The game was off to a good start. Their regular starters were healthy and the sun was shining in Toronto. Teresa kept her tea and her crossword puzzle in her lap for the commercial breaks. It was the bottom of the second and it was still scoreless. She heard the back door open and Bill rustling around in the kitchen.
"Who's winning?" he called out.
"We are."
What's the score?
"0-0."
"Makes sense," Bill chuckled to himself as he constructed his sandwich.
"What'd you learn in the alley?" she called back over her shoulder waiting for his response.
"Not much."
"Well what's much?"
"Mmmm, Tom's gonna get new shingles."
"About time! They've been curled up for years!"
Teresa went back to her crossword while she kept one eye on the game. The camera panned over the crowd of skydome and it was a sea of blue and white Blue Jays attire. The camera stopped and zoomed in on a young boy eating popcorn by sticking his whole face in his bucket. What didn't make it into his mouth, stuck to his face momentarily before falling on his shirt, his lap, his feet. She assumed it was the father who nudged the kid, who looking up to the jumbotron open-mouthed, jumped up to frantically wave, spilling the rest of his popcorn in the process.
"And that's why you teach your kids how to eat in public," she was entertained only because it wasn't her kid. She would have been mortified if the entire Blue Jay fan base had just watched her kid eating like an animal on live tv. Her team was now taking the field and the camera followed the outfielders to the outer limits of the field. She admired the patterns in the grass criss crossing across the outfield. She wished Bill would cut the lawn like that. It just looks so professional. She would have to settle for her carpet.
She could feel Bill standing in the hall behind her in the entrance of the living room watching. The first batter up hit one deep to right field and Teresa sat up a little straighter in nervous anticipation. "Ohhhh good snag," Bill said from behind her as the right fielder easily made the catch and then jogged a few steps forward to throw it in. "They make it look so easy." The second batter had just entered the batter's box when the doorbell rang. The front door doorbell? The front door that led straight into the carpeted living room that Teresa was sitting at at this very moment. Only trick or treaters and religious people trying to convert you used this door. It wasn't October and she wasn't in the mood for conversion. When she looked back to see if Bill would get it, he was nowhere to be seen.
The batter was now standing on first base, hands on hips chatting with the first baseman. "Well now," Teresa was annoyed that she had missed this when the doorbell rang again. "Janice." This was the extent of Teresa's greeting as she looked out over Janice's shoulder to see her abandoned medical scooter on the curb across the street. She was leaning heavily on the railing with her garbaged bag foot sticking out to the side. Teresa knew better than to ask.
Do you have any smokes?
We don't smoke Janice.
A roar of applause exploded from the crowd on the television, and Teresa grimaced. What was she missing now? Teresa waited for Janice. "Well, are you heading down to the Super Mart later?" Janice had somehow inched forward enough to be in the doorway. Teresa needed to stand her ground or Janice was going to end up on her couch. "No, no plans Janice," she was already beginning to close the door slowly to give Janice time to back up.
"Well do you have a few bucks so I can get some gas for my scooter," Janice displayed her wrapped foot to Teresa in case she hadn't noticed. Teresa looked at the white garbage bag and wondered what was lurking underneath. She had the orange drawstring pulled tight and tied in a bow around her calf. "Aren't those scooters electric?" Teresa waited. "Oh ya ya I forgot. It's out of juice. Is Bill around?" Teresa shook her head, "He's disappeared," she replied, which was true.
"It's just that I'm gonna need some help getting my scooter home," Janice shrugged. "Yes I can see that," Teresa responded, nodding. "Ok then, I best let you get going so you can figure this out and Teresa closed the door forcing Janice out of the doorway. She headed back to her spot on the couch and checked the score. "2-0! Janice," she grumbled as she watched her hobble across the street to sit on her scooter half on half off the street with her garbage bag foot sticking out in front of her.
The end of the inning lapsed into a commercial break and Teresa took this opportunity to get up to readjust the uneven swag on the curtains on the front window. "For Pete's sake," she set to adjusting as she watched Randy try to pull and pull the medical scooter off of the curb it had been stuck on with Janice still in the seat. Janice was rocking back and forth in an attempt to help shift the weight of the scooter this way or that, but all it did was result in an uncoordinated effort of physical comedy. "It's like the redneck version of Mr. Bean out there," Teresa said as she watched the silent pantomime unfold. Ricky soon gave up and sat on the grass between his own pedal bike and the scooter and lit a cigarette. She could see Janice gesturing towards him, and before she knew it Janice had a cigarette in her mouth. "Well one problem solved," Teresa chuckled, continuing to fix the curtains until the game came back on.
