Fast-Pitch Love

by Clay Cormany

  "And I’m sure we’ll do better in our next game," added Sylvia.

  "It’d be hard to do any worse," said Angela, slumping her shoulders.

  "Hey," Nancy piped up, "maybe we should wear paper sacks on our heads when we play next time, so no one will know who we are when we get clobbered."

  "That’s enough," Martha said. "Let’s go congratulate the Firebirds and then start thinking about our game against the Diamond Girls."

  As the Valkyries headed back onto the field for the required hand slaps with their opponents, Lauren held back. Surprise and gratitude shown on her face as she mouthed the words "thank you" to Jace.

  Jace gave her a thumbs up. His mind drifted to one of his favorite books — Tom Sawyer — specifically the part where Tom takes a whipping in place of Becky Thatcher by claiming to have drawn a silly picture of their teacher that she had drawn. A touch on his arm interrupted his thoughts. It was Sylvia. Her right eye had an arch to it, as if she suspected something.

  For a moment the two of them just stood there near the first baseline, watching the Valkyries and Firebirds slap hands and repeat "good game" to each other. Then Sylvia spoke.

  "You didn’t really tell Lauren to swing away, did you?"

  "No, I told her to bunt."

  "Why didn’t she?"

  Jace sighed. "She thought she could hit the ball into the outfield and knock in two or three runs."

  "So she wanted to be the hero of the game?"

  "Yeah, I guess."

  Sylvia nodded, the arch of her eye relaxing as a smile formed on her lips. Once again, Jace saw that Sylvia’s smile was every bit as entrancing as her older sister’s.

  "But why did you take the blame for her?" Sylvia asked, the arch returning to her eye.

  "Lauren’s got the potential to be a good player," Jace answered. "But not if her spirit is broken, not if she feels that she’s hurting the team every time she doesn’t come through for them."

  Sylvia moved closer to him. "Okay, then, you did the right thing."

  "I hope so. Anyway, I don’t think Lauren will ignore any more batting commands."

  "No, I don’t think she will either, and I think you’ve gained something special from Lauren." Sylvia put her arm around Jace’s shoulder. It seemed to be a gesture of camaraderie, but Jace felt a surge of excitement just the same.

  "What’s that?" he asked, his own eyes arching a bit.

  "Loyalty."

  "Loyalty?" Jace chuckled and rubbed his hand across his forehead. "Yeah, loyalty from Lauren maybe. But the rest of our team thinks I’m a dummy."

  "They’re just disappointed about not scoring any runs when they had the chance. That’ll pass. But the respect you gained from Lauren will stick."

  Sylvia patted his shoulder and then put her arm back at her side. Jace studied the face of his fellow assistant coach. Rounder and fuller than Stephanie’s, it still had the same soft features. And something else was there — an intensity and grittiness that Stephanie didn’t have. He saw it in her eyes, in the little curl on her lip, and in the firmness of her jaw. It made Jace wonder if Sylvia had faced some big challenge in life that her sister never had.

  "Do you think we’ll do better in our next game?" he asked her.

  "Oh, I think so," Sylvia said. "Who knows? We might even win."

  ****

  The Valkyries didn’t win their next game and, in fact, lost almost as badly as they had against the Firebirds. They did manage to score a run in the second inning when the Diamond Girl pitcher walked Sarah and Tina and then gave up a single to Corey, allowing Sarah to score from second. But the Valkyrie defense was worse than it had been in their first game. Balls skittered under legs and bounced off knees. Even a couple of pop flies that should have been easy outs were dropped. Tina pitched well — she had four strikeouts — but it wasn’t enough. And when the Diamond Girls ran the score to twelve to one in the fifth inning, the umpire applied the run rule again. Discouragement abounded among the Valkyries as they slunk in from the field.

  At the meeting that followed the game, Martha tried to be upbeat about the team’s performance, praising their "hustle" and their "no-quit attitude" — but most of the girls didn’t buy it.

  "We stink," groused Heather, tossing her glove on the ground with enough force to raise a small cloud of dust.

  "Do we ever," Lauren agreed, also tossing her glove at the ground but hitting Angela’s foot instead.

  "Watch what you’re doing, you stupid klutz!" Angela snapped at Lauren.

  "Oh grow up, you wimp!" Lauren shot back. "It barely touched you."

  "What do you mean, it barely touched me?" Angela kicked the glove away.

  "That’s enough!" shouted Martha. "That kind of talk isn’t going to help a bit."

  There was silence. Some of the girls fidgeted with their hair; others just stared into space. Then Heather glared at Sylvia and spoke up.

  "You said we’d do better in this game."

  "I thought we would," Sylvia said.

  "And we did," Martha interjected. "At least we scored a run."

  "And the game made it to the fifth inning this time, instead of just the third," Sylvia chimed in.

  The girls' gloomy faces remained unchanged.

  "We stink," Heather repeated while chewing on some sunflower seeds. "And you know we stink."

  Martha seemed ready to argue, but Jace jumped in ahead of her.

  "Okay, you stink," he admitted. "Why do you stink? Is it the pitching?"

  Most of the girls shook their heads.

  "No," said Phoebe. "Tina pitched pretty good. She got some strikeouts and only walked one."

  "And just a few of their hits got into the outfield," added Angela.

  "All right," Jace continued. "What about our hitting?"

  "We could’ve done better," suggested Susie.

  "Yeah, every time we hit the ball, they seemed to catch it or at least keep it in the infield," said Lauren. "We just couldn’t get the ball past them."

  "But if the Diamond Girls weren’t hitting the ball that well and were even striking out sometimes," Jace asked, "why did they score so many runs?"

  "That’s easy," said Heather, "it’s because we made so many…" she paused and then her face lit up, but before she could say anything, Susie jumped off her seat.

  "I know why we stink!" she hollered. "It’s because we keep making so many errors in the field."

  "Ta-da!" shouted Sylvia, throwing out her arms in mock celebration.

  "Yep," said Jace, consulting a piece of paper he pulled out of his back pocket. "According to my figures, you guys made a total of ten errors in that game."

  Sylvia's mouth dropped open. "Ten errors! Why, it’s a miracle you lasted to the fifth inning."

  "So I guess we’re going to lose every game, aren’t we," Lauren moaned, her face slumping like melting ice cream.

  "No, you’re not going to lose all your games," Jace said. "In fact, you’re going to start winning your games, beginning with the one next week against the Hornets."

  "What are we going to do?" asked Heather. "Cheat?"

  "Of course not," chided Jace. "But we are going to hold a special fielding practice tomorrow here at Addison Park for those of you who can come."

  Heather regarded him skeptically. "What do you mean ‘a special fielding practice’?" she snapped. "We’ve been practicing fielding since our first day."

  "Trust me," Jace said. "The one tomorrow will be different."

  "What do you have in mind?" Martha inquired. She appeared to be as skeptical as Heather.

  "I’ll explain later."

  "Why not explain now?"

  "Let’s just say I want to make it a surprise."

  "Our mom comes to the pool every day, so Tina and I can be here," said Sylvia. "What time will the practice start?"

  Jace was unprepared for the question. "Oh, ah, how about six o'clock?" he blurted out. "We can just meet over in the parking lot. Will that work for you guys?"


  Almost in unison, the girls gawked at Martha, who nodded slowly. "I don’t think I can make it," she said. "I have to stay late at work tomorrow to help some people from Cambodia, so Jace and Sylvia will be in charge."

  "That’s fine with me," Sylvia said. "But wait — won’t there be games going on here tomorrow evening?"

  "Some of the diamonds will have games, but at least one should be open," Martha assured her.

  "So what do you say, guys? You want to see what I have up my sleeve?" Jace asked.

  Three or four of the girls begged off, citing other things they had to do, but the rest promised to be there.

  "This better be good," said Heather, before she walked over to where her mother waited to take her home.

  After most of the girls left the field, Sylvia took Jace aside. "So what are you going to do that’s so different?"

  "You’ll find out tomorrow."

  "Oh come on, tell me!"

  He pretended to look around for possible eavesdroppers. Then he cupped his hands around her ear and whispered into it.

  "You’re going to use a what?" she said, startled.

  "You heard me."

  "That sure is different, but how do you know it’ll work?"

  "I don’t know if it’ll work, but I know it won’t work any less than what we’re doing now."

  Before Sylvia could say anything more, Phoebe’s voice rang through the air.

  "Jace, come on! Mom’s waiting for us!"

  "Got to go," he said. "See you tomorrow at six."

  "Wait," said Sylvia. "Did the team really make ten errors in that game?"

  Jace shrugged. "I have no idea. That was my mom’s grocery list I looked at."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Just before six p.m. the following day, Jace took Phoebe and drove his mother’s station wagon over to Addison Park. Martha gave her approval to the "special fielding practice" but still had doubts. "I like the idea, but it could backfire," she warned.

  "I guess that’s possible," Jace admitted.

  "And there’s also more chance of someone getting hurt," she added.

  "I’ll be careful. Don’t worry."

  "All right, but take the first aid kit."

  Pulling into the parking lot, Jace saw seven or eight players waiting for them. Sylvia was there, too. She seemed different somehow, even though she wore her usual ball cap, team jersey, and shorts. After a moment, Jace realized she had let her hair down. Instead of being knotted behind her head, it tumbled over both shoulders. He kept his eyes on her, even after taking the key out of the ignition.

  "What’s wrong, Jace?" Phoebe asked. "What are you staring at?"

  "Nothing! I’m not staring at anything."

  "It sure looked that way to me," Phoebe said with a smirk. "Your eyes got real funny and –"

  "Forget it!" he almost shouted, reaching behind him and grabbing a backpack. "Now let’s get out there with the others."

  When he got closer to Sylvia, Jace again found himself struck by the change in her appearance. Besides letting her hair down, she had a brighter, more animated face that almost seemed to glow in the sunlight. He must have stared at her this time, because Sylvia waved a hand in front of his face as if trying to rouse him from a trance.

  "Earth to Jace," she joked. "Are you there, space ranger?"

  "Uh, yes, sorry," Jace jabbered. "Just trying to see what diamonds might be open."

  "The diamonds are over there," she said, pointing to her right.

  Jace could feel his face redden. Of course he hadn’t been looking at the diamonds, but what else could he say? He’d make a fool of himself if he told Sylvia the truth. The best he could do now was to focus on softball.

  "Let’s see if we can find one that’s open."

  Games were in progress on three of the fields, but Diamond Number Four was unoccupied. It wasn’t in good shape. The infield was torn up in several places, and a recent rainfall had left a puddle near second base, but it was good enough for what Jace had in mind. He assembled the team around third base and dropped the backpack in front of them.

  "So, tell us, Professor X," said Heather, "just how is this fielding practice going to be different?"

  "It’d be easier to show you," Jace answered. He zipped open the backpack and fished around inside of it for a couple of seconds before pulling out a ball and holding it up for the girls to see. They stared at it, puzzled, then incredulous, and finally dismayed when they understood his intentions.

  "That’s a baseball," protested Nancy. "We can’t practice with that."

  "Yeah," Heather agreed. "Go find some dumb boys' team to coach if you want to use that ball."

  Jace gave the baseball a little toss in the air. "Oh, but you can learn things from boys sometimes," he said.

  "Sure," Heather continued, "like how to make root beer come through your nose."

  "Or sing Jingle Bells with burps," added Angela.

  Some of the girls giggled, and one or two let out burps.

  Jace held up a restraining hand. "I won’t make you do anything like that."

  "But we can’t even catch a softball that well," said Dana. "A baseball is even harder to catch, so we’ll do worse than before."

  "Maybe not," said Sylvia. "If you practice with a baseball now, it will be easier to handle a softball later on because it’s bigger and doesn’t move as fast."

  "Exactly," said Jace, once again feeling grateful for her support. "If your practices are harder than your games, you’re bound to improve."

  "It might work," said Corey. "My brother sometimes puts weights on his ankles when he runs. Then when he takes the weights off for track meets, he says his feet feel lighter."

  "Let’s try it," said Lauren. "But it won’t matter what kind of ball we use. We’re still going to lose."

  "Yeah, maybe we can use a football in our next practice," said Heather.

  Jace and Sylvia took turns hitting pop-ups and grounders to the girls. Later, they tried some fly balls and line drives. The girls had trouble at first flagging down the smaller, faster-moving sphere of leather. Moreover, missed balls traveled farther, sometimes almost ending up in other diamonds where games were being played. But gradually the Valkyries improved. They began to anticipate where the ball would go as soon as it came off the bat; they got better at judging its speed and direction, hustling to the right spot, and making the catch. There were sometimes groans when the ball slapped into gloves, but no injuries. When Jace called them in at seven-thirty, their faces glistened with perspiration and some rubbed their hands in pain.

  "My poor hand," Heather whined. "I think it’s swollen."

  "Don’t be such a whiny pooper," said Lauren. "I liked using the baseball." She smiled at Jace.

  "My hand hurts, too," said Phoebe. "Is using a baseball in practice going to make us better?"

  "We’ll find out at our game next Tuesday," said Jace. "We can squeeze in one more practice before then. What do you say, you guys? Are you up for that?"

  The response was not enthusiastic, but most of the girls nodded their heads.

  "Good," said Jace. "I’ll find a diamond where we can practice and then give you a call."

  After the girls scattered to bicycles or waiting cars, Jace pulled Sylvia aside.

  "What do you think about our practice today?" he asked.

  "I don’t know. I see the idea behind using the baseball, but whether it will pay off when the team plays their next game ..."

  She gave a shrug and took a drink from her water bottle. When she moved the bottle away from her lips, Jace saw something red around its tip. It was lipstick or lip gloss. Now he knew why Sylvia looked different today and wondered why he hadn’t realized it sooner. She was wearing make-up. Not a lot, but enough to make her features stand out and enough to make him see that she was a pretty girl in her own right. Jace thought about not asking his next question, but then decided to go ahead. Stephanie was still the girl he wanted. He was certain of that. Or almost certain.


  "Do you know if Stephanie will be home this evening?"

  "Um, yes, I think so," said Sylvia. Her shoulders slumped, and her head dropped a little. "Are you going to ask her out again?"

  "I thought we might go to the zoo sometime next week and maybe take a picnic lunch."

  "I’m sure she’d like to go," Sylvia said, smiling wanly. "The weather is supposed to be perfect the next few days, and the flowers at the zoo are beautiful this time of year. I almost wish you'd ask…"

  There was a long pause. Jace stared at Sylvia, waiting for her to finish her sentence. But she never did. Her face had an odd, discomforted expression — the kind that might be seen on the face of someone who’s let a secret slip out. He broke the silence himself.

  "If you see Stephanie, tell her I’ll call around eight tonight."

  "Okay."

  "Oh, and do you have her cell phone number?" Jace thought about asking for the Thornapples' home number, but didn't want to risk getting Mr. Thornapple on the line.

  "Stephanie doesn't have a cell. She wants an expensive model but hasn't got the money for it yet. That's one reason why she's working in my dad's office." Sylvia looked off in the distance, her face now blank. "You can call her on my cell if you want."

  "Thanks."

  Sylvia spotted her younger sister playing catch with Phoebe. "Come on, Tina. We have to get home for dinner."

  "So do we Phoebe," said Jace. "Let’s go."

  As he and Phoebe headed to the parking lot, Jace glanced over his shoulder and watched the two girls walk toward the swimming pool to meet their mother. Sylvia gazed back at him and their eyes met. In that instant, he knew what word she left off the end of her sentence — and it both puzzled and worried him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Martha joined Jace and Sylvia for the next hardball practice. She watched while her assistant coaches hit grounders, pop-ups, fly balls, and even line drives to the girls, who often as not rose to the challenge. They "oohed" and "ahhed" when Corey made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch in the outfield. They were equally impressed when a lunging Charlene snared a pop fly right above her toe. One scary moment came when Heather misjudged an incoming line drive. It bounced off her glove and struck her jaw, sending a tooth to the ground.