Cherry Blossom Baseball (17 page)

She signed the letter with a flourish, folded it, slid it into its envelope, and addressed it. On Monday morning she would give it to Mrs. McIntosh for the collection bag.

THE FIRST GAME

M
ichiko
saw the white paper edge sticking out of her mathematics book when she returned to her desk after recess.
Will it be another nasty drawing?
she wondered as she pulled at the paper corner. The postcard of a little doll holding an announcement card surprised her. She turned it over and read:

Because it's my birthday there's going to be

A party at our house just for me!

Here is the time (2–4 P.M.)

And here is the date (May 5)

Please come and help me to celebrate.

Mary Margaret Adams

For a moment Michiko couldn't breathe. Was it really what she thought it was, or just another trick? She glanced around to see if Carolyn was around. She wasn't. Michiko slipped the card into her exercise book.

On the bus she leaned back and closed her eyes.
A birthday party at Mary's house.
Mary, checking to see if she had received it, told her she would get to meet her mother since she already knew her father and her brother. She felt her heart beat faster and her face flush at the thought of Eddie being there. Whenever she saw him, a warm, feathery feeling came over her.

Michiko showed the invitation to Aunt Sadie that night.

“How nice,” Sadie said. “Do you know this girl well?”

“She sits beside me at school,” Michiko explained. “I can't believe she invited me. She's one of …” she faltered, not quite knowing how to put it, “… of the girls in town.”

“I know these girls,” Sadie said.

“You do?”
Aunt
Sadie has been here only a few days. How can she have gotten to know Mary and her town friends?

“They live in the expensive houses, wear nice clothes, and spend their summers boating,” Sadie explained. “You find these girls in every town.”

“There were no girls like that where we last lived,” Michiko said.

Sadie reached for her niece's hand and patted it. “You were that girl in our last town, silly. You just didn't know it.”

“I was?”

“You didn't notice that all the other girls envied your extra special clothes and malted milks at the drugstore.”

“I didn't get to drink them,” Michiko said. “You know that.” Whenever she thought of milkshakes, she thought of George King making a big production of counting out his change in front of her father. “And there was nothing extra special about my clothes,” she added.

“Think about Kiko,” her aunt said in a low voice.

The girl with the uncombed hair who wore summer clothes all year long floated up in front of Michiko's face. Their friendship had come to an end over a stolen watch. Kiko had no mother or father, only an uncle who tried to look after her the best he could.

“But all my clothes were homemade,” Michiko protested. “Nothing came from a store.”

“They didn't know that,” Sadie said. “They looked at your life and looked at theirs and decided yours was better. Everyone does it. You are probably thinking right now that Mary's life is so much better than yours.”

Michiko looked at her aunt in surprise. Sadie always had the knack of knowing exactly what was on her mind.

“And,” her aunt said as she rose from the couch, “I bet you are also wondering what you are going to wear? That was always the first thing on my mind whenever I got an invitation.”

“I don't have to wonder about that,” Michiko said. “I'll just have to wear what is clean.”

“To a party?” Sadie stood, took Michiko's hand, and pulled her up from the couch. “You will not just wear whatever is clean, not while I am here.”

Michiko looked up at her aunt's shining eyes. “Really?”

Michiko could hardly sit still in the back of Billy's car. Every part of her body was alive with excitement. Playing baseball was like meeting up with a best friend.

The visiting team was on the field warming up when they arrived. Michiko's father, Mr. Palumbo, and Billy's father walked to the first base line to watch.

Michiko stopped for a moment to ram her hat down on her head when Mr. Ward called out, “Bring it in.” Her team formed a circle to get their very first pregame pep talk. She was expecting a lot more than, “You all know what to do,” before Coach Ward stuck his hand into the centre and everyone piled theirs on top. “Good luck,” she whispered to Billy as they ran out to the field. He winked back.

The batter hit Michiko's first pitch right through the shortstop's legs, and he made it to first before they got the ball there.

She threw to the next batter. Michiko thought he hit foul, but the umpire called it fair, and the other team now had runners on first and second. Her third pitch brought them all home with a hit clear across the playground into the parking lot. The crowd sitting in camp chairs around the baseball diamond stood up and cheered.

Michiko looked around at the other members of her team. They all scowled at the 3–0 score. Then she spotted Eddie standing next to Billy's dad. Eddie nodded and gave his whole body a shake
. He's right,
she thought.
Like Uncle Kaz used to say, shake it off.

She struck out the next three batters, and before they knew it, the Bronte Braves were at the plate.

Up first, Michiko got a hit and made it to first. She could hear her father cheering from the sidelines. Billy hit a grounder, which got her to third, and him to second, but the visiting team's right fielder caught their next player's pop fly, making it one out with runners on second and third. Donald Maitland, whom everyone knew was a strong hitter, was up next.

The pitcher for the opposite team studied Donald for a moment, pulled back his arm, and sent the ball across the plate. Donald swung hard, and they all heard that wonderful “thunk” of wood hitting a ball. He took off like a bullet, as did Billy and Michiko. Then the umpire called out, “Strrrike one, foul ball.”

“No foul,” she heard her father yell.

Michiko's cheeks burned as they returned to their plates.
He
isn't going to cause trouble by arguing with the umpire, is he?

The pitcher for the opposing team pulled back his arm and sent the ball across the plate a second time. Donald hit it with a resounding crack, and Michiko made it home.

Kenny Spencer, next at bat, raised his chin and hunched his body, determined to get a home run. He hit the ball, but the player at first base caught it, tagged the plate, and threw it to the pitcher before Kenny reached the plate.

But his throw wasn't strong enough.

Michiko signalled Billy to steal the base as the pitcher sauntered into the field to pick up the ball. The smile on the pitcher's face froze when he saw Billy heading straight past him for third. He grabbed at the ball but fumbled it. The crowd roared as he picked it up a second time and threw it home. Billy dove into the dust and touched the plate before the catcher tagged him on the ankle.

“Safe,” the umpire shouted.

The kids on the Braves bench went wild.

One more run and the score would be tied, but their next player didn't make it to third. Three strikeouts in a row brought them out to the field, and it was Michiko's turn to face the batters again.

She threw the ball right across the plate for a strike. As the ball came back, she could hear her Uncle Kaz's voice in her head.
Good hitters always strike at the balls they like. Throw it again.
And she did, for a second strike.

The boy at the plate wiggled his bat and pulled his face into a grimace.

Michiko threw a fastball, and he swung for the third time.
One down, two more to go
, she thought. But it wasn't to be. Before long, it was one man out and runners on second and third. Michiko pitched, and the batter hit a pop fly. She turned to see the runner on second heading for third. Bobby Wells caught the fly and faced third base. The runner turned and raced back to his base as Bobby swivelled and threw it to second. The smile on the runner's face collapsed when the second baseman tagged him.

The umpire called both the batter and the runner out. That double play had just put them back in the game! Now they had a chance.

It wasn't until Donald Maitland hit the ball right out of the park that they tied up the score, and it remained that way until the Bobby Wells gave them the lead by one. All the Braves had to do was make sure the other team didn't score. And they didn't.

Everyone on Michiko's team tossed their hats in the air to celebrate the Bronte Braves baseball team's first win. But as soon as Michiko's pigtails fell to her shoulders, she realized her mistake.
No one will notice
, she thought as she piled them back on top of her head and rammed on her hat. But the players in the field noticed, the players on the bench noticed, and the kids in the stands noticed.

Billy's face turned to ash.

“Their pitcher is a girl?” she heard someone yell in astonishment.

“We got some sort of confusion here,” the other coach called out. “Girls playing on a boys' team? Isn't there some kind of rule about that?”

“Son of a gun,” Coach Ward said. “She sure doesn't pitch like a girl.” He shrugged and then gathered the team to go over what he liked about their game and what he didn't. Michiko almost forgot about taking off her hat until she and Billy walked to the parking lot. Everyone looked at her as if they had just seen a ghost.

The next day, Michiko and Mary walked past the group of boys that stood with their backs to the school wall. Usually the boys whistled or whispered behind their hands when they passed. Michiko knew it was Mary they all liked, but this time it was different.

“Is that the girl pitcher?” she heard one of them ask.

“Nah,” another said, “that's just a rumour. Girls are no good at baseball.”

“I heard she doesn't throw like a girl,” another commented. “Someone said she's got an arm like Lefty Grove.”

“A girl with an arm? No way, who says?”

“Eddie Adams.”

“No kidding, who would have thought.”

Mary looked at Michiko in surprise.