“Like that huh?” With those words, he put on a pair of Oakley sunglasses and the bus pulled off. The ride across the county line was fairly quick at this time of the evening, but once they crossed into Mecklenburg, the traffic changed and became as much a snarl of cars and lights, so unlike the eerily smooth traffic of the previous country roads.
When the bus pulled into the parking lot, everyone made an orderly single file exit and ran to the bathrooms just outside the gate. Amelia walked around a bit lost, as she looked at the various sights and sounds of the concession stand. She knew Ben would be busy with preparations and morale building for the game, and wouldn’t have the time to show her around. She expected to be on her own, and she decided to buy some of the overpriced candy with a bag of popcorn.
“Excuse me… Ma’am.” Amelia turned around, even as she didn’t think the person was speaking to her, but she had to be sure.
When she completed her about face, there was a young woman who might be in her early thirties with a small blue cooler in her hand, just a few feet away.
“Yes?” The newcomer was lovely, in a delicate sort of way. The woman had gamine features, really delicate, reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. But instead of brown hair, the woman’s was a mix of reds and gold in a short cut. The bag she carried appeared too large for her, but somehow the woman deftly maneuvered the cumbersome cooler anyway.
“Hi! I’m Jenny. Don’t buy anything from there, the prices are ridiculous. I brought some things if you want to share with me. I have a tendency to bring too much food anyway.”
“Hi Jenny, I’m Amelia. I don’t want to impose…” Amelia offered hesitantly.
“It’s no imposition. The only repayment I need is a seat mate.” The other woman was nice, and Amelia knew she was out of her depth here.
“Can I at least buy something to supplement your snacks? Maybe a hotdog, or something else?”
“How about a compromise? Next time, you bring the snacks.”
“I thought this was the last game of the regular season?”
“It is, but we’re going to the state game, mark my words.”
The woman was right. The snacks were expensive. On what planet was a bucket of popcorn ten dollars and that was okay? Amelia knew little about baseball and in all honesty, she didn’t really know much about any sport, but Jenny was more than happy to fill her in. Although, she was torn between covert glances at Ben, the game itself, and Jenny as all competed for her attention.
As the game went by, it was clear that Ben’s team was a well working one. He was a good and patient coach, and the kids under his tutelage seemed to be antsy to do their best. She watched child after child run around the bases, until the score was nearly a shut-out fifteen to three. The other team was good, but the children on the Bulldogs squad were slightly outclassed by the Underdogs.
Before the game was over, Amelia’s new companion, Jenny, leaned over and prodded Amelia’s arm. “You’re a lucky lady. Ben is a great man. After all that he’s been through, I’m happy that he has met a nice woman to date again.”
The comment made her supremely curious. What was the story there? What had he been through, and what did Jenny mean by again?
But there was no way to inquire discretely as of yet, so Amelia didn’t even attempt to stifle herself. “Ben and I are just friends.”
“He doesn’t take his friends to the ball park.” Jenny tossed back, a gamine smile on her lips.
What was she supposed to say to that? Check and mate courtesy of the tiny woman next to her. “Well, I don’t…”
“Alright, here’s the skinny. I can’t hold water, and this is common knowledge anyway. When Ben hurt his knee, he had to be bought out of his contract. There was no way he could play, not with that knee in the condition it’s in. Then his ex-fiancée Kylie, “Jenny spat the name out as if the mere saying of the word was a curse, “walked away for a player still under contract with another team. He came back here, but he hasn’t been the same Ben I knew in school. He hasn’t been that man for a long time. He’s always polite and respectful, that’s just part and parcel of who he is. But he wasn’t happy. His eyes were always so shadowed, so dim, that it hurt to even look at him. And he’s been along in that big house of his for so long. Though, I hear yours is just as nice.”
Jenny smiled and looked back at the field. “Get it, Conan!” She cried out and Amelia watched the tiny child round the diamond in an attempt to steal third base.
“So, it seems like you know more than I do.” Amelia said matter-of-factly.
“You would know if you asked him.”
“I-I…”
“Amelia,” She looked over at her, the large Coach glasses covered up most of the delicate face.
“Yes Jenny?”
“He likes you. Just go with it.”
She felt like a fox run to ground. “I’m just trying to see where this goes.”
“If he brought you here, you practically have wedding bells in your future. Ben does this out of kindness. There was no team until Ben came back, not one that was feasible for most parents to travel to, unless one felt like driving into Monroe and that’s almost a half hour one-way. Ben built the municipal field, he bought the bus. He doesn’t tell people that, but I’m not stupid. How does a tiny town in the back woods of North Carolina get its own public park and field? There wasn’t one until six months after he showed back up in town.”
“That’s amazing.”
“He’s an amazing man, Amelia. After he bought the store from B.C. Purcell a few years back, I went to get something, maybe milk or sugar, but nothing much. Ben was at the cash register and he talked to Conan, just a little conversation here and there and not about anything of importance. But when Conan said he wanted to play baseball, Ben asked him why he didn’t, at that point Conan blathered on about how there was no place to play. Within a month, the ground broke and the field and park were in process. That seems far from a coincidence.”
“Yeah Jenny, that’s a pretty blatant clue.”
The conversation was welcome. It had been too many years that she had shunned other people, for fear of being ostracized. But talking to Jenny was nice. The woman never even looked askance at her, like Amelia was completely normal and uninjured. It made her feel… hope. As if she could be in society around others and not feel like something that crawled out of a lagoon.
Jenny packed up the trash from the snacks that they had partaken of. When she looked away from their cleaning attempts, she saw Ben look up and put a hand in front of his face visor-like and then smile in her direction. She hoped the lift of lips was for her. She smiled back and watched the final seconds as the Union Underdogs won the regional game and turned state bound.
Jenny hooped and hollered with the victory and the excitement was contagious. Amelia climbed back onto the jubilant bus, where the kids excited with their win yelled and jumped. The result was the bus rocked from side to side and the swaying motions made the children even more excited.
“Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!” She heard chanted repeatedly.
“Hold your horses!” Ben piped a whistle sharply once.
The chanting children immediately stopped as one.
“It’s time for pizza boys! Ready?” Ben called out.
“Ready coach B!”
“Alright then, settle down. I’m not moving this bus until it gets less bumpy in here.”
The children all calmed down in varying degrees, but for a group this size, Amelia was surprised at the quickness of it all. She would have assumed it would take longer. Ben pumped the brakes again, and before she knew it, the Underdogs and company were back on the road.
Chapter Six: Victory Lap
Ben was just as excited as the kids were. The game was a good one, his kids had taken everything he taught them thus far and used it to bring home a victory for their team. He always felt so proud of them anyway, just because they always tried their best. But with this win, the usual pride was superseded by jubilance. It did
n’t make everything that happened to him worthwhile, but he certainly was grateful that he was the one to help start it all. For a newer team, this was more than could be expected.
He loaded up the bus after a few photos were taken by the newspaper of the team including himself and Jimbo, the assistant coach. Afterwards, he gave a quick interview for the article. Benjamin was starving as he hadn’t had the chance to eat more than gum in the last four hours, and he would bet most of his boys felt the exact same way. The pizzeria was on the other side of the county line and closer to home, it was the same place that he would normally take them to after any other game and tonight was no exception.
Peter kept his restaurant open after hours for this victory, as promised. Usually, Peter’s Pizza closed at eight, but Pete and he were good friends, plus his son was on the team. So when they came over the threshold, it was no surprise that there were several pies hot, fresh and waiting.
“Hey, Ben!” Peter called out from the kitchen when the front door opened. “Just give me a minute. I’ve got a surprise for you!”
“I think the decorations were enough, Pete. Looks like you went all out as is.”
“Well, I have faith in you guys, so I didn’t think the decorations would go amiss.”
They didn’t. The space was full of fun items. There were cloths with baseballs and bats on each of the tables, along with confetti. There was a huge banner over the menu wall with the words, “Congrats on the victory!” Not to mention the clusters of balloons with small foil covered weights to keep the helium-filled rubber from pinging off the ceiling.
When the children were all inside, complete with parents, Ben helped everyone get in line, and he served them. He could smell Pete cooking more pizza, and as quickly as the pies disappeared, that was a good thing. His assistant coach, Jimbo junior, served drinks at another table. Quickly, the team and accompaniments were all served, save himself, Jimbo, and Amelia.
She waited patiently for everyone else to have their share before she picked up a plate.
“If you don’t mind, wait for me. I’m just going to go and wash up first.” Ben escorted her to the last empty table and brought her a cup of iced tea. Pete made his the same way most Chinese restaurants did, with really sweet tea mixed with lemonade drink mix packets. He knew she liked the southern version of tea as she drank the beverage at home. He had delivered too many boxes of black pekoe tea to her door in the last months to know she drank the stuff on a daily basis.
“Okay, I think I can wait. Jenny fed me more food in two hours than I eat in an entire day. So it’s safe to say that I am far from hungry.”
“Yeah, as tiny a thing as Jenny is, she sure can eat. I think she has the soul of a fat person, but her body won’t let her gain the weight.” He whispered conspiratorially, leaned over the table to catch a whiff of her scent.
But he noticed she took a deep breath, he hoped the cologne hadn’t worn off, and left him smelling of field and sweat. Her face said his smell was pleasing, or he hoped the smile meant that. It could just as well mean she loved the smell of melted cheese, tomato sauce and bread. But he wasn’t going to think that way, not unless he had good reason to.
He washed his hands and splashed his face with water at lightning speed. There was a lovely lady waiting for him, and he didn’t want to waste time in the John while she sat at a table with cooling food. That would not do, especially since he wanted to make a good first impression.
But the semi-private table was occupied when he came back out. Jenny was there with Conan, and both were talking Amelia’s ears off. He could see the glazed look in her eyes that said she was lost with her attempts to keep up with the current conversation.
Dammit, I was hoping to keep her all to myself.
If that was the case, then you wouldn’t have brought her to the game.
But he knew she had to be just as starved for companionship as he was, she was just better at hiding it. So he sat down and swallowed the disappointment that rose as he realized he was going to have to share her. For a little while at least. Although, the ride back was all his.
“I thought you’re allergic to tomatoes?” Amelia asked with the gooey triangle half-way towards her mouth.
“Yes, he is.” Jenny chuckled. “I remember in… what was that? Second or third grade, Ben? When your face swelled up after we did a lunch swap. I had a turkey club with tomato and lettuce, and he had PB and J on cinnamon raisin bread. I loved that bread when I was a kid, heck, I love it now.”
Ben chuckled. “Yeah, it was second grade. We were in Mrs. Spenser’s class then.”
Jenny hooped out loud with laughter. “Ooh, it sure was.”
“But to answer your question Amelia, Peter has a Benjamin special. If the wall wasn’t covered with the banner, you’d see it on the menu. He created a pizza just for me, no tomato sauce, with beet paste and spices instead. Sounds crazy, but it almost tastes the same. That’s what others have told me anyway.”
Amelia laughed and he watched he bow her head for a moment. Then she took a bite of the baked dough and he watched the cheese enviously as the molten mozzarella dangled precariously from her lips, still attached to the dough.
She made the meal look more than appealing, and he finally picked up the wedge of pizza to take his first bite.
Before he finished the folded slice, there was a lot of commotion coming from the kids at the nearby table. When he looked over, there was a large cake that almost seemed to walk out on its own.
“Congratulations Underdogs!” Peter called out.
“Yay! Cake!” Conan cried out.
As soon as the word cake was said, there were more calls from the peanut gallery of children. Even some of the parents looked tantalized by the huge decorated sheet cake Peter carried to the table.
“I want some!”
“Me too!”
“Yay!”
“Mommy can I have some? Please?”
Ben chuckled. Kids were so easy to please. Adults on the other hand? Grown-ups were an entirely different animal. When did he lose that ability to take pleasure in the simple things? He thought on it for a moment, but couldn’t pinpoint the moment that he lost his natural verve for life. He just knew that sometime between the freshman year in college and the pro-circuit a handful of years later, he was another man entirely. And he wasn’t sure if he liked the newer version at this point.
But the cake was served in short order. Peter sliced it up and onto plates for the bouncing children before he could blink twice.
“I just want to say, good job!” Peter was all smiles and joviality. The other man's mood mirrored that of the room precisely.
The cake was practically demolished when all was said and done. There was just enough left to fit in a takeout box and Peter was kind enough to give the packages to Benjamin, though Ben offed the box to Amelia for safe keeping. He gave several high fives and a few hugs, shook a few beaming parents hands. The children all climbed into their parent’s cars to go home after the late night. Well almost all. Jenny was going to have a massive sleep over at her place and about ten of the boys would be at her place.
“Hey, Amelia, give me a sec before you go!” Jenny called out and he watched her herd the menagerie of youths into her van.
Ben clasped hands with Peter, who smiled then handed him a cup of tea to go. “Thanks for taking care of us. Just make sure to send me a bill tomorrow. You can email or fax into the office like usual.”
“No worries, Benjamin, this one is on me.”
“There was a lot of pizza eaten tonight. You better send me a bill. It can be your treat when we bring home the state championship. By the way, how did you know we won?” Peter’s son was on the team as well, but his wife was sick and didn’t come. So he had no idea when the man would have gotten the knowledge.
Peter laughed. “Well, I had two banners made and when Tommy got on the bus he sent me a text message.”
Ben snickered. “That child is too young for a cell phone.”
“Yeah, wait until you have a kid. You’d be lucky if by the time they turn three if you haven’t given them one, just to keep them off yours.”
Ben looked out the door where he saw Amelia stand beside of the bus doors, her posture slouched as if she were tired or achy. When Jenny was done ensuring all of her wards for the night were buckled in, she walked towards Amelia. She stiffened, then stood stock still as if a deer caught in the glare of head lights at Jenny’s approach. When the two women were within earshot, Ben saw Jenny pull Amelia into a hug that Amelia didn’t quite respond wholeheartedly to. But Jenny didn’t seem to notice.
He walked out and heard Peter lock the doors behind him.
Jenny beamed as usual and the minute woman’s naturally sunny disposition meant that she would never meet a stranger. “Amelia, I just wanted to give you my number. I’m always home, so if you want to we could have a chat and maybe a girl’s night.” Ben couldn’t stop the smile that crept onto his lips for any reason. Amelia must have felt the same as he watched her pull out a cell phone that he didn’t even know that she owned and dialed Jenny’s phone.
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