Post for 3-17-06: "Strikinen" excerpt

He asked me if I wanted to give it a swing. He had to ask me twice, I’d zoned out and didn’t hear him ask the first time. I felt a rush of shame looking at his face then, melting from excitement to realization that I really didn’t care. It’s not that I didn’t care, I just got distracted and lost somewhere along the way while I was listening. I smiled at him and said “Could I?” and his face lit up again. He stood me up and was close behind me, holding my arms and hands in his. I felt warm and excited. So did he. He walked me through how to stand and the angles at which to swing. The Old bat felt heavy. Aluminum bats nowadays are so light and hit so gently in comparison to the old ones. After he was sure I’d gotten it, he ran back to the car and trotted back to my side with a ball. It almost brought him to tears he was smiling so hard. He was so excited about actually getting to play ball again. I told him I wasn’t any good and not to expect anything. He stood a few feet in front of the pitchers mound, said he was compensating for his low throws. and he threw me one hard. I jumped. Dare broke out in laughter from the safe distance of the car. I smiled at Day as he told me to just go through the motions he’d shown me. On the next throw I did, and almost took his head off with the return ball. He was happy about it. Told me to be a bit more forceful with it this time. He lobbed me another and it hit the dirt before it got to me. Dare just kept laughing. Finally, after a few hours of swinging, coaching and chatting I sent it out of the park. Day was proud of me, but he knew I really wasn’t to blame for it. I was proud of him and we went to get some pizza.
Romance, something as simple as indulging someone’s passions for a few hours and they’re in love with you. I knew I’d make the mistake again with Day though. He was just so passionate under that hard shell of a facade he put up. He was passionate about sports and guns, books and chess. He liked to stay up late on moonless nights and name the constellations. He was a boy-scout and an avid bug collector. He knew more species of butterfly by heart that most books I’ve picked up. I found this out when I shared with him by passion of bird-watching. I a huge fan of raptors and it got him started on birds that eat butterflies. He’s not the kind of guy you’d think he was though. He liked to make you think he was into booze, women and video-games. That was all he wanted you to think, and he was into those things, but it was nothing like lisening to his go on and on about the plight of the Polyphemus Moth during mating season. He’s a sucker for blue too.