{"id":186,"date":"2026-05-31T12:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T19:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:26:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:26:52","slug":"bruiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/?p=186","title":{"rendered":"BRUISER"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Thomas Shess<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hallway smells faintly of laundry detergent and sharpening steel. Doors stay open in the Olympic Village because everyone keeps odd hours and nobody remembers which country borrowed the scissors. A skate blade ticks the tile every few steps as she walks in, still half wrapped in USA tape, equipment bag slung over one shoulder like she just came off a construction shift instead of international competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Inside the apartment, the television is muted but tuned to a replay of another sport, biathlon maybe, or curling, the universal background noise of the Games. Her spouse looks up from a small kitchen counter crowded with accreditation badges, charging cables, and a bowl of pasta gone from hot to waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cGood skate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She drops the bag. It lands with the unmistakable thud of pads, helmet, and the kind of gear designed to collide with a moving human at speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cPretty good. Took a shoulder in the corner. Coach wants faster breakouts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She sits and begins unlacing skates, each tug a small act of archaeology after two hours of laces frozen into place. The socks are damp, the knee already coloring into tomorrow\u2019s bruise, the Olympic crest still bright against sweat-creased fabric. Outside the window a shuttle bus exhales air brakes and somewhere down the corridor a language she doesn\u2019t speak erupts into laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cChicken or pasta?\u201d comes the question, the most ordinary sentence inside the most extraordinary week of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cBoth,\u201d she says, rubbing a red mark at the collarbone. \u201cWe play Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There\u2019s a moment where the world narrows. Not to politics, not to television, not even to medals, just two people at a small Olympic table, one icing a shoulder, the other sliding over a plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She put down the fork and winced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cShoulder?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She nodded once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            He looked into her eyes, not the shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cTell me again. When did they start calling you Bruiser?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She smiled faintly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cMy dad. Since as long as I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There was a silence. She played with her fork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d he asled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She smiled again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cJust once I\u2019d like to be the skater. The little frilly skinny-thighed fraud everybody throws roses at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cNo one throws roses at blockers,\u201d he said. \u201cYou open the lane for the prima donna running back. Somebody has to do the grunt work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cDoesn\u2019t mean I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cWould you rather be doing something else right now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cYeah,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d like to shoot a puck that goes right through the fucking back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThat\u2019s my Bruiser,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She felt it coming back now. The heat. The noise. The want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cBring it,\u201d she said like a curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Outside, another shuttle bus hissed to a stop in the snow.  She thought about her husband, who had knee replacement scars and a bouquet of memories.  Now, he was a damn fine cook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  She let out a big sigh.  And told herself: “Soak it up, Bruiser.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more from Thomas Shess.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Click ad below now to buy Tough Love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Thomas Shess The hallway smells faintly of laundry detergent and sharpening steel. Doors stay open in the Olympic Village because everyone keeps odd hours and nobody remembers which country borrowed the scissors. A skate blade ticks the tile every few steps as she walks in, still half wrapped in USA tape, equipment bag slung […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasshess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}