by Tim Green
“This is good, thank you,” Jalen said. “I’ll go help my dad.”
He thanked Cat’s mom for everything, anxious to get away.
“Oh, you know I love helping you kids with all this baseball stuff,” she said, turning around in her seat. “It’s fun. And Daniel’s right about what he said—don’t you worry about James. He’ll come around.”
Jalen thanked her again and said good-bye without trying to address Cat, because she was huddled up in the front seat and in a mood.
As he watched them drive away, Jalen wondered if his own mom would be as kind and generous as Cat’s. He knew his dad wasn’t really expecting him to help this late at the diner, so, after the taillights disappeared, he headed down the gravel road.
He walked the dark, lonely path and climbed his front steps by feel, comforted by the familiar screech of the rusty hinges on the front door. Inside, he changed into shorts and a clean T-shirt to sleep in, then heated up some leftover lasagna because he realized he hadn’t eaten at the stadium and he was hungry. After he cleaned up, he got into bed with his book, hoping to fall asleep. He resisted the temptation to use his phone to see what people were saying on the sports sites or on social media about JY’s unlucky collapse and the Yankees loss.
He was grateful for a book he could get lost in, Throwback 07, a story about a young football player who time-traveled back to the days of Jim Thorpe to play on his team. He realized he had begun to doze when he heard his father come in through the front door.
“Jalen!”
“In here!” Jalen bolted upright and the book spilled to the floor.
His father appeared in the doorway to Jalen’s bedroom, his small round glasses foggy and his face flushed with emotion. “Did you hear?”
“Hear what?” Jalen couldn’t read his father’s face.
“About Mr. JY,” his father said. “On the Twitter. The people at the Silver Liner, they all talking about it, his tweet . . . .”
“His tweet about what?” Jalen had a sinking feeling, and he thought for a fleeting moment that he might just be having a bad dream.
“About you, Jalen,” his dad said. “About you and the Silver Liner . . .”
55
“WHAT . . .” JALEN TRIED TO SWALLOW, but his mouth was too dry. “What did he say?”
Now his father’s face burst into a smile and he beamed with pride. “He said that the reason he not win the game tonight because he no eat the calamari! Jalen, it is like the first time he tweet about the Silver Liner. Everybody is talking about it. People were coming in so late I finally had to say no because I’m running out of the food.”
Jalen’s dad gave him a tight hug, lifting him off the bed. “That Mr. JY, he’s doing the best for my restaurant. So much. I cannot believe it. Jalen? What’s wrong?”
“It was bad for him, Dad.” Jalen tried not to speak disrespectfully to his dad. “It was a bad night for him, and an even worse night for me.”
“You?” His dad looked stunned. “Because the team lose? Jalen, even the best teams they lose games, and Mr. JY hit a home run, somebody say.”
“Yeah. He did hit a home run.” Jalen felt a bit lighter at the thought of it: a home run and batting one for four wasn’t a disaster, but when JY needed it most, Jalen had failed him.
“See?” His father lightly slapped Jalen’s arm. “Is a good night for everybody. Jalen, you gotta look at what you got, not what you don’t got. That’s no way to live your life.”
His father’s face grew serious. “Look at you and me. We don’t got the big mansion, but we got a roof, and she’s not leaking. We don’t got a fancy car, but we got the van, and she gets us where we gotta go. And you got me, and I got you.
“Okay, you go back to sleep.” His father gave him a final hug and kissed him on both cheeks. “Tomorrow is a big day. I got the money people from Goldman Sachs coming, and we gonna sign some papers to make the franchise. Maybe you help me in the morning unloading the seafood.”
“You mean go with you to the market?” Jalen picked up his book, placed it on the nightstand, and got into bed.
“No, no,” said his dad. “I don’t go to the market no more. The market comes to me. Now they say to me, ‘Fabio, you relax, we bring you what you need. Only the best.’ ”
Jalen laughed. “That’s nice, Dad. That’s real nice.”
“Yes, that’s what happens when you got a famous New York Yankee tweeting about you restaurant.”
That idea didn’t help Jalen get to sleep. Instead he tossed and turned beneath his covers, tortured by questions. Was he finished with JY? Where would more money for Emery Moore come from? Would JY gave him another chance? Could Cat explain what had really happened, and would JY even listen? It wasn’t until the small hours of the morning that he finally dropped off to sleep and dreamed about baseball and his mom.
56
JALEN SNIFFED HIS HANDS AS he marched up Old Post Road. He wrinkled his nose because they still smelled like clams and fish, even though he’d washed them thoroughly. He hoped his friends—especially JY—wouldn’t notice.
He didn’t want to be too upbeat, but he couldn’t help feeling a glimmer of hope when he’d gotten Cat’s text saying that they were going to meet with JY at his house later that morning. When he’d asked what was going on, she told him to just meet them, and she’d explain. Jalen joined Cat and Daniel at the gates to the mansion, and Cat led them up the driveway and around to the back, where JY was stretched out on a lounge chair, wearing sunglasses and a bathing suit. His ears were stuffed with buds whose wires connected to his phone. Birds sang from the trees surrounding the pool. JY’s dogs barked from inside the house, and the sound was loud enough to send a chill up Jalen’s back.
Cat grabbed JY’s big toe and gave it a shake.
The Yankees star jumped and swiped the glasses off his face. “Huh? What? You?”
“Yes.” Cat frowned at him. “Here we are.”
“Here you are. Great.” JY’s face gave nothing away. He pulled a T-shirt on, then waved to some deck chairs, directing them to sit. His scruffy beard had been shaved clean and his jaw, like his eyes, was sharp. “I guess I should offer you a drink, invited or not.”
“Of course you should.” Cat looked around expectantly. “And since when do friends need an invitation?”
Daniel looked over at the sliding glass doors leading into JY’s house. The two dogs were roaring and throwing themselves repeatedly against the glass. “They can’t get out, can they?”
“What? Oh.” JY cupped his hands and hollered toward the house. “Butch! Missy! Down!”
The dogs went silent, but Jalen saw their shadows circling beyond the glass doors like sharks in a tank.
JY ducked behind the cabana bar and opened the fridge. “I’ve got Coke, Orange Crush, or 7UP.”
“I’ll take an iced tea,” Cat said.
“Of course you will.” JY frowned and dug into the fridge. “And . . . I’ve got one.”
He cracked open the can and handed it across the bar. “Boys? If you’re going to disrupt my privacy, you might as well do it in style.”
“Orange Crush,” Daniel said.
“Same,” said Jalen.
JY removed three cans of orange soda and came back around the bar. He handed them their sodas before reclining back in his lounge chair with a can of his own. “So, here we are.”
“We came to explain what happened.” Cat took a drink from her can of tea before launching into an explanation of how she had signaled him the night before against Jalen’s specific instructions.
JY took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t just ignore what I asked you. So, you want the good news first or the bad news?” he asked.
“Always get the bad news first,” said Cat.
“Okay,” JY said, nodding at that wisdom. “I’m out of the lineup for the next two nights.”
“Why?” Jalen asked. He felt sick because he was responsible.
JY chuckled. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. It’s certainly not funny, but they’re letting Charlie Cunningham play out the rest of the series with the Astros. I’ll just sit there and watch.”
“You’re done?” Cat was on her feet. “That’s not fair! He lied! That rotten Foxx. You were supposed to have that extension already! You batted a thousand in those three games last week, and he promised. We’ve got to go to the media and let people know. We’ll tell them everything. You can’t go down without a fight.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” JY said. “About the fighting part.”
“Oh. Good.” Cat relaxed in her chair.
“What’s the good news?” Jalen asked.
“The good news is that I think that home run you helped me get last night kept me hanging on by a thread. I didn’t win the game with last-minute heroics like a week ago against the White Sox, but I still scored, and one for four isn’t a total meltdown. So I’m going to have another chance.”
Cat peered at JY. “So you’re not done?”
“Not yet. My agent says he thinks Mr. Brenneck wants Foxx to extend my contract, but Foxx is dragging his feet, hoping I fall apart so he can convince Mr. B that it’s a bad idea. The twist is that I think what Foxx has in mind is to have Joe put me in the lineup when he knows I’m going to be facing the other team’s best pitcher.”
“Like McCullers.” Daniel scowled and bit his lip.
“To make it as hard as he can for me.” JY put the sunglasses on and laid his head back. “So, for Boston, that means . . .”
“Rick Porcello,” Cat said. “Oh boy.”
“I don’t know that.” JY appeared strangely calm. “But I suspect that’s who I’ll get a shot against. It looks like he’ll be pitching on Sunday. I should know sometime tomorrow.”
Jalen said, “His sinker is filthy, and he throws it nearly forty-five percent of the time . . . .”
JY looked quizzical.
“Forty-four point seven percent, actually,” Jalen added.
“I forgot—math genius,” JY said with a chuckle.
Jalen could see the numbers in his head, and a couple of graphs as well. “He tightened up his four-seamer in 2016 so that it hits the top of the zone and spins like it’s gonna go right over your head, only it doesn’t. He throws that only twenty percent of the time . . . roughly.”
“Yeah, that’s the guy.” JY huffed. “He’s got a wicked slider, too, and his changeup is right up there. I could use some baseball genius against him, that’s for sure.”
Jalen felt as if someone had just released him from a choke hold. “So you’re paying me for last night?”
JY looked surprised. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, I didn’t get the job done,” Jalen said.
“You were there. And Cat already told me she was guilty for signaling the wrong pitch. I might not have used you again, but I still would have paid you. Besides, that money is already spent. Your travel team fees and the down payment for Emery.”
“Who’s Emery?” Daniel asked.
“The private detective looking for my mom.” Jalen looked down at his hands, unsure why he was embarrassed. He looked up at the Yankees second baseman. “Thank you.”
“Hopefully, I’ll be the one thanking you.” With the soda still in his hand, JY pointed at Jalen. “The question is, what are we going to do this weekend if you’re playing at the same time I am? I need a commitment here.”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“He means,” Cat said, “what do we do if the Bandits are in the championship game on Sunday afternoon—which is likely—and at the same time the Yankees are finishing their series with the Red Sox? Right, JY?”
“That’s correct.” JY sipped his soda and frowned.
“Well, we gotta think positive, that’s what.” Cat stood up and waved her hands in the air. “We can do this. The tournament is at the Harvard athletic fields, which are only about ten minutes from Fenway, so even if you both end up playing at the same time, we are going to make this thing happen.
“It’ll be like the ultimate double play.”
57
THE QUIET LAKE BORDERED THE back side of the park. At the end of a well-worn dirt path was an enormous maple tree jutting out over the water’s glassy surface. A thick horsehair rope hung from the largest branch above the water. Knotted at the end, it was the perfect swing from the high bank, and after some sandwiches at the Silver Liner, that was where the three friends decided to spend their afternoon before baseball practice that night.
With towels wrapped around their necks, they arrived at the peaceful lake with nothing to disturb them but the chatter of birds and a light breeze rippling the water’s surface. They laid out their towels in a patch of sunshine. Daniel grabbed the rope hanging from the tree branch at the water’s edge and climbed the bank.
“Double, anyone?”
“You test it out,” Cat said. “That lightning storm the other night may have weakened the branch, and if it breaks, someone could snap their neck, so you just go.”
“Snap my neck?”
“She’s just kidding.” Jalen lay back and closed his eyes, studying the red-orange light through his lids.
“Well, I’m not going first.” Daniel held out the rope for Cat.
“Why, what a gentleman,” she said.
Jalen opened his eyes and watched her swing out over the water and launch herself into the air. She did a somersault before plunging cleanly into the water.
“Show-off,” Daniel grumbled, retrieving the rope and preparing his own flop, which made a splash like a large tuna.
Jalen breathed deeply, listening to his friends bicker and splash each other. While the sun baked him, he thought about Emery Moore and imagined her at her computer, searching and searching, before he envisioned her flying in an airplane, cap pulled low over her serious face, heading to some remote place where she had located Jalen’s mother.
Daniel pestered him to join them, as he and Cat repeatedly flew through the air and splashed into the water, but Jalen was too comfortable, relaxed, and happy.
His blissful state came to an abrupt end when he heard rough voices shouting profanities and an undercurrent of mean laughter coming from deep in the woods. Cat and Daniel were trying to dunk each other, so they were unaware of the intruders. The sour sounds spread to Jalen’s stomach. Then, just as suddenly, everything went quiet, even the birds and the breeze. Jalen thought maybe the voices had traveled on the warm breeze all the way from the park, and he began to relax again.
He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed. He felt his skin growing warm enough for a swim. A cicada high up in the oak tree began to ratchet out its ugly song when, without warning, Jalen sensed people around him. He opened his eyes and shaded them with one hand, propping himself up on one elbow just as Chris Gamble kicked a cloud of dirt and small stones into his face.
58
“HEY, HEY! IT’S THE CALAMARI Quitter!” Chris laughed and checked to see if his friends—Dirk, Brad, and two others—thought the new name was as funny as he did.
Jalen coughed and wiped the dirt from his face as he stood.
Peering past Jalen, Chris spotted Cat and Daniel down by the water’s edge, and his face changed. “Hey, Cat. What are you doing with these two losers? You’re too nice. You should kick them to the curb. They’re used to it.”
Chris’s friends laughed some more.
Jalen had never seen Cat at a loss for words before, but she just blinked at Chris in disbelief.
Chris whipped off his shirt, exposing his pale, blubbery torso. “C’mon, we can do a double on the rope.”
He walked past Jalen like he didn’t exist and grabbed Cat’s arm to lead her up the bank to the rope.
When Cat slapped him, it sounded like a firecracker.
Chris reached up and touched the red mark on his cheek. He glowered at Cat. “What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Cat
snarled. “You don’t touch me. Remember?”
Furious, Jalen started moving down to the water. He didn’t know what to do—but he had to do something.
“You—you—” Chris looked like his head might explode. “You freak! And you!” He pushed Daniel off his feet into the water. Daniel’s clothes and towel were lying on the bank, and Chris grabbed them too, wadding everything into a big ball and flinging it into the lake as well.
Jalen stepped in front of Cat. “You don’t—”
“Don’t what, Calamari? Calamari Quitter?”
Chris’s friends looked poised to strike. Jalen wished he were Chris’s size, even close to it. Then he’d for sure knock his block off. As it was, he was ready to try.
Just then Daniel slogged up out of the water with his clothes and towel dripping in his hands. Everyone looked his way.
Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Cat said, “Let’s get out of here. Leave them to it.”
She urged Jalen and Daniel up the bank.
Walking away, they heard a whoop as Chris hit the water.
He broke the surface and shouted gleefully to his friends. “C’mon, you guys! It’s awesome!”
Daniel grumbled and threw his wet things to the ground before heading back toward the water.
“Where you going?” Jalen whispered.
“Back to put some kung fu hot sauce on these guys.” Daniel whirled around on Jalen as if he was the enemy. “We can’t let them do this.”
“Just stop it, Daniel,” Cat scolded. “They’re twice your size. They’re idiots. And there are five of them. Let’s just go.”
“What about honor?” Daniel scrunched up his face but kept his voice low. “How can my amigo and me just crawl away like worms? It’s okay for you. You’re a girl.”
“Oh boy.” Jalen shook his head while Cat’s face turned stormy. “Now you did it.”
Cat grabbed Daniel by the arm and yanked him close so that their noses almost touched. She spoke in a low, furious voice. “It’s worse when you’re a girl. People are always assuming I’m weak, but I’m not. Am I?”