your blood, Nick. I’ll bet your father was a catcher, am I right?”
For a second Nick felt the way you do when youget hit in the stomach playing sports and get the wind knocked out of you.
The only thing he could think to do was flip the mask back down.
“No,” he said in a small voice.
“I just thought, because you look like such a natural to me.”
Nick didn’t want to tell his coach he had no idea if his real dad had been a catcher, didn’t know anything about his real dad at all.
He wasn’t going to tell Coach Williams that he was adopted. He tried to figure how Gracie would get out of this, and he knew she’d try to find a way to joke her way out, but Nick didn’t feel too funny right at that moment.
“No,” Nick said again, “I learned how to make crummy throws all by myself.”
Coach Williams rapped on the side of Nick’s mask and said, “Hello, in there? Talk like that ends today.”
They walked off the field together, Nick with the ball bag slung over his shoulder. Feeling all right about himself. Not great. Just all right, for achange. Because the day had ended a lot better than it began.
Like he’d come from behind a little bit in a game in which he’d been way, way behind. Not coming all the way back and winning.
Just getting back into it.
It turned out they hadn’t finished much later than a normal practice would have. That was why when they came around the corner of the main administration building, Nick could see a lot of his teammates still waiting to be picked up.
Gary Watson and Steve Carberry among them. Just standing there.
Watching Nick.
Nick put his head down, started to jog toward the locker room.
It was then that he heard the jangling of some keys.
At first he thought Coach Williams had appeared out of nowhere to give him one last reminder about just reacting and throwing and not thinking so much, everything they’d spent the last half hour talking about.
But then he looked up and saw Gary Watson grinning at him, holding up a set of keys. Tossing them in the air and catching them.
They were watching, Nick thought. They hung around to watch Coach and me.
Nick stood there, unable to turn away as Gary motioned Steve to move a few feet away. Then he made a show of gently tossing Steve the keys, the way you’d toss a ball to a little baby.
NINE
The keys didn’t help for long.
By the next day, Nick was back to pushing the ball toward second and third, when guys began stealing on him all over again.
He wasn’t as wild as he’d been the first couple of days of practice, wasn’t bouncing as many or sending as many throws to the outfield. But as soon as he was back on the field with his teammates, it was as if he got scared of his arm all over again. Before long, he was taking way too much time to release the ball and had given up on trying to use all his arm, throw with everything he had the way he used to. He just wanted to make sure to at least hit the glove he was aiming at.
He
was
throwing like a baby, pretty much.
Over the last three practices before they got tothe weekend, Coach Williams kept trying to give him pep talks, tell him he could see improvement, and every once in a while, when the rest of the Tigers weren’t watching, he’d jangle those keys in his pocket.
Both Nick and his coach knew better.
They knew Nick wasn’t nearly the catcher this coach had thought he was getting, and he wasn’t nearly ready for his first varsity baseball game the following Tuesday.
The first Captain Marvel comic book Nick ever read explained that the magic word
Shazam
came from the first letters of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. Billy Batson, when he turned into Captain Marvel, was supposed to have gotten wisdom from Solomon, strength from Hercules, stamina from Atlas, power from Zeus, courage from Achilles and speed from Mercury.
Nick was coming up short in all those areas right now. Especially courage and speed. Even if it was only arm
For a second Nick felt the way you do when youget hit in the stomach playing sports and get the wind knocked out of you.
The only thing he could think to do was flip the mask back down.
“No,” he said in a small voice.
“I just thought, because you look like such a natural to me.”
Nick didn’t want to tell his coach he had no idea if his real dad had been a catcher, didn’t know anything about his real dad at all.
He wasn’t going to tell Coach Williams that he was adopted. He tried to figure how Gracie would get out of this, and he knew she’d try to find a way to joke her way out, but Nick didn’t feel too funny right at that moment.
“No,” Nick said again, “I learned how to make crummy throws all by myself.”
Coach Williams rapped on the side of Nick’s mask and said, “Hello, in there? Talk like that ends today.”
They walked off the field together, Nick with the ball bag slung over his shoulder. Feeling all right about himself. Not great. Just all right, for achange. Because the day had ended a lot better than it began.
Like he’d come from behind a little bit in a game in which he’d been way, way behind. Not coming all the way back and winning.
Just getting back into it.
It turned out they hadn’t finished much later than a normal practice would have. That was why when they came around the corner of the main administration building, Nick could see a lot of his teammates still waiting to be picked up.
Gary Watson and Steve Carberry among them. Just standing there.
Watching Nick.
Nick put his head down, started to jog toward the locker room.
It was then that he heard the jangling of some keys.
At first he thought Coach Williams had appeared out of nowhere to give him one last reminder about just reacting and throwing and not thinking so much, everything they’d spent the last half hour talking about.
But then he looked up and saw Gary Watson grinning at him, holding up a set of keys. Tossing them in the air and catching them.
They were watching, Nick thought. They hung around to watch Coach and me.
Nick stood there, unable to turn away as Gary motioned Steve to move a few feet away. Then he made a show of gently tossing Steve the keys, the way you’d toss a ball to a little baby.
NINE
The keys didn’t help for long.
By the next day, Nick was back to pushing the ball toward second and third, when guys began stealing on him all over again.
He wasn’t as wild as he’d been the first couple of days of practice, wasn’t bouncing as many or sending as many throws to the outfield. But as soon as he was back on the field with his teammates, it was as if he got scared of his arm all over again. Before long, he was taking way too much time to release the ball and had given up on trying to use all his arm, throw with everything he had the way he used to. He just wanted to make sure to at least hit the glove he was aiming at.
He
was
throwing like a baby, pretty much.
Over the last three practices before they got tothe weekend, Coach Williams kept trying to give him pep talks, tell him he could see improvement, and every once in a while, when the rest of the Tigers weren’t watching, he’d jangle those keys in his pocket.
Both Nick and his coach knew better.
They knew Nick wasn’t nearly the catcher this coach had thought he was getting, and he wasn’t nearly ready for his first varsity baseball game the following Tuesday.
The first Captain Marvel comic book Nick ever read explained that the magic word
Shazam
came from the first letters of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. Billy Batson, when he turned into Captain Marvel, was supposed to have gotten wisdom from Solomon, strength from Hercules, stamina from Atlas, power from Zeus, courage from Achilles and speed from Mercury.
Nick was coming up short in all those areas right now. Especially courage and speed. Even if it was only arm
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