"Grandpa?" I asked, walking up the stairs to him. "Ariel, is that you?" Old man Mertle asked? "Wait R. Is he your like gramps?" Bertram asked. "Yep." "I thought you guys wern't gonna be here for another week." "We got done packing early, so we came." I replied. "Are these boys giving you trouble, or are they leaving you alone cause of how much baseball history you have?" "What do you mean ''baseball history''?" Smalls asked.
Mertle motioned for us to sit down and then he said, "My grandbaby probably knows more about baseball then any of you." "No way." the boys said. "Ariel, will you go grab the newspaper on the counter? It should have a picture of me, Babe, and the other players." I ran inside, grabbed it, ran back out, and handed it to Mertle.
"Now boys, What do you see in Babe's arms?" "A sack." "A towel." "A wrapped up trophy." They were all good guesses, but I knew this story. Mertle laughed. "I love how none of those guesses are even close. Look closer." The boys leaned in, then Yeah-Yeah said, "Hey-Hey it's a baby!" "Correct." Mertle said.
The boys eyes trailed to me, and stared. "You know the Great Bambino?" Benny asked. "Well we met when I was a baby, but I guess so." I replied. "If you don't mind me asking, but how are you two related?" Smalls asked.
"Well," I started to tell, " before gramps here lost his eye site, he hooked up with a girl named Jasmine. They were 15-16 years old. Once Jasmine found out she was pregnant, she dumped him. How was she supposed to tell her parents that she was having a black man's baby? So she ran. Oh she ran as far as her feet would carry her. But after running for 8 months, she found herself at Mertle's front steps. 5 1/2 weeks later, Jasmine had a beautiful baby girl named Aurora. After Aurora was born, Jasmine and Mertle finished high school and got married. When Aurora was 16, Jasmine died of cancer. 3 years after that, Aurora was pregnant, and 9 months later, she had a girl named Ariel."
"Ariel, I found a mistake in your story." Mertle said. "Oh and that is?" I asked with a smile. "Well, when you told about your mother's birth, you called a beautiful baby girl. But when you told about your birth, all you said was a girl. Why didn't you say beautiful for your name?" Grampa asked. "Cause I'm not beautiful." I replied. "Uh yeah you are." "How are you not beautiful?" the boys said. Yeah-Yeah was the only one who stayed silent. I stood up, walked down the steps, and called," Hercules! Come on boy!" He followed, and I walked to the diamond. Why didn't Yeah-Yeah say anything about me being beautiful? I thought. Why do I even care?