Feature
Fiction:
A
Loner's
Story:
Turning
Point
By
Don
Makowichuk
The
bottle
lay
empty
on
the
ashen,
sticky
green
carpet
below
the
torn
and
aged
bus
seat.
Curled
up
in
this
bed
of
his,
with
a
thin
winter
sheet
covering
his
shoulders
to
his
knees,
he
cheered
on
his
team
patiently,
as
he
had
done
for
a
million
moons.
The
Toronto
Maple
Leafs
were
lifers,
in
the
same
mold
as
Charlie.
They
both
lived
the
sorry
life
of
just
hanging
on
to
existence,
year
after
year.
"Feed
me
my
whiskey
and
I'll
be
fine,"
he
used
to
say.
Now
he
did
not
even
have
anyone
to
announce
this
philosophy
to.
Unlike
the
Maple
Leafs,
nobody
came
to
visit
poor
Charlie
anymore-the
future
promised
no
rising
sun.
The
shack
stood
alone
below
the
big
house
on
the
hill.
In
the
house,
Hazel,
Charlie's
sister,
pranced
around
serving
her
"Hardware
King."
This
brother
in-law,
whom
Charlie
felt
as
much
love
for
as
his
routine
morning
duty
in
front
of
the
cracked
toilet
seat,
was
not
worthy
of
Hazel's
dirty
hands.
Hazel
slaved
away
for
this
tyrant,
a
man
who
loved
to
communicate
with
the
voice
of
his
fists,
which
spoke
in
a
very
rough
and
threatening
tone.
Charlie
wished
he
could
help
Hazel,
however
he
knew
that
she
could
not
possibly
find
a
better
life
than
the
one
she
had.
The
realization
of
his
sister's
welfare,
stopped
Charlie
form
challenging
the
kingpin
many
times
in
the
last
twelve
years.
Shivering
from
the
breeze,
which
hurled
through
the
hole
in
the
paper
window,
Charlie
stumbled
to
dence
for
Toronto
to
blow
the
two
points
once
again.
Just
then
something
quite
remarkable
happened.
Wendel
Clark
of
the
Leafs
broke
through
both
defencemen,
turning
their
jock
straps
inside
out,
and
buried
the
puck
behind
the
Montreal
netminder.
Charlie
screamed
with
delight
s
the
red
light
flashed
behind
the
...but
he
had
finished
off
his
whiskey
and
raw
wieners
two
hours
earlier.
the
fireplace
to
revive
the
dying
heat.
Third
period
action
in
the
game
was
underway
and
Charlie
focussed
his
senses
on
to
the
small
black
and
white
television
set.
he
lit
up
a
cigar
to
wet
his
lips.
He
would
have
rather
had
a
drink
or
some
food,
but
he
had
finished
off
his
whiskey
and
raw
wieners
two
hours
earlier.
He
began
to
sober
up
to
the
dry
crackling
of
the
wood
and
the
throbbing
pulse
on
his
forehead.
The
game
was
tied
and
winding
down,
"Last
minute
of
play
in
the
third
period,"
reported
Danny
Gallivan.
Charlie
watched
in
confi-
opposition'sgoal.
The
Maple
Leafs
won
the
game
against
their
longtime
nemesis,
however
Charlie
had
nothing
to
celebrate
with.
For
once
in
his
life,
having
no
whiskey
did
not
seem
to
bother
him.
After
the
game,
he
watched
the
lottery
because
his
sister
always
bought
him
tickets
even
though
Charlie
had
no
faith
in
winning.
He
pulled
out
the
rumpled
paper
from
his
ever-stained
slacks.
He
watched
as
number
by
number
rolled
out
of
that
"bingo
machine
form
hell,"
which
was
what
he
always
called
the
contraption.
When
the
last
ball
was
revealed,
he
noticed
a
few
of
the
numbers,
then
all
of
the
numbers
in
the
same
row
on
his
ticket.
He
screamed
joyously
for
the
second
time
that
night.
Charlie
had
won
the
lottery.
He
could
not
deal
with
this
reality
alone
in
his
unfamiliar
state
of
sobriety,
he
could
now
save
his
sister
and
he
was
not
going
to
wait
until
the
sun
came
up.
Charlie's
heart
pounded
as
he
flew
out
the
door
and
climbed
the
snowy
mountain
with
the
power
of
a
soldier
in
combat.
His
chest
throbbed;
he
paid
no
attention
to
the
accelerated
beat
as
it
pumped
louder
and
faster
through
each
passing
moment.
Then
suddenly,
almost
unceremoniously,
Charlie
was
stopped
by
an
internal
explosion;
he
instantly
succumbed
to
a
white
frozen
death.
A
massive
heart
attack
derailed
the
new
life
of
a
changed
man.
His
heavy
drinking
and
smoking
ended
the
beginning
of
a
new
hope;
Charlie's
rebirth
was
lost
and
gone
almost
as
sudden
as
it
came.
Later
that
year,
the
Toronto
Maple
leafs
won
the
Stanley
Cup..
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ENTRY
DEADLINE
JANUARY
30,
1990.