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the lot filled up with cars. Most were parents with kids in uniforms. Jerry could see Jack Perry's attention taken by the same boy in red. The adults he did not recognize, but the kid he could not mistake. |
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The parents sat themselves in the grandstand and the kid took to the home bench. It was then Jack Perry got out of his van, looked around cautiously, then headed for the fence separating a small gallery of fans from the Devil Dogs. Just behind number 11. |
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Jerry moved to the other side of the diamond, under a tree in the shadows. Watching |
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Matty did not start, because all fourteen kids had shown up. He would sit out until the fourth-inning changeover. |
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The game began disastrously with the Cardinals scoring seven runs in the first inning, mostly on walks and Devil Dogs errors. But that was Little League. A grounder to first could end up a homer. |
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During the second inning, Terry took Calvin's hand. "Calm down." His left leg was bouncing. |
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"You're making me nervous," she said. "Is there something you want to tell me?" |
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"No. Nothing. I just want him to do well." His voice was thin. "I just want him to be okay, you know?" |
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Terry nodded. She glanced down at his hand in hers, at the thin sprout of hair on the backs, the shape of the fingers, the way the nails grew. She knew everything about Calvin's body. It nonetheless amazed her that you could live with a person, recognize him down to the hair on his fingers, yet could never be sure of the interior landscape. There were always those blind ravines, those alien sanctuaries. Yes, he was worried sick. They both were, yet she had a disturbing sense of barely felt signals of deception, vague disparities between things he said and what he was feeling. |
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He's hiding something, she told herself, and tried to bury the thought. |
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For the first two innings Matty sat by himself at the end of the bench, fidgeting with his glove. He did not engage in conversation with the other kids, nor did he pay particular attention to the game. |
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