His son’s excitement warmed his heart. His dread that his son would be angry at him for not calling all week melted away.
“I wanted to call before it was your bedtime, Robert,” the man said, eyeing the clock on his nightstand. It was not quite nine, but his wife always let Robert stay up a little later on Fridays when he was on one of his business trips. “I know you had a big game last Saturday and I still haven’t heard all about it.”
He could practically see his son’s beaming smile on the other end of the line. “I had three hits, including a triple!”
“A triple? Wow! That’s harder to get than a home run.”
All the tension and demands from the week melted away talking to his boy.
“Yeah, that’s what mom said.”
“Robbie,” a voice called in the distance on the other end of the line. “Who is it?”
“It’s dad,” Robert called back to her. The man wanted to talk to her too, but right now he sensed she’d been circling the phone, the deadliest predator to walk the earth, and him the prey.
“So what—”
“And guess what else dad,” Robert said, turning his attention back to the phone call.
“What else?”
“That triple?” Robert asked, then waited until he went “Uh-huh” before adding, “It was with the bases loaded!”
“Wow son!” he said with such pride until it dawned on him that he had missed it.
“And dad! Guess what else.”
“What else, Robert?”the man asked, doing his best to keep his son from noticing his state of glumness.
“Guess what I finally did in the field. I’ll give you three guesses.”
The man didn’t need three guesses, not with how Robert had talked non-stop with rabid infatuation about the one play he wanted to make.
“You caught a pop fly,” he stated, posing it coyly as a question.
“I caught a pop fly!”
“I told you you could do it,” the man said. “Did you do it like we practiced, with two hands to secure the ball in the glove?”
“Welllllll, not exactly,” the voice on the other end grew uneasy. “I used just the one hand, and I held the glove near my face and made a kissy face and winked when I caught it. But it’s because I knew I was gonna catch it. And the whole team was laughing the rest of the game and at practice.”
The man sighed disapprovingly. “Robert, you shouldn’t showboat. It’s good that you knew you were going to catch that one, but what if you were cavalier about the next one and missed it. Your team is counting on you.”
“Sorry,” the boy sulked.
The man grimaced. What’re you thinking? It’s little league for christ sake. How many times do you tell him it’s just a game and to have some fun?
“That does sound like an impressive catch. What a ballplayer,” he said, desperately trying to change the tone of the conversation. “I’m going to need to get your autograph before you make it to Cooperstown.”
“Daddy!” Robert groaned.
“I’m serious. It’ll be worth so much, I’ll be able to kick my heels up and retire.”
“Yeah right, you love work so much you’ll never stop,” Robert said, his voice growing more serious the deeper he got into the sentence and realized the truth of what he was saying. “When are you coming home?”
The man winced at the question. He hadn’t meant to open up this can of worms. Especially with how well the call had been going.
“Robert, I’m—”
He was interrupted by the pounding on his door.
Shit. Why’d it have to be now of all times? I’m not ready.