Tools of Ignorance: Lisa's Story (17 page)

“Yeah, actually, I kind of want to take that part back.” Marlee pointed to their teammates who had gathered around a wooden A-frame sign in the middle of the walkway. “What’s everybody looking at?”

“The brackets, I think.”

“Oh, cool.”

Their teammates moved on toward field three, their assigned practice field, so Lisa and Marlee had the sign to themselves.

Lisa pointed. “Look, here’s where we beat Overton Corners in the first round, and then Whickett in the quarterfinals.”

“Final four, man.”

Lisa bumped fists with Marlee and then followed the bracket to their next game. “We play Central Leatherstocking High School at nine tomorrow.”

“Who do we play after we win that game?”

Lisa raised an eyebrow at Marlee. “Geez, optimist much?”

“Why not?”

“Okay then. Let me see.” Lisa moved her finger to the other side of the bracket. “Looks like we play the winner of tomorrow’s eleven o’clock game. That’ll be either Arsdale High School or—oh, crap.” She leaped away from the sign as if bitten.

“What’s wrong? You look like you got shocked or something.”

Lisa pointed to the sign.

“Brookhaven High School?” Marlee clearly didn’t understand.

“Tara’s school.”

Marlee’s eyes grew wide. “Tara as in ex-girlfriend Tara?”

Lisa nodded. She grabbed the bracket board and took a deep breath. Seeing Tara was the last thing she needed on top of everything else.

Chapter Fourteen

Central Leatherstocking

LISA SOMEHOW MANAGED to get a decent night’s sleep in the motel, and felt infinitely better when she woke on Saturday morning.

“C’mon, slowpoke,” Lisa said to Marlee. “I need to be the first one on the bus so Coach doesn’t give me the hairy eyeball again.” She held the door to their motel room open.

“Okay, okay.” Marlee grabbed her softball bag and her small suitcase and slid past Lisa in the doorway. She looked up. “Oh, man. What a great day to play.”

“I know. Blue skies, puffy white clouds that better not have a single drop of rain in them.”

“Yeah, really.”

The bus driver opened the door to the bus and let Lisa and Marlee in. Besides the driver, the bus was empty, and they made their way to their usual seats. Coach Spears stepped on the bus barely a minute later and looked surprised to see them. She winked at Lisa and then turned away to go over their schedule with the bus driver.

The rest of her teammates trickled on the bus and within fifteen minutes they pulled up to the Binghamton Softball Complex. Lisa looked around for Tara. There was no sign of her, thank God. She didn’t see Sam or her parents, either, but that was probably for the best for now, because she had to find a way to focus her attention on the game against Central Leatherstocking High School.

She and Marlee warmed up in the pitcher’s area, and then Lisa helped Coach Spears with the infield and outfield warm ups. Once they were through, Lisa grabbed the bag of balls and headed back to the dugout. Her family was just walking up.

“Hi Mom. Hi Papa,” she called.

“Hi, honey.” Her mother waved. “Play well.”

Her father ushered Lynnie, Lawrence Jr., and Bridget ahead of him to a front row spot on the bleachers. “Do Clarksonville proud, honey.”

“Will do, Papa.”

Bridget saw her and broke free of her father’s grip to rush the fence. “Hi, Weesa.”

Lisa squatted down in front of her littlest sister. “Hi, Sweetpea. That was a long car ride, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, Warence spilled his juice all over. Mama got so mad.”

“I bet she did.”

Marlee walked up behind Lisa and pointed toward the stands. “Hey, there’s that college scout.”

Lisa looked up and saw William, her bio dad, sitting on the far end of the bleachers. “Oh, yeah.”

Marlee smacked her on the arm. “I’ll be in the dugout.”

“Okay.”

Lisa stood up. “Hey, Bridget, go on back to Papa. I have to go play now.”

“Okay, bye.” Bridget ran back to their father.

Lisa knelt down by the fence and retied her cleats one at a time. In actuality, she was really watching her bio dad out of the corner of her eye. He was focused on his cell phone, so he didn’t see her watching him. Lisa wondered if she had inherited his dark black hair. And his chin. Yeah, she definitely had his chin. She couldn’t get a good look at his eyes under his glasses, but she wondered if she had his brown eyes, too. He flipped his phone shut, so she looked away quickly and hoped he hadn’t seen her watching him.

Lisa headed toward the dugout, but stopped dead in her tracks when a voice from her past said, “Holy crap. If it isn’t my favorite apple picker from the North Country.”

Lisa turned toward the sound and her heart jumped. She hadn’t seen Tara in almost a year. She swallowed hard when she locked eyes with the baby browns on the other side of the fence. The tiny flame that still burned for Tara flared inside her heart.

“Hey, Tara,” Lisa said simply. Memories of Tara at summer softball camp came rushing back. Their kiss, second base, almost third. She felt her body flush all over.

“Who knew a bunch of apple pickers could make the final four.”

Lisa cleared her throat. “I see you and your hoodlums made it, too.”

Tara smiled and then looked her up and down. She leaned against the fence. “You’re lookin’ good. Real good. Maybe I was a little hasty breaking up with you.”

“Shhh.” Lisa looked around to see if anybody was within earshot. “Somebody’ll hear you.”

“Oh, you always were a worry wart.” She whispered, “Remember how scared you got that someone would walk in on us in my dorm room?”

Lisa flushed at the memory. “Uh, listen, I gotta get ready for the game. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Count on it, apple picker. Count on it.”

Lisa headed back to the dugout, but felt Tara watching her every step. She plopped down on the bench and took a deep breath.

Marlee sat next to her and whispered, “That’s Tara?”

Lisa nodded and put her face in her hands.

“Oh, man, Lisa. She’s friggin’ hot.”

“Shhh,” she sat up and looked around. “At least Sam’s not here yet, thank God.”

“Man, oh, man,” Marlee said. “What’s with you and all the hot girlfriends? You’re a chick magnet.”

Lisa grinned and shrugged. She didn’t want to think about it at the moment. She had a game to get psyched for.

The beefy umpire looked toward the Cougars’ dugout. “Home team, take the field.” He pointed toward the field.

Lisa grabbed her catcher’s mask and helmet and ran back behind the plate. Marlee took her five warm up pitches, and the first batter of the New York State Class C semi-final game stepped into the batter’s box.

Lisa still felt Tara’s gaze on her, so she took a deep breath to try and clear her head. She couldn’t let Tara or William or anything else interfere with the game ahead. She squatted behind the plate and pounded her fist in her mitt and called for Marlee to throw an outside fastball at the knees.

“Strike!” The umpire yelled.

“Nice one, Marlee.” Lisa threw the ball back.

Lisa called for another outside fastball, but the ball hung over the plate too much, and the batter smacked a single through the three-four hole into right field.

Lisa pointed to Johnna at second base. “Get ready for the steal.”

Johnna nodded and pounded her glove. On the first pitch, the runner took off for second base, and Lisa fired the ball toward second. Her adrenaline must have been on overload because her throw sailed clear into center field.

“Dammit,” Lisa muttered under her breath when the runner ran safely to third.

She wondered what William thought about her error. He was probably shaking his head. Tara was probably laughing her head off.

Lisa took a deep breath and refocused on the next batter. Marlee got two quick strikes, and Lisa called for the change-up. The batter swung and missed for strike three, but the ball hit the heel of Lisa’s glove and bounced away. Since Lisa didn’t catch the third strike, the batter raced toward first base trying to make it there before Lisa could pick up the ball and throw her out. Lisa leaped up, snagged the ball, made sure the runner on third didn’t take off for home, and threw the ball to Julie covering first.

Lisa knew instantly that her throw was wild. Julie lunged for the ball, but couldn’t get it. “Crap,” Lisa muttered under her breath as the ball skipped into right field. She watched helplessly as the runner from third base scored, and the batter, who should have been out on strikes, ran all the way to second base.

Lisa kicked the dirt. “Get a freakin’ grip, Lisa,” she muttered to herself. She hoped Sam wasn’t there yet to see her second glorious error.

Thankfully the Cougars managed to get out of the inning with only the one Central Leatherstocking run. Back in the dugout, Sarah brought ice to put on her already aching hand. So far, she had successfully hidden her black and blue hand from Coach Spears. Whenever Coach asked, she always said it was fine. Thanks goodness Sarah was good at slipping her ice without Coach knowing.

The Cougars got up to bat in the bottom half of the inning, but Jeri and Julie made two quick outs. Johnna got hit by a pitch and was awarded first base. Lisa took a deep breath and stepped into the box. If she could hit a long one, maybe Johnna could score from first and make up for her two colossal errors.

The first pitch was high, but Lisa swung anyway. She missed for strike one, and stepped out of the box.

“C’mon, Lisa,” Coach Spears called from third base. “Swing at strikes, kiddo. Just strikes.”

Lisa nodded and stepped back in the box. The next pitch came inside, and she swung hoping to pull it down the left field line. She couldn’t believe she missed that one, too. She took a deep breath and willed herself to hit the next one. The next pitch came in nice and fat. She pulled her bat back, swung with all her might, but stumbled off-balance when she missed the change-up for strike three.

Lisa slammed her bat on the ground. She hated striking out. She looked into the stands as she slunk back to the dugout. Sam was sitting next to Lynnie. Her long blond hair fell deliciously in front of both shoulders and framed her tanned face and brilliant smile. Lisa couldn’t help the grin that took over her face, her strikeout instantly forgotten. Anybody who looked at her would know immediately that she was completely and totally gone in love.

Tara laughed, and Lisa watched in horror as Tara turned to look straight at Sam. An evil smile crept up Tara’s face. Lisa slammed the dugout door open. Not only did she freakin’ strike out in front of everybody, but now Tara knew about Sam. She slammed herself down on the bench and strapped on a shin guard. Sarah helped with the other.

Coach Spears squatted in front of her. “Kiddo, I don’t know what you’ve got on your mind right now, but you need to snap out of it, okay? Let it go. You are the rock of this team, so take a deep breath, and let it go.”

“Yes, Coach.” Lisa stood up and put on her chest protector. “Sorry.” She hustled onto the field.

Lisa took a deep breath, pounded her mitt, and squatted behind the plate. With new determination, she helped her team keep Central Leatherstocking High School from scoring in the top half of the second inning. She even ended the inning by snagging a runner trying to steal second base.

Julie ran off the field behind her and clapped her on the back.

“That runner got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. That’ll teach her to try to steal a base against Lisa Brown and her tools of ignorance.”

Lisa bumped fists with her first baseman and purposely avoided looking into the stands. Her focus had to remain on the field. They didn’t make it this far only to lose in the semi-final game.

Lisa finally remembered how to use her bat and smacked a double in the third inning and a single in the fifth. But even though the Cougars got several base runners over the next five innings, they didn’t score a single run and were still losing 0-1 when it was their turn to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning. If they didn’t score, they would lose and be out of the tournament. Their season would be over.

Lisa tried not to let her misery show. She was the one who had committed the string of errors that allowed Central Leatherstocking’s lone run. Sarah tried to hand her another ice pack for her hand, but she waved it off. The pain in her hand didn’t matter at this point.

Julie stepped into the box to lead off the inning. She swung and the ball bounced deep into the hole between short and third. The shortstop fielded the ball cleanly and made a good throw, but Julie beat it out by a toenail.

Lisa rattled the chain link fence. “Way to go, White Girl.” She grabbed her bat and helmet and walked to the on-deck circle.

Johnna got up to bat next and successfully sacrificed Julie to second. Lisa was up. She took a deep breath and wouldn’t let herself think about making amends for her errors. Instead she pictured a smooth stroke that connected solidly with the pitch. With a 1-1 count, a hittable pitch came down the pike, and she swung, putting all of her five foot nine inches into it. Her efforts paid off as the ball towered over the center fielder’s head. She rounded first and saw the ball careen off the fence. She headed toward second. Coach Spears waved her on to third.

“Down, down, down,” Coach Spears yelled.

Lisa slid, and the third baseman put the tag on her hip. The umpire in the field threw both arms out to the side. “Safe.”

“Yes.” Lisa leaped up and threw a fist in the air. Julie had scored from second base and the game was tied. She didn’t dare look into the stands, because she was the winning run and had to stay focused.

“C’mon, Marlee,” Lisa called from third. “Just a little single. Nothing big, number three.”

Marlee worked the count full. The Central Leatherstocking pitcher went into her motion and sent the pitch rocketing toward home plate. Marlee swung and made contact. Lisa leaped into the air when the ball landed in shallow right field for a hit. She sprinted all the way home to score the winning run.