A Call Home

[OblivionWalker 246]

Slava Kovalenko's fingers drummed lightly on the table in front of him as he waited for his mother to answer his FaceTime call. The family had decided to gather at his dido and baba's house this Sunday, which would make it easy for Slava to check in with his grandparents as he always did on Sundays and also be able to talk to his family. His brother Sergei wouldn't be there but as he was a pilot, he was always coming and going, and Slava usually texted with him when both of them could spare a moment.

 

His mother was a nurse, and his older sister Irina had recently gotten her R.N. license, which the entire family was proud of her for, and Anya was currently in her studies, planning to go into nursing as well.

 

His call was finally answered, and Slava smiled brightly when he saw his family clustered around his mother, all of them waving and he waved back. "There's the VHLM's power play goals leader!" Anya said and Slava shook his fair head, already flushing at his sister's words.

 

"There's still a lot of season left to go, Anya." He pointed out and she rolled her eyes, her favorite response when she thought he was being too modest.

 

"You're still the leader right now and you're also in the top ten for a few other things too, Slava." she pointed out. "You're doing really well in your first full season in the M and we're all proud of you."

 

Even though playing hockey had been his dream from the time he was young, there had been so many things in his path that had felt like he was trying to be dissuaded from that route in life. But perhaps all of those challenges had been laid before him so that he had the fortitude to keep pushing for it anyway. Going pro was something that so many others dreamed of as well but not everyone would be able to achieve it in the end. Slava was cautiously optimistic that he would be one of those to make it to the VHL proper, like so many of the players he had grown up admiring.

 

"That means a lot to me." Slava said softly and it truly did. His family had always been in his corner, even when it had been hard for him to keep the faith in his plans.

 

"How's River?" his baba asked, arching an eyebrow and Slava's face ended up a rather rich tomato red as his family hooted and whistled at him.

 

"He's good. Things aren't going Ottawa's way, but he'll keep pushing. I know him." Slava said simply and it was the truth. He knew River's work ethic but these days, he was also coming to know River in a completely new way as well and his delight in that was evident, even though he was also embarrassed as hell that his baba would call him out like that.

 

"Hopefully you can see him soon." Irina said sympathetically and Slava smiled faintly. "I've already got a countdown going on my phone. It can't come soon enough for me."

 

That was the truth of the matter and Slava was always going to be honest about that, especially since he was talking to the ones he cherished the most (apart from River, naturally).

 

They asked him about his Hounds teammates, how his GM was and other such things before Slava took note of the time. "I'm going to need to get going to the rink pretty soon." he said, and his family let him go with well wishes and hopes that his game would go well.

 

Getting to his feet, Slava sent a short text to River, wishing him well for his own game and even though he knew he could, Slava still couldn't keep his face from going a bit red when he included a kissing face emoji. So many things were new for him now, but he was going to do his best to enjoy all of it and do what he could for the Hounds.

 

(word count: 684)