“You’re right. The line between good and evil isn’t always clear-cut. The world is made up of a lot of gray areas. That’s why you have to be confident in who you are and what you want. Think of it in terms of the code of conduct your brother taught you, or your life goals, even. If what you’re doing is outside of those boundaries, you need to slow down and think it through,” he explained.
I hadn’t been doing that, obviously, or I would never have slept with Chloe or Isabel.
“But what if they’re hot? I mean, like, supermodel hot? And I would regret not going for it for the rest of my life?” I asked, half to give my uncle a hard time, but the other half was serious.
“If you were anyone else, I’d call bullshit. You face temptations that us mere mortals will never have. That’s why you need to take the time now, before you’re faced with those decisions. You don’t want to have to figure things out in the heat of the moment,” he explained.
There were always consequences. Going for it, no matter how hot the girl was, could blow up in your face. I’d also made promises to my mom that I didn’t intend to break again. I knew I wasn’t perfect; none of us are. That wasn’t an excuse, though.
“Hey, good job today,” I said.
Uncle John gave me a curious look.
“You didn’t ask me even once how I was feeling.”
“On that note, go fetch me a beer. I need it.”
I happily did as he asked.
◊◊◊
Chapter 34 – You Will Be a Problem Saturday January 14
Manaia took my family to the airport. I was glad that they’d come out. I’d gotten to know Aunt Bonnie better, and I always enjoyed spending time with my grandmother. It made me happy to know I was her favorite, and Uncle John had come through for me once again. Outside of Mom, Dad, and Greg, he was the one person I could always count on for help. I cherished his advice, and felt it was spot-on, for the most part.
While Manaia made the airport run, Fritz was my security. I decided to go to the baseball facility and hit some balls. They were packed, but they remembered me and asked if I would be willing to let people watch me hit like last time. When I agreed, they promised to get me in. I decided to wander around and watch some of the others take their cuts.
In one cage, I found two guys batting, a righty and lefty. They would take turns stepping into the box and swinging away. I could see how that would maximize your time. It was like Coach Mason had done with quarterback reps in practice. Instead of one guy hogging all the time, two could get their at-bats in faster. The only problem was they had the machine set at maximum, and they were whiffing badly. They were way behind the ball.
“You have to anticipate when the ball is coming out. When you hear the
“Yeah, Ross. Try that.”
A swing and a miss. The next kid stepped in.
Same result.
“You guys suck,” I said to encourage them.
I got flipped off for my commentary.
These guys were terrible. I would think that they would at least get lucky if they stuck the head of the bat over the plate. The pitching machine typically sent the ball to the same location each time. I was about to suggest just that.
“Dude … you okay?” Ross asked.
I admit that I started to laugh. Ross’s friend rolled around on the ground in obvious agony.
Staff appeared out of nowhere and shut the machine down. The cute girl who checked us in came and stood beside me.
“Once they haul these two out, you can use this cage. I’m pretty sure they’re done for the day,” she told me, then promptly turned around and walked back up front like this happened all the time.
Ross started to come around and looked a little goofy. Yep, they were done. I’d also figured out the downside of having two batters in the cage at one time. Maybe I could talk some of the younger guys back home into trying it.
◊◊◊
Lexi sent me a text telling me I should get home so I would be ready for lunch at Chubby Feldman’s. It felt good to see some of my old skills start to come back. By the end of my time in the cage, I was hitting the ball with authority. I could tell I was ahead of where I was last year at this time. My playing baseball last spring and all summer had made a real difference.
When I got home, I discovered that Lexi had laid out clothes for me. I also saw that she’d packed up most of my things and put it in boxes to ship home. It was amazing how much stuff I’d accumulated over the time I’d been here.
