by T. K. Chapin
Sensing the distrust in her tone, I tried to reason with her the best I could. “That doesn’t look very safe. Can I help you?”
She jumped backwards off the bottom shelf and landed on her feet. “Sure,” she replied with a shrug. “It’s the bow-tie noodles in the back...”
I pushed myself up onto my toes and leaned back to grab the box. As I came back down, she said, “Thank you…”
“You’re welcome,” I replied. Christopher and I continued down the aisle until we made our way around the corner when Christopher looked over at me with a questioning expression.
“Why didn’t you get her number?” he asked.
Startled by his question, I stopped the cart and looked at him. “Why would you ask that?”
“Well, Mom says all you do is drink beer and pick up chicks.”
“She told you that?” I asked, surprised.
“Well, no. Not exactly. I heard her on the phone with one of her friends.”
“Of course you did…” I replied as I started pushing the cart again. I loved my sister, but surgeon or not when it came to common sense, she was dumb as a box of rocks. Christopher wasn’t a baby anymore. He could hear things, and even I, without children, knew that.
As I put away the groceries back at my apartment, Christopher sat on a barstool up at the island in the kitchen.
“Hey, Uncle Kane?” he asked.
“Yeah?” I replied, as I put the pizzas into the freezer.
“What’s going to happen to Grandma?” he asked.
I stopped, shut the freezer door, and turned around to him. Walking over to the island, I leaned across the countertop and said, “What makes you ask that?”
He opened up the sticky bun he had on the counter in front of him and said, “I heard Mom on the phone this morning when she came by the house to shower. Is Grandma going to be okay?”
“Grandma’s not doing so hot, kid,” I replied, letting my finger trace circles on top of the counter. Looking up at him, I saw the worry run across his face. Glancing over at the TV just beyond the couch behind Christopher, I said, “Let’s play some games and relax for the rest of the evening. How’s that sound?”
He smiled and nodded. “Do you have the newest Holodeck?”
I nodded. “Of course. Go ahead and go import your profile, I’ll toss a pizza in the oven for dinner.” He jumped up and went into the living room. That evening we played video games until one o’clock in the morning, not speaking another word on the matter of my mother’s health.
CHAPTER 4
As I rolled out of bed the next day, I could see partially down the hallway and into the living room. Christopher was already awake and playing more video games.
I yawned as I walked through the living room and strolled into the kitchen. “Bit early for games, don’t you think?” I asked.
He shrugged and said over his shoulder, “I’m an early riser. Nothing else to do.”
I nodded, mulling his response over in my mind. “Makes sense,” I replied. In the kitchen, I grabbed the coffee can from the cupboard and pulled it down. As I was scooping the coffee grounds into the pot, the power suddenly cut out.
“What happened?” Christopher asked from the couch.
“Looks like the power went out,” I replied. Walking over to my sliding glass door off the kitchen, I glanced outside across the balcony to the neighboring apartments. Spotting Mr. Berry’s TV off –which was never off— and Mr. Berry screaming into his phone, I said, “Looks like everyone lost their power in the complex.”
“When will it be back on? I was in the middle of a mission…” Christopher replied, annoyed.
“No need to panic, Christopher. It’ll come back on when it comes back on. It really depends on why it happened.” I returned to the kitchen and continued scooping coffee into the basket of the coffee pot. While I filled it with water, Christopher got off the couch and came into the kitchen.
“Why are you making coffee? You can’t brew it.”
“Well, I’m hopeful this will be resolved soon and I can just turn on the coffee pot.” I smiled at him as I pushed the coffee pot back up against the back splash.
Christopher sighed. “This sucks,” he said, heading back over to the couch, and plopping down dramatically.
“Yeah, I’ll call the electric company and see what’s going on.”
“Alright,” he replied with another heavy sigh. He pulled out his cell phone and began playing a game, while I found the number for the electric company on a bill from the counter.
I called and immediately was greeted by a front end message. “Our records indicate there is a large scale power outage in the area in which you are calling from. The estimated time of fix is unknown. If this is the reason you are calling, please hang up now; otherwise, press 2.”
I hung up. “Looks like it’ll be out for a bit… it’s a large scale outage and there is no ETA.”
“Really?” Christopher said, keeping his eyes glued to his cell phone’s screen.
“Yep,” I replied with a sigh.
His phone suddenly shut off. “Great. And I forgot to charge my phone last night… Lame.” He sighed yet again, tossing his phone to the other end of the couch. I walked into the living room and sat down beside him. “That’s alright. We’ll figure something out.”
“What’s wrong with Grandma exactly?” he asked. “Other than the fact she’s not doing so hot or whatever that stupid response was you gave me yesterday…”
“Hey, now. Stop with the ‘stupid’ and ‘sucks’ comments. But to answer your question…”I paused for a moment as I tried to figure out how to continue. “I don’t know if you’re old enough to know this kind of thing, or what your mom would want… but I’m going to tell you anyway. Your Grandma McCormick is dying from cancer. She doesn’t have much time to live…”
“What?” he asked, as his eyes welled with tears. “She’s going to die? Aren’t there doctors and medicine to fix this kind of thing?” he asked.
I shook my head. “The cancer has spread too much for them to help. They’ve already tried everything that they can do.”
He sat back into the couch and dipped his chin. Softly, he said, “So just like that she’s going to die…”
“Yeah…” I replied, feeling uncomfortable with his sadness. Thinking about my mother and how she mentioned heaven, I used her own words and said, “She’s going to go to heaven and be with Uncle Kyle.”
He shook his head and stood up from the couch. “Mom says there is no such thing as Heaven.” He left the living room and went into my bedroom, slamming the door behind him. I cringed at the sound. I went down the hallway and to the door. Leaning an ear against the grain, I listened. Hearing him sobbing softly to himself, I recalled my childhood and how I took everything my mother said at face value. I suspected that’s what Christopher was doing, too. Knowing his father was absent from his life and his mother was busy with work all the time, I felt it was my duty in that moment to step up and be there for him.
I knocked on the door lightly and turned the doorknob as I walked in. “Christopher…” I said as I came to the edge of the bed where he was sitting.
“What?” he asked, turning away from me slightly.
I placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “Heaven’s real and Grandma and Kyle are going to be there waiting for the rest of us.”
He looked up at me and shook his head. “I don’t know if I believe that.” He turned away from me and fixed his sights on the wall.
Glancing over in the direction of Christopher’s gaze, I saw my glove and baseball bat lying on the floor. He’s just a kid, I thought to myself. He shouldn’t be wallowing in sorrow. “You ever played baseball?” I asked.
“No,” he replied. “You play?”
“Sometimes… All the guys at the fire station and I went and played a few weeks back.”
He wiped his eyes and stood up from the bed. Going over to the glove, he picked it up and turned to me. “Well, we can’t do
anything here at the apartment. Can we go play?”
I nodded, thinking about all that activity without an ounce of coffee in me. “I haven’t had my morning java… but I guess I can grab some on the way.”
“Awesome! Can I use this mitt?” he asked, looking at it.
“Sure… or we could get you your own at the store?”
He smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Let’s go down to the garage and see if we can find the bucket of balls I couldn’t find the other day.”
“Alright,” Christopher replied.
We left the apartment and put the baseball bat and glove in the car before heading over to the garage. Unlocking the garage door, we both lifted up on each side and pushed it open. An earthy smell filled our noses as we walked into the garage.
“It smells like dirt in here,” Christopher said, covering his nose.
“Yeah, I noticed that the other day when I was in here after that big thunderstorm. There’s a leak up in the roof, and every time it rains, it gets that earthy smell.”
“You should fix it,” Christopher replied, picking up a bale hook off of a shelf.
“Yeah. I plan on it…” I said, walking over to him. “You know what that is?” I asked as he inspected it.
“Looks like something out of a horror movie, honestly,” he replied, handing it to me.
I laughed. “Yeah. It looks like that, but it’s actually a bale hook. It was from a summer when I was about your age. I was visiting my Uncle Roy out in Chattaroy to give my mother time to cope with her latest boyfriend ditching her.”
“Really?” Christopher asked as he continued looking around the garage. “I could never picture you doing anything on a farm…”
“It was a long time ago…” I smiled as I reflected back on the first time I had ever used it. It was on a trip with Roy to pick up some hay from a farm out in the middle of nowhere in Idaho.
Breaking into my thoughts, Christopher said, “Found the bucket of balls.”
Glancing over at him, I saw that he was crouched under the workbench and that he had moved a stack of newspapers out of the way. “Ah… I’m bad at looking behind things.”
“That’s probably why you missed it the other day,” Christopher replied as I set the bale hook back down on the shelf.
“Yeah, probably,” I replied with a grin. “Let’s get going,” I said, walking out of the garage. Christopher grabbed the bucket of balls and I shut the door. As I was locking it, Christopher turned to look at me.
“Do you go to church?” he asked.
I looked over at him, surprised. “What happened to the days when you just wanted some candy and a hug?” I asked, smiling.
“I grew up. I’m an adult now.”
“Don’t try so hard to be an adult. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” I finished locking the garage door and turned around to head for my car. “As far as church goes… I haven’t been in a while…”
“Since you and Ashley broke up?” Christopher asked as we walked.
I stopped and looked at him. “You know about us breaking up? You hear that from your mom too?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “I saw your relationship status update online.”
Smiling I replied, “Oh, yeah. I forgot I did that. But anyway, yes, haven’t been going since then.”
By the time we arrived at the park, the early morning coolness burned off, and the sun was beating down on the back of our necks.
“It’s hot out here,” Christopher said as we strolled up to the baseball field.
“Yeah, roll up your jeans. It’ll keep you cooler,” I suggested.
“That’s stupid, I’ll look like an idiot,” Christopher replied.
I shrugged. “Suit yourself. Be hot and sweaty while you look cool.”
“I will,” he replied. “Can I throw first?”
I was surprised by his desire to throw instead of hit. I recalled being a teenager and always wanting to bat, never throw. “Yeah, sure… why don’t you want to bat?”
“I want to try this mitt out,” Christopher replied, looking down at his glove on his hand. Smiling, he said, “It feels so cool on my hand… like a glove!”
“That’s the idea behind the baseball glove,” I replied, grinning. “You need some help throwing?” I asked.
“No. I’m okay. I have thrown stuff around before. I’m not that much of a noob. Just haven’t played baseball…” Christopher split off from me as we walked the field, and jogged over to the pitcher’s mound with the bucket of balls.
“Okay,” I replied, taking to the plate with my bat in hand. Getting into position, I lifted the bat up onto my shoulder and said, “Toss it.”
He threw the ball so hard that it would have given me a concussion if it would have hit me in the head. Luckily, I ducked out of the way and dropped to the dirt before it had a chance to land.
“Sorry,” he said, turning beet red in embarrassment.
“Jeez!” I shouted, with a smile so I didn’t discourage him. “A little softer and straighter over the plate…”
“I guess I don’t know my own strength,” Christopher laughed.
“Yeah, that’s it…” I replied, smiling as I stood up and picked up my shades off the dirt beside the plate. “Maybe try under hand.”
“Alright.” He lobbed another one, which went off course, but I was able to run across the plate and hit the ball, sending a grounder to him. He ran over and scooped it up into his glove.
“Got it!” he said, overly excited.
“Good job,” I replied, walking back over to the plate.
“I want to try batting now.”
“Alright. Want help with that?” I asked as I walked out to the pitcher’s mound.
He shook his head. “I want to at least try on my own first.”
“Okay,” I replied as I handed him the bat and took his glove. I set his glove down next to the bucket of baseballs and grabbed my mitt from the other side of the bucket. Sliding my fingers into the glove, I grabbed a ball and got into position to throw.
“Ready,” he said, from the plate. His form wasn’t horrible, I thought to myself.
I tossed the ball underhand to him, and he swung too early, missing the ball. I jogged up to him and stood out in front of him. I said, “Right when you see the ball in this area, you swing… You gotta swing before the ball gets to you, but not too early…. Make sense?”
“Yeah,” he replied as I started back.
“And…” I said, turning and jogging back up to him. “Swing like this.” I took the bat and showed him how to follow through on the swing.
“Okay,” he said, nodding.
I ran back to the mound and grabbed another ball from the bucket. “Get ready.”
He adjusted his footing and looked at me. He gave me a confirming nod.
I lobbed the ball underhand, nice and slow just like before and he smacked it. The ball went soaring into the outfield. Seeing a kid about Christopher’s age just over the fence, I looked back and said, “I’ll get it. I’m going to see if that kid wants to play.” Setting my mitt down on the bucket of balls, I jogged out to the outfield where the ball and the kid were.
“Hey,” I said, as I approached and put my shades on my head. “You want to play with us?” I picked up the baseball.
He shrugged and looked over his shoulder for a moment before looking back at me. “Sure…”
“You don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” I said.
“No, I want to play. I just don’t have a mitt here right now…”
“Well, you can use one of ours,” I said.
“Okay, cool…” he replied, smiling as he came over to me.
“There’s a mitt over by the bucket you can use.”
“Thanks. And I just want to catch out in the outfield, no batting.”
I nodded. “Okay. That’s fine by me.”
“Cool, thanks.”
“I’m Kane, and that’s Christopher over at the plate,�
�� I said.
“I’m Blake,” the kid replied as he rushed past me through the grass over to grab the glove by the pitcher’s mound. As I walked back to the mound, I saw Blake walk over and exchange hello’s with Christopher.
We played through the early afternoon until about one o’clock. Taking a breather, I saw a woman come strolling up the park’s path to the baseball field.
Blake left the glove behind in the outfield, dashing over to her. As I walked over to greet her, I realized it was the same woman from the store yesterday, and I couldn’t help smiling. “Bow-tie pasta lady,” I said, as I took off my shades and glove and waved.
“Hi, again,” she replied, smiling.
“I hope it was okay we were playing with Blake. He’s really good at catching pop flies,” I said.
“He played outfield last year for his school. He loves it.”
“I see…” I replied. “Is the power back on yet?” I asked.
She nodded. “That was bizarre, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, super strange. That outage is how we ended up out here playing baseball.” I extended a hand out to shake hers. “I’m Kane, by the way.”
She smiled and shook my hand, “I’m Kristen.”
“Nice to meet you. We were thinking about getting a bite to eat. Do you guys want to join us?” I asked, looking at her and then over at Blake. For some reason, I really thought she would say yes.
“We were just about to go eat with some friends from church, but thank you for the offer,” Kristen replied.
“Where do you go to church?” I asked, trying not to pry, but not ready to say goodbye yet.
“Valley Baptist,” she replied.
“I went there a few times and then switched over to Christ Community just up the road.”
“That’s Pastor Rick over there, right?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“You don’t go to church, though,” Christopher chimed in.
I went red in embarrassment. “I just haven’t been in a while,” I replied to Christopher.
“You and your son should come to the youth group barbeque tomorrow we are having at the church,” she said.