Double Play at Short (7 page)

On the ride over to the mall, Joel tried to keep Danny from mulling over the game.

“It wasn’t an error,” he said, referring to Danny’s throw to home. “You didn’t waste any time. Neither did I. It was a great
hit and a terrific run. Nothing anyone could do about it.”

“If only I had —” Danny started to say for the zillionth time.

“If only you don’t knock it off, Dr. Joel will have to pay you another visit!” Joel shouted.

They parked their bikes and locked them in the rack outside the mall entrance. When they got inside, they went right to the
video store. They headed for the section marked “New Arrivals.”

They scanned the shelves, then went back and checked more carefully — no
Dagger of Death.

“Rats!” said Joel. “I really wanted to see it.”

“Well, pick something else,” said Danny. “Maybe we ought to get something funny instead.”

“You don’t think
Dagger of Death
would be a million laughs?” asked Joel.

“Come on,” said Danny. He dragged his friend over to the “Comedy” display. They picked two videos, one they’d seen years ago
and a brand-new one that neither of them had seen before.

“They ought to be good for a few laughs later on,” said Joel.

They left the video store and started walking down the main strip inside the mall when Danny saw the photo shop.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he said. “My mom dropped off some film for me the other day. It might be ready.”

“You want to pick it up?” asked Joel.

“Yeah, I’ll save her the trip,” said Danny.

The Walker photos had come back. Danny paid for them, and the clerk handed him the package.

“Let’s see what they look like,” said Joel when they got outside.

“Maybe later,” said Danny evasively. “Right now I’m starving. Come on, I’ll race you to the bike rack.” He shoved the photo
package in his shirt pocket and ran off. Joel came tearing after him, and they both touched the rack at the same time. “Tie!”
they yelled, and exchanged high fives. They put on their helmets and headed home.

As they got near the Walker house, Joel looked at his watch. “I’d better get home. Give me a call later, and we’ll figure
out when we’re going to watch these videos, okay?”

“Okay,” said Danny. He put his bike in the garage and went inside the house. Mrs. Walker was in the bathroom sorting laundry.

“Hi, Mom,” said Danny. “Need any help?”

“No, I’m fine,” she said. “Thanks.”

“Okay,” he said, and went off to his bedroom.

Danny hadn’t lied to Joel. He was hungry, but that
could wait. Right now, his instincts told him to examine his pictures without anyone looking over his shoulder.

When he opened the photo pack, he was glad he’d followed his gut feeling. He flipped through the pictures till he came to
the last one: the close-up he’d taken of Tammy Aiken. The minute he saw the photo, he knew that what he’d been thinking could
be true.

She looks
exactly
like me, he thought. And I bet I know someone who would agree — someone who’s been holding back important information from
me for a long time!

He grabbed the pile of photos and went back into the kitchen.

“Hey, Mom,” he said, “I want you to take a look at something.”

Mrs. Walker turned toward him, shoving something in her pants pocket as she did. Danny noticed that she looked a little odd,
but he shrugged it off.

“What is it, Danny?” she asked.

“Take a look,” he said. He quickly shuffled all the pictures, then laid them out on the kitchen table.

Mrs. Walker sat down and put on her glasses.
“That’s a nice one of Elaine and Joanne. And that Joel — always the comedian. Jennifer looks —” she stopped suddenly and picked
up the close-up of Tammy Aiken. She gasped and bit her lip, then took off her glasses.

Danny thought she was going to break into tears at any second.

“I’m not just imagining it, am I, Mom?” he asked quietly. “This girl looks like me. And I think you know something about it,
but you’re not telling me. Why?
What is it about this girl?”

The anguish in his voice cried out for an answer. There was no mistaking that.

Mrs. Walker covered her face for a moment, then quickly wiped away the tears that had gushed over at his plea for information.
She got up from the table and started for the living room.

“Come with me, Danny,” she said. “I have something you’d better see for yourself.”

She went to her desk and took out a small wooden box with a tiny brass lock. Danny and Jennifer knew the box was there, but
they’d thought it had money inside. Mrs. Walker sometimes mentioned the “mad
money” she had hidden away in case of emergencies, and they figured that was where she kept it.

When she unlocked the box, however, Danny saw that there was no money inside. Instead it was filled with newspaper clippings.
Danny could see one that he remembered from the headline: “Danny Walker Wins Little League MVP.”

Mrs. Walker rummaged through the box and took out a yellowed newspaper clipping from the bottom.

“You’d better read this,” she said.

Danny took the clipping and sat down.

He read the story of a terrible accident. A young woman about to give birth was on the way to the hospital with her husband
when their car was struck by a speeding pickup truck. The husband died instantly, but the young woman was rushed to the emergency
room, where she died shortly after giving birth — to twins, a boy and a girl. The date of the tragedy was the same day as
Danny’s birthday.

There was a picture of the young woman, taken before the accident. She could have been Danny’s older sister. In fact, she
looked a lot like an older version of Tammy Aiken.

D
anny could hardly believe his eyes. There was no question about the resemblance among the woman, Tammy — and himself.

“Yes, Danny,” said Mrs. Walker. “That’s a picture of your biological mother.”

“And… and… Tammy?” he asked. “She looks just like Tammy.”

“Tammy is the other twin she gave birth to before she died,” Mrs. Walker said.

“But I never knew I had a twin sister,” he blurted out. “Why not? Why didn’t anyone ever tell me? Is there something wrong
with her? With me? I just don’t understand.”

“Oh, Danny, there’s nothing wrong with either of you,” said Mrs. Walker. “You were both beautiful, healthy, wonderful babies
when you were born.
And you’re just as wonderful now — and I’m sure Tammy is, too. I’ll explain everything if you’ll just calm down.

“Let’s go into the kitchen, and I’ll make us both some lemonade.”

Danny wasn’t sure he could get anything down his throat, but he followed her anyway. He took the yellowed newspaper clipping
with him and stared at it again. He just couldn’t get over how much the picture looked like Tammy grown up a little.

When the lemonade was ready, Mrs. Walker poured two glasses. She dropped an ice cube in Danny’s glass and sat down.

“Your dad and I argued endlessly about how to tell you that you had a twin sister,” she started to explain. “We just couldn’t
agree on when the right time would be. Then, as you grew older, we just kept putting it off.

“So you can imagine how I felt when I found
this
in your pocket a moment ago.” She held out a crumpled piece of paper. Danny recognized the letter and application form he
had called for.

“Mom, let me explain —” he started to say.

Mrs. Walker held up her hand. “There’s no need,
Danny. I know you were simply following your instincts to figure out something you should have learned from your father and
me a long time ago. And we were going to tell you, right after the championship. We were afraid that if you found out before,
it would affect your playing. We had no idea you suspected something.” She shook her head.

“Why couldn’t you tell me?” he asked. “What’s so horrible about having a twin sister?”

“Oh, no, Danny, there’s nothing bad about that,” she said, patting his arm. “We were afraid you’d think we were terrible for
separating the two of you. But we had no choice.”

“Why didn’t you just adopt both of us?” he asked.

“We would have loved to,” she said. “But that wasn’t really possible for a number of reasons. First of all, Tammy was spoken
for. You see, we had registered with the hospital’s adoption service. So had the Aikens, but they were ahead of us. They were
notified that a little girl had been born and came to claim her when they discovered there were twins.”

“So, the Aikens could have adopted both of us?” he asked.

“Not really,” she said. “They were young and
couldn’t afford to have two children. And we already had Jennifer, who was only two years old. Your father had just started
his own business, and we couldn’t afford all three of you. So we were each given a wonderful gift, someone to treasure forever.”

Danny couldn’t even hold the lemonade glass. He just stared at the table as Mrs. Walker continued.

“The Aikens lived over on the west side of town back then,” she said. “We didn’t see each other except when we bumped into
each other at a restaurant or a movie once in a while. In fact, I never saw Tammy after they left the hospital with her. But
we did keep in touch, at first by phone, and then we wrote when they moved out to the coast. And then the letters slowed down
and turned into once-a-year Christmas cards. And then, eventually, that stopped, too. There really wasn’t much that we seemed
to be able to say to each other.”

“So you lost touch with my twin sister?” Danny asked in disbelief.

“I’m afraid so,” said his mother quietly. “But we never really thought about her that way. We felt that we had created a family
among ourselves — you and
Jennifer, Dad and I. Tammy hadn’t even crossed my mind in years until you said her name the other day. I was shocked to hear
that the Aikens had moved back this way.”

“They actually don’t live here,” he said. “They live in Jamestown.”

“It’s close by,” said Mrs. Walker. “I’m sure they would have been in touch with us sooner or later. Oh, I wish I’d found out
before you did, Danny. You know your father and I would never do anything to hurt you.”

At that, Danny looked up. Tears were filling her eyes. There were deep wrinkles on her forehead, and she was rubbing her hands
together over and over. He felt numb, but he could tell his mother was in terrible pain.

Danny got up from his seat and went over to her. He bent down and threw his arms around her and buried his face next to her
cheek.

“I love you, Mom,” he said. “I know you didn’t do anything bad on purpose. Neither did Dad. You just couldn’t.”

“Oh, Danny,” she sighed, and let her tears flow.

“I’m just glad I finally know what’s been going on,” he said. “And I want to think about it.”

He kissed her. Then he went off to his room and shut the door behind him.

For a long time, the Walker house was very quiet. No sounds came from Danny’s room, where he lay on the bed and stared at
the ceiling. A million thoughts raced around in his head, but none of them came in for a landing.

Finally there was a tap on the door. Before he could even tell someone to come in or stay away, Jennifer announced, “It’s
me, and I have food.”

Danny realized that he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and he was hungry. He could almost hear his stomach growling
at the mention of the word
food.
Still, he was a little nervous about talking to anyone about what he’d just found out.

He stalled. “Anything good?” he asked.

“Bologna and Swiss on rye with mustard and mayo and a half-sour pickle sliced in quarters,” she announced. “That good enough
for you?”

The sound of her voice, with its slightly exasperated tone, was so familiar that Danny suddenly felt a
whole lot better. No matter what had happened in the past or what might happen in the days to come, he knew who his family
was. Nothing was ever going to change that.

“Okay, come on,” he called, sitting up on the edge of his bed.

Jennifer entered, handed him the plate with his sandwich, and flopped down in the chair next to his bedroom window.

“So, what do you think?” she asked.

Good old Jennifer, he said to himself with a smile. She doesn’t beat around the bush.

“Mom sent you to find out how I was?” he asked.

“Of course,” she answered. “She told me the whole story, too. Wow, I never even guessed. I thought you had a little bit of
a crush on that Aiken girl. You sure didn’t hide your interest.”

“Get off it,” he said. “I just couldn’t figure out why she looked like someone I knew. It wasn’t until I saw her picture that
it all really clicked. I mean, a twin sister. It sounds so weird.”

They were quiet for a moment, thinking their own thoughts. Then Jennifer cleared her throat.

“So, now that you know, I suppose you’ll be trading
me in, then?” Jennifer suggested. She said it jokingly, but she didn’t look at him.

Danny started to laugh. “Not unless she washes and dries the dishes, takes out the garbage, makes my bed, and carries my lunch
to school,” Danny said, munching on the last of the sandwich.

“Be my guest,” said Jennifer with a wide grin. “Good luck to the two of you!”

Danny threw a pillow in her direction but missed.

“Relax,” he said. “You’re stuck with me. Besides, Tammy doesn’t even know about me. I mean, I don’t think so. Did Mom say
anything about that to you?”

“No, she said she and Dad haven’t even spoken to the Aikens since they moved back,” said Jennifer, picking up the pillow and
plumping it in her lap.

“So Tammy probably doesn’t know,” said Danny. “Or maybe she does. But I don’t
know
if she knows, and she doesn’t know if
I
know.” He sighed. “Boy, is this complicated.”

He shook his head, trying to clear up the thoughts that kept bouncing around.

“What do you think?” he asked. “If I find out she doesn’t know, should I tell her?”

J
ennifer shook her head. Danny knew there was no way she could come up with an answer to his question. “You’re on your own
there, slugger,” she said. “I think you’ll just have to play it by ear.”