Tools of Ignorance: Lisa's Story

by Barbara L. Clanton

  “No pressure there, eh?”

  “Hey, it’s what you do best.”

  Lisa took her practice swings and called out to Johnna up at bat. “C’mon, Johnna. Just a little one. Move her over.” She blew out a sigh when Johnna popped up to Tara at short. She tried hard not to watch Tara’s athletic movements. That was done, over, finished.

  “Pick me up, Lisa,” Johnna said on her way back to the dugout.

  Lisa dug her feet into the batter’s box. The first pitch hit the inside corner for strike one. The next pitch missed inside for ball one. I know this ploy, Lisa thought. Keep brushing me back and then pop a curve or change on the outside. Just as she finished the thought the curveball came and tailed out. Lisa swung and made solid contact. The ball landed in the same gap that Tara had hit to. Lisa ran toward first, and Kerry waved her on to second base. She pumped a fist when Jeri scored. Coach Spears put up a standing stop sign, so she eased up into second base.

  “Lucky hit, apple picker.” Tara caught the ball from her right-fielder.

  “Oh, and yours was skill?”

  Tara shrugged as if to say, “Of course.” She tossed the ball back to her pitcher.

  “You’ve changed, you know,” Lisa said.

  “Nah, I think you’re the one that changed.” Tara trotted back to her position. She called back to Lisa on second base. “And besides, I can be anybody I want to be.”

  Lisa frowned. It was right at that moment, standing on second base in the championship finals, that she realized she had been totally played by Tara the summer before. She was probably just another one of Tara’s conquests, another notch on her bedpost. Something black boiled inside Lisa’s gut permanently extinguishing the flame that had been burning there for Tara. A surge of adrenaline ran through her, and she decided that there was no way her team was going to lose to a bunch of cocky hoodlum posers.

  “C’mon, Marlee,” Lisa called out to Marlee who had stepped into the batter’s box.

  Marlee let three pitches go by and swung at the fourth. Tara made a nice back handed grab and threw her out at first base to end the inning with the score tied 1-1.

  Lisa ran back to the dugout to get her gear on. “C’mon, you guys. We are not losing to this team today.”

  Neither team scored a single run during the next five innings. At the top of the seventh inning, Brookhaven almost scored the go-ahead run in a heart-stopping play in which their runner tried to score from second base on a ball hit to the outfield. Jeri rifled the ball to Johnna who relayed it home to Lisa. The runner slid, and even though it was close, Lisa held on and the umpire thankfully called the runner out.

  Unfortunately, in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cougars went down one-two-three forcing the game into extra innings.

  In the top of the eighth inning, Tara swung hard, but hit a dinky grounder to Marlee to end the Brookhaven half of the inning. Lisa burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it. In the bottom of the eighth, Johnna hit a long fly ball to right field, but the right fielder made an awesome over the shoulder catch for the first out. Lisa stepped into the box hopeful that the Brookhaven pitcher would give her something to hit. Instead the pitcher walked her on four pitches. Lisa had mixed feeling. Even though she’d gotten on base, she wanted to get an extra base hit to put herself in scoring position.

  Marlee stepped in the batter’s box and hit a hard grounder to Tara. Lisa ran like the wind, but Tara threw her out at second base. The Brookhaven second baseman threw to first trying to turn the double play, but Marlee was too fast and reached first safely. It didn’t matter, though, because Kym, the Cougars third baseman, got up to bat next and popped out to the center fielder to end the inning.

  In the top of the ninth, Brookhaven managed to get runners on first and second, but Marlee single handedly got all the outs by striking out two batters and then fielding a soft grounder hit right back at her.

  Lisa ran back in the dugout, and sat on the bench, but didn’t bother taking off any of her gear because the bottom of their order was up. Alicia, Corrie, and Paula hadn’t done much so far up at bat, so Lisa wasn’t hopeful. Sarah handed her a bag of ice, which Lisa gratefully accepted although it didn’t seem to be helping anymore. Her bruised and swollen hand ached constantly.

  True to Lisa’s prediction, Alicia flew out to left field, Corrie struck out, and Paula grounded out to Tara ending the bottom of the ninth inning quickly. Lisa curled her lip and growled. She stood up to head out to the field for the tenth inning.

  “C’mon, girls,” Coach Spears encouraged. “Stay strong. Stay alert. No mental mistakes, now. It’s gonna come down to whoever makes the first error.”

  Lisa tried to close her right hand and couldn’t. It was so swollen that she was having trouble throwing the ball back to Marlee.

  “C’mon, Cougars,” Sam yelled from the stands.

  Lisa wished she could turn and wave, but she had business to attend to. The bottom of the Brookhaven order was due up.

  A left-handed pinch hitter stepped into the box.

  "New batter," Lisa called out to the team. Lisa was so weary she couldn’t remember what the scouting report said about the batter. She looked at Coach Spears and shrugged. Coach Spears looked surprised, reached into her pocket for the scouting report, and then flashed Lisa the fastball sign three times.

  Lisa nodded, and three fastballs later, the batter was out. The next batter grounded out to Marlee for the second out, but the third batter of the inning swatted one of Marlee’s fastballs into left field for a single. Marlee had hung the pitch out over the plate. Lisa figured Marlee was getting tired.

  “C’mon, Marlee,” Coach Spears called. “Stay strong.”

  Marlee nodded.

  Lisa blew out a sigh. Dammit, Tara was up.

  “You apple pickers have a lot of stamina.” Tara dug her heels into the batter’s box. “I’m surprised.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” Lisa squatted.

  “Brenda’s gonna steal second base on you, you know.” Tara pointed toward the runner on first base.

  “Doubt it.” Lisa flashed the change-up sign to Marlee. Marlee shook it off, but Lisa insisted. She knew Tara wouldn’t be able to resist the slower pitch, and she’d hopefully chop at it and make the third out. Normally she’d have Marlee pitch to Tara, but she was trying to arrange things so she didn’t have to throw down to second base with her swollen and practically useless right hand.

  Marlee threw the change-up, and the runner from first base took off for second. Swing, swing, swing, Lisa urged Tara in her mind.

  Tara did Lisa’s silent bidding and swung at the pitch. She was so far ahead of the ball that it glanced off her bat and popped up in foul territory. Lisa threw off her mask and looked up for the ball. She took three steps to her left and lunged for it. It thwacked into her mitt for the last out.

  “Out,” the umpire said softly.

  “Damn it!” Tara slammed down her bat.

  Lisa grinned at Tara and then rolled the ball to the pitcher’s circle.

  Marlee opened the dugout gate. “Lisa, you’ve lost your mind. A change-up on the first pitch with a runner stealing second?” She shook her head.

  “I knew Tara wouldn’t lay off it.” Lisa plopped down on the bench. She took off her gear.

  “You must be psychic, man.” Marlee sat on the bench next to her.

  Sarah came over with the bag of ice, but Lisa shook her head. She might get up to bat that inning, and she didn’t want her hand to be completely frozen. As it was, her hand was almost dead.

  “C’mon,” Marlee smacked Lisa on the thigh. “Jeri’s up.”

  “I’m coming.” Lisa grunted and stood up. She leaned against the fence and watched Jeri get ready in the batter’s box.

  Jeri swung at the first pitch and sent the ball rocketing over the head of her center field counterpart.

  Lisa jumped and cheered with the rest of her teammates. “Go, Jeri, go.”

  Jeri rounded first and headed toward second,
but didn’t slow down as Coach waved her on to third base. She slid into third, but there was no play, and she was safe.

  Lisa bumped fists with Marlee. “A lead-off triple.”

  “Oh, man. We’ve got this. Just a long fly ball and we win the game.”

  Julie dug into the batter’s box and swung hard, but the ball bounced right to Tara. Lisa groaned. Tara scooped the ball up cleanly and looked over to check Jeri at third base. She reached for the ball in her glove and did the unthinkable. She dropped it. Julie was safe at first, and Jeri was still safe at third.

  “Yeah,” Lisa yelled and pounded the chain-link fence with her teammates. She grabbed her helmet and bat and ran to the on-deck circle. She wanted to sneak a peek at Sam, but didn’t dare. “C’mon, Johnna,” Lisa called. “You’re due.”

  Coach flashed the steal sign to Julie. If Julie could steal second base, then at least the double play wouldn’t be a possibility. Julie took off for second on the pitch, but the catcher didn’t even throw down. Jeri might’ve taken off for home if she had.

  “It’s all you now, Johnna,” Lisa called to her teammate.

  Johnna swung and hit a slow roller to the second baseman. The second baseman fielded the ball cleanly, checked Jeri at third, and threw to her first baseman. Jeri faked a few running steps toward home in order to distract the first baseman. It worked. The first baseman pulled her foot off the bag too soon and threw the ball home. Everybody was safe and the bases were loaded.

  Lisa walked to the batter’s box with no outs. She kept one foot out of the box to get the signs from Coach Spears. She knew there would be no other sign than to hit away, but she needed a second to calm her nerves.

  She got back in the box and took a quick practice swing. Her swollen right hand made it hard to grip the bat handle, but all she needed to do was hit a long lazy fly ball so Jeri could tag up and score. The pitch came in nice and fat down the middle of the plate, but as Lisa swung, her right hand slipped off the bat. A soft grounder trickled toward Tara at shortstop. Lisa cursed and ran toward first base. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Jeri sprint toward home plate. Tara rifled the ball to her catcher, but to Lisa’s amazement, the ball sailed way over the catcher’s head, and Jeri slid safely into home plate.

  Lisa leaped into the air and screamed, “Ahhh,” as she hit first base. Jeri had just scored the winning run. Lisa turned and ran back toward home plate to jump on the dogpile with Jeri at the bottom.

  “New York State champs!” Marlee yelled and leaped on to the pile.

  Somebody, Lisa wasn’t sure who, threw a glove in the air. That started a chain reaction of Cougar gloves and mitts getting tossed high in the sky.

  “Yee haw,” Julie yelled into Lisa’s face. “Can you believe it?”

  “Ahhh,” Lisa yelled back in answer.

  The team celebration continued for several more minutes until Coach Spears gestured for them to be good sports and high five the Brookhaven team. Tara didn’t even look Lisa in the eye when they met in the high-five line. Lisa simply shrugged. At least that chapter was finally finished.

  Coach Spears called them together in the dugout to wait for the awards ceremony which would begin as soon as they placed the table and trophies on the infield.

  Lisa was exhausted, but her adrenaline kept her going through the ceremony. Tara and the rest of her Brookhaven hoodlums became uncharacteristically quiet on their side of the field. Whatever. Who cared? The better team had won that day.

  Lisa gathered up her gear and clapped Marlee on the back. “Way to go, Miss Tournament MVP.”

  Marlee smiled. “Thanks.”

  “You so deserve it. Geez, I think you could have pitched another ten innings.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Marlee shrugged with a sheepish grin, and they headed off the field toward their families. Marlee made a bee-line for her mother and Susie.

  Lisa started to make her way toward Sam and her own family when she noticed William standing off to the side. She made a split second decision and walked up to him. She stuck out her bad hand and said, “Hi, I’m Lisa. I don’t think we’ve met.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Surprises

  LISA WALKED UP to her bio dad with her right hand outstretched.

  He looked surprised, but extended his own hand. “Hello. I’m William.”

  Lisa grimaced when he grasped her swollen aching hand, but at least it took her mind off her pounding heart for a second. He was, after all, her biological father. “My mom told me a little about you.”

  “Oh, she did, did she?” He smiled. “Nice game, by the way.” He gestured toward the field.

  “Thanks.” Lisa blew out a sigh. “That was a tough one.”

  “Brookhaven’s a good team, but your team was better.”

  “Oh, yeah?” She smiled at him.

  He smiled back. “Yeah, you have the better pitcher and catcher, of course, but you worked as a team more, too.” He leaned closer and said in a low voice, “I don’t want to alarm you, but your mother is glaring at us.”

  Lisa looked behind her. The entire Brown family and Sam stood behind her waiting. Her mother looked a little lost, like she didn’t know how to handle the situation.

  Lisa turned and said, “It’s okay, Mom. I’ll meet you guys in the parking lot, okay?”

  Her mother nodded and then glared at William with fire in her eyes. Lisa tried not to laugh when she noticed his cheeks turning red.

  Bridget ran up to her and squeezed her legs. “Hi, Weesa.”

  “Hi, Sweetpea. I hope you were a good girl.”

  Bridget didn’t answer, but stared up at William.

  “Oh, sorry. William, this is my littlest sister Bridget. Bridget, this is William.”

  He squatted down and put his hand out for a shake, but Bridget had other ideas. She released the stranglehold she had on her sister’s legs and threw herself at him for a hug.

  “Oh, wow.” William laughed and hugged her back.

  “C’mon, Bridget,” her mother said sternly. “Let Lisa talk to her friend.”

  “‘Kay. Bye Wiwim. Hurry, Weesa. Mama said we can get McDonalds.”

  “Okay, I’ll hurry.”

  Lisa’s father held a sleepy Lawrence Jr. in his arms, but he gave her a quick one-armed hug anyway. “Nice job, today, honey.”

  “Thanks, Papa.”

  He walked on followed by Lynnie and then Sam. Sam shot her a sympathetic glance that said she understood how hard it must be meeting her bio dad for the first time.

  “Sam, wait for me in the parking lot, okay?”

  Sam nodded and sent a look of soulful encouragement.

  Once Sam and her family were out of earshot, Lisa sat on the lowest bleacher.

  William joined her. “I bet you’re wondering why I’ve resurfaced after all these years.”

  “I was kind of surprised, but Mom said you were getting married or something.”

  He nodded. “I know you have a lot of questions, and I want to answer them all, but…” He took a breath and sighed. “This is hard.”

  “It’s hard for me, too.”

  Tears welled up in his eyes. “You turned out great, Lisa. I’m so proud of you. You were always on my mind, but every February twelfth was always an extra special day for me.”

  “My birthday.” She looked down. “I thought about you, too.”

  His face brightened. “You did?” He stabbed at the tears in his eyes and cleared his throat. “Your mom thought it would be best if we waited until you were eighteen years old for us to meet, but Evelyn…” His voice caught in his throat.

  “Evelyn is your girlfriend?” Lisa tried to reassure him with a gentle smile.

  “Yes, she’s my fiancée. I wanted to tell her all about you, but then I realized that I didn’t know you at all.”

  Marlee came running up on them. “Lisa, Coach wants to know if you’re coming back with us on the bus or going home with your folks.”

  “Is everybody going on
the bus?”

  Marlee nodded.

  “Okay, it’s the bus then. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Cool.” Marlee ran back toward the yellow Clarksonville school bus.

  Lisa stood up. “I guess I have to go.”

  William picked up Lisa’s softball bag for her, and they headed toward the parking lot together. “I have so much I want to say to you, Lisa. Can I take you to lunch one day? Once school’s out for you? I’ll call your mother to make sure it’s okay. She can even chaperone, if she wants.”

  Lisa laughed. “Yes, I would like that.”

  She walked him to his car, an old rusty Ford Taurus. He unlocked the door and pointed to her right hand. “I’d get that x-rayed right away.”

  “How did you…” Lisa clutched the hand protectively.

  “You winced when I shook your hand, and that lovely shade of black and blue kind of gives it away, too.”

  “Okay, I’ll get it looked at.” She turned to go. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Thank you, Lisa.”

  She smiled at him and headed toward her family and Sam. Her father and the kids were already in the minivan, but her mother and Sam waited for her outside.

  Her mother put a hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” She looked as nervous as an expectant father.

  “Yes, Mom. I’m fine. Stop worrying. He’s going to call you about taking me out for lunch to talk some more.”

  “Okay.” She pulled Lisa in for a hug. “Oh, I thought I had another two years before this moment.” She released her daughter and then hugged Sam. She headed toward the passenger side door of the van. “We’ll pick you up at the high school.”

  “Okay, Mom.” After saying goodbye to her sisters and brother, she leaned in the van’s driver’s side window and hugged her father. “I love you, Papa.”

  “Love you, too, Lisa Bear.”

  “Papa?”

  “Yes, honey?”

  “It’ll be okay.”

  He took a deep breath. “I know. Hey, we’ll see you back at the school, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  As her family pulled away, she linked arms with Sam, and they skipped toward the bus. Coach Spears was still talking to the tournament director, so Sam didn’t have to leave right away.