“Ha ha. You’re real funny.”
“You are allowed to laugh, ya know. Is your sense of humor out of gas too?”
“Sorry. It’s just that I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I swear, I had my whole life planned from here on out and then all of a sudden it’s all gone.”
“I’m going to go ahead and suppose that Anne said no. Did she break everything off completely or just say she needed more time?”
“Sounded like she wanted to break things off completely to me.”
“What did she say?”
“Honestly? I don’t really remember much after she said ‘I guess I should have told you this a long time ago and you do mean a lot to me, but...’”
For the rest of the time that Ollie and Keith were on the field, Keith pitched a few questions about their relationship and Ollie took some good swings at trying to answer them. Their five innings of play ended up taking nearly two hours, most of which was spent chasing down the scattered baseballs around the outfield and chatting about Ollie’s misfortunes of the day. In the end, and probably because Ollie couldn’t help but let his emotions get the best of him, the score wasn’t even close. Keith won by a large margin, but neither of them were really thinking about baseball.
Once the two of them were back in Keith’s car, Ollie went back to staring out the window. “What did you think of us?”
“Huh? Think of who?”
“Anne and me. What did you think of us together?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah, honestly.”
“Well, I thought you guys were great together.”
“You did? Do you think she’ll change her mind?”
“Let me finish. I thought you guys were great together, but the last few months seemed like you guys kind of outgrew each other. There wasn’t much spark between you guys anymore.”
“I know. I knew it was happening, but I guess I just thought it was something temporary. Honestly, though, I can’t see myself with someone else.”
“You’ll have to ask yourself, though. Can you not see yourself with someone else because of how madly in love you guys are with each other, or because you’ve been with her for so long that you can’t remember what life was like without her?”
Ollie thought for a moment. “I really don’t know, Keith.” He sat in silence the rest of the way to the gym parking lot where he left his car. He hadn’t gone out of his way to do anything special for Anne in a long time. Most of the time they spent together over the last few months was mostly studying anyway. When they weren’t studying, he was watching a ball game or searching the internet while she was talking on the phone or reading a book. Sure, he hadn’t had the desire to ask any other girl out for quite a while. But maybe that’s because she’s my default. Maybe I don’t want to go through the effort it takes to think of things differently. Sure, he would hold her hand when they went to the movies or whenever he thought someone was checking her out, but maybe that was because that’s what he was supposed to do rather than what he really wanted to do. Maybe she had become his routine.
“Bad news,” Keith said, snapping Ollie out of his trance.
“Huh? What?”
Keith didn’t say anything, simply shifting his car into park and pulling the keys out of the ignition. He nodded through the windshield.
Ollie saw it. He slowly opened the passenger door and walked with a quickening pace toward his car until he was close enough to read the sticker on the driver’s side window.
Keith followed him. “Better call that number,” he said. “That parking boot’s not going come off your wheel with magic. Or even Oxy Clean.”
“This isn’t right. No way. They can’t put a boot on my car. It’s not my fault.”
“As much as I wish I could be Judge Judy here, you and I both know it’s not me you have to convince.”
***
Ollie had a loud and angry conversation with the boot man, telling him to come right away, but he knew he had some time to kill before his arrival. In the meantime, they walked to the nearest gas station and borrowed a gas can. As they waited for the boot man, Ollie got madder and madder, pacing the parking lot so that by the time the boot man did show up half an hour later, Ollie was emotionally ready for him. He’d planned out everything he was going to say— starting off calmly to try to butter him up— and if that didn’t work, he’d let Mr. Bootguy know what he thought of him.
“Come on,” Ollie pleaded. “I couldn’t help it. My car ran out of gas and I had to leave it here until I could come back and get it.”
“I put the boot on the car over two hours ago. You could have come back a long time ago and you’d have a better case.”
“Please? I didn’t know I couldn’t park it here. How was I supposed to know?”
“Um, there’s a sign at every entrance to the parking lot?” He pointed.
“I just—”
“Listen,” the man said. “I’m just doing my job. I received a call from the gym saying that they saw you park your car here and walk the other direction. This parking lot is for gym customers only. Otherwise college students would be parking their cars here to walk to campus.”
“Okay, that’s fine. It’s your job, but you can let it slide if you want to. I’m sure you’ve made mistakes parking your car.”
“Yeah. About two months ago I accidentally parked my car in front of a fire hydrant.”
“There, see?”
“And my car got towed. I still had to pay the fee. You’re lucky I got here before the tow truck did. That would have cost you a lot more than fifty bucks.”
“You’re obviously paid on commission. I get that. You can let me off if you want to, but it’s all about the money for you.”
“Is there something wrong with that? Do you feel bad about taking money for your job, whatever you do?”
“You gotta hate your job, don’t you? I mean, people don’t despise me for doing my job. I bet you get all the hot girls while you go around putting boots on people’s cars, don’t you?”
“Listen,” the man said calmly as he handed Ollie a business card. “If you have a complaint about me or you want to dispute the fine, you can call the number on this card or file a complaint on the Web site.”
“Right. You and I both know that’s a cop out. That’s what you say when you know you’re wrong. Whoever the decision maker is on those complaints, if there even is one, doesn’t care about what someone has to say.”
Ollie continued to argue with the man for ten more minutes before Keith finally decided he didn’t need to stick around anymore, excused himself, and drove off. Ollie never succeeded in getting the man to drop the fine even a penny, nor did he successfully get the man to admit he was innocent. Finally, Ollie handed the man his debit card and watched him fill out the paperwork. When it was done and the boot was removed from Ollie’s tire, the only thing left was for him to sign on the dotted line. He stood there with the thick pad of carbon copy forms in his left hand and the pen in his right pretending to be reading the ticket.
“Just sign on the line please,” the man said.
“When I’m done. I don’t sign anything until I’ve read it. How am I supposed to know I’m not signing my first born over to you?”
“Please. We both have places to go.”
“You should have thought of that before you put that thing on my tire.”
It was the first and only time Ollie held the power in the conversation. Especially on a day when he had so many things out of his control, he wasn’t about to let this power go. Sure, it wasn’t a whole lot of power to have, but at least it was a little. When the man asked a fourth time for him to sign the paper, Ollie decided he had enjoyed having control long enough, scribbled his name next to the X, and then drove home.
***
Ollie walked through the back door int
o the kitchen. “Why’d you take off?” he asked Keith. “What if that guy drove off and left me there?”
“You probably would have deserved it. At the rate you were going, you looked like you would be there all night. I’d rather play with one outfielder missing than sit there on the hood of my car all night listening to you pout.”
“Pout? What’s that supposed to mean? You’re taking his side?”
“Side? I’m not taking anybody’s side. There are no sides to take. The guy got a call. He came and did his job. You yelled at him. It was pretty cut and dried. No sides.”
“Maybe you can file a complaint,” Richie said, butting in.
“Right,” Ollie said sarcastically.
“Listen,” Keith said. “I can only watch you be a jerk for so long. What’s happened to you?”
“Me?” Ollie answered. “I’m not the one who put the boot on my car.”
“I’m not talking about that,” Keith said. “You’ve been invisible the last few months. On the rare occasion that you brought Anne over here instead of going over to her place, you hardly said anything to any of us. Now you’re throwing a tantrum every time I don’t pat you on the head and tell you you’re right.”
“It’s not my fault.” Ollie gritted his teeth.
“I know it’s not your fault Anne broke up with you,” Keith said, “but since when did you start punching walls and throwing bats at people?”
“You kept hitting me with the ball!” Ollie said.
“Wait, wait,” Richie interrupted again. “Anne dumped you?”
“Richie, you’ve got the subtlety of a fog horn, you know that?” Keith said.
“I guess it has been a while since I really hung out with you guys,” Ollie said.
“Can I ask her out, then?” Richie asked.
“What?” Ollie and Keith said together.
“Can I ask her out?” Richie asked again. “I mean, I don’t want to ask her out if you don’t feel okay with it.”
“Are you talking about Anne?” Ollie asked with a laugh. “You gotta be kidding me.”
“What?” Richie said. “You’re obviously not going to go out anymore. I won’t ask her if you don’t want me to.”
“Go for it,” Ollie said. “Knock yourself out.”
“Sweet!” Richie said, and left the room pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.
“What’d you do that for?” Keith asked with a chuckle.
“Weren’t you just saying I needed to lighten up a bit?” Ollie said. “It’ll be good for a laugh.”
Ollie went upstairs to his bedroom. He still had some time before he needed to get ready for his softball game, so he figured he’d knock some time off studying for his upcoming history exam. His recent days with Anne hadn’t been romantic or exciting, but the monotony of spending so much time over at her place had always made it easy to study. And she studied a lot, which made it easy to stay motivated. Then again, maybe she studied a lot for the same reasons he did. Maybe he bored her to the point where she had nothing better to do than kill time with a textbook. Either way, their relationship was good for keeping up their grades, if nothing else.
Anne. I miss her already. I miss her still.
It was no use. There was no way he was going to be able to focus his mind on any history lesson, so he knew he might as well pack up his softball gear and get out of the house. Sure, his game wasn’t going to start for a couple more hours, but there were other games going on and watching other people play ball was the only thing he could think of to take his mind off reality.
With sandals on his feet, his softball bag over his right shoulder and his cleats in his left hand, he stepped quietly down the stairs and slipped successfully out the back door— he had avoided his nosy roomies and he was alone— or so he thought.
As he slid behind the wheel of his car, there was someone there next to him. There was an enormous grin on his face and a Yankees hat on his head. “Our first introduction didn’t go too well, so let’s start over again. I’m Sparks.”
Chapter 4
Every second Ollie’s mind wasn’t distracted meant that his mind went straight to thoughts of Anne, and being so deep in thought, the last thing he expected was a little Yankees-hat-wearing nuisance to be sitting in his passenger seat. As he recovered from the shock, he said, “You’d better have a good reason for being in my car, Bomber.”
“You scream like a little girl when you’re startled,” Sparks said. “What are you gonna do? Beat me up? Call the cops?”
“Something like that. Yeah.”
“Nah. You won’t. I’m here to help you.”
“I didn’t ask for your help and I don’t need it. Get out.”
“Actually, you did. I distinctly remember you saying,” his voice ascended several octaves, “‘Help me!’ back there when your car was stalled in the middle of the road.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. And I don’t talk like that.”
Sparks looked at him. “Didn’t I tell ya you were gonna get booted?”
Ollie stewed.
“I’ll tell you what. Let me hang out with you for the next few hours. By the time we get home from your softball game, if you don’t ever want to see me again… you’ll never see me again. I’ll disappear forever.”
Ollie sat and stared at him. He had a thousand questions in his brain, but wasn’t sure if he dared vocalize one. On the one hand, this guy seemed about as threatening as a guinea pig, but on the other hand he wasn’t sure if he could handle spending an evening with him. Especially since this was the day that everything in his life had fallen apart. His desire to be left alone in his misery pulled on one end of the rope and curiosity pulled on the other. In the end the two sides tugged themselves into a stalemate.
“Tell ya what, Bomber—”Ollie said.
“Sparks.”
Ollie looked at him blankly.
“Sparks. That’s my name.”
“Okay, Sparks. Tell ya what. You can… ya know, like, continue to stalk me or whatever. For now.” Ollie looked at him bemusedly. “Until I make up my mind about you, anyway—”
“I’m only here to help.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “You keep saying that, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. Whatever it is you want from me, get to it. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say at the softball field. When it comes time for me to warm up for my game though, you gotta leave.”
“If you still want me to leave when that time comes, sure.”
“Gone for good.”
“Yep. I won’t be leaving, though. You’ll like what I have to say. I know you will.”
“You assume a lot of things.”
“I’m not assuming. I know.”
“You’re odd. Ya know that? I’m not assuming that. I know it.”
“So people tell me.”
I can’t get a second alone. In a way it was a good thing. It kept him from wallowing in the muck of his own self-pity for now, but he knew he was going to have to mourn his loss of Anne eventually. Taking a weird stranger along for his evening ride was only delaying the inevitable.
“Turn right here,” Sparks said. “It’ll be faster.”
“Why?”
“Trust me. It’ll be faster.”
“Why would I trust you? I don’t even know you. I’ve driven to the ballpark a thousand times.”
“We’ll get stuck waiting on a train to go by if we go this way.”
“Whatever. This is the way I always go and I never get stuck at the railroad crossing.”
“Alright. If watching a train pass by is more entertaining than watching people play ball, then let’s do it Ollie’s way.”
Ollie was glad Sparks had suggested a new route. He didn’t take it, but he was more than happy to shoot the idea down. It gave him something he
could control even while he felt like the world was pushing and pulling on him, taking away the things he really wanted. Besides, driving around on country roads can’t possibly be faster. The odds of getting stuck at the railroad crossing are slim to none.
Ollie looked ahead. His heart sank as he applied the brakes and slowed the car: there was a freight train ambling along at the railroad crossing ahead. He stopped at the back end of a line of cars and listened to the clanging bells, watched the flashing red lights. “How’d you know?”
“I just did.”
“But how?”
“Sometimes I just know things.”
“You mean like you’re psychic or something?”
Again, with the grin.
“Well, which is it? Yes or no?”
“I can predict things, yeah. But it’s not like you see on TV where I close my eyes and I can see the future.”
Ollie’s brain churned, watching the words Union Pacific waddle slowly on rails before him, thinking of the very first time he had taken Anne on a date. The restaurant was a Salvadorian place he’d always been interested in checking out, and the food was good but the service was horrendous. That left Ollie in a tight spot. If he’d just been out with the boys that night, he might have stiffed the waiter on the tip. Isn’t the prospect of a tip supposed to be what keeps the waiter attentive and friendly? In the end all he could do was laugh with Anne and drop a gratuity much larger than the situation merited. A guy can’t leave a cheap tip on a first date; that would never impress the ladies. After dinner they had been on their way to a movie when a train stopped traffic, making them late. They missed part of the movie. That was a great first impression, huh?
Eventually the train cleared the crossing and Ollie and Sparks were able to cross over into the south side of town.
Once at the park, Ollie sat quietly on the aluminum bleachers with Sparks. Ollie’s head followed the movement of the ball. His eyes ran the bases with each player. His brain did no moving at all, just sitting there contemplating the things that wouldn’t leave him alone. Like Sparks. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Aren’t you here to try to help me with something?”
Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series) Page 3
