Chapter 3... Graeme Learns To Play Hockey
Graeme MURRAY
When Graeme was three he was adventurous, he left his home and was taken in by a great Gravenhurst family. When Graeme was 11 he began to miss the colony of beavers that found him. So, Graeme began searching for a comfortable compliment to the life he now lived. At school he made friends, but it lacked a certain quality that Graeme could not express. On a cool Fall day Graeme was wandering in the bush behind his now childhood home. He noted the leaves as their colours changed, the birds as their chirps warned of upcoming cold weather. Graeme came upon a swamp he was not familiar with. In the swamp he swam and he felt free. Graeme introduced himself to a new colony of beavers that made their home in the swamp. He wanted to belong, but was turned away. Graeme felt betrayed, he felt he was one of them, but they could not see it. He had never been treated this way before... In tears Graeme went home.
Graeme told his Gravenhurst mother all about the beavers in the swamp and how they turned him away because they could not see him as one of their own. Graeme's mom held him tight and said to him "we will find you somewhere to belong".
Soon after, it was only a distant memory. Graeme was brought to a hockey rink in the city. He was familiar with the building and its function, but never paid much attention to the people inside. On the ice he saw for the first time a game of sledge hockey being played. Graeme smiled. He saw people just like him, but also people different from him. They were all focused on the puck and paid no attention to anything outside the glass surrounding the iced surface.
Excited to learn to play hockey Graeme borrowed some equipment, much of it so big on him that he was lost inside it. His helmet hanging low over his eyes he still managed to find a puck and practice stick handling. Graeme sat in his sled in front of an empty net, alone. With hIs eyes closed to the world, but open to imagination he took his first slap shot. He saw the arena cameras flash as the puck sailed through the air past the goalie and rippling the mesh while the goal horn blared for a game winning goal. Graeme opened his eyes just as the puck slowly bounced off the post and never leaving the ice.
Graeme loved Gravenhurst. He loved the family that took him in. He loved the friends he made, but hockey is where he found his passion. With his new found commitment Graeme trained to improve himself in the sport. He gained kinship with his teammates and he had finally found his colony.