by Diane Munier
I could not adjust my eyes to the sight of Addie running toward this man, her skirts lifted so her feet could fly, her calling, “Quinton,” or some such strange handle. And there before God and country she flew into his arms.
Tom Tanner
Chapter Thirteen: Church Part Three
We took a short recess from the game then as all were curious about the stranger. Jimmy made his way over there before I could. Or would. Addie had hung in that fellow’s arms for a full minute. Speaking private-like, her hand on his gol-durn face, and on his way over there Jimmy had bumped me hard and said, “Ohh-eee,” laughing in that infuriating way, because all of a sudden we had a better game than baseball for sticking dynamite in what ailed us.
By damn I was chewing my lip my hands digging into my sides. Was I going to just stand here and watch it happen? I was not.
She was dragging him over to my family now, but everybody wanted to shake his hand.
“Where’s Tom?” I heard her ask, mollified and more pigheaded than ever I was with that one stroke on her part.
Well I was right here, wasn’t I? Faithful and true like always, burying the dead, delivering the children, drying tears. So where did she think I was?
I made my way toward her, but stopped short and spit. Folks, they didn’t expect more, but Addie did somehow.
So she came and got me, and I needed her to, truth be told, but we shared a look, hers all joy, and mine no joy at all.
I went there like I was in a show, them all looking like I was getting saved, ready to confess all my juicy sins, and I had them, believe me, I was working on them right now as I drew closer to this man who looked pretty enough to be a woman, and that just wasn’t right. His hand, which I nearly crushed for many reasons, was softer than any hand I’d shook before, and he was soft and wincing a bit, and trying to be polite like his kind was generally, and he said, “That’s quite a grip you have there,” and I knew it was.
I didn’t know such a one existed, and from his clothes, his fancy fine duds, I smelled something akin to perfume, which I only smelled on that soiled dove that one time, so what kind of bally-hoo was this?
“My cousin, well, Richard’s cousin, Quinton,” Addie had introduced.
The man was conflicted. I could tell. And here’s what I figured really fast, cause my mind worked that way. They had found out about the death, and it hadn’t come from her. I knew she’d never posted a letter, cause I’m the one she would have asked. But the story had made the papers here, and mayhap traveled through one to another until this bird got wind of it.
So here he came, hailing from the husband’s camp, that father’s camp where the money lay. It was about the money. It usually was no matter what face it presented. The question was, what was the offer?
“Play baseball?” I said.
He blinked for a moment, and then I saw the flash of a weapon, but it was in his eyes, and then just a quick spark. “I do,” he said.
“Well, Jimmy’s team seems to lack the necessary fire to stand against us, so come and join in,” I said for I could be sanguine as Leidner when I wanted to be.
And I wanted to be.
But he turned to Addie and said, “Adeline, dear, would you mind?”
I had to use my hand to push my chin up, I was that flummoxed to hear such sentiment. Why on earth would she mind? “She wouldn’t,” I said, and my ma and pa who were still standing round took one another’s hands when I said such, like they were in sympathy of each other as they beheld Addie looking at me, her lips sealed, but her eyes a little fiery.
Then he went on and said, “Adeline?”
We didn’t call her Adeline round here, but I did not correct him, I stared at her, needing something but I didn’t know exactly what.
“Tom is right,” she said. “Please work off some of the weariness of travel and join their game. When you’re ready I will dish you a plate.”
She dished my plate. And Johnny’s. She had no need to hover over this one. He could tend his own plate.
I found sympathy in Allie’s eyes. She alone seemed to realize I was suffering. I did not want to appear like the stray dog looking in the window, so I took myself to the field where the others were already waiting and calling.
Well, my team was ready to bat. I gathered them around me for a spell. I looked at each one. “I know we been in church today, and it was fine. But shake that off now. I don’t want you to see your kin or your neighbors guarding those bases. I want you to see the rebel forces at Chickamauga. I think we need some retribution. When you hit, be steady. Don’t get up there waving that stick like some crazy coward with a white flag. Think about it. It’s cannon fire and if you don’t knock it back at them you’re going to blow. When you’re ready…swing. Not wild. Calculated. That’s why I picked you. The idiots are on their team. Now do your duty cause we need to show this city boy who’s joined their ranks how boys ‘round here play baseball.”
Tom Tanner
Chapter Fourteen: Church Part Four
So my team broke ranks, and Jimmy had also gathered his men around, and he held to the sides of his vest while he pontificated. The new one, Quinton, stood back a ways, and listened with an expression of confusion, unsure if he was at a baseball game or an election. He didn’t know our sheriff, but he would shortly.
So Jimmy’s team broke with a “huzzah,” and went on that field to try and stop us.
Seth, Harley, Lem. That’s how it would go. Seth was strong enough, and had a shaper eye than most. Than Gaylin.
Cousin Quinton, and I took pleasure in referring to him as such, was playing first base. Jimmy was pitcher. Gaylin was catcher, so he spoke threats to Seth, always looking to see Ma was out of earshot, which she never was, not that one.
I took in Addie, watching over Cousin as if he was her sweetheart going off to war. I did not like such a notion. Best not look at her too often, I thought as I looked at her. Lord she was a pretty thing. Holding that baby, the one I’d brought into the world…what in the Dixie Queen was this carpetbagger doing here? And there was Johnny, my most ardent supporter, currently hitting another boy with a stick again.
Crack went that bat, and Seth sent that ball flying past Jimmy who dove for it and landed hard on his belly. I had to rub my hand over my mouth to get the smile off. He took second.
Harley was next. Nerves like iron. Always skinnier than most, never got the muscle, but it was there if you seen him with no shirt, which I had, too many times, but he held his own and made up for things best way he could. Wiley.
So he tapped that ball, just enough Gaylin wasn’t expecting it, and Jimmy couldn’t reach it quick enough seeing as he was screaming at Gaylin and using up all his strength that way. So we had a man on first, a man on third. The Lord was on our side.
Lem. Next to William, I’d take him. Been in a ditch with him more than once come time for battle. Didn’t talk too much, didn’t need too much, wasn’t given to much, not joy, not sorrow. He would see what he needed to do, and he’d do it.
Jimmy thought he had it figured, but he wasn’t so bright and sunny now, yelling at Jake to get close to that third base, yelling at Michael to look sharp at second. Almost yelling at Cousin, then face fanning into a grin that looked ridiculous, and saying to the stranger, “Reckon you got it?”
Cousin nodded, looking all eager, but undone a bit too cause we were serious.
Well, I dug my heel in the dirt, my arms folded over my thudding heart. I wanted to get my hands on that bat, and I only had to wait until Lem knocked that pitch to glory.
Lem wanted it bad, and he swung and missed. I figured he wanted to look all sloppy for Jimmy to simmer down a little and get hopeful. But Jimmy knew all his tricks so he’d have to figure out the attack on his own. I made my way around to where Missus stood.
“Addie,” I said, hit by all the pretty in this gal, “there’s a thing called a home run in this game and it’s quite exciting,” I said, a little angry about the way she’d made over
Cousin and watched him now like he was in peril. He was in peril, though. I wished she could look at me, and not be so distracted by this fellow.
“What is a home run, Tom?” she said a little strict, like I was Johnny or something.
“You’ll know it when you see it,” I said. “And it’s for you.” I lifted my hat and all.
Allie was in hearing, and she looked all wide-eyed and openmouthed, staring from me to Addie. The bat cracked and I turned then and walked towards the game. Lem made it to first, Harley to third, and Seth had tagged home. This crowd of church folk never made so much noise, not even the day they praised God the war was over, I reckon.
Gaylin swore, and Seth got on him with the families about. Gaylin wouldn’t back down. He was a high red color.
I stepped to the base then. Jimmy had circled and made a hand motion for everyone in the backfield to move further away. They took two steps or so, and the minute his back was turned they came forward again. Couldn’t tell them a thing.
I swung once or twice, close to Gaylin’s face, but I didn’t pay him no mind when he flinched back all histrionic. I knew where that bat was.
Jimmy grinned at me, but just for a second, then his real thoughts bled through and he got that face, that face I’d seen a hundred times when he was about to lay down the law.
He only had three good pitches, a fast pitch, a slow pitch, and one that started to drop about the time it got to the batter and he’d use them now because those other pitches where he tried to curve it this away or another never worked. I waited. This was for Addie, and it would be nothing less than legendary. I saw the trees it would head for, soaring like a dove. That’s exactly what happened. I swung loose and hard and drove that ball to the pearly gates. Good thing we had another bat because I split that one right down the heart. There was no stopping me.
Jimmy threw his hat down and cursed, and I ran those bases, shaking hands all around. Johnny ran onto the field and hugged me round the legs. All three of the men before me had tagged home. Michael and Jake had gone for the ball, and there was plenty of time to conversate or take a piss, or get a drink and a big slice of cake. We had four points and no outs.
Soon as Johnny took off, I went over to Addie. She was holding that baby, and there was still worry in her eyes, but she was smiling at me, and proud, proud, and I had a notion to grab her and kiss the daylights out of her, but of course I wouldn’t. Not just yet. I let my home run speak for now. “That was for you,” I reminded.
She nodded looking round, a little embarrassed because Allie heard, and Ma, maybe others. I had no care. “Th..thank you,” she stuttered, but she was paying attention again, not looking for Cousin right now and it felt good. She was blushing, and I got caught in looking, until Ma said something, and I looked at her not having an idea, but she was handing me the dipper and I took it and swallowed a good deal, but the missus watched me, and she was giving me a look I couldn’t figure now, but they were calling me to the field so I had to put it in my mind and shut the door.
The trouble started in the second inning. Jimmy’s team was surly. They couldn’t get a run, and if they did get a hit, we took that ball and drove it into them so they’d know they were tagged.
Gaylin wasn’t good under fire. Lem tagged him out at second. He didn’t agree, said his foot was on the bag. Doc Tusaint who couldn’t see past his nose, sided with Lem. So Gaylin threw the first punch at Lem. That was not a good mix. Lem was a temperate man, but Gaylin never softened it. He had one punch and it hurt. When he hurt Lem, Lem hurt him. Then Lem kicked him in the breads and down he went rolling and carrying on. Pa went to him, then Pa looked to me when Gaylin wouldn’t be helped, but I had a game to play so I shook my head and got back to it. I figured man could throw a punch he had to be willing to take what came. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind…or have your old pa carry you off the field like a sack of dirty clothes.
Cousin Quinton was up to bat. What was it about these city boys, same in the war, approaching everything all fine like they were getting graded for deportment. Whoops, I hit him in the leg. Dr. Tusaint didn’t like it, and I apologized. I looked quick at Addie, and I could see that one hand on her hip. Well, she wasn’t going to like what I did next cause I hit him in the ribs. Now folks were yelling and Doc told him to take a base. The preacher went forward and spoke to Tusaint, and I waited for this nonsense. Then Tusaint waddled to me and said the preacher said I needed to play fair or he was stopping this spectacle of hedonism. He said it was wrong to go about this business on a Sunday anyhow, and setting an example of debauchery, greed, and lasciviousness for the women and children.
I said to Tusaint I was truly sorry for all of those big words, and to pass that along.
If the preacher didn’t like the way it was going, just wait until it got there, for it surely would.
So Cousin was on first, and some folks had clapped because that meant Jimmy’s team was finally doing something. Not that they were, but it could look that way to a stander by.
I pitched to Jimmy next, and he swung so hard he nearly spun clean around, and the crowd called all kinds of encouragement to him. I looked round at the boys, made sure they were ready. I threw it light, and he swung for it and got strike two. He wiped his forehead with his bandana and resettled his hat, and took the bat in his two hands, gripping and regripping as he held it in his strange way. My next pitch was fair game. If he could, it was there, and he did, and he ran.
Well, Lem had it. Most things didn’t get by him, ground-hogs, bunnies, balls or rebs frankly. He caught Jimmy’s hit, threw it to Harley and truth be told Harley tagged Jimmy hard cause we’d put up with him, God knows. It probably hurt, but Jimmy swung, and they went down, and others jumped on, and it was just a pile of fury.
Quinton went for Addie then. I saw him go to her, grab her arm, her listening to him, I could see his head wag. Allie was listening, then she called for Johnny. It’s like Quinton was sweeping them away. Then Gaylin punched me in the face and I went down.
When I came to someone was standing on my arm, and someone else got knocked back, tripped on me and came down on my middle and the air left me, and I kicked him off and rolled to my side trying to get some air. I couldn’t breathe. But someone else piled onto me and I swear my ribs were ready to split. But I couldn’t say to get off, so soon as I could breathe I had to crawl away from the melee. My forehead was bleeding. I got far enough I could see the last of the food being packed, the older fellows helping the wives, making kind of a human old man fence to keep the soldiers and wishful soldiers away. Children peaked from the carriages. The rented Greenup buggy was already kicking dust, and Pa and Ma were packing the boot on the carriage. “Hellfire,” I whispered, standing stiffly and dusting my backside.
The preacher was giving Jimmy a dusting, wagging the bible in his face. Jimmy saw me then, and gave me a wave. He’d had a good time, and it hadn’t been so bad until Cousin kidnapped Addie. Preacher marched to me now, his white beard pumping but beyond knowing he blamed me for everything and what a great disappointment I was to my mother and the county, I could not follow a word he said, for my eyes…and probably my heart, black as it was, were straining after that cloud of dust. My Addie.
Tom Tanner
Chapter Fifteen
I soon caught up to Pa on that road. Others followed, but we did not wish to stay close to one another for we had separated along party lines again, the blue and gray, all in the name of baseball. There would be no flag to unite us now, for while this breach mayhap did run more shallow than the war, it would not heal more readily.
Least that’s what the preacher said. It was coming to me now. I had waked snakes and sinned to Moses, I guess. I wanted to blow around my pa, but even I didn’t dare at this moment. So I tottered along behind like a good old mule, and I wondered where Cousin had taken Addie, to our farm or to hers? I did not know and it was killing me more than my throbbing jaw and aching ribs.
Wrong time for Jimmy to pull beside me on
that black. There was that grin, only it was purple and blue now, and that gave me some pleasure.
“He took her mite quick,” Jimmy said.
I stared ahead like I hadn’t heard.
He was laughing. “Allie says you moon around all the time now.”
Still staring. Allie was looking back though, anxious like always.
“You lift your hat to my sister or Miss Addie?” I asked.
I’ll say one thing, he never let down. ‘Cept those couple of times, and talk about a crazy man.
“I just lifted it, Tommy. Figured I’d kill the two birds…you know.”
“They are deserving of fair treatment, Captain, but it won’t do you good to set eyes on either.”
Allie was turned clear around on her seat, her neck craning. Was this an ambush?
“That’s pretty much what I wanted to talk to you about old pard.”
“Nope,” I said to save him the trouble.
“Hear me out now.”
“Nope.”
“She’s seventeen,” he said, “nearly.”
I stopped that rig, and he pulled up.
“My baby sister? Are you out of your mind?”
“I reckon I’m not.”
“You been sneaking?”
“No sir. I’m shooting straight. Man who wants to run for office needs to be respectable. Needs to take him a wife.”
“Wife?” I wrapped those reigns quick and made to jump on him.
“Hold on Tom. Let’s think this through. She’s marriageable. And I’ve loved her since she was knee-high.”
“Love her? You ain’t never loved anything past your own reflection.”
“What ails you, Tom? I done tried to show you I’m a man of worth, but you won’t give me no more chance than a dog what got in the henhouse but that one time.”
“I told you at Chickamauga we were done. I looked down your throat and up your ass and there ain’t nothing but black end to end. You come for her, you’ll meet my Enfield.”