Salad, Sandwiches, Dainties and Punch

Chapter 6

The sky was blue with scatters of big puffy clouds and only the tiniest of breezes.  It would be a perfect day for ball.  Teresa checked and double checked that she had her roll of quarters in her purse before rooting through her sports closet for the perfect hat and sunglasses.  The smell of coffee already filled the house, but now she could smell bacon frying and headed to the kitchen hat in hand.  "Smells good," she said, pouring a second cup of coffee and retreating to the kitchen table.  Teresa was more than happy to let Bill do some of the cooking.  If he'd only do some of the grocery shopping and dishes, he might be considered a triple threat. 

The teams were already warming up when Teresa and Bill pulled out far out of foul ball zone.  Bill wasn't going to be one of those idiots who got a ball bounced off his hood... again.  "You think someone's gonna knock one into the cemetery?" He side eyed Teresa. "Nah," she said smiling.  She didn't think it would ever happen again. 

Bill and Teresa walked over to the bleachers where they would eventually split up so Teresa could sit with the ladies and Bill could sit with the men.  "Graveyard Bill!" A voice called up behind them.  Randy was on his bike and skidded to a stop as he caught up to them with an unlit cigarette between his lips.

"Gotta light?"
"You know I don't smoke Randy." 
"Never knew a guy like you to be unprepared."
"Prepared for what? I don't smoke," he said, shrugging.  He was about to start getting annoyed but it fell on deaf ears as Randy had already stood up on his pedals and was cycling toward a group of guys smoking by the fence.

Teresa thought that this team looked a little "scraped together" and just hoped to God that they'd at least win their first game.  "Need to set the tone for the weekend," she explained to the other ladies.  Evelyn nodded in agreement and all the other ladies followed suit.  Teresa nudged Evelyn signaling to look at the base of the bleachers.  The rest of the group looked in the same direction. 

Janice was parked on her medi scooter sporting a neck brace secured with a few strips of duct tape on the back.  Janice was animatedly talking to the spectators on the bottom bench and Teresa thanked her lucky stars she was still limber enough to climb up into the bleachers and away from Janice.  As glad as she was to be out of the mix, she couldn't help but crane her neck a bit and turn one ear toward her.  Janice, as crazy as she was, usually knew all the town gossip.  After all, dirt knows dirt. 

Teresa tried to follow the conversations that were unfolding around her while keeping an eye on the men warming up on the field. "They look like kids out there," Evelyn said, scanning the home dugout.  Teresa knew that Evelyn didn't mind. Evelyn could be downright inappropriate when it came to younger men.  As Teresa scanned the field to try and figure out which player Evelyn's gaze had fixated on when the familiar shouts of a foul ball came from the crowd.

Instinctually Teresa and Evelyn looked up in sync with an arm shielding their face to see where the wayward ball had gone.  Teresa didn't see it, but heard it land with a crack of plastic and a wild, visceral sound that could only be Janice from below.  Janice was already on the ground with one leg up on the seat of her medi scooter.  Women and men gathered around to roll her onto her side and sit her up as she wailed, reveling in the attention.

In  the commotion a young girl had already run up the length of the bleachers with the foul ball to collect her loonie from Teresa and Evelyn.  It was evident right away that Janice was going to survive as she let half a dozen people hoist her to her feet.  They all inspected the new crack in the front of the scooter and Janice slid back into her seat.  She leaned over the steering wheel and slid her hand over the damage before reaching behind her head to remove a piece of duct tape from the back of her neck brace to try and smooth over the crack.  Evelyn's eyes were already back in the field, but Teresa, now distracted ,kept one eye on Janice.

Randy had raced over on his bike so fast that he had to almost lay it down to prevent being the second thing that had crashed into Janice in the span of two minutes.  Randy magically pulled out a lighter as Janice pulled out a cigarette of her own.  Janice was exaggerating the trauma by shaking her hand so violently that Randy couldn't catch the unlit end of her cigarette.  "I'm gonna singe your eyebrows off if you don't quit moving," Randy waved the tiny lick of a flame in front of Janice's face, and in that moment, she was suddenly cured.  "Hallelujah," Teresa thought, "she's been saved!"