Chapter 10
Kara could tell that Zach met the next day's obligations with some trepidation—he was less than thrilled to have to spend the day at Ben and Lia's house. She had to go to work, though, and so did Craig. Her mom was staying with Ben and Lia for a couple of nights before returning to Spokane, and Kara and Craig did not think it best to leave Zach alone at home just yet, so when Lia offered to keep him with their daughters for the day, Kara took her up on the offer.
"Mom, they're all girls!" Zach whined that morning at breakfast.
"So," she answered, "I'm a girl, too. What's wrong with girls?"
"You're not a girl, you're my mom," he countered. "They probably have pink all over the house. They'll want me to play with dolls and stuff."
Kara chuckled at the thought of Jasmine and Brooke wanting to play with dolls. A volleyball was more likely. They probably wouldn't say no to a game of tackle football. "Oh, I think you'll manage. Now finish your oatmeal. Eating slowly won't get you there any later, just hungrier."
All that day at work Kara kept her phone handy, just in case. She knew an experienced mother like Lia—not to mention Kara's own mother—could handle whatever came up, but she still felt more at ease with the phone close by. When her lunch break came, she barely resisted the urge to call Lia or to swing by the house to check on them. Zach would be fine. He would.
Craig picked Zach up on his way home from work, and they were playing catch and entertaining Paws in the back yard when Kara arrived. Zach, it turned out, had rather enjoyed his day. He had a new bruise on his arm from wrestling with Brooke. He and Marissa had gotten along okay, and Jayda had actually persuaded him to play with her and her dollhouse for a few minutes.
"Are you okay with going back tomorrow?" Kara asked him.
"I guess so," he answered nonchalantly. "They're all right, for girls."
Kara leaned to whisper into his ear. "Was there pink in their house?"
"Not much," he admitted. "Mostly in Jayda's room. That's okay, because she's little."
Craig grinned at that, and the boys resumed their game of catch. They were preparing for Friday night's baseball game, the last of the season.
When Friday arrived, Craig took Zach to the game early; Kara picked her mother up from Ben and Lia's place and came along later. Eddie arrived just after they did. "Hey, little tyke!" he greeted Zach as he approached, giving Zach's head a playful shove.
"I'm not a little tyke!" Zach yelled back at him in mock-anger. Kara thought for a moment that he would return Eddie's playful shove, but he changed his mind mid-motion and tossed Eddie a baseball instead. "Throw me some long ones."
"No, sir," Eddie redirected him. "You need to warm up your arm with short throws first. I don't want to be responsible for any career-ending injuries."
"He's right," Kara's mom chimed in. "Get some blood flowing through those muscles."
Zach gave in and found a teammate to warm up with. When the game began, Eddie resumed his post from the previous game as first base coach. Having sat on the bench for half of the game last week, Zach got to play the whole game today, and he started well, hitting a line drive up the middle in the second inning. His team left him stranded on first, though, and the other team scored a crippling eight runs in their next at-bat. Craig and Eddie tried to encourage their players, but even their own stout hearts were discouraged by the sixth inning, the score now 12-0.
Zach had struck out in the fourth and came to bat in the sixth with one out and the bases empty. As he left the on-deck circle, Craig pulled him aside to whisper a few words of encouragement. Zach nodded and, bolstered by his dad's support, strode confidently to the plate. He took the first pitch inside and looked over at his dad in the third base coach's box; Craig nodded reassurance to him. Kara beamed at her husband who had become a father.
The pitcher stepped into his windup. Zach shortened his bat and fluidly bunted the ball softly between the pitcher and the third baseman.
"Run, Zach!" Craig yelled. Eddie hollered the same.
Zach raced toward first base, legs pumping hard. The pitcher reached the ball first, barehanded it, and launched a throw to the right of the first baseman, who had to dive off the base to field it. It ricocheted off his glove and into right field.
"Second! Second!" Eddie commanded, and Zach rounded first base and shot toward second. As one, the entire team jumped off the bench and out of their stupor, clinging to the fence between them and the field as they leapt and yelled to Zach.
Reaching second base, the boy spotted Craig wheeling his arm and yelling, "Third, Zach, third!" The right fielder picked up the ball and threw it. Zach steamed into third just as the throw came in. Craig held up both hands and bellowed, "No! No!" over the shouts of the team behind him. The third baseman caught the ball a few steps in back of Zach.
Zach did not stop, however, but sprinted around third all the faster and rushed toward home. "No, Zach!" Craig cried desperately, and then dropped his hands in dismay as the catcher, protective gear on and mask off, stepped in front of home plate and received a perfect throw from the third baseman. Kara gasped in disappointment—the catcher caught the ball, Zach slid, and the catcher brought his glove down on the boy's leg a full three feet in front of home plate. The umpire, stationed to the side of the play, raised his hand to signal the out, then hesitated. The catcher showed him his glove, but the ball was gone—it was rolling behind home plate.
"Touch home! Touch home!" Kara screamed through the other parents' and coaches' voices. As the catcher ran to retrieve the ball, Zach, on hands and knees, scrambled to home plate. He planted his hand on it just as the catcher dove back to tag him—too late.
"Safe!" cried the umpire. The whole team spilled out of the dugout to surround Zach, who looked suddenly torn between the thrill of racing around the bases and the trauma of so many hands slapping his back, shoulders, and head.
Finally, Craig and the umpire restored order, and they finished the game. It was a dismal loss, but at least the team had scored. Craig gathered his players on the outfield grass for a few words of reflection on the season, and then they disbanded one last time.
Zach ran to the bleachers. "Mom! Nana Maggie! I bunted a home run!"
"You were a blur out there," Kara's mom praised him. "Looked like that leg had never been hurt!"
"Way to go, Zach!" Kara said, grinning at the boy's exhilaration. "The crawling at the end was an especially nice touch. But," she added, "it looked like your coach told you to stop at third."
"Yeah," Zach laughed. "I thought he was saying, 'Go,' but he was saying, 'No!'" He ran off then to relive the moment with a pair of teammates.
Craig hauled a bag of equipment to the bleachers and set it down next to Kara. Eddie walked up to him. "Thanks for letting me help out, coach," he said, shaking Craig's hand. "It was fun."
"You did a great job," Craig returned. "Best base coach I've ever worked with. Could I talk you into helping out again next year?"
"I'd love to," he replied sheepishly, "when I can get away from work."
"Good. Why did you stop playing ball, anyway?" Craig asked. "You have a sharp mind for the game."
Eddie's face fell a little. "I had a good arm, too," he said. "My coach thought I might have been able to pitch in high school, maybe even college. But my father, he—well, I realized one day that I was playing baseball to try to make him love me, and it wasn't working. That was the day I gave it up."
There was an awkward pause as Craig searched for something to say. Eddie himself broke the silence. "It's refreshing, actually, to see you support Zach no matter how he does on the field."
Craig gave a small smile. "Thanks. That means a lot." He exchanged phone numbers with Eddie in the hopes that they and Zach might get together to play a little ball over the summer.
As Eddie departed, Craig moved next to Kara. "That's a good guy right there," he commented.
Kara kissed Craig on the cheek. "Mm-hmm, and here's another one right here. Good job, coach."
"We lost by eleven."
"You had a good season, though. And whatever you told Zach when he went up for that last at-bat," Kara said quietly, "you really inspired him. He went up there like he knew he was going to hit a home run. What a great dad."
Craig glanced over at the boy and shrugged. "All I told him was that the third baseman was playing too far back and he could bunt that way if he wanted."
Craig returned to the dugout for the rest of the equipment, leaving Kara to shake her head in bewilderment. She liked boys, but she wasn't sure she would ever understand them.
*****
The Boy Who Appeared from the Rain Page 60