Chapter 23

I can see in my mind the sculpted image of President Lincoln on Mount Rushmore, the only one of the four looking westward. He sees a sign or a billboard. Maybe it says "TR Sucks!" or "Lincoln Rocks!" And he starts to smile. Cracks start to form on the rock face as his carved mouth slowly lifts into the smallest of grins. Little chunks of stone start falling off the face of the mountain, endangering people below.

I can see all of this because on the Monday following my trip to Charlottesville, I saw Mr. Smithson, my homeroom teacher, start to smile. He finally controlled himself with an effort, but his voice was still flecked with something not entirely unlike humor.

"That is probably the most hideous tie I have ever seen, Mr. Sterling," it rumbled through a stunned classroom.

"You think?" I smiled, fingering the yellow and blue monstrosity. "It was a gift."

His mouth twitched, threatening us all with a chuckle or, even worse, a guffaw. Once again, though, his stoicism triumphed.

"I'm glad to hear that," he said as the class started tittering.

Mr. Kennedy was similarly taken with the tie. Every time he looked back in my corner of the room, his lecture on the pernicious influence of special interest groups seemed to suffer. Finally, he just stopped and sat down on his desk.

"I hope you don't have an interview today, Patrick," he smiled.

"An interview, sir?"

"When I was in college, wearing a tie meant that someone had a job interview."

"No, sir. No interview. We have a baseball game today."

He raised an eyebrow.

"And you need to blind the other team when they show up?"

"No, sir," I smiled. "It's a sign of respect."

"For whom?" he looked quite puzzled.

"Morgan High, sir. It's an away game."

"Jesse and Hal don't seem to have the same respect," he pointed out.

"I'm sure they do, sir," I said. I knew full well that Morgan High hadn't won a game yet this year, and the last thing on Jesse and Hal's mind at the moment was respect. "But I'm the captain, sir. I have to make sure they know we respect them. You know, lead by example and all that."

"I see," Mr. Kennedy nodded before continuing in a patronizing tone. "You might want to pick a different tie next time, though. I'm not sure that one really sends the message that you want."

"No?" I asked, pulling in out to look at it. "Well, thank you, sir."

No kidding, butthead.

The tie got the same reaction the rest of the morning. It wasn't until lunch time that somebody said what everyone else had been thinking.

"Are you crazy?" Cammie asked. "They're going to think you're making fun of them when you walk off the bus."

I gave her my best offended look.

"This was a gift from Tanya's mother," I said self-righteously.

"Oh, God, Trick. I'm sorry," Cammie clapped a hand over her mouth.

"It is pretty ugly, though, isn't it? I actually don't plan on wearing it when I get off the bus."

"So all this shit about respect and all... ?" Rabbit asked.

"Oh, no, I brought another tie for that."

"Then what's with this tie?" Jeanne asked.

"This is just to get the attention of my team," I explained. "I am the captain, you know. It's worked pretty well so far, too."

The table broke out in laughter.

"You are such an asshole," Cammie shook her head, smiling all the while.

"I know," I grinned.

When the bus pulled into the parking lot at Morgan, I was wearing a very conservative blue tie. Before anyone could move, I jumped up and took the two steps that put me at the front of the bus.

"All right. Listen up, guys."

Nobody had done this before, at least not this year, so the effect on my teammates was exactly what I had hoped for: paralysis.

"I'm sure you all heard about me wearing this other tie today, and you probably heard why. First off, I'm sorry I wasn't here for the game on Saturday. Tough loss, guys."

We had been blown off the field.

"Right now our record is 8-7. Our league record is 5-4. If we want to make the league playoffs this year — forget the state playoffs — we need to do better over the next couple of weeks. And that means we have to start taking ourselves a little more seriously. Now, to me, that starts with taking our opponents more seriously. If we lose a game because they just played better than us, fine. If we lose because we didn't respect them, because we didn't understand that any team in this league is capable of beating us on any given day, we should be ashamed to call ourselves the defending state champions. That's all, guys. Have a good game."

I led the team off the bus to the locker room. I led them out of the locker room and onto the field. And then I led them to a 6-0 shutout of Morgan High School. It did help that Cary pitched a five-hitter. I could have pitched, but Coach wanted me available on Thursday for the rematch against McKay. But I did my part with a homer and two RBIs.

Probably the most important thing in the game happened in the sixth inning. They had a guy on first with two outs, and the next guy up lined a sharp single into right. I scooped it up, reared back, and unleashed a rocket toward Mattie at third base. Eddie, the cutoff man, was so surprised to see me throw it there that he ducked. That turned out to be fine because Matt, at third, was too stunned to tell him to cut it. Instead, Matt took it on a short hop and swept his glove down for the tag. He just stood there for a few seconds after that, taking in the sight of the umpire with his fist raised high in the air to signal an out.

"That'll teach 'em to make the third out at third base, huh, Matt?" I smiled as I went by him into the dugout.

"Uh, yeah. Sure, Trick."

I was also the first one to the bus after the game, and made the incredibly corny gesture of waiting at the bottom of the steps so that I could shake hands with, and thank, each guy on the team as he got on. Coach Torianni was the last one, and he thanked me before I could thank him.

"Well, we'll see," I smiled. At least step one was complete. Our second step, as a team, would come on Thursday, when we had a home rematch against McKay. They were probably going to take us a little more seriously this time, after we had given them a spanking on their home field.

My second step, as a person, came on Tuesday morning. With no school, and no practice, I was planning on devoting my day to Tanya, even though her plane wasn't due until three that afternoon. We had talked briefly on Sunday and Monday evenings by cell phone, but I really needed to see her in person. Jill gave me an opening that I simply couldn't refuse, however. With Jeanne still up in her room, Jill sat down to eat breakfast with me.

"So what was with that tie yesterday?"

"Did you like it?"

"Well, um..."

"Yeah, I know. Why didn't you ask me yesterday morning in the car?"

"'Cause Jeanne would have made some snippy remark, and we would have started fighting."

"True," I nodded. "Do you remember when I was like, twelve and you were nine, we went to this amusement park, and you and I were going to go on this ride together all by ourselves?"

"Yeah, sort of," she tilted her head and began twirling a strand of hair.

"Do you remember what Mom said to us when we were in line?"

She shook her head.

"She said, 'Now make sure that when it's your turn, you're ready.'"

"She said that all the time," Jill laughed.

"Yeah, well, I just remembered it this weekend. And I realized that, even if I don't remember anything about being on a baseball team the past two years —"

Jill smiled at that.

"— I'm still the team captain. And I don't think I was really ready for that before. But I can't just give it up, so I kind of had to get ready. I don't have a next year, you know?"

"So the tie helps you captain?"

"You know, I think it actually did yesterday. All day long, the guys on the team kept saying to themselves, 'What's he wearin' that ugly tie for?' So by the time we got to the game, and I put on a regular tie, they were ready to listen."

"You gonna wear it again?" Jill giggled.

"Yeah, I think I will. Probably for the game on Thursday."

I could tell from Jill's face that she was lost in her memories of our mother for the next few minutes while I finished my cereal. I was very slowly rinsing my bowl off to put it in the dishwasher, awaiting the question that I knew she wouldn't be able to resist.

"So, of all the times that Mom said that, why did you remember that one?"

"Because that was the only time you asked the obvious question," I smiled, wiping my hands on the dishtowel.

"Which was what?"

"'What if I'm not ready, Mom?'"

"And what did she say?" Jill asked quietly.

"'If you're not ready, honey, it's probably not your turn.'"

I tried to keep the smile off of my face. I mean, I was talking about baseball, but I was really talking about us Sterlings. Damn, I was clever. I gave her a shrug and left the room.

I was at the airport by quarter of three. I had refused assistance from a smiling Skycap, although I did finally accept his offer of a free cart.

"Oh, my goodness!" Tanya shrieked when she saw the mountain of flowers that I had beside me. "Patrick, did you buy a flower store?"

"Sort of," I said bashfully. It was actually more that I didn't know how much you could get when you asked for three hundred dollars worth of flowers.

"How did you get them here?" she asked as I added her suitcase to the cart and we walked out to the parking lot.

"Actually, the real question is how I'm going to get them back in the car,"

It had taken both the florist and me to get them into the back seat of the Civic.

"I don't suppose you want to leave them?" I asked hopefully.

"Of course I don't want to leave them," she said with an astonished look. "What's the occasion?"

"Just missed you," I lied.

"I missed you, too," she said, her voice ringing with the utter sincerity that only made me feel lower.

On the way home, she talked about visiting her grandmother, and I resolutely avoided any discussion of my weekend. Instead, I talked about Monday's ball game, and the fun I had with her mom's present. When we reached her house, I grabbed her suitcase from the trunk and started to walk up the sidewalk.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat and I turned to see her standing by the car. "The flowers?"

"There are more in the house," I nodded toward the door. I walked quickly inside, stopping in the foyer where her mother had arranged the other flowers I had bought in various vases and pitchers.

"Mom?" Tanya yelled as she followed me in.

"They're not here," I told her.

"Really?" her whole face lit up. "You mean they left so we could —"

"Talk," I interrupted her. "We need to talk. Come on."

She followed me into the living room and sat down next to me on the couch, her face showing concern at the direction our conversation had taken.

"First of all, I don't want you to think I'm trying to buy your forgiveness or anything with the flowers. I just got them for you to show you how much you meant to me.

"Mean to me," I corrected myself.

"What have you done?" she asked softly.

I realized that I had been looking at my feet, and looked up at her eyes.

"Been an asshole," I started nodding. "For about the last three weeks."

"The no-hitter?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "I think I figured out what might have happened to me during that time I, um, can't remember."

She waited for me to continue.

"Okay, first of all, I didn't go back to the party to get Jill."

"I knew that," Tanya grinned. "You went back to check out boobs."

I stared at her.

"You're a guy," she shrugged. "And, according to you, you're really still only a 15-year-old guy. You're gonna do stupid things. You found Jill there, right?"

I nodded.

"But first, I, um..."

"Got laid?" she asked bluntly.

"No, I —"

"Got blown?"

"No, I wouldn't let her do that either."

"So what did you do?"

"I had a couple of beers, and then I kind of... I took my finger, see, and kind of..."

"Got her off?"

That was equally blunt.

"I didn't wiggle," I mumbled, looking at my feet again.

I heard a snort and looked up to see a twinkle in her eyes.

"Well, you're forgiven," Tanya giggled. "Stupid thing."

"Stupid thing number one."

Once again, she just waited.

"I went away this weekend, and I didn't tell you. I let you give me a blowjob in the car, which I know you really didn't like doing, but which you did because you felt bad about leaving me alone for the weekend. And I'd forgotten to tell you I was going away, and then I just didn't. I'm sorry."

"Where did you go?" she asked, her tone somber once again.

"UVA. My uncle knew a guy with a plane, and he picked me up right after you left."

"Patrick, I don't understand. Why wouldn't you want me to know you were going to visit UVA? Everybody visits their schools. I went to Cornell last summer."

"It's not that I didn't want you to know," I insisted. "It's that I forgot to tell you. And then when you told me, it was like, I didn't have to feel so bad about forgetting to tell you, because you weren't going to be around anyway."

"Patrick, you just have to learn to talk more. To communicate a little better. I would have understood about your forgetting. I might not have liked it, but I would have understood."

"There's more," I said. I told her about Sarah, and there was no twinkle in her eye when I finished that story. She just sat there, nodding slightly, looking at me, thinking about what I had said.

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Marsh Alien

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