With Sticks

Sprawled facedown on ice...

Inside a man's head, he may be in absolute agony... weariness, emptiness, disillusionment, loneliness, depression. This takes place inside his head, but when he talks to those close to him, he talks about work, and stock prices, and baseball, and Modest Mouse. Imaginary things.

...the surface of the ice is smooth and clean and bright, but under the surface, creatures are dying in cold water. Eels tear them apart. Lives begin and end every moment in a mess of murk and leaves.

Two people are on the ice.

...One is still sprawled on ice...the other stands beside him.

First stands up and says to friend, "Let's make hockey!"

Two hands hold sticks

Two sticks break ice

Two people play hockey with a fragment of ice shaped like a hockey puck

Creatures deep in the water can hear the scrapes of the hockey puck, and are comforted by the sound, and with any luck might get fresh air through the cracks.

They will never reach the surface, but surprising places can be reached with sticks.