Grand Slam

by Tim Green

  “I love.” Jalen sat down.

  “You love! That’s the music to my ears.” His dad dipped a wooden spoon into the steaming pot on the stove. He smacked his lips and added a pinch of salt.

  Jalen filled a glass with milk from a carton on the table but paused before drinking. “So, what’s up? Why the special dinner?”

  His dad came over and sat across from him, still smiling. “First thing tomorrow I fly to Atlanta. I’m gonna be gone for a few days to see the new place we gonna have a Silver Liner Diner. And I tell them if I gotta go, I gotta take a night to see my boy.”

  His dad frowned. “They want me to travel? Is okay, I can travel, but anytime I take the trip, I also gotta have the time off to see my boy. So, tonight we gonna eat and then we gonna watch a movie on that new big screen. Just you an’ me.”

  Jalen returned his dad’s beaming smile. “Thanks, Dad. What are we gonna watch?”

  “What you wanna watch?”

  Jalen shrugged. “Cat always tells me I gotta see Avengers: Infinity War sometime, so maybe that?”

  “Is Avengers, then.” His dad slapped his leg and returned to cooking their dinner. From the stove, he said, “I gonna call Daniel’s father to see if maybe you stay there for while I’m gone. Then you go with the team to Tampa and I get you from the airport to come home.”

  “Uh, okay.”

  “What? Is Daniel’s house no good?” his dad asked.

  “It’s okay, but maybe I could stay with Cat. Daniel already shares a room with his sister, so things are kinda tight.” It was true, but Jalen had another reason. Mrs. H already knew about his mom, so it’d be easier to see her if he stayed at Mount Tipton.

  “You think is okay even though she’s a girl?” His dad turned toward him with raised eyebrows.

  “Dad.”

  His dad threw his hands in the air. “Okay, okay, I don’t know how all this boy-and-girl thing works today. Back in Italy, a father don’t need to ask. The girl’s papa lets the boy’s papa know. I don’t know if she’s the girlfriend or the friend, so I gotta ask.”

  Jalen shook his head wildly. “No, no, no. Not girlfriend. No girlfriend. Just friend. Best friend, even, but not girlfriend.”

  “Okay, I hear you. So, I’m gonna call who?” His dad dumped the boiling pasta into a strainer in the sink.

  “Cat’s mom,” Jalen said.

  His dad shook the strainer. Steam clouded his glasses. He brought a heaping platter to the table and declared, “First we eat, then I’m gonna call the mom, then we watching the movie.”

  Jalen took a big bite. “The cacciatore is delicious, Dad. It always is.”

  Jalen tore a piece of bread from the loaf on the table, dipped it in nonna’s tangy sauce, and said, “How are you doing with the chefs?”

  “They want to learn, Jalen. They want to know what Fabio knows. What nonna taught Fabio.”

  After the fabulous dinner, Jalen’s dad brought out his melt-in-your mouth tiramisu. It even looked delicious, with cocoa sprinkled on top of the custard and ladyfingers, just the way his father had learned in Italy.

  After gobbling down the rich dessert, Jalen was surprised when his dad said, “I never tell you about your mother. Maybe that was a big mistake… maybe I should have told you. I can only say I was never a father before, and I had nobody to get the advice.”

  Jalen listened intently.

  “We were happy together. So happy when you were born. But she couldn’t stop singing. Some agent comes along and tells her she’s going to be a big star. She can’t give up opportunity of a lifetime. So she flies away. Your mom, she’s like a butterfly. She had to go. She said you’d be better off with me. She knew I’d never leave you.”

  Jalen’s eyes grew wider. Here was the story he’d been waiting for. “But you said she only married you so you could get your green card.”

  “I didn’t wanna to hurt you. I don’t know what to say, so I say that.”

  “Why tell me now?” Jalen asked.

  Did his dad know she was back?

  “I gotta know you growing up. Almost a man. I think, my boy needs to know.”

  Emotion flooded Jalen. He pushed back his chair.

  His father stood at the same time, and they embraced, sharing feelings without words, before pulling away.

  “What about that TV?” Jalen said.

  Jalen’s dad fell asleep before the Hulk crash-landed in the Sanctum Sanctorum.

  Eye-popping as the movie was, Jalen couldn’t really enjoy it. He decided to pause it, took his phone with him into the bathroom, and dialed his mom. She answered right away.

  “Mom, I’m sorry it took me so long.”

  “Oh, Jalen. Don’t think about it. I felt bad about interrupting you.”

  Jalen kept his voice low. “It was just a bad situation. I was trying to help JY, and it kind of didn’t work.”

  “We saw,” said his mom. “George told me about the trade to Atlanta. I’m sure you’re upset about that.”

  “Well, Dad thinks it’ll be okay. Just another place for a Silver Liner.” Jalen put the cover down and sat on the toilet. “I haven’t even spoken to JY.”

  “I’ve got about fifteen minutes before my second set.”

  “Sorry, I forgot you’re singing tonight, Mom.”

  “No more sorrys, Jalen,” she said gently. “We’re not strangers talking to each other, are we? We’re family.” She paused to let that sink in. “What do you think about George’s idea? The direct approach, where the three of us just walk right into the restaurant and sit down to talk?”

  “Mom, I need a little more time to find the right approach.”

  “But Jalen, you don’t have to put all this on yourself. George and I think it’s not as… big a problem as you think it is.”

  “But… but I don’t know where to start.”

  “See, that’s just it,” she said. “You don’t have to.

  “We will!”

  41

  “NO, NO, NO, NO.” JALEN jumped to his feet. “You and George can’t just… go right at him, guns blazing.”

  “No, not like that at all!” his mother said reassuringly. “We don’t want to shock Fabio. Or hurt him—but talk honestly and directly and let him know that, like George said to me, we’re not looking for him to trade you to our team. Just that we’d like to join the team you and he already have.”

  They both fell silent as Jalen’s mom let him think it through.

  It was an exciting possibility, one team.

  “I don’t know how Dad’s gonna like being on any team that George is on. No offense.”

  “Jalen, your father is a grown-up!” His mom took a breath and her voice softened. “It’s been a long time. People change… and grow.”

  Jalen stood up and found himself looking in the mirror. “It’s just the way he looks at your picture.”

  “My picture?”

  “It’s… in my room.” Jalen’s cheeks burned even though no one could see him. “It’s an old picture of you smiling. It’s in a frame on my bookshelf. I look at it kind of a lot. Dad, not so much. But whenever he does pick it up? He gets this look on his face. Like he’s wishing. He said you two were happy.” Jalen heard the pleading in his voice. “Were you happy?” In the mirror he saw both his mom’s and dad’s features in his own face.

  “We were good together for a while, your dad and me. Why shouldn’t he remember that time fondly? I think I was in love with love.”

  “What does that even mean?” Jalen demanded.

  After a pause, his mom said, “Jalen, it’s not always easy to explain what happens with people. I was in love and then I wanted more. Your father understood.”

  “He said you were like a butterfly.”

  “He let me go. Jalen, I believe things happen for a reason, even though we sometimes don’t understand. You have to have faith, and you have to have hope. This is a delicate situation, but it’s not an impossible situation. As long as we’re honest and kind, things will
work out. I promise.”

  “ ‘Honest and kind,’ that’s like something my dad would say.” Jalen sighed. “Okay, I get it. I’d like it better if you could tell him. Just you, Mom. Not George. Okay?”

  She was silent for a moment before she said, “Jalen, I think George should be there.”

  Alarm flooded Jalen’s veins. “But you told me you’d do whatever I want.”

  “No, not whatever you want.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. Your father needs to know up front that George is part of the package,” Jalen’s mom said firmly. “He needs to see that so there can’t be any misunderstanding. You see that’s true, don’t you, dear?”

  Jalen closed his eyes and tried to wrap his mind around it. Finally he said, “Well, Dad’s leaving first thing tomorrow, so you won’t be able to see him until the weekend. I’ll be gone until Monday night, so that’ll at least give him some time to settle down.”

  “You think he’s going to be so upset?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. I just said it like that. I didn’t mean anything one way or the other.”

  “Where are you going this weekend?” she asked.

  “To the Lakeland tournament near Tampa. It’s big-time, Mom, and we only got asked because we won the tournament in Boston.”

  “Fantastic! Congratulations, Jalen.” Her voice rose with excitement. “Maybe we can come cheer you on?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “Would you rather we didn’t? We certainly don’t have to.” She sounded nice about it but was obviously disappointed.

  Jalen paused. He wanted her to stay around so she could talk to his dad, but he also liked the idea of having her there rooting him on. “No, that’s okay. I’d like it if you were there.”

  “And George, too?”

  “Sure. George, too.” He remembered the plan. “I’m gonna be staying with Cat while Dad’s gone, so maybe you can come over. I think you’d really like Cat’s mom. She’s great.”

  “That sounds brilliant. But we can’t let this go on indefinitely, Jalen. It will hurt Fabio to know that you were afraid to tell him.”

  “I know, I know,” Jalen agreed reluctantly. “So I’ll check with Cat and let you know, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

  “George is signaling me. I’ve got to go—”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Well, have a great show.” Jalen said good-bye and returned to the movie. With his mind on other things, he watched to the end before waking his dad.

  “Is over?” his father asked after looking around and blinking.

  Jalen helped him out of the chair. “It’s late, Dad. Let’s go to sleep.”

  “Okay,” said his dad. “We have fun, no?”

  “Yeah, Dad. Dinner was great. The movie, too.”

  When Jalen got into bed, his father bent to rest his hand on his cheek. “You make all this happen for us, Jalen. You know this?”

  Jalen grabbed his dad’s hand with both of his, and he kissed the rough skin on the knuckles. “I love you, Dad. More than anything.”

  “I love you, too, Jalen. You the best boy in the whole world.”

  Jalen’s smile melted away as his dad disappeared, shutting the door behind him.

  Would his father think he was so great when he learned what Jalen had done? He tossed and turned. He felt like his long-lost mother was prodding him to turn his father’s world upside down. To wreck his dad’s happiness just when things were going so well. How could he?

  The more the time on the clock chewed away at the night, the less Jalen thought of himself.

  The big red numbers on the clock said 12:14 when the first rumble of thunder shook the house. Soon it sounded like a fireworks display. Lightning cracked and flashed so bright outside the window that Jalen jumped out of bed to pull the curtains shut before jumping right back in beneath his covers.

  Then came the rain. Spouts of wind-whipped water thrashed the roof. The noise and the mayhem matched the confusion in Jalen’s brain.

  Finally the rain eased into a steady thrumming, the thunder faded to a ghostly echo, and Jalen drifted off to sleep.

  42

  HE WOKE TO A BRILLIANT band of sunshine that had shouldered its way into the bedroom between the curtains. He jumped up, but his dad was long gone. He’d left a handwritten note on the kitchen table wishing Jalen luck and saying he couldn’t wait to pick him up at the airport Monday night.

  Jalen packed a bag for Cat’s and a second for the tournament at Lakeland. He poured some Raisin Bran into a bowl and ate hurriedly. Cat and her mom were coming to pick him up in an hour. Jalen used the time to do reps with his speed hitter in the front yard.

  The Range Rover pulled up, and Jalen loaded his bags and his gear in back. He climbed into the backseat and wasted no time bringing up the subject of his mom.

  “So I thought I should invite my mom over to your house. Is that okay, Mrs. H?”

  “Cat and I wanted to spend the afternoon by the pool anyway.” Cat’s mom glanced at him in the mirror. “I think James is going to stop by to say good-bye. Your mom is more than welcome to join us. I’ll have some sandwiches made up.”

  “What about her—” Jalen just did not want to say “boyfriend.” “What about George?”

  “Of course he’s welcome.”

  “You’re the best, Mrs. Hewlett.” He texted his mom.

  He read her reply and proudly said, “Mom wants to know what she can bring.”

  Cat spun around with her face lit up. “How about some Scribblers? You know, those ice pops that look like big crayons?”

  “Tell her that’s very nice of her, but just bring themselves,” Cat’s mom said. “You don’t need more sugar, Catrina.”

  “Who’s Catrina?” Cat asked.

  Her mom rolled her eyes.

  “You are what you eat, Mom.” Cat fished a Jolly Rancher out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth. “And you know I’m sweet.”

  Jalen knew enough to stay quiet, but he texted his mom and asked her to bring Scribblers anyway. He assumed George would be impressed to meet JY. He quickly gave himself a mental kick in the butt, because who cared about impressing George?

  “I’m surprised JY’s still here,” Jalen said, thinking out loud. “I think Atlanta plays the Phillies tomorrow night. Albies is out with a broken thumb, and I think the guy they brought up from Gwinnett is struggling on offense.”

  Cat’s mom said, “I didn’t know you followed the Braves.”

  “Mom,” Cat said. “He’s a genius, remember? He glances at the box scores and shazam!—he can tell you anything on the page, even from, like, fifty years ago.”

  “Not from fifty years.” Jalen knew he was blushing.

  “Only because you haven’t looked at numbers from fifty years ago. Am I right?” Cat asked.

  Jalen shrugged.

  “Anyway,” Cat’s mom said. “They did tell him they want him for tomorrow’s game. He’s got a two thirty-five flight to Atlanta. That’s why I said I think he’s stopping by. He might not have time.”

  Jalen wasn’t sure he wanted to see the ex-Yankee. He knew JY wanted to finish his career as a lifelong Yankee, like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Then he realized something important. JY didn’t have to be traded. According to the contract the ownership had with all the players, he’d been on one team so long that he couldn’t be forced into a trade. He had to accept the trade. Maybe JY saw Atlanta as a new beginning.

  Maybe he wouldn’t blame Jalen.

  43

  THEY PASSED THROUGH THE BIG iron gates and the ten-foot stone walls of Mount Tipton, up the long, curving drive among the fat twisted trees, past the stables, and arrived at the garages in the back. A young man in black pants and matching polo shirt whisked away Jalen’s bags without a word.

  The massive stone house was practically ancient, but the pool was pretty new. At least eight people could sit comfortably in the giant hot tub. The f
urniture cushions, umbrellas, and fluffy beach towels all had blue-and-white stripes. After all the rain, it was a beautiful day. Sunlight warmed the ground and winked in the ripples of the pool made by the breeze.

  “I’m going to change into a swimsuit,” Mrs. H said. “Jalen, make yourself comfortable. Cat?”

  “My suit’s on.” Cat lifted her shirt and showed off a blaze of yellow.

  Her mom frowned. “Cat, a lady changes into her swimsuit.”

  Cat shrugged. “Good thing I’m still a girl, huh?”

  “All right, miss. Don’t get too high on your horse.” Mrs. H turned to go. “I’ll be back.”

  Cat slumped down in a lounge chair under some shade. “Sorry my mom is such a grouch.”

  Jalen sat in a swivel chair beside her so he could rock. “She’s not.”

  Cat tilted her head at him. “Yeah. She is. But I think it’s because JY is going, and there’s nothing we can do about that. We tried, right?”

  Jalen looked at the laces of his sneakers, red to match the Bronxville Bandits colors. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about JY and your mom.”

  “I don’t.” Cat scowled. “But it’s in my face. I can run, but I can’t hide.”

  “So, what do you think is going on?” Jalen thought he knew, and it struck a chord of fear deep in his heart.

  Cat put on a pair of sunglasses and turned her head toward the pool and the rolling green wooded hills beyond. “Last time she looked at someone like this, it was my stepfather, before he took her to the south of France in his private jet. After that, the only thing left was the paperwork for the lawyers.”

  Jalen sighed. “Aren’t you sick of grown-ups acting like kids?”

  Cat turned her head toward him. “You won’t find me getting married three or four times, I can tell you.”

  “You think she’s gonna marry JY?” That, Jalen realized, was what scared him. That Cat would move away to Atlanta.

  “I really don’t know,” Cat said. “But I’m sure it’s on the table. My stepfather isn’t even around. The first couple of months we came to Tipton they were so in love, you needed a crowbar to pry them apart. Now he spends most of his time in China.”