The Baseball Player Next Door

Inning 30 ★ Home

"That was us," I told Santi. "Ten years ago that was us. Toothy, snotty and cry babies."

He snorted. "When you think about it, we haven't changed much."

I laughed and nudged him with my shoulder. "Hey, I'd say at least we grew in height."

He conceded that point. For a while we just shared the water bottle in silence and looked out at the deserted field. I imagined the three of us running amok on it back then. We'd been so happy.

"I'm gonna miss this," I said.

"Yes, it's the end of an era." He stood up and looked down at me. The glare of the sun had me squinting up at him. "C'mon, I want to see if you got any better at batting."

I shrugged and got up, borrowing his bat and hat as I walked up to the plate. He grabbed a few balls and put them in the pockets of his shorts. I watched him walk to the mound, which was not a usual sight. Back in the days, when it was just Seb, Santi and I, we'd switched around and tried all the positions. But Santi had never been a steady pitcher. He had the occasional good pitch, but he couldn't normally keep them within the strike zone.

I was mesmerized as he did a full wind up, perfect posture and everything, and threw a first ball. I was too busy looking at the way his t-shirt clung to his shoulders and chest, at how his powerful arms swung up and out and how the muscles of his legs tightened that I completely missed the ball. Too busy salivating.

He sighed. "You're not paying attention."

"You're distracting me."

He shook his head as he reached into his pocket and grabbed another ball. He mustn't have liked that one because he put it back in and replaced it by another one. This time I was ready, hips pulled out and everything as he'd advised. When his pitch came I was able to hit it somewhere off to the right of him. He'd have caught it and thrown it to first easily, if that were necessary. As it was, he grabbed a third ball from his pocket and threw it. I missed that one by a mile with a wide swing.

"Really?" he asked, with not a bone of sympathy in his body.

I cringed and could feel heat traveling up my face. "I want to coach pros, not play with pros, okay?"

"Yeah, but how are you going to get them to respect you if you bat like a little boy?"

I shrugged. "By the power of my screams, I hope."

Santi flashed me a grin. He pulled out the last ball he had in his pocket and looked at it with way more care than the previous ones. That put me on high alert, and when he threw it I was able to detect that it was different. So I didn't swing my bat and just let it go. I turned back to see where it landed, and saw that it was small and orange.

"Is that...?"

He jogged over and picked it up, dusting it off as if it hadn't been caked in mud for years in a cardboard box.

"What's that ball doing here?" I asked him

He shifted his eyes up at me before extending it toward me. "Remember? You told me to bring it home. Well, here it is."

I blinked at it, not quite understanding his meaning. Had this been the field where we played that game?

He placed the ball in my hand and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "That was the whole thing. You screamed at me to bring it home and what I thought about wasn't to run to home plate and score. All I could think of was to bring it to you. To my home."

I drew in a shaky gasp. "Oh, Santi."

His smile was pinched. "I was not ready for such a grand gesture back then, though."

I remembered the video Seb had recorded of us fighting after that game. I never knew he'd been filming us, or that he'd helped his baby brother find the ball. I never knew what that game and this ball had meant to Santi. Until now.

I blinked at the ball, rolling it over on my hand. "Is it mine, now?"

He stepped closer until his chest bumped against my forehead. "It was always yours."

I had a feeling that just like that I held his heart in my hands. And it was going to be my most precious treasure. I didn't have a special memento for him. I just hoped I could give him my entire future and that that would be enough.

I looked up at him and circled my arms around his neck. In turn, he pressed me close to him.

"Thank you, I'll treasure it."

The corners of his lips lifted. "You better, it's been through a lot of shit."

I laughed and pressed my lips against his softly. "Well, at least now it has company. Forever."

it all ends where it started, you guys, at the pee wees. HOLD ME WHILE I CRY