“Which insinuates that you think we don’t play our hardest all the time,” I say.
“Colin, honey,” Daisy interjects. “I don’t think he means anything by it.”
“Like hell he doesn’t!” I say. “He’s shit-talking my mother because she’s a better ballplayer than he is! And he’s suggesting that I don’t work hard out here!”
“That’s enough, son,” Dad warns. “Don’t you dare disrespect me in front of the team.”
“The team?” I yell. “This is bar-league slow-pitch softball, Dad. It’s a fuckingjoke. I don’t know why the hell you care so much!”
“Maybe because you don’t care enough!”
“Why should I?”
“You never change, you know that, kid? You don’t takeanythingseriously! That’s why you keep losing!”
“What are youtalkingabout?” I seethe.Is this really happening? Are we having an argument—in public?
“Well, for one thing, you never took care of your arm. You could’ve bounced back after your injury, but you just gave up.”
“Gave up? Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea what it was like to sit on the sidelines and watch my team go onwithoutme?”
“Amen to that,” Gordy mumbles.
“You didn’t care—that’s why you bailed! Just like you bailed on your marriage!” he continues. “Sports teach valuable lessons, kid, like how to push yourself. But you copped out. You begged to come home, like a little mama’s boy.”
The team is frozen, or at least that’s how it seems in my mind. I am suspended in midair, watching the entire scene unfold.
“Whoa, whoa,” Dom says. “John, I think that’s enough.”
“It’ll be enough when he learns how to act like a man,” my dad says, his eyes glued to my face.
I feel my fingernails against my palms as I curl and uncurl my fists. I am not in control of my body. The muscles in my arms tense up as a rush of adrenaline shoots through them.
I am going to hit my own father, I think.
But before I can cock my fist back, Gordy stands up, leaving his donut seat on the bench. “Hey!” he calls out. His voice is louder than I’ve ever heard it. “Leave him alone, Jack! Colin’s a very hard worker! He’s been giving me a run for my money since day one.”
I’m stunned.Did Gordy just speak out of turn?
“And you must have zero idea about what his crazy fucking lunatic of an ex-wife did to him,” Dom adds. “So, maybe ease up, yeah?”
“You guys don’t know him the way I do,” Dad says.
“ButIdo,” Daisy interjects. “I’ve known that boy since he was in diapers.”
“Daisy, please—”
“That’s enough, John. Stop this nonsense talk. You’re embarrassing the team.” Her voice is firm and commanding, and I am in complete shock.
Still, I can’t in good conscience let this continue, and nobody knows my father better than I do. He doesn’t back down, ever, even when the odds are fully stacked against him.
“You know what, Dad? You’re right. I’m a quitter. I don’t care about anything. I half-ass my way through life. Is that what you want to hear?” I don’t wait for an answer. “So, you know what?” I go on. “Why should today be any different?”
“What’sthatsupposed to mean?”
“Call in a ringer. I’m out.”
With that, I turn my back on the whole situation, grab my shit, and march my ass out of the park, towards the subway.
