Chapter 6: Dave

When I got back to Frederick, it was a little after midnight, and I was relieved to find Eddie in his bed, asleep. It was too late to check in next door with Ms. Washington, or to call Ollie Parker for the story of how he'd gotten Eddie home, what time, whether there had been a connection between the two adults responsible (in my absence) for Eddie's welfare, etc.

But at least he was fast asleep, apparently unharmed.

My date with Emily Anne Shreve had been a much more momentous event than I had ever expected. She was going to be expecting a call from me, tomorrow (well -- later today) and we would make plans for a second date. She understood that I had games to play every night for the home stand in Frederick, and that, eight days from now, we'd be on the road again, heading for Wilmington, Delaware for a three-game set.

I was a happy man. Emily Anne Shreve was personable, gorgeous, and, from all appearances, did not find me to be totally disgusting.

On the negative side, she was, clearly, a rich girl from an influential family. Also, I don't think she had any clear idea exactly what a poverty case she was dealing with. Eddie and I were living in a low-rent-district duplex, barely getting by on my ridiculous minor-league salary, and pretty much dependent upon my daily meal money to keep both of us fed.

Sure, I'd tried to make clear to Emily Anne that I was a low-income citizen. The question was, how familiar was she with the concept?

I guess when she came to meet me in Frederick, and met Eddie, she'd see for herself. Nothing like a true Object Lesson. If the shock was too much for her, I guess I'd know, then, that she wasn't the kind of girl I should be trying to make a move on.

"Hey! How was the hot date?" Eddie wanted to know as soon as he was out of bed on Monday morning.

"Not bad!" I told him. "She was pretty, and we got along good. She might even come up here, to meet you."

"To meet me? Why would she want to do that?"

"Well, it would be like -- we'd be having a second date. She'd come up to see a game, here in Frederick, and then, afterward, we'd go out -- the three of us."

"The three of us? That's crazy! How are you going to get anywhere with a babe if you've got your little brother tagging along?"

"Listen, Eddie. You're a big part of my life. If I meet a girl, she's gotta meet the Famous Eddie Hooks, Smart-ass Little Brother. It's part of her initiation!"

"OK, so, fine -- I can meet her at the game. Then, after the game, you bring me back by here, and I go stay with Ms. Washington while the two of you go out together. I could even stay all night, over at her place, and sleep on her couch."

"Why would you do that? You've never slept overnight over there, even when you were still in school and I was playing on the road."

"I'll stay over there, in case you get lucky!" Eddie said.

"In case I... Jeez, Eddie! This will only be, like, our second date. I'm not going to 'get lucky, ' that soon."

"Dave, Dave! How do you know that? This girl is coming all the way up here from -- from where? From Potomac, Virginia? To see you! Listen, she must think that you're pretty, y'know, hot!"

"She lives in D.C... Well, right over the bridge from D.C. She's in college there. It's closer to here than where the Potomac club plays. It's maybe fifty miles..."

"Fifty miles! Dave! My God, Dave! How many girls do you know, would drive fifty miles to see you?"

"It's really not that big a deal, Eddie. Trust me. It's just, y'know, a lark, for her. It's nothing serious."

"Is she really pretty?" Eddie asked.

"Very. And she's kinda -- cultured. Compared to us, I mean. Her father is a big shot in the government."

"Wow! Is she rich?"

"Rich? I don't know about rich. Richer than we are, that's for sure. But then, who isn't, right?"

Eddie laughed. "A pretty, and pretty-rich, babe has the hots for my big brother! Well, I'm not surprised. I'll bet before you were tied down with me, you had all the pussy you could eat!"

"Eddie! Cool it, now! I mean it! You show some respect for this girl! She is not some 'babe, ' and you will not refer to her -- or to any other girl you meet -- as 'pussy.' I'm not just wolfin', here, little brother! I won't have you talking like that!"

He was duly chastened. "I'm sorry, Dave. I didn't mean anything bad."

"You don't even know this young woman! She is a senior at Georgetown University. Her mother is a lawyer and her father is a high-ranking official in the State Department. She is not 'some babe.'... Clear?"

"I said I was sorry, Dave!... And I am!... Really!"

"All right." I was mollified. It was my own fault. I had, at times, laughed at some of Eddie's rough-hewn monologues -- most of which, no doubt, he'd picked up from the ballplayers in the Keys' locker room. I couldn't now -- suddenly -- expect him to become an overnight perfect gentleman.

"Listen, Eddie, there's something else," I told him. "Emily Anne has a handicap."

Eddie didn't stay chastened for long. "Yeah," he said, giggling at his own wit before he even was able to get out his punch line: "... she's obviously blind!"

"I'm serious, Eddie. "... By the way, how would you feel, right now, if I were to tell you that she really was blind?"

He looked crestfallen. "Is she?... Really?"

"No, Eddie. She's not blind. But this young woman -- she's got a bum leg. She must have had Polio, or something else like that, and it left her left leg -- crippled. It's, y'know -- undeveloped."

"Wow!"

"Yeah."

"But, don't 'cha see, Dave? That's kind of, y'know, a good thing, in a way."

"How do you figure that?"

"Because -- she's really pretty, you said. And rich. And she goes to a fancy college. And her father's a big shot, and all. But, her being crippled, you know? It kinda... evens things up, a little bit, you know?"

"That's pretty sick thinking, Eddie."

"Why?" he said. "Why is it? Isn't it true? If she's as great as you say, didn't you think -- just a little bit, when you met her -- that it was a good thing she was crippled, because otherwise, she'd be... y'know... too perfect... Didn't you ever think that?"

What could I say to him? That I'd never thought any such thing? It would be a damned bald-faced lie! It was true, what Eddie said. Goddamned kid! Where did he pick up stuff like that?