Chapter 2

Susan Munger proved true to her word. She quickly became acclimated to the Stone household's way of doing things, ingratiated herself with Arlie's young children, and demonstrated her cooking skills on her very first day in the house.

Christy was her first and easiest conquest. "She's just like Mary Poppins!" Christy told her dad. "She's great!"

Toby wanted to find fault with Susan, but he was having a failure of imagination. Then, too, he was thrilled at the prospect of going to Florida during Spring Break at school. He'd missed that trip the previous year and had feared he'd miss it again. When he found out Susan Munger would be taking them to Lauderdale for almost eight full days, he was sold on the young woman as well.

Arlie stayed close to home for the entire first week, convincing himself that Susan was as capable as she appeared to be. After that, with only days remaining before his scheduled departure, he relaxed, said a silent prayer of thanks, and as a reward to himself, took a night off for a steak dinner with the Orioles' off-season basketball team, of which he was the oldest member.

When finally it came time for Arlie to leave, Susan and the kids drove him to BWI for his Saturday afternoon flight. It would be close to a month before they'd see him again in Florida.

"Don't forget you've got that A-1 calling plan," Susan told him at the check-in. "These two will be waiting for you to call."

"Every night," Arlie promised. "Between seven and eight. If there's any reason I can't, I'll call you earlier and change the time."

"I'd think that would surely be your steak-and-beer hour," she said, smiling. "Don't you want to reconsider?"

He returned the smile. "Don't tell the kids," he said, "but in Florida, steak-and-beer hour doesn't even start until around nine."

Arlie felt better about leaving the kids with Susan than he had when he'd been forced to rely for childcare on relatives after Sylvia's death the previous year. Susan had so thoroughly impressed him with her versatility, confidence, and boundless energy that all his misgivings had been erased.

And they'd all three be flying down in mid-March. He was already looking forward to it, but he was also delighted that he could focus entirely now, for a full month, on the upcoming season and the numerous pitching prospects who'd been invited to spring training with the big club.

Susan and Christy became a smooth-functioning team from the start. Christy could find no fault at all with the young woman. A better mentor and caretaker would have been hard for the young girl to imagine.

Susan sensed quickly that her major task might be to avoid leaving Toby feeling like the odd man out. When it turned out she was adept at computer games and was capable in decent weather of playing catch in the back yard (and that she didn't throw like a girl) he too was content.

Both children were also fascinated by Susan's stories about her own childhood. Her family of four children seemed exotic to them, and although Susan didn't dwell on it, there were plenty of little hints that life in the Munger household back in California wasn't quite as comfortable as what Christy and Toby had come to take for granted.

The Munger family hadn't been destitute by any means, but Susan's references to her mother's years of working outside the home and to her absent and neglectful father made them realize that her rise to adulthood hadn't been as easy as their own promised to be.

Susan took seriously her responsibilities as surrogate mother. She even involved herself in Parent-Teacher meetings and other school activities. It was important, she knew, for Christy and Toby to know that someone was directly involved in their lives outside the home.

When the day finally came for them to head for Ft. Lauderdale on Spring Break, Toby could hardly contain himself. He loved the occasional opportunities his father afforded him to be close to the team and the players, and he already knew from his trips to Florida in seasons past that there was no better place for it than Spring Training.

When the club came north for the regular season, a certain tension would ensue, and Toby's opportunities to socialize with the players would be far more limited. In Florida, everyone was loosie-goosie and there seemed to be more time for goofing around with the kids. And Toby wasn't the only kid who was around. During morning drills, several of the players' and coaches' offspring could be seen. They were frequently herded off to the far sidelines for safety reasons, but just being on the field remained a thrill for all of them.

Some of the younger pitchers, especially, treated Toby like he was a VIP. These were men whose chances of going north with the big club were slim-to-none. Probably, they were just trying to suck up to the boy's dad, the pitching coach. But Toby remained unaware of such base motives. To him, it was just the best time of the year, period. Toby Stone wanted to be a pitcher, too, when he got older.

Susan and Christy spent some time at the practice fields too, although just as often they'd head for the beaches on days with the best weather, or cruise a shopping mall on chancy days.

Finally, the Grapefruit League games began, and the Orioles were playing other clubs on an almost-daily basis. Sometimes they'd split the squad and play two games, home and away, on the same day.

When the club made its first trip across the state to play the Red Sox and Twins on consecutive days in Ft. Myers, Arlie made it clear to Susan that she was welcome to come along, or just to leave the children to take the trip with their dad alone.

Once she was certain that Arlie really intended to give her the option, she decided to stay behind. "I'll probably go with you on one of the other road trips," she said, "but for this one, I guess I'll just stay here."

"I could fix you up with a nice young man," Arlie told her the night before their three-day trip. "This guy, Andy Maxwell, is staying behind. He's a minor league pitcher we invited to spring training."

"I appreciate it, Arlie, but I don't know. Do you really think we'd have much in common? And if he's in the minors, I'll bet he's pretty young, right? Younger than I?"

"I think he's twenty-three," Arlie said. You wouldn't exactly be robbing the cradle. And the guy's a college graduate, Susan. I admit ballplayers aren't geniuses as a rule, but he seems to me to be a pretty bright kid, and decent."

"It's not snobbery, Arlie, honest," she said. It's just that blind dates aren't something I seek out, as a rule. Anyway, if you really mean it about my borrowing your car, I know a fellow in Miami I might go and visit."

"Oh-ho!" Arlie said. "And here I am, trying to fix you up with a sore-armed loser like Andy!"

She smiled. "It's not really like that," she said. "This fellow is ... a fellow poet."

"A poet! A modern-day Elizabeth and Robert, we got going here," Arlie said.

"He's a professor of English at the University of Miami," Susan said. "And since you're so intrigued, I'll tell you that, so far at least, we haven't been like Elizabeth and Robert. We've just been, y'know, friends."

"But he's like ... available?" Arlie asked.

"Well. Last time I looked, anyway," Susan said, smiling. "Something could happen, I suppose. I'm not counting on it, you understand. But if I've got access to the wheels, I'll make the phone call."

"Make the call," Arlie told her. "Andy Maxwell's loss is Bob the Poet's gain."

"Thanks, Arlie," she said. "Incidentally, his name is Lars Jensen."

"Cuban guy, huh?" Arlie said. "Is he a full professor? And please, don't thank me! I mean, for what? Your first couple of days off in more than a month? It's time to free the slaves!"

"Yeah, it's been tough," Susan smiled. "Christy and I, sunning ourselves on the beach for the last three days. Free room and board, including dinners in some of the best restaurants I've experienced in my lifetime. It's been really hard-going, Arlie!"

He tossed her the keys to his Hertz rental, a trim little Thunderbird. "Call him. Your poet-guy. We'll see you late Thursday," he said. "Or early Friday if you and the professor hit it off."

--"He's only an assistant professor," Susan said.

Susan was already back in Lauderdale when Arlie and the kids got back from the road trip. It was after nine p.m. on Thursday, and Christy came into their shared room to invite Susan to dinner.

"I've already eaten," Susan told her, "but I'll join you and your dad just to hear about your trip."

"Will we hear about yours, too?" Christy asked. "Daddy says you went to Miami to see an old flame."

"Well. It's a little more complicated than that," Susan said, smiling. "Make it an 'old friend, ' and that's pretty accurate."

At dinner, Arlie reminded them that they'd be flying back to Baltimore early Sunday, leaving only two more days for sun, sand, and surf.

Toby elected to spend Friday and Saturday with the Orioles. They had a game the next day close by against the Mets and a home game in Lauderdale on Saturday. Susan and Christy quickly agreed to hit the beach on Friday and Saturday morning and then watch the home game Saturday.

"By the way, one of the guys asked me about you," Arlie told Susan. "Herm Cassidy, the infielder. He's going to be in his second year with the big club."

"Not even a pitcher, this time?" Susan said, teasing Arlie.

"No, but he was making his pitch," Arlie said. "And, unlike Andy, Herm Cassidy is definitely going to be going north with us."

"Four hundred thousand clams," Toby intoned.

"What?"

"That's how much he'll make this season," Christy explained. "Four hundred thousand. It's the league minimum."

"That's amazing," Susan said. "Imagine! In this economy."

"Think of it this way," Arlie said. "The league minimum hasn't changed now for three years. That's the first time in twenty years that that has happened."

"Hard times," Susan laughed. "Hard times in the majors. Everybody tighten your belts!"

"It is kind of ridiculous," Arlie agreed. "If it makes you feel any better, I never made that kind of money when I was playing."

"Not even if you adjusted for inflation?" Susan asked.

"Well. Maybe."

"So what's this Herm Cassidy person like?" Susan asked.

"To be honest, I don't know him very well," Arlie said. "I generally spend a lot more time with the pitchers. Herm's been up a couple of times for a look in September, and he was with us season before last, during the World Series. But last year was his first to be with the team full-time. He's a top prospect -- we've known that for awhile. He seems okay to me, but I'm not in a position to, like, vouch for him. I know he's got a reputation for being awfully ambitious."