by R. D. Power
This game would be the first serious test for Robert. If he performed well against the cream of the United States, he might have a great chance for the major leagues. The American team hadn’t lost yet that year. The pitcher they would be throwing at London was the top-rated in the country for his age. Their hitters were averaging .509 against opposing pitching, and scored an average of more than eighteen runs per game. They hadn’t met any real competition in the U.S. or Canada.
Kristen, who’d learned the basics of the game from watching televised Blue Jays games with Robert here and there, looked on excitedly from the stands. In the first inning, with a man on first base, Robert lined the ball over the left-center field fence for a two-run lead. It was the first homerun hit against that pitcher all year, and it was the first time the American team had trailed this year. They were determined to remedy this in their part of the first inning, but they went down one-two-three. The Americans didn’t even manage a hit until the fifth inning, but could do nothing with it. By the top of the final inning, it remained two-nothing, and the frustrated Americans began to think they might actually lose.
Kristen and the rest of the London fans were on the edge of their seats. It looked good for London, but things changed in a hurry. With Robert at bat, their pitcher threw the ball at his head. Robert ducked in time and glared at him. Then the pitcher did it again, but Robert couldn’t move in time. The pitch bounced off his helmet, and he charged the mound and punched the pitcher in the face. Both benches emptied, and a brawl ensued.
By the time calm was restored, Robert and the U.S. pitcher had been ejected, but this was a problem solely for the London side, since there was no other pitcher who could contain the Americans. In the bottom of the inning, the U.S. all-stars scored six times to win the game 6-2, finishing with a grand slam.
A bitterly disappointed Owens refused to shake hands with the American squad. London’s coach added to the bitterness by upbraiding Robert for charging the mound. “They did it to goad you into doing exactly what you did. If you kept your head, we could have beaten them. That would’ve been your best revenge. Instead your action cost us the game.”
Robert didn’t argue; he knew it was true. He sat in the dugout feeling despondent.
Kristen went to comfort him, but before she could say anything, the third base coach for the American squad approached Robert. “Excuse me,” the coach said, holding out his hand for a shake. “Let me compliment you, son, on a great game.” Robert glared at him. “I know you’re upset,” he continued, withdrawing his hand. “You have a right to be. That’s not the way I like to win a game, and believe me, I wasn’t in on it. Listen, please.” Robert turned to him. “I’m a scout for the Minnesota Twins organization.” Robert perked right up. “Have you signed with anyone yet?”
“No, sir,” Robert answered, all of a sudden much more polite.
“May I ask how old you are?”
“Seventeen, sir.”
“You’ll be going into twelfth grade next month, I assume?” Robert nodded. “Are you interested in playing professionally, Mr. Owens? Because I don’t see that anything can stop you from making the majors.”
“Yes, sir!” Robert proclaimed.
“Once you’re through high school, we can talk about a contract with the Twins organization, okay?”
“Yes, sir!” They shook hands and exchanged contact information, and the man left.
Kristen stepped close, smiled, and hugged him. “Isn’t it exciting?” she said. He nodded his head exultantly. “I’m so proud of you,” she declared. She was proud, but had she her druthers, she would have preferred he wasn’t so good at the sport. The female competition for him could get severe.
Chapter Ten
Acute Love Triangle
One late August Sunday morning, Jennifer showed up at Robert’s door after being out of his life for months. She’d been to live with her dad in New York for the summer and lied to her mom about the return date, giving her three days in Kilworth with her lover. When he saw her, he threw his arms around her. Within minutes, they were in bed, where they stayed for the better part of the three days. The last night, they went swimming, and he applied the lessons Kim had imparted—to Jennifer’s considerable delectation.
As good as their physical relationship was, she was more anxious than ever to move beyond the physical, especially with the news that he was a sure bet for the majors. On her last day there, she attempted to extract a commitment, the commitment, from him as he lay on his bed.
Sitting nude on the bed between his knees—her right leg draped over his left leg, her left leg bent back with her foot tucked under his left knee, her right hand clutching that knee, her left hand cupped palm up on his stomach to accentuate the supplication, her mesmerizing eyes penetrating his very soul, her don’t-you-want-me pout fixed on her face—she announced, “I love you, Bobby Owens.” He was spellbound by what he considered the most glorious sight in creation. Seeing the adulation in his eyes, she flashed the most lascivious smile that ever passed a set of lips, and proposed, “This can be all yours forever. Just ask.”
He returned a shocked look and replied, “Jenny, the way you look now, I swear I could happily gaze at you forever, but I’m nowhere near ready to make a permanent commitment. I’m sorry; I know this isn’t what you want to hear. We’re just too young.”
“I’m sorry, too, but I can’t accept a purely physical relationship with you anymore. It obviously isn’t working to win your heart.”
“So you’re saying that if I don’t agree to marry you, that’s it for us?”
“Yes,” she said.
“That’s unreasonable. It’s blackmail. I won’t pay it.”
“I swear, a hundred guys asked me out this summer. A lot of them were handsome and some were rich. I’m not saying that to brag, just to tell you there’s a lot of competition for me. Take me now before you’re too late.”
“I’m sorry, Jenny. We’re still in high school. I have no money, so I can’t support you. I’m nowhere near ready to tie the knot yet.”
Afraid of losing him, she offered a compromise: “Then at the very least I want your promise of fidelity. No dating any other girls. No sex with any other girls. Commit to me alone.”
Afraid of losing her, he said, “Okay.”
“That includes Krissy.”
“I won’t date her, but you know that Kristen’s my best friend. I really enjoy the time I spend with her. I will not give her up completely.”
“She’s the one I’m most worried about. Stop seeing her or I’ll leave you.”
“I’ve offered a huge concession to you already. You have my exclusive dating commitment that you’ve demanded for over a year. I won’t go further. Asking me to give up my best friend is expecting too much.”
“Then I’m walking out that door, and you won’t see me again unless you give her up and come to me.” She got dressed and said, “Goodbye.”
Her leaving left them both sad. Neither was sure whether or how their relationship would continue.
•
Kristen returned home that weekend to shop with her mother for the upcoming school year. She took her dog for a walk and went to see Robert. As she and her dog were walking to his house, Judy came out and greeted her with the juicy gossip making the rounds in Kilworth. “Your cousin and Owens were caught skinny dipping in the Nowak’s pool the other night. The two ran naked up the street to his house, laughing all the way.”
Kristen, who’d presumed those two were through with each other, was furious. Confronting him, she shouted, “Is it true what I heard about you and Jenny skinny dipping? What did you do with her?”
“The breast stroke,” he said unadvisedly.
“Don’t toy with me!” retorted the exercised young lady. “Did you have sex with her?”
“I think I better take the Fifth on that one.”
“Asshole! I hate you!” Kristen said. Billingsgate quailed, worried the anger was directed at him. “Do you jus
t expect we can take up where we left off after you lay her again? Have you no conception of how that hurts me?”
“I’m sorry. I never meant—”
“You’re not sorry. You’d do it again in a flash if a pretty girl offered.”
“Yes, I would, as would any single man—and many married ones, no doubt. No man who has a woman as gorgeous as Jenny on a string would let her go for the uncertain prospect of sex with only one woman far off in the future.”
“This is not about sex; it’s about love!” Kristen shrieked.
“It is about sex. Period. You somehow think you can deny me yourself, and you can deny me every other woman in the world,” Robert rejoined, getting angry. “Who the hell do you think you are? You have no authority over me. I never made a commitment to you. You have no right to get angry at me. Get off my back!”
“What about love?” pouted the dismayed young lady.
“What about it?”
“Do you love me?” she challenged.
“I don’t love anyone,” he declared.
She took in a deep, punctuated breath, and murmured, “Why, because you’re afraid you’ll lose them? You’re afraid they’ll die?” Uh oh, she thought as his eyes narrowed, and his ire stirred.
“What are you, a goddamn psychologist?” he roared.
“No, Bobby, I’m sorry, I—”
“What do you know about the way I feel?” he continued. “You’ve never known misery, yet you presume to analyze me?”
“No, I—”
“Tell me, Dr. Taylor, am I not well adjusted enough for you?”
“No. I, I mean yes,” sputtered the flustered girl.
“And tell me,” he said, getting mean, “why do you suppose if I did choose one woman that it would be you?”
“I thought we meant something to each other.”
“You have your rules, I have mine. You won’t let me date you or touch you without an exclusive commitment. I won’t make that commitment, so we’re just friends. If that’s not good enough for you, then good riddance.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she said fretfully.
Walking away backward he shouted, “It means find somebody else who knows how to love, who will accept a platonic relationship with you, and none with any other woman, and who wants to marry you. It’s not me. I don’t love you!”
He knew he’d gone too far with his outburst. He’d let his emotions get the better of him. He worried he’d now lost both Kristen and Jennifer. Who made the damn rules? he ranted to himself. Why can’t I have Jenny as a lover and Krissy as my best friend? Why can’t I have both of them? Why?
Kristen walked home, shocked at what had occurred, sick with grief over his final declaration, and wondering how it was that he slept with another girl but she ended up on the defensive. “What am I to do?” she moaned.
It so happened that Kristen did know someone like Robert described—or who she thought was like that. Dominic was a man who did not abhor commitment; he was right then committed to several women. He had even intimated how wonderful it would be to marry her when she got a little older. Dominic had his many attractions, and with Robert pushing her into Dominic’s arms, she started to take this prospect much more seriously.
Kristen and Dominic spent a lot of time with one another over the final two weeks of the summer. What fun he was! Going far out into the lake on his speed boat to neck was splendid, though holding him at bay was a trial. Racing Sea-Doos was great. Tooling around in his Mercedes convertible was impressive. Fine dinners, an expensive bracelet, fun parties. The best Bobby can offer is a good display of pitching, she reflected pejoratively. And I don’t have any of those depressing arguments with Dominic that I do with Bobby. What do I need with him?
So, with Dominic’s allure and with Robert playing the fool, she permitted Dominic to do almost everything with her. The two were naked together in his bed, and he began to force the issue. She wanted to back down at that point, but he was overcome with lust. He aggressively tried to gain entry, but she repulsed him. His next attempt was just short of successful. He failed to breach nature’s barrier before she repelled him, and he expelled what he was proffering. It turned out to be a good compromise. He convinced himself he finally had her, but she knew otherwise.
The next afternoon, Labor Day, the two lovers were racing back and forth about five hundred feet from shore in his speedboat. Dominic anchored the boat three hundred feet off the buoys demarking the swimming area.
“I wonder what the poor people are doing today,” Dominic said with a chuckle as he lifted a whiskey sour to his mouth. That got her wondering about Robert, but her musing stopped when Dominic began getting rambunctious. She hadn’t enjoyed their romp last evening. He was too aggressive, and seemingly unconcerned about her feelings. He was again getting too excited for her comfort, so she jumped in the water to swim and he followed. “Let’s, uh, swim to shore,” Dominic challenged, still flushed with sexual energy.
“That’s too far to swim,” objected Kristen.
“Come on, you can do it. Let’s race. I’ll give you a twenty second head start.” Worried about what he might do if she got back on the boat with him just then, she began swimming toward the shore. Ten seconds later, Dominic took off in pursuit. He soon passed her and left her in his wake. Fatigue was setting in with the young woman, and she called for him to stop. He didn’t, even though he heard her. She had little choice but to carry on, but was soon in difficulty. Dominic made it to shore and waved her in. “Keep going. You can do it.”
She couldn’t. She was exhausted and at risk of drowning. Dominic did nothing, although he was exceptionally encouraging.
But nature provided fathers for reasons besides planting seeds. Bill, always wary of Dominic, had been keeping an eye on the two from the shore. He raced into the water to rescue his daughter. Bill, incensed at Dominic, escorted his distressed daughter home. I guess my cross to bear is my daughter’s attraction to the criminal type, he said to himself with a sigh.
“It wasn’t his fault,” she told her dad, but she couldn’t help thinking that Robert would never have let that happen.
Dominic later related to Sue, Melissa, and Cathy how he saved a girl from drowning at the beach, and was given a hero’s reception by each.
So, as her final year of high school commenced, Kristen was at a crossroads. She wasn’t impressed at all with Dominic’s behavior that day or the evening before, and Robert seemed a hopeless cause.
Kristen was angry not only at Robert—she was angry at herself, angry over her weakness for him. Her absolute emotional dependence on a boy who refused to love her was her sole noteworthy frailty, but it was one that was causing her exquisite pain. His earlier aloofness toward her had nicked her pride, but she ignored the cuts to win his affection. His continual infidelity to her left much deeper wounds, however. That he’d never pledged to be faithful in no way palliated the pain. There comes a point when even the deepest love cannot overcome a gravely injured pride. Kristen was prostrated by the hurt. Her damaged pride rendered her incapable of returning to him. If their relationship was to survive, he would need to come to her. He would need to demonstrate how much she meant to him to restore her pride—only then could her love for him revive.
After four weeks apart from Kristen, Robert concluded that she wasn’t coming back to him this time. Unable to be without her any longer, he came to her house (while her parents were at work) to beg her forgiveness. The tide was turning.
“Kristen, I miss you. I know I was mean to you when we last spoke and I feel terrible about that. I just want to say I’m really sorry.”
“If you feel so bad, why did it take you a month to come to me?” He looked down and said nothing. She went on, “Because you expected me to come crawling back to you, right? No more, Bobby. I’m tired of putting up with you; it hurts too much. I have so much to offer, but I give up trying to convince you of that.”
“Believe me, Kristen, I know how amazing yo
u are. Why do you think I’m here? I can’t stand the thought of being without you. I just don’t understand why you’re so anxious. Do you actually want to get married at sixteen?”
“No. I want to start a meaningful relationship that might lead to marriage.”
“I want to start a meaningful relationship with you, too. Let’s not set conditions on it. It leads where it leads.”
“No meaningful relationship is possible without exclusive commitment.”
“Dammit, Taylor, I’m not ready for that. Why can’t we be best friends?”
“I already told you why.”
“All right, then, I promise I won’t date other girls.”
“And when Jenny comes back to you?”
“I don’t think she will. Like you, she’s at the end of her rope with me.”
“She’ll be back, and two minutes later you’ll be in bed with her. What do you take me for?”
“It’s ironic, you know. You think sex means so much to me, but you’re the one who magnifies its importance beyond all reason. We’re just animals, Taylor. Sex between humans is no more blessed than sex between skunks.”
“If there’s no difference, perhaps you’d prefer a nice lady skunk over me,” she said irritably.
“No,” he rejoined, “you stink less.”
“I’m not in the mood for laughing. Are you willing to give up Jenny for me or not? Because if not, I don’t know why we’re even having this conversation.”
“You know, just before we had our big fight last month, I had this same argument with your cousin. She warned me she’d leave me for good if I didn’t stop seeing you. I wouldn’t agree to that. I couldn’t agree to that. So she left me. I haven’t gone back to her—but, as you see, I’ve come back to you. I need you, Kristen.”
