Alive on Opening Day (19 page)

“
What do I have to lose,
Doc?” Dan asked. “I mean, everyone thought I was done already,
right? I’m in extra innings, so I might as well use them to my
advantage.”

“
But you’re not well,
honey,” Clara said.

“
There’s nothing wrong
with me except I can’t stay awake for more than three months at a
time, Mom,” Dan protested. “You haven’t found one single thing
wrong with me other than that, have you, Doctor?”

“
Well, no,” Parks
admitted. “But, Dan, we just don’t know what will happen
…”

“
We don’t know what will
happen if I just lie here in this bed for the next nine months or a
year or THREE years, either!” Dan interjected. “Maybe a cooling
unit will fall through the ceiling and crush me as I sleep. Maybe
I’ll get a blood clot and die next week. Maybe I’ll sleep for the
next 20 years like Rip Van Winkle! You don’t know what’s going to
happen, and neither do I, so I might as well live while I
can!”

Dan was breathing hard and
fast, his nostrils flaring. He looked from face to face, and Clara,
David, Parks, and Gabbie all greeted him with sheepish eyes and
down-turned heads. When he glanced at Troy, though, the baby
reached forward and gurgled, “Ayeee!” then smiled and
laughed.

Dan stopped for a beat,
before bursting into laughter. The rest of the adults followed
suit, and Dan reached forward to pull his son onto his
chest.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

His Own Terms

Gabbie and Troy left Dan’s
hospital room around 8 pm, and Clara followed them shortly
afterward. She had been in the room with him for more than 24
hours, and she needed a break whether she would admit it or not.
David made it easier for his wife to step out for a while,
promising to stay by Dan’s side during the night. Clara could come
back in the morning, after which the three of them would make the
trip to Indianapolis for the state title game. Gabbie and Troy
would also make the journey, but they’d leave from home with
Gabbie’s parents.

After several minutes of
persuasion, David was finally able to persuade Clara to head home,
but not before a tearful and prolonged goodbye with Dan. After all,
she didn’t know if she would ever see him awake again, so parting
was especially painful.

When the two Hodges men
were alone in the room, David stood by his son and tussled his
hair.

“
Alright, buddy boy,” he
said. “Time for you to get some sleep.”

Dan smiled. “Jeez, Dad,
you’d think I was 10 years old or something,” he said. “I
appreciate your concern, but I’m not tired. Can we just talk for
while? Or maybe there’s a Reds game on TV?”

Just then, the room door
opened again and Dr. Parks walked in.

“
Just the boys now, huh?”
he asked, as he picked up Dan’s chart. All three men knew it was an
empty gesture, because nothing had changed since the last time
Parks was in the room an hour earlier — Dan hadn’t even had a blood
test in that period. Nevertheless, Parks made a few scribbles on
the paper and hung the clipboard back on the foot of Dan’s
bed.

“
Well,” Parks continued.
“I still don’t agree with this cockamamie trip of yours tomorrow,
but you at least need to get some sleep. Should I get you something
to help you calm down?”

Dan snorted and pointed to
his bloodshot eyes. “Do I look worked up to you, Doc?” he asked.
“I’m the only kid in America who can sleep for months at a time,
and you want to know if I need some knockout drops!”

Parks hesitated and looked
to David, who greeted him with a blank expression.

“
Well,
OK,” Parks said in a deliberate voice. “But you’ve
got
to get some
rest.”

Dan shrugged, “OK, you got
it, Doc,” he agreed.

Parks walked toward the
door, then turned to look back at the Hodges.

“
And Dan,” he said. “Good
luck tomorrow, and I’ll see you soon.”

“
See you soon, Doc,” Dan
said, though he didn’t believe that at all.

As soon as Parks had
closed the door, Dan turned to his father.

“
Dad,” Dan said. “I really
am feeling sleepy.”

David nodded. “You want me
to leave? Or I can just sit in the chair there.”

“
No, no! Dad, I don’t want
to go to sleep. Not yet.”

David looked serious and
jammed a hand into the pocket of his slacks.

Dan went on: “It’s just
that I don’t know when — or if — I’ll wake up again.”

David nodded and pulled
his hand out of his pocket, extending it toward Dan. In the palm
where five tiny green pills.

“
I thought you might feel
that way, Dan,” David said. “These will help.”

Dan looked at the tablets
and snatched them up in his fingers.

“
Hold on, Dan,” David
cautioned. “Just take one for now, and we’ll see how it goes. I got
them from Jim … he says they’re his secret sauce for
productivity.”

Jim was a family friend
who had gone to high school with David and who worked at a local
factory. He was notorious in local circles for being the most
productive member of the assembly line during both second AND third
shifts, six days a week, with a first shift thrown into the mix on
Sunday. Jim had just barely graduated from high school, but he had
made a really good living for himself through hard work.

“
That’s good enough for
me,” Dan said, and popped one of the greenies into his mouth,
washing it down with a swig of water from the glass at his
bedside.

—

Father and son talked late
into the night, touching on children, school, work, and life, but
mostly focusing on baseball. The Reds were six games back in the
N.L. West and looked like they might have trouble tracking down the
Dodgers. Jeff Burroughs was off to a hot start for the Texas
Rangers, which was a shock to just about everyone, and most of the
furor around Hank Aaron had died down, which Dan thought was a
shame.

The REAL baseball news, of
course, was that South Pickens would be playing for the Indiana
state title in just a few hours. The school had been around for
just five years, opening just in time for Dan’s freshman year. For
most of his childhood, it was a foregone conclusion Dan would go
through all 12 grades at Belle Union, but the school corporation
had been planning to consolidate for quite a while behind the
scenes. By the time Dan entered fifth grade, it was clear there
would be a new high school in place before he graduated.

When he thought about the
upcoming game against that background, Dan was more amazed than
ever the Eagles had come so far. In half a decade, they had gone
from not having a team to three putrid years to one decent season —
Dan’s senior campaign — to the title game.

“
Yes, Coach Croft has done
a tremendous job,” David agreed when Dan expressed his admiration
for the program. “But Dan, you know you have helped enormously,
too, right?”

“
Nah, Dad,” Dan deflected.
“We did just OK last year, and I’m not even on the team
anymore.”

“
Ah, but
you
are
part of the team, Dan,” his father told him. “They were
struggling to find their groove when Coach Croft called you in to
help, and you have made a big difference. It helps that you know
most of the guys and can relate to them on their level, but you
also have a real knack for spotting flaws, especially in the
batter’s box.”

Dan blushed. “Thanks,
Dad,” he said, “but I think you might be a little
biased.”

David patted his son’s
hand, and the two men went on talking.

By the time the sun
splashed its rays across the hospital floor, David had been awake
for more than 24 hours, and Dan had gobbled a fistful of “magic
pills.” David needed sleep, and he knew pumping his son full of
drugs was not healthiest thing to do, but he couldn’t stand to say
goodbye. He had also promised Dan the two of them would watch that
evening’s baseball game — the
title
game — together.

When Clara stepped into
Dan’s room just after 7 am, she was surprised to see both of her
men were awake and had all the lights on.

She looked disapprovingly
to David and said, “Well, I hope you boys haven’t been up too long.
It’s going to be a long day.”

Dan looked at David, who
winked and said, “No, we’ve just been awake a few minutes. Dan was
hungry, and so am I now that I mention it. I think I’ll walk down
to see if the cafeteria is open yet.”

They had all spent enough
time at Clay County over the previous year to know the cafeteria
didn’t open until 8, but Dan and Clara nodded as David stepped out
of the room. Mother and son needed some waking time together, and
this was their chance, before they left for the game, and before
the day and what was left of Dan’s summer got away from
them.

David was gone for nearly
an hour and returned with bacon, donuts, and coffee, which he and
Clara ate while Dan worked on his hospital-issued breakfast. When
his tray was just about empty, Dan poked at the green blob of jello
that remained and groaned. He cast a furtive glance to the small
coffee table between his parents’ chairs, where one donut
remained.

David caught his son’s
gaze and grinned. “You want my donut, don’t you, kid?” he
asked.

“
No, no, that’s OK,” Dan
said, and stuck his fork into his own rubbery dessert.

His father scooped up the
donut in his hand and, in one motion, chucked it across the room
toward Dan’s head. “Better grab it!” he called.

Dan dropped his fork to
the tray and snatched the flying donut just before it smacked him
in the cheek.

He grinned and took a
bite, then smiled with dough squeezing between his teeth. “Thanks,
Dad!” he said.

The three Hodges laughed,
and Clara clutched her husband’s hand.

—

Once breakfast was done,
Dan got up and dressed, and then he and Clara packed his bags
without even discussing it. He was awake at the moment, but they
both knew it would be short-lived. They also knew, based on his
recent trends, his next sleep might be the BIG sleep. The insurance
company was done paying for his hospital stays, so he would head
home that night, one way or another.

Meanwhile, David spent the
rest of the morning making phone calls, to Gabbie and to his boss
and to Dr. Parks. Were there any last minute precautions they
needed to take, David wanted to know, now that they were leaving
the hospital?

No, Parks told him, and
expressed again that he thought the whole outing was a terrible
idea. “You’ve already ignored all my advice, David, so I really
can’t give you any words of wisdom.”

Nevertheless, Parks was
waiting for the Hodges in the hospital parking lot when they
emerged half an hour later. It was an off day for him, he said, but
he “happened” to be driving by and thought he’d stop in.

David smiled and extended
his hand.

“
Thanks, Dr. Parks,” he
said. “For everything.”

Parks nodded and looked to
Dan, who followed 20 feet behind his father, walking slowly with
his mother.

“
So, young man, you’re
really leaving us today, I see?” Parks said, smiling.

Dan shrugged. “Guess so,
Doc,” he said. “Makes sense, right? Since there’s nothing wrong
with me?”

Parks pursed his lips and
said, “Just don’t get carried away this evening, Dan.”

Then, to Clara: “And CALL
me if you need me, or if anything doesn’t seem quite
right.”

“
We will, Doctor,” she
promised. “Thank you for everything,” she repeated her husband’s
gratitude.

Parks gave her a curt nod
and walked to his car two spots over.

“
Now,” he said. “I have
some golf to play.”

And with that, he hopped
into his red Mercedes, keyed the engine to life, and sped out of
the hospital parking lot.

“
Looks like we’re not the
only ones with some fun planned for today,” Dan said. He called out
to Parks as the doctor whizzed past: “See you on Opening Day,
Doc!”

Five minutes later, the
Hodges had loaded Dan’s belongings into David’s truck, and the
three of them piled into Clara’s car, the family sedan, to head to
the last game of the year.