儿童英语读物 The Hockey Mystery CHAPTER 9 A Surprise for Jessie

“Beth, where did you get that?” Jessie asked, looking at the large blue-and-red shirt lying on top of Beth’s bag. It had a Scouts 1 logo on the front, and across one shoulder was a signature, written in pen, which clearly said, Kevin Reynolds.



Beth bent 2 over and quickly stuffed the jersey 3 into her bag and zipped it up. “Please don’t tell anyone,” Beth said again. Then she picked up her bag and left the locker 4 room before Jessie could say anything else.



Jessie was left staring after Beth. She finished getting dressed and hurried outside as quickly as she could. But Beth was nowhere to be seen.



“What is it?” Benny asked. He had been waiting outside for Jessie. “You look upset.”



A moment later, Henry and Violet joined them.



“You’ll never believe what just happened,” Jessie said.



The Aldens went over to the bleacher seats and sat down.



“I was talking to Beth in the locker room,” Jessie said. “And her bag was on the floor next to us. And guess what was in her bag.”



“What?” Benny asked.



“Kevin’s jersey—the one that’s missing!” Jessie told them.



“Are you sure?” Violet asked.



“Yes—I saw his signature on the shoulder,” said Jessie. She shook her head. “When she saw me looking at it, she grabbed it and told me not to tell anyone! Then she ran out of the locker room!”



“That doesn’t sound good,” said Violet.



“I wonder if she has the stick, too,” Benny said.



“We’d better tell Coach,” Henry pointed 5 out.



The Aldens went to Kevin’s office, but the door was shut and locked.



“Maybe Coach is in his office right now with Cathy,” he said. “After practice, she said she had something important to tell him and they went somewhere to talk.”



“What do you think she had to talk to him about?” Violet asked.



“I don’t know,” said Henry. “She didn’t say. It looked like it was something pretty important, though.”



“I’ll try to call Coach later about the jersey,” Jessie said.



“In the meantime, let’s go home and organize Kevin’s hockey stuff the way he wanted us to,” said Henry.



Back at home, the Aldens arranged the hockey items. The things from Kevin’s childhood would be first. The display would begin with a picture of Kevin at age three, standing 6 on the ice in tiny little skates, holding a hockey stick. Next would come his first trophy 7 won at age seven. Later in the display would be other trophies 8 and things he’d won as a professional hockey player.



Using the information on the list Kevin had given them, Violet made signs explaining each piece. She used colored markers and wrote neatly 9 on note cards. KEVIN REYNOLDS SCORED HIS FIRST GOAL IN THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE WITH THIS PUCK, read one card. TICKER TAPE PARADE FOR THE SCOUTS AFTER THEY WON THEIR FIRST STANLEY CUP, read another card. THE COVER OF SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 10 FEATURING KEVIN REYNOLDS, read another.



That night Jessie tried calling Coach Reynolds, but his wife told her he was out. “He’s at the town council meeting,” she explained. “Tonight’s the night they’re looking at the plans for the rink.”



“I hope everything goes well,” Jessie said before she hung up. She told the others what Mrs. Reynolds had said.



“I guess we’ll just have to tell him about the missing things tomorrow,” said Benny.



“But tomorrow is the big game,” Violet pointed out.



“We’ll tell him after the game,” Jessie decided 11. “Now I’m going to bed so I’ll be well rested for tomorrow!”



The next morning, the Aldens arrived at the rink excited and ready. Henry went right over to help Coach Reynolds prepare, while Jessie went to the locker room to get dressed. Violet, Benny, and Grandfather went to find seats. Even though they had gotten there early, the stands were already filling up with fans for both the Polar Bears and their opponents, the Sharks.



When Henry saw Coach, he asked him right away about the town council meeting the night before.



“I don’t know,” Kevin said. “Some of the council members liked the idea of a new rink. But others were worried about the rink causing a lot of traffic on that side of town and other problems. They’re going to let me know later today. But you know what was really funny,” he added. “Beth’s mom was there. I saw her going in to talk to them after I left.”



“That’s interesting,” said Henry. He remembered Jessie had overheard Mrs. Davidson talking about the rink and her “secret plan.” He hoped her plan wasn’t to convince the council not to build it.



“Anyway, I’m not going to worry about that now,” said Kevin. “We’ve got a game to play!”



A short while later, the Polar Bears and the Sharks were on the ice, warming up for the game.



“Beth!” Coach called out.



“Yes, Coach?” Beth answered.



“I just realized we don’t have any extra sticks in case someone breaks one,” Kevin said. “Can you go to Scott’s office and get some?”



“Sure, no problem,” said Beth, skating off the ice.



The other girls continued their warm-ups.



“Uh-oh,” Rebecca said as she skated beside Jessie, eyeing the other team.



“What’s wrong?” Jessie asked.



“They look pretty good,” said Rebecca. Like the Polar Bears, the Sharks were taking turns shooting the puck into the goal. Nearly every shot was a good one.



“They’re undefeated this year,” added Kaitlin as she skated past.



“Until today,” said Cathy, joining the group. “We’re going to beat them.” She had a big smile on her face and looked excited to play.



Cathy seemed happier than she had in a long time, Jessie noticed. She wondered if her good mood had something to do with her important talk with her father the day before.



“That’s right,” agreed Jessie, smiling at Cathy. “We are going to be the champs.”



Jessie saw Beth hand a couple of sticks to Kevin before she returned to the ice. Then the whistle blew and warm-ups were over. The starting players got into their positions.



Beth was facing a girl nearly a head taller than she was, and in just a moment the Sharks were racing 12 up the ice in control of the puck.



Wham!



One of the Sharks took a slap shot into the goal and scored.



“All right!” cheered one of the Sharks. Their fans roared.



“I told you,” Rebecca whispered to Jessie, who was sitting beside her on the bench. “This is going to be a long game.”



The next few minutes were indeed some of the longest Jessie could remember in any hockey game. The Sharks kept control of the puck almost the whole time. They were soon winning four to nothing. The Polar Bears had never been so far behind.



When Jessie was out on the ice, she tried her hardest, but wasn’t able to get a shot on goal.



Near the end of the period, Jessie was skating quickly up the ice with the puck. This time I’m going to score, she thought. But when she passed one of the Sharks, she suddenly felt her feet come out from under her.



Bam! The next thing she knew, she was sitting on the ice.



A whistle blew. The player she’d just passed had tripped her!



With the Shark player sitting in the penalty box, the Polar Bears now had one more player on the ice than their opponent. And they were not going to waste this power play.



But again, the Sharks quickly hit the puck all the way to the other end of the rink. Cathy knew what to do. Using her strong, powerful legs, she zoomed 13 right up the ice and around a couple of Sharks. As soon as she’d crossed the blue line into the Sharks’ end of the rink, Cathy pulled her stick back and—smash!—fired the puck at the Sharks’ goal.



The puck went in—Cathy had scored!



All of the Polar Bears who were on the ice crowded around Cathy, and the others cheered from the bench. The fans in the stands cheered, too.



This time Cathy was smiling broadly, proud of what she’d done. Again, Jessie wondered why she seemed so different today.



The period ended a minute later, and the Polar Bears skated back to the bench, disappointed to be so far behind but excited by Cathy’s goal. After they’d rested for a couple of minutes and had some water, Coach Reynolds gathered the girls around him. “Now, I know they’re a good team. But you’ve just proved that you can score on them. You’ve got control of the game—don’t let go of it!”



“Come on, Polar Bears!” cried Cathy, and her teammates cheered.



The Polar Bears quickly scored a goal, and then added one more a few minutes later. Jessie played well. Although she didn’t score, she did have two assists.



When the whistle blew at the end of the second period, the score was tied at four.



Sitting in the stands, Violet said, “Can you believe it? In the first period they were losing four to nothing! And now they’re tied!”



The Polar Bears were determined 14 to win, but the Sharks weren’t going to give up that easily. They scored a goal and the whole Sharks team went wild.



“Don’t lose steam,” Kevin called from the bench. “Don’t let them take control of the game!”



The Polar Bears knew their coach was right: They weren’t going to give up now.



Over the next few minutes, the play went back and forth 15. Sometimes the Sharks seemed to be doing better, other times the Polar Bears did.



There was only one minute left in the game when Rebecca scored off a pass from Jessie. The Polar Bears gathered around, roaring with delight. In the stands, their fans roared, too. The game was tied again.



Benny turned to Violet and Grandfather. “Did you see Jessie’s pass? That was great!”



Now it looked as if the game might go into overtime 16. Since Jessie’s line had just come onto the ice, Coach left them on for the last few seconds of the game. Jessie was skating up the ice when Shannon passed the puck to her. Jessie decided to take a shot.



As she swung her stick, she suddenly heard a loud cracking noise. And when she looked down, she saw that her stick had broken.



Jessie dropped the stick and quickly skated over to the bench. Henry handed her an extra stick. It felt a little bit funny, but Jessie figured it was because she was used to using her own stick. She adjusted her hands. She didn’t have time to think about it. There were only a few seconds left, and Jessie saw her chance.



The Sharks weren’t expecting her to come back so quickly. So when Shannon passed the puck to her again, Jessie was wide open.



Here goes, Jessie told herself. She pulled back the stick and shot the puck toward the net.



To her amazement 17, the shot went in! With only seconds left to go in the game, Jessie had scored her first goal! And it was the game-winner!



Jessie’s teammates swarmed 18 around her, hugging her until she fell over with everyone on top of her. On the bench, Coach Reynolds, Henry, and the other Polar Bears were jumping up and down with excitement.



Looking up into the stands, Jessie spotted 19 Grandfather and Violet and Benny on their feet cheering.



The game ended a few seconds later, and the Polar Bears and Sharks formed two lines and shook hands.



When the handshaking was done, Jessie did a little spin on the ice. Beth, who was near her, smiled. “You may have scored the game-winner, but you’re still a figure skater at heart.”



Jessie smiled back at her friend—and realized that Beth was right.



Now that all of the excitement was over, Jessie took a moment to look down at the stick she was holding, the one she’d used to score her first goal. No wonder it had felt strange. The stick was much longer than the one she normally used and looked completely different.



Then she saw that something was written on the stick.



Turning the stick sideways, she held the stick up so she could read it. Kevin Reynolds, Stanley Cup Game-Winner, it said.



“Oh, my goodness,” Jessie said aloud. “This is the missing stick!”