Laura's Big Win (16 page)

“That I do. They like to play a little
poker among themselves and they get me to deal. Ever wonder what
it’s like to have $50,000 on the table on the turn of one card? It
isn’t my money, but it’s still a bunch. The thing Roger didn’t
mention is that the house earnings go to charity. Some local people
have been a little surprised at the donations from time to time,
and the size of them. But, it’s all in good fun. Now, anyone want
to go to work or is it break time yet?”

Once again the CEO, Roger mock barked
at them to get busy, and off they went to their various devices and
duties. Laura returned to her office and started bringing a new
facility into their data base. It was something she enjoyed doing,
seeing how much their operation would be improved, and having the
feeling of actually accomplishing something in her life. It was
going to be a good day, a good week, and so far a good summer.
There were a few things to take care of, Richard being one of them,
but today was not a day for depressing thoughts. Actually, things
were going to improve, if improvement was really
possible.

About 10 AM, a phone call was routed to
her from the front desk. “This is Laura. May I help
you?”

“Yes, I think so. This is Cindy
Jefferson with the Conyerville fire department; I’m one of the
EMT’s. With the three of us here at the fire department, and the
police and deputies, we only need one more woman to field a
softball team next Saturday. Can we count you in?”

“Really? I don’t know. I haven’t played
ball for years. And I’m staff here; I’m not sure I can do that. I’d
have to ask. Sounds like fun though.”

“Ask if you want, but that Ryan guy who
lives out there usually plays on one of the teams so I don’t think
it’s a big deal with them. It’s all just in fun anyway. By the way,
do you drink a lot of beer when you play?”

“No, I don’t drink much of anything,
maybe some iced tea. Ryan plays on a team?”

“Great. The guys do drink a lot of
beer, and in the summer sun, it takes its toll. I mean, they don’t
get stinking or anything, but it gives us a leg up against all that
muscle. And yes, he plays on a guy’s team. The girls all wish we
could recruit him for our team, but I don’t think that has anything
to do with softball. He’s a real doll, know what I
mean?”

“Yep, I know what you mean. Sign me up;
this is going to be fun.”

And so it came to pass that on the
following Saturday afternoon, Ryan Williams was in for a real
surprise. Laura had pitched in all morning getting the food line
going, wiping tables, drawing cups of beer, whatever was asked of
her. The kids were in their own group and well entertained. Once
the food line slowed down, things weren’t as demanding, and the
time came to crank up the softball tournament. Teams had to sign in
on the chalkboard, and as it turned out, there were six altogether
although no one seemed to know much about the “Elite Estrogen” team
that was listed.. The girls had managed to keep their team
composition secret, even to the point of buying team ball caps and
t-shirts on the sly. They were the third pairing on the first round
of play, which in effect gave their opposition more than another
two hours to eat and mostly drink cold beer in the hot sun. Laura
had watched Ryan playing one of the earlier games and was
impressed; he showed as much light hearted intensity at having fun
as he did at work, and turned out to be an excellent first baseman,
snagging a fly ball on a reach to get the last out they needed for
the win. And she didn’t miss some of the comments made about him as
the women looked on.

When the call came, the girls quickly
donned their tee’s and caps and took the field, amid cat calls,
cheers, whistles, and probably some comments they couldn’t, or
didn’t want to, decipher. Ryan watched in amazement at this women,
her grace and almost cat like movements, tall and very athletic
looking. ‘Stacked’ he thought to himself. ‘Damn she looks great.’
For her part, she just grinned back at him for the moment. Laura
patrolled the left field area, hoping most of the time nothing came
her way, but she surprised herself when it did, running under it
with ease, and throwing back in with a strong arm. The game didn’t
last very long, being over on the ten run rule they agreed to
observe, but it wasn’t the girls who lost, much to the chagrin of
some burly firemen upon whom the sun and cold beer had taken it’s
toll. With the ladies playing intensity, it didn’t take much of an
error for them to capitalize on things. The guys may have been on a
testosterone rush, but the estrogen in the air was
palpable.

They received a bye on the second
round, and ended up playing Ryan’s team for the top prize, a case
of cold Mexican beer and Tecate tee shirts. Things stayed pretty
even, at least until Laura came up to bat. Tagging a grounder
toward center field, she flew toward first base, and straight for
Ryan guarding it. Seeing he was not going to move, she slowed just
a little and tried to sneak in past him, but he was a little
quicker than she had planned, and with one quick swoop, he scooped
her up in his arms and wouldn’t let her tag the base. Ball now in
hand the pitcher raced over to tag her out, as Ryan let her down
just enough to safely tag the bag.

Laura was trying to be irate, but was
laughing too hard at the same time. “You big bully! Quit picking on
me. I’m safe fair and square and we can beat you guys any day
anyway!”

“Okay, okay. You win. You’re safe.
Alright?”

About that moment in time, both of them
realized his arms were still wrapped around her and she wasn’t
struggling very hard at all. It was one of those moments in time
when everything just seems to stand still, and everybody seems to
be looking at you.

“Hey, Ryan!” one of the guys yelled.
“Whose side are you on anyway? Are you aiding the
enemy?”

“My side, and no. Play ball.” was his
reply, and he unwrapped him arms slowly, depositing her on the
base.

The rest of the game was uneventful, in
comparison, and the girls lost, but the guys shared the spoils
anyway and no one cared much in the warm afterglow of good food,
good fun, and a lot of camaraderie.

A little later, Cindy came over and
thanked her for playing with their team, commenting on how much fun
it had been. “How’d you get Ryan to do that little trick on first
base? Pretty interesting. I didn’t think he was going to put you
back on the ground for a minute there”

Laura flushed just a little. “I don’t
know; it just sort of happened, not that I’m complaining. I enjoy
knowing him, and he’s great to work with.”

“Kid, I’ve been watching him. He’s
plenty interested in you. It’s none of my business, but I wouldn’t
let one like that get away. The great one’s are hard to
find.”

“Don’t I know it. Unfortunately, I just
happen to be still married to a bum, but you probably know that
story. Conyerville is a fairly small town in comparison, and word
gets around.”

“No, can’t say that I’ve heard
anything, but if you want my advice, and you probably don’t, dump
the bum and go after this guy.”

“I’d do that, if I knew where the bum
was. Anyway, the guys are sharing and I’ve never had a Tecate. You
game?”

“I’m game.”

In the late afternoon the day ended
quietly in a warm glow. Laura retrieved her kids and they powered
down the rest of the evening sitting on lawn chairs in front of
their cottage, dining on junk food now and then, thinking about how
far they had come in such a short time and how different things
were here. Ryan strolled by after helping to stow some of the
equipment for the evening, and stopped for a brief chat. “Hey,
kids. You have fun today?”

“Yep, we got to go swimming and
everything and I think I got sunburned and Vickie pushed me in the
pool but I pushed her back and I have some new friends now and
maybe I’ll get to go to their house and it was a lot of
fun.”

Ryan was amazed one little girl could
talk so much on one tank of air, but turned to Jack to get his
input. “How about you, Jack?”

“Yes sir, I had a lot of fun too but
Franz said he had a special job for me tomorrow. He said he had
some cleaning to do and wanted me to help. Do you know what he’s
talking about?”

“I might know, but I think that’s
Franz’s secret and I don’t want to give it away. If it’s what I
think it is, you’ll have a good time tomorrow also.” And looking
directly at Laura, with the feel of her in his arms fresh in his
mind, added: “I had a really good time today, some parts better
than others, but a good time.”

“So did I. Maybe you need to rethink
the once a year part. And by the way, if you ever need
mouth-to-mouth, don’t call the rescue squad; you’d die while the
girls fought over who got to administer it.”

It was Ryan’s turn to flush just a
little, but undaunted, he bid them good evening and continued
toward his quarters.

Jack was up early the next morning,
anxious to see what Franz had been talking about the previous day.
The kids had adapted to the safety of Windmere so well that Jack
simply wandered on his own from the cottage to the kitchen at the
big house for something to eat, but more importantly, to find
Franz. Entering the kitchen, he found Franz and Ryan enjoying a
second cup of coffee with some other people Jack didn’t know; none
of that made any difference to him, however, and he pulled up a
stool as best he could and climbed up by the two men. Maria piled
some scrambled eggs and toast on a plate for him, but breakfast was
not the main thing on his mind. After listening a respectable time
to the chatter, he politely asked Franz about the cleaning job he
was supposed to do.

“Hear that Ryan? I think you have a
great new employee here; and he’s so young you can get a lot of
years of service out of him. Think I should put him to work today?
I need to drag the Deusey out and get it in shape for tomorrow.
Probably only take a couple of hours, but this is my day off. You
know, if I had a paid helper it would probably go a lot faster and
I could get in a day of rest.”

“Okay, okay. You win. Actually, Jack is
already on the payroll for taking care of the dogs, but I guess
some more hours couldn’t hurt. He’s probably saving up to buy
something for his girlfriend.”

That was enough for Jack: “I don’t have
a girl friend, I don’t like girls anyway. They’re too much
trouble.”

“Can’t argue that point, can I?” Franz
chimed in. “‘Course some guys may have girl friends and not even
know it at the time. Right, Ryan?”

“Go take care of the car,” Ryan
laughed. “I think it must be time for a special evaluation for
employees or something like that, especially ones who don’t know
what they’re talking about.”

“Yeah, right. Come on, Jack. We have
things to do, and Ryan says you’re on the clock this morning. I’ll
show you what I was talking about yesterday. Does your mom know
you’re out loose already this morning?”

“No sir; she was still asleep when I
left. I think she was tired from playing ball yesterday or
something. She said something about tackle softball; there isn’t
really a game called tackle softball is there?”

“No, there isn’t, but grownups can do
weird things sometimes.”

“Yeah, like my dad. Mom never talks
about him but she gets real sad sometimes and I think it has
something to do with him. I don’t know where he is.”

Franz hardly knew what to say, although
he knew the story pretty well. “Look, Jack, I don’t know what
happened; maybe your dad had some reason. All I can tell you is
that the guys here aren’t like that; we’re all good friends and
friends don’t do things like that to each other. I count you in
that group. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, I guess I could use some
friends. I mean, there’s other kids, but it was Ms. Alice and big
Dennis who came after us in the shelter; kids couldn’t do
that.”

“No, but that doesn’t mean they are any
less of a friend. We all have things we can do and can’t do. Look
at Dennis; he could probably crush rocks in his hands that I
couldn’t even pick up, but that doesn’t make either one of us less
of a friend. Anyway, enough of all this talk. Are you ready to open
the garage door?”

“Sure am. How come we’re at the storage
garage? Are you getting something out of here?”

“Yes, that’s the job I was talking
about. We store a car here for a gentleman and he’s coming to drive
it tomorrow so we have to get it running and cleaned up. How are
you at dusting things gently? This car is over 80 years old but
she’s still a beauty. Okay, unlocked; open her up.”

With Franz helping a bit, Jack pushed
the overhead door up out of the way until he couldn’t reach it
anymore. Behind the door was what looked like a mountain all
covered with protective drop cloths. Working slowly, they carefully
removed the covers and folded them neatly for reuse. Jack’s eyes
got wider each time they removed a cover until he just couldn’t
stand it anymore.

“God, Franz, what is it? I’ve never
seen anything like this before? Does it really run? Can we ride in
it? How big is the engine?”

“Easy, easy now. Yes it runs, actually
it runs really great, but we’re not going to start it just yet.
Dennis is bringing a tractor and we’re going to tow it around by
the garage so I can check it over and reinstall the battery. I keep
the battery disconnected and inside so it doesn’t get run down and
corrode the terminal posts. First we check to see the tires are up
enough so it can safely be towed; these baby’s cost a fortune to
replace if we ruin one. Here comes Dennis now.”