Let's Play Ball (2 page)

Tues Practice cancelled

April 23, 2012 4:59 PM

It’s raining and supposed to continue
for the next few hours, practice is cancelled. If possible get out
tomorrow and play catch and hit w/ your kids. We have practice
Thrus at 5:30. Let’s hope the weather cooperates.

We still had one practice left before
our first game on Monday. When Thursday rolled around it was sunny
with a chance of rain. It hadn’t started raining yet so I didn’t
cancel practice.

It was five twenty-two when Kari and
Trey showed up. I checked my cell phone for the time. Why did I do
that? Hannah was already running around on the baseball field with
a few other kids. Kari approached me with Trey walking beside her.
She was parked on the street a few cars away from the baseball
diamond. I caught myself studying her movements.

“
Hey buddy you ready to
practice?”

“
Yeah,” Trey murmured. He
was a shy kid. That was pretty obvious.

“
Hi Kari.” I tried to keep
my eyes above her shoulders. She was completely covered in a long
sleeved black and yellow Disney’s The Lion King hoodie, blue jeans
and sneakers but for some reason I viewed this boyish getup as
sexy.

“
Hi, Coach Rizza.” She half
smiled. This time it wasn’t as warm and inviting as before. I knew
I imagined the surge or whatever the weird warm feeling I got when
I first laid eyes on her.

“
Hey Trey, you got a
baseball glove?” I asked.

Trey looked up at his mother. “Oh I
left it in the car. I’ll go get it.” Kari said as she scoffed at
her own absent-mindedness.

Kari trotted off leaving me with Trey.
“Hey Trey, follow me bud.”

I lead Trey across the grass to my
brother Mike. He had two of the smaller kids with him. He was
showing them how to swing the bat.

“
Hey Mike get Trey a bat, a
twenty-six. I need to get him a baseball glove. I will be right
back.”

“
Okay. We’re missing three
kids.”

“
They didn’t send me an
email. They should be here.”

I jogged away from Mike and across the
lawn. I reached the side walk and landed at Kari’s car. She was
rummaging through the trunk of her silver Camry.

“
Hey.” I startled her with
my sudden appearance. “Did you find his glove?”

“
Yes.”

I was too focused on her face to
observe that she was handing the glove over to me. I felt like a
total moron when I realized I was staring at her. I snapped out of
it and looked down at her hand and the tan and black baseball
glove. I took the glove in my hands, finally.

“
Will Trey be able to make
the first game?”

“
Yes.” She clipped. That was
two yeses.

“
Are you coming to the
game?”

“
Yes.” That’s three. What’s
with the one word answers? She’s not being herself. Why did I say
that? I don’t even know her. Seems like something happened
somewhere from here to the car. Maybe she’s on the rag?

I had the goddamn baseball glove in my
hand so why was I still standing here. Talk or walk Mason.
“Practice is over at seven.”

“
Okay.” This time she
muttered one word and two syllables. She didn’t even look at me.
Her eyes dropped down and treaded somewhere in the trunk. I guess I
was being dismissed. What the fuck?

“
Okay.” I said and walked
away feeling confused and lost. I was also a little angry but I
wasn’t sure why. She hadn’t done anything to me but I felt
dejected.

Our first meeting was so warm and
welcoming, then now, nothing. Women are weird. Black women are
superweird.

I tried to teach my kids all the little
league tricks. First lesson steal as many bases as possible. Stolen
bases equal points. I released the kids back to their prospective
parents at six fifty-eight. I wondered if Kari would get out of her
car and grace us with her presence.

A few of the other parents came up to
chat with me but sadly she did not. Trey walked to the car and got
in. She pulled out her parallel parking spot slowly. I caught wind
of her moving car. No really I was just eye stalking her. We locked
eyes as she maneuvered around the cars that lined both sides of the
street. I’m not sure why my hand went up but I waved at her and my
new buddy Trey. Shit she waved back. She’s strange. I don’t
understand her. But why am I trying to? Understand her.

I felt a small hand tug at the bottom
of my shirt. “Hey dad, what is mom making for dinner?”

“
Pasta primavera.” I said to
my daughter.

“
Yummy.” Hannah smiled with
her crooked teeth.

“
Sweetie, help me pack up
our gear.”

Hannah run off toward the fence where
all the bats, balls, helmets and catchers gloves were strewn down
on the grass. I followed her after a second. This is going to be a
hell of a season.

After I piled all our gear into the
car, I went home. After dinner I was horny more so than usual. I
suspected why but I didn’t feel any need to give credence to my
adulterous thoughts. After I put the kids to bed, I went downstairs
for a beer. I hoped that Tess would still be awake. I quickly drank
the beer down and knew for sure I was horny. I rubbed the head of
my cock through the nylon fabric of my shorts. I went upstairs with
every intention of making love to my wife.

When I reached the bedroom I was
confronted with the truth. There would be no sex. Why? My two year
old had escaped his toddler bed when I was downstairs and crawled
into bed next to Tess. Tonight I am the odd man out. Tess was
already sleeping on top of the sheet. I guess I should be
disappointed but I’m not. Shit happens. Life happens. I left the
bedroom and went back downstairs to the kitchen to grab another
beer. I turned the TV on in the living room and decided to watch a
movie. The Departed was on HBO. After two more beers I fall asleep
on the couch. I woke at 2 a.m. I trekked upstairs to
bed.

I had a hard time going back to sleep
and I knew why. While I was downstairs on the couch I had dreamed
of her. The dream was so real. It was unlike any other dreams I
had. One difference was I remembered it when I woke.

In the dream Kari was there with me,
only us. She was wearing a sexy bright red bra and panties. She had
on these incredibly high heeled apple red shiny pumps. In the dream
she was standing in front of me while I sat there watching her
every move. But she didn’t move. She just watched me as I watched
her. After moments of only this, she smiled her beautiful closed
mouth smile. That was all I could remember from the dream. Why am I
dreaming about her? How do I make it stop?

****

Thursday rolled around and I had
baseball practice. Almost all the kids would be there. Maya had
broken her leg and she wouldn’t be coming to practice. Jack Unger
was first to arrive with his son Caleb. Gabby, Payton and Aaron
came soon after. Jack Unger was a guy that I had always seen around
the park. I could tell he was the kind of guy that watched sports
but never played then. Well he probably played golf but that
doesn’t count. That’s the girly man’s sport. His son was on my team
and I knew he had a beautiful flaxen-haired teenage daughter that
the park perverts would sneak peeks at. I could spot a perv a mile
away. This came from having a daughter myself. I had to keep an eye
on Hannah. There are some real sick freaks in the world.

I was daydreaming when I spotted her. I
watched as Kari pulled up to the curb. I made sure I was at her car
as soon as Trey got out the back seat. Kari popped her trunk and I
met her at it.

“
Hey Trey. Hey
Kari.”

“
Coach Rizza.” I helped Trey
get his things out the trunk as Kari eyed me cautiously.

“
Hey Buddy go join your
team.” I patted him on top of his baseball cap. The little guy took
off in a mad dash toward his teammates. Wish he ran that fast to
the bases.

Now we were alone, well sort of. This
time I was determined to talk to Kari. I refused to allow the
conversation to go astray.

“
How’s it going
Kari?”

“
Good.” She blessed me with
her smile. I felt more comfortable now. My brother would be late to
practice and Tess was home with our little ones.

“
Trey seems to really like
it.” I was staring at her. I was being really evasive with my
eyes.

“
I think he does. It’s all
new to him.”

“
Yeah today I’m going to
teach him simple things to make him hit better.”

“
Thanks for giving him the
extra time. I know it’s frustrating. He’s the only one on the team
that has never played before.”

“
No, I like it, teaching the
kids.” Kari crossed her hands under her perfect breasts. My cock
jumped in my gym shorts. Calm down. Later I can choke up on my bat
but not now. Stop staring at her. “Did you play any
sports?”

Kari frowned but it was an erotic
frown. I guess that was an odd question to ask an adult woman. The
image of me pushing her down on the trunk of her car and entering
her behind took root in my horny brain.

“
Me sports, no way, not
since Junior High. That was ages ago.”

I wasn’t sure what she was doing to
stay in shape but her body was killer. “You look like you work out.
You go to the gym?”

“
No, I just walk and jog the
track at Lemington Park.”

“
I never heard of it.” I
shrugged.

“
I think it’s the biggest
park in Bolingcreek. How long you lived out here?”

“
Ten years. How long have
you been out here?”

“
Twenty-five
years.”

“
Well maybe you should show
me around.” Did I just ask her out, on a date? It kind of sounds
like that but that was not what I meant.

“
I’m sure you can find your
way around.”

Shot down. “I didn’t mean anything by
that. I wasn’t trying to, to--” I stuttered over the correct
phrasing. “Be disrespectful.”

“
You weren’t?” She glared at
me with an accusing eye.

“
No, you just seem to know
your way around.”

“
Where are you
from?”

“
Mount Prairie.”

“
That’s North.”

“
Yes.” I found myself
watching her lips move. Her pink lip gloss was wet and shiny. I
wanted to touch it with my hands. No I didn’t. I wanted to touch it
with my lips. Better yet I started to daydream about what that pink
lip gloss would look like smeared all over my cock. A shiny wet
pink ring pressed around my shaft. It’s a good thing that sexually
explicit thoughts aren’t against the law. I would get life or maybe
the death penalty. Come back to earth Mason.

“
So you walk the track?” I’m
back.

“
Yeah walk and jog.” She
hunched.

“
How many miles?”

“
Three miles, five days a
week.”

“
That’s
impressive.”

“
Is it? Doesn’t take much to
impress you.” Kari was burning holes in my retina’s with her
haunting brown eyes. “Hey Coach Rizza, your team is going
bananas.”

I turned to look at the kids. They were
actually going bananas, frolicking around like wild
ones.

“
Hey guys stop kicking each
other!” I yelled across the lawn. “I gotta go. I will talk to you
later, right?” I asked because I wasn’t sure.

“
Yeah, later.” She smiled
and warmed my insides. I held back the smile that was bursting to
jump out of me. I jogged across the lawn to the kids. My brother
was pulling up to the curb just as I made it out to the
field.

CHAPTER 3

_______________________

Lemington Lakes Park is nice. It was
huge, beautifully manicured and very clean. The track was a half
mile long so you would have to go around twice to run a mile. There
were two adult sized baseball diamonds, a basketball court and a
volley ball net with sanded ground. There was a large children’s
playground in the center. I wonder why I never noticed this park
before. I’ve driven down this street plenty of times. The park was
in the middle of an industrial area. There were tractor trailer
trucks roaring up and down this road all times of the day and
night.

It was almost empty this early in the
morning. It was peaceful, tranquil, with only a few people in the
park. There were only four cars parked in the lot. That was
including mine. I got out my car and started to walk briskly on the
cement paved track. The wind was blowing this early in the morning
but it was still a good 80 degrees outside.

I passed an old lady on the track
walking her German Shepard. She had a plastic bag with her. Some
people are courteous enough to pick up their dog’s disgusting
droppings. The lady gave me a good morning and I returned it. I
could see Kari walking toward me on the track. She recognized me
and a perfect smile catches her lips and disarms me.