklace.

"What? Oh yes," Kate said, her mind trying to process the information. "I'll be there."

"Great," Lucy said as she checked her phone and frowned. "See you then."

Kate turned to watch her leave admiring, for a second, her gorgeous backside. But Kate needed to get out of the supermarket. She left her cart in the aisle and ran out to her car, opening the door and slamming it shut behind her. She sat there for a second. Her mind was spinning. She didn't feel bad. She thought of herself as belonging to Andrea, she never had thought of Andrea belonging to her. The fact that Andrea might have other women who felt the same way, while a shock, felt no more like cheating on her than what Doug had did.

Kate had rushed from the store because, as she stood and stared at Kelsey's teacher, she'd felt herself getting wetter and wetter. She thought about Andrea breaking Lucy the way she broke her. Fucking her in the classroom maybe. She thought about how Lucy's breasts must have looked, how they must have heaved as Andrea fucked her to orgasm and Kate pulled off her coat. Kate unbuttoned her jeans as she thought that, right now, Andrea might be breaking some other woman out there. Kate wondered who it might be as her fingers worked under the waistband of her panties. Every woman from town that Kate had herself fantasized about in her head now, each of them on the receiving end of one of Andrea's hard, vicious fuckings or slow, soft teasing ones.

She was frigging her clit rapidly when she settled on someone. Maria D'Angelis was new to town. She was twenty-seven and a newlywed and had joined the neighbourhood book club in order to meet people. She had olive skin and gorgeous lips and in Kate's mind she was naked on her living room floor, begging Andrea to eat her faster. She thought of Maria groaning as Andrea slipped one, then two, then three fingers inside her. Remembered the way it'd felt when Andrea had done it to her and then Kate relived the experience by doing the same thing to herself, fucking herself wildly. Kate wished she could see it. Hear the groans that Maria made in her cute little accent. She thought about how Maria must look when she cums and, at that moment, Kate came herself, feeling her cunt spasm and squeeze around her fingers.

Kate screamed in her car, satisfied and drained. The orgasm had felt like something that just desperately needed to leave her body and she'd worked as fast as she could to get it out. Kate realized that, prior to Andrea, even masturbating could take a while. Now Kate knew just what would set her off. Kate rested her head against the cold steering wheel while she caught her breath and, when her thoughts returned to her, hoped that they hadn't emptied the grocery cart she'd left inside.

Chapter 5.

"And you say Kelsey's at Mary-Anne's?" Doug asked, his phone coming in very clearly on the new cordless phones.

"Yes. Mary-Anne. You remember," Kate said, each word coming out ragged and with exertion.

"Are you ok, Katie?" Doug asked, along with her father the only one in the world to still call her that.

"Fine. Back. Hurts. Doctor tomorrow." she kept at it, straining to contain herself.

"Ok, honey. But there's something I want to say. Something that I've been feeling for a long time and that I think you need to hear."