Page 18 of Double Play

Maggie paid for the veggie supreme, Nina took a bottle of beer from the fridge and they settled in front of the TV in enough time to watch thepregameshow.

“Dwight did what,” Nina prompted her, “besides teach you how to hit abaseball?”

Maggie stuffed half a slice of pizza in her mouth and made an exaggerated “sorry, can’t talk now”gesture.

“Fine, be that way, but Iwillget it out of you. If it has anything to do with the general theme of men and love, I want to know all about it. It’s the most fascinating topic in the world, don’t you think?” She glanced again at Maggie, suddenly remembering all her degrees. “I mean, probably not as fascinating as all youralgorithms.”

Maggie laughed, then coughed because her mouth was full of pizza. Nina thumped her on the back and mentally prepared herself for the Heimlich. Her bodyguard had taught her how to do it but she’d never tried it on a living person. Finally, Maggie swallowed down her chunk ofpizza.

“Fascinating in a different way,” she murmured. “Look, there’sDwight!”

Possibly afraid to risk another choking attack, she put down the slice of pizza and propped her elbows on her knees to focus on the screen. They were showing a shot of Dwight practicing his fielding. One of the coaches would hit a long fly ball to center, and Dwight would chase after it, then drill it to the cut-off man. Nina peeredathim.

“Does he look tensetoyou?”

“I’m sure he’s nervous. This is the ‘Show,’ it’s what they all dreamabout.”

There was a note of something in Maggie’s voice that Nina couldn’t quite identify. Maggie never talked about the specific results of her computer model. She never named names, since all that information was confidential and meant only for the front office. But she must have recommended that the Friars call upDwight.

Why else would it have happened sosuddenly?

“But he’ll be fine, right? That’s what you do, you predict which player will adapt best to the majors so they know who tocallup.”

“Well,” Maggie didn’t quite meet her eyes, “that’s part of it. The model can also give teams an idea of how long it might take for any given player to adapt. And it’s not infallible. I’m still refining it, and feeding more informationintoit.”

Nina stared at her, suddenly losing her appetite. “You didn’t recommend Dwight,didyou?”

“I can’t talkaboutit.”

“Why not? He already got called up, with or without yourcomputer.”

Maggie nodded and took a dainty swallow of her root beer. “He did. And I’m sure he’ll dogreat.”

“But you’re notsuresure. You’re not computer sure. It’s more of a wishful thinking kindofsure.”

Nina looked back at the TV screen, filled with a sudden sense of foreboding. Knowing Maggie, how smart she was and how hard she worked, Nina figured she knew what she was doing. And if she didn’t think Dwight was ready for the Friars lineup, maybe hewasn’t.

Or maybehewas.

Clenching her hands into fists, she focused all her attention on thescreen.

“What are you doing?” Maggieaskedher.

“I used to do this whenever I knew Trevor was playing. I never got to see his games, but if I knew the times they were happening, I’d focus all my positive energy in his direction. I’m going to do that withDwightnow.”

“Nina—”

“No. He’s my friend, and he’s a great person and an incredible player and I want him to dogreat.”

Maggie murmured, “as do I,” but Nina tuned her out. This was for Dwight. He needed all her best intentions and prayers for his Major League debut, and he was going togetthem.

They didn’t work. Not even a little bit. Dwight went 0 for 4, and struck out with the bases loaded. At center field, he made the crucial mistake of forgetting how many outs there were. He threw the ball into the stands instead of to the infield. The Giants scored two runs on that error forthewin.

It was hard enough for Nina to witness, but when she peeked over at Maggie, she noticed that her roommate had covered her eyes with her hands and was watching through herfingers.

“Poor Dwight,” Nina sighed after they turned off the game. The commentators were discussing his disastrous efforts, and neither wanted to listen to that. “Anyone can have a rough first game. Tomorrow will bebetter.”

“Definitely,” Maggie agreed. “Chinese foodtomorrow?”

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