Going Home

a short story

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

I hadn’t seen him in five or six years when he showed up at my practice. He had a beard now and he’d put on some weight, but when he took a sip from the bottle he’d been hiding behind his back, I knew it was him. I dove and kicked up dirt and turned double plays and made throws from the hole like a young Ripken, doing my best to impress this man who’d never given a shit about me or my mother. We didn’t know if he’d gone back to Cuba, or headed out west, but here he was, standing behind the backstop as I stepped into the batter’s box. I blasted line drives into the gap and laced grounders through the infield and even hit one off the center field fence, showing warning track power for the first time in my life. He clapped. I was so shocked that I dropped the bat, but I picked it up immediately and dug in again. Never in my life had he done anything but faintly nod at me when boozed up, not a hug or a kiss or a pat on the back, but my newfound power at the plate had made him clap! I squeezed the bat and crouched down into my stance and when he clapped again as the coach released the ball I felt electricity surge through me. Everything slowed down and went quiet. The laces on the ball shimmered as it approached the plate. The bat was weightless. My teammates disappeared. When I made contact, I felt nothing, and I screamed the scream I’d been holding back my entire life. The ball left my bat and I watched it rise and rise as I took off for first. I hit the bag and ignored the taunts from my teammates as I headed for second. “This isn’t a game,” they yelled. I didn’t care, as a home run is a home run, and I knew this was the only one I’d ever hit and the only one he’d ever see me hit. So you better believe I milked it. He watched me run the bases and stomp on the plate and throw my hands in the air like I’d just won us the World Series and then he picked up his bottle and disappeared just as quickly as he’d appeared and I knew I’d never see him again. And I was right.