Daisy and Nora both looked at Soraya, who was sitting there with her mouth dropped open.
“Oh my God.” Nora stared at Soraya, her eyes wide. “You transferred your humiliation to him. The harm that hemeant for you.”
“No,” Soraya said. “That’s not ... possible.”
“This is amazing.” Nora smiled. “It’s amazing.”
Everything David touched turned to disaster the whole evening. It was like God had reached down and had his finger hovering right over his head. Not quite set to “smite” but, still, between outbursts, collisions with his own players, and mustard and sunflower seed spittle spilled on his shirt, his pride was probably charred.
“I’ll admit it.” Nora leaned over and elbowed Soraya. “This is more fun than I thought it would be.”
Soraya bit the inside of her cheek and turned her focus back to the game.
It was her son Levi’s turn at bat, and her chest seized up, because she didnotwant him to be embarrassed.
“Go, Levi!” she shouted, and she didn’t care if people stared at her. She was here for her son. They could judge her or whisper about her all they wanted.
He hit the ball and sent it soaring, and Soraya jumped up to cheer, with Daisy and Nora cheering beside her. The team was on fire after that, with her son making it home, and three more hits loading the bases. There were two outs, and this was it.
It was make it or break it.
The batter had a strike one.
Then a ball. Another ball. Then strike two. Another ball.
Full count.
She held on to Daisy’s shoulder and braced herself.
When the last pitch was thrown, it was wild, and the call from the umpire was egregious. “Strike three.”
“What?” David shouted from the sideline, then he walked forward, hand out, gesturing wildly at the umpire, deriding the bad call. When he normally would’ve stopped, he just kept going.
His face was red, his cheeks puffed out as he strode toward the official. It was like all his self-control had evaporated. It was the very worst of him, a temper he usually only saved for Soraya or the boys, on display for a stadium of spectators.
“You’re gone!” the umpire yelled. “Two games!” He held his fingers up, his face red. “Two-game suspension.”
“You can’t do that to me!” David shouted. “I sponsor the field! I own Nichols Realty.”
Soraya felt a slow, curling sensation of horror at the center of her chest, secondhand horror he didn’t feel for himself.
It was official. She was embarrassedforhim. She had the ick, as her boys would say.
Deep down to her soul, she had the ick now when she looked at that man.
That posturing, ridiculous man with a spit stain on the front of his shirt, trying to pretend he was special, that his business name on the field meant hemattered.
But he was just a man who had to send pictures of his penis to women on the internet to feel something.
Nora was laughing almost helplessly, her hand over her mouth as she tried to regain some composure, and Daisy was staring in open-mouthed wonder.
Soraya put her hands on her face, her cheeks burning. “This is ...”
“Just and fair,” Daisy said.
“Magic,” Nora added.
Magic.
