My Girl (Jonathan Toews)

25

Jonathan

After a scare with the Red Wings the King's were being handled a little bit easier. And since Kimberly has been out of school for a while she's got to come to all the home games and gets to stay up late to watch my team on ESPN. Well, until like 11 which is late for her. And today I was going to take her out while Alexis was training and we were going to hang out at the pier and have some fun.

"Woah! That Ferris wheel is taller than you" she announces as we approach it and I nod.

"You're not wrong" I admit.

"Can we go up there" she asks and I look at her.

"You want to go all the way up there" I question and she smiles. Her smile starts to look like a smirk and she looked just like her sister for a second.

"If I hold your hand can we go" she questions and I scoff.

"What? I'm not scared" I claim and she raises her eyebrows at me.

"Yes you are" she accuses as I scoff.

"I am the captain of the best team in the NHL, I've won a gold medal, I'm not scared of a gigantic probably unstable Ferris wheel" I insist.

"Then let's go" she says as she grabs my hand and tries to pull me to it. I stay in my spot and look up as it goes around and round.

"How about we get some churros first" I ask.

"How about you put on your big girl pants and get on the Ferris wheel" she asks. I always tell her to put on her big girl pants and this one is coming back to bite me in the ass.

"Do we have to" I whine.

"Yeah. Come on, we can conquer your fears" she claims as I finally let her pull me after she had been trying for a while.

She takes me up to the Ferris wheel and I can feel my palms getting sweaty. These kind of rides are not my things. I can do roller coasters and I can go high, but this rolling death trap is just not my thing.

But I pay for two tickets and I crawl into the cage that looked more like a jail cell right now. Kimberly sits next to me and grabs my hands making me smile. I look down at her as she smiles up at me, her front tooth finally coming in and it was peaking out.

"See, it's not that bad" she says.

"We haven't gone anywhere" I remind her.

"Well when I'm scared my sister sings to me. Do you want me to sing to you" she asks and I laugh.

"Yeah, that would be nice" I admit.

"I'm gonna sing what Lexi always sings to me. It works every time" she claims.

"Lay it one me" I encourage.

She clears her throat loudly as we start to move. I jump a little bit I keep my eyes on her as she starts to sing.

"Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dream of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dream of
Dreams really do come true."

I couldn't keep the smile from spreading across my face as she softly sings to me. She had a beautiful voice for a little kid and she said her words really well. She starts to mess up on the words a little so I decide to help her.

"Someday, I wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams that you dare to
Oh why, oh why can't I?"

"I like your singing voice" she claims and I laugh.

"That makes one person" I admit.

"Hey look! We're at the top" she notices and I look out.

I've never seen the city like this because I always refused to go up here, I never thought there would be a good reason to. But now that I'm up here I'm pretty sure this is one of the best sights in the whole world.

"Wow" I gasp.

"It's real pretty, isn't it" she asks.

"It's beautiful" I agree.

"Sometimes I didn't want to live here. Sometimes I wanted to go far far away from here because I would be sad that my parents were gone and I was still here. So my sister would sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow and I would imagine I was there and sissy was there and so were mommy and daddy. Every time she sang it to me I would close my eyes and imagine that I went there, far away from the things that made me sad here. Sometimes she still sings to me" she says and I turn to her. She stayed staring at the city as she tries to listen to what it was telling her.

"Do you still want to go away" I wonder.

"I wanted to be where my mom dad are. I wanted us to be a family again. But you and me and Lexi are like a family, right" she questions as she turns to me.

"Yeah, we are" I admit.

"Then I don't want to go. This is my somewhere over the rainbow" she claims as she points to the city.

"You're a pretty great kid, you know that right" I ask.

"That's what Lexi tells me but she says it can't let that go to my head... whatever that means" she shrugs and I smile.

"If you're still up to it we can get a churro" I say and she jumps up in excitement. The cart we were in starts to rock and I grab the sides as the fear suddenly strikes into me again.

"Oopsies" she giggles and I shake my head. I think I'm ready to get off.

They bring us down and I find my land legs after feeling like I just spent a year at sea. After I regain my balance we go and get a churro and find a bench to sit at. We look over the city from the ground this time and eat our churros. This is like seven things I shouldn't be eating in the middle of the most important times of my life, but who's gonna stop me?

"Can I ask you something" I wonder.

"You just did" she says and I laugh.

"Alright, another one" I say. "Does your sister talk to you about me" I wonder and she scoffs.

"She talks about you too much" she claims and I smile. That's what I wanted to hear.

I bring her back to the apartment and we get ready for game five tonight at the UC. We head over to the rink and I take the ice for warmups. I skate around a for a while before I stop. I see Kimberly with some of the other families like Hossa's and the Sharps. She stood up right against the glass looking around and I couldn't help but smile really big. So I skate over and when she sees me she starts to jump up and down. She waves at me and I wave back.

"That's my best friend" she yells and I nod. Damn right.