Page 52 of The Shake Off

“The Lions seem to be coming back on form in their home field, Aaron, after the shocking opening series in Philly. Shocking. I’m still thinking about it.”

“You’re right, Mark. It’ll be one for the record books, but Penn Shepherd and August Chase have been making the decision to start Riley Rivers both times when Ace Watson would normally have been on the mound, and it appears to be the right one. I’m going to go out and say it, I think we’re looking at an early contender for Rookie of the Year.”

“That is bold, Aaron, but you predicted it two years ago with Watson, so I’m not going to bet against you on this one either.”

“Speaking of Ace Watson, we’ve heard he will be pitching tonight. We don’t have confirmation on which inning, but we do know that August Chase will be sending him out to the mound.”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding, and looked down to find I’d twisted almost the entire bowl of spaghetti onto my fork. I shook it free, and started again with a frown.

“And what are you expecting to see from him tonight, Mark?”

“We all obviously want to see Ace back to his usual form, but…”

I grabbed the remote and turned down the volume, not wanting to listen to any more talk about Ace.

“Hey, do you know what the yips are? Had you heard of them before all this?” I asked as I waved my hand at the screen where the Red Sox batter was up.

He swung and missed the first pitch, and got back into place for a second attempt.

Kit leaned forward and picked up her glass. “No. I hadn’t. Had you?”

“I thought he was talking about an STI.”

She turned and grinned at me. “Weird how it suddenly happens, comes out of nowhere, and they almost never recover at full strength.”

The Red Sox batter made contact on the second swing, and the ball went flying straight into Tanner Simpson’s glove. He hadn’t even made it to first base.

“What? Where d’you hear that?”

“I overheard a couple of students talking about it today, so I asked them.”

“What did they say?”

“That it can finish careers, it can be completely debilitating. Affects catchers and pitchers, mostly, in baseball anyways.” She reached for the box of asparagus, tipped a couple into her bowl, and handed one to a slobbering Barclay. “Seems to be what keeps sports psychologists in jobs.”

“Um… so what causes it?”

“No one knows.” She shrugged, then shot me a sly side-eye coupled with an equally sly grin. “Not your vagina, I’m sure.”

“Shut up.” I nudged her hard, letting out a hefty snort as I did and took the asparagus box. “Just seems odd that something can completely change overnight; everything you thought you knew.”

I could feel Kit staring intently at me, but thankfully decided against saying whatever she was going to say, and turned back to the television.

The Red Sox now had two guys around the diamond, one on first and one on third. Riley Rivers drew his arm back and pitched the ball. The Red Sox batter swung hard, and the ball rose high over the field, heading toward the stands on the left where the crowds had jumped out of their seats hoping to catch it.

All three of the Red Sox players sprinted around the bases and back to their dugout.

“Did we win yesterday?” Kit asked.

“Yeah. I only saw the end and I can’t remember the final score, but it was a win.”

By the time the game reached the bottom of the fourth, the score was still Red Sox three to the Lions’ one. I watched the teams change over and the camera zoom into Coach Chase deep in conversation with one of his players. I didn’t need to see the player’s face to know it was Ace.

This time Riley Rivers wasn’t the pitcher walking to the mound.

I stood up abruptly and picked up our empty plates. I didn’t want to watch Ace, and I didn’t want to listen to the commentary.

I didn’t want to see his first pitch in case he fucked up again.

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