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- Story Listed as: True Life For Teens
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Life Changing Decisions/Events
- Published: 04/29/2024
Danny Boy
EEEK! EEEK! EEEK! EEEK! I jumped at the sound of my alarm, screaming “I’m awake! I’m awake!” It was still dark out, and the confusion started to settle in. It is Saturday, why on earth is my dad making me get up before the sun, I thought to myself. I crawled out of my warm inviting bed and walked down the hall to the bathroom. I never turn the lights on when I wake up, it just hurts my eyes. I sat there in the dark letting my anger fester, “who wakes up at 5:30 AM on a Saturday, this is so dumb, I kept mumbling to myself.”
I finally mustered up the courage to turn the lights on and wrap my rat’s nest of hair into a ponytail, I brushed my teeth, put on my warm-up suit, and sat in the car. My dad was already there, car running, heat on, waiting for me. “Finally,” he released with a sigh, “we’re going to be late.” “LATE?!” I thought to myself, how could we possibly be late, the whole world must be asleep.
My dad drove the familiar roads, I grew up traveling. They seemed so different in the dark. It is hard to find the familiar landmarks that guide me to my favorite place. We pulled into the parking lot, I must have been to a thousand times, but never this early. My dad pulled around the carpool circle and slammed the car into park. “Alright kid have fun.” I just sat there staring in disbelief, “YOU MEAN YOU’RE LEAVING?” With every ounce of teenage attitude in my body, I grabbed my gear and slammed the car door. “I guess I'm alone then” I mumbled.
I fearfully walked up to the wall of glass doors and opened the left one. To my surprise I was met with people running all over, kids screaming, babies crying; where did all these people come from, I wonder, why is everyone awake at 6 am. They were there for what would become my most favorite Saturday tradition. Baltimore Saints special needs ice hockey team.
I got my skates laced up and my helmet on and hit the ice, the head coach, Pinky, pointed at me and said “You, take Danny!” I noticed that all the experienced coaches skated away when he approached the ice, Pinky, then whispered to me “Be careful, sometimes Danny has meltdowns, and he will kick you with his skate.” I remember thinking, oh gee perfect, this should end with a giant gash and a trip to the emergency room. But Pinky didn’t know how well Danny and I would bond that day or how Danny and I would become inseparable for the next 4 seasons of hockey.
Danny had Autism, and he struggled to communicate in a typical way. He wanted to do what he wanted to do, and hockey was not something that he wanted to do. His dad felt that it was a good way for him to learn how to be a part of something bigger than himself and to socialize with kids who were like him. Danny wanted all of those things too, he just wasn’t sold on skating in all that heavy uncomfortable gear.
Danny just wanted to play, I could tell that by the second or third practice, noticing how he laughed and threw himself sliding into the neutral zone. I started to learn some things about his interests from his dad and I learned that he LOVED the movie Shrek. We spent that very next practice playing Shrek. He would be the Knight that ultimately would save the princess, me, from the Dragon, who was Pinky. That practice was the first one without tears, and could it be the laughter we were hearing? We all looked at each other in disbelief and that next practice, Danny came running in, wearing his hockey helmet, ready to get on the ice. From then on hockey was one of his favorite things to do and he even started to say some different hockey terms. And we never did stop hearing that laugh or playing our game, not until I had to move away to college.
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Marla
05/23/2024
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