Tournament Fugee by Dirk Mclean

Author:Dirk Mclean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lorimer
Published: 2017-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

10

Where Soccer Takes You

The last time Victor was at Pearson International Airport, his family was arriving in Canada. That was at nighttime. Victor looked around at the morning travellers in the brightly lit terminal. He felt somewhat alone even though he was with a different family, a sports family. He now understood Coach Bridge’s decision to travel a day early. He recalled last year’s TV news coverage of March Break. The stories of thousands of people at airports and flight delays. March Break Madness, they had called it. They were able to avoid that.

Outside snow was falling, but it was not storming. Victor hoped he had seen the last of that winter.

They boarded the WestJet plane with no fuss. No one was left behind. Nothing had to be taken away by security. Everyone followed airport rules.

And then the plane took off. Clouds, clouds and more clouds! That was all Victor saw from his window seat. Dani snored beside him while the others bobbed their heads listening to music or watched an in-flight movie.

Victor worked on a drawing in a new sketchbook Mom had packed in his carry-on bag. In it, Coach Bridge’s eyes were looking up as if seeing the soccer ball balanced on top of his groomed hair. But Victor’s thoughts were not really on the sketch. They were on the things Islam stood for, including peace, tolerance and forgiveness. His mind focused on Randy Harris and the way he had kicked Victor to make that goal. If that goal had not been allowed the Tigers might have made the playoffs and —

Victor had been angry at Randy Harris over the past few weeks. Now he silently forgave him. It surprised him that he felt no anger at Randy.

Wow! That felt easy, Victor thought, easier than when I had that fight with Ozzie last September and we had to apologize to each other in front of Principal Arsenault. Because of Randy Harris’s wrongdoing, Victor was on a plane to play soccer for a whole week, against Syrian players from all parts of Canada.

Later, the plane descended and the snowy Rocky Mountains came into view. The ragged peaks reminded Victor of Syria. Lower, still, the city began to take shape. Sunlight flooded skyscrapers, homes, vehicles moving like insects, greenery and the ocean. The plane finally bounced onto land at Vancouver International Airport.

The Gazelles collected their luggage. Just outside the luggage claim hall, they were greeted by the local organizers of the Syrian Soccer Youth Thank You Canada Tournament.

The Gazelles were taken to the grounds of University of British Columbia, or UBC. They arrived at the newly renovated National Soccer Development Centre, called NSDC.

“If you want to make soccer your career, NSDC is the sports temple, sports mosque, sports church, sports Mecca,” said one of the organizers, Mr. Sanders, chuckling. “Home of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC development program.”

I’m not thinking that far ahead in my career, thought Victor. But it’s good to know.

The air was fresh with a cool breeze. Victor found the contrast with the freezing winds back home magical.

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