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conversation in Nick’s room. Paul Crandall got up then and walked out, telling him to get to work on that night’s homework.
    Leaving Nick with one more thing to worry about, maybe the biggest worry he had, that maybeneither he nor his parents had gotten exactly what they were looking for.
    For now, though, at dinner, he was trying to explain to them what it meant to be moved up to varsity from the seventh grade.
    “Sounds to me like quite an honor,” Paul Crandall said. “Almost as if you’ve graduated from junior varsity early. We’re proud of you, Nick.”
    “Well, I haven’t actually
done
anything yet,” Nick said. “It’s more like I got called up from the minors, for the time being, anyway. Even Coach isn’t sure how long this might last.”
    Brenda Crandall, wanting to join in, said, “Well, technically, aren’t all of you boys minors?”
    “No, no,” Nick said. “It’s a baseball expression. In pro ball, there’s the minor leagues, where guys go when they’re first starting out, and then there’s the majors, which is where the best guys end up eventually.”
    It was like this a lot at the dinner table when the conversation turned to sports. Nick acted like he was the professor and they were the students.
    “Sort of like undergrads and graduate students, dear,” Paul Crandall said to his wife. “I believe there are some pro teams around Connecticut, aren’t there, Nick? Including one down in Bridgeport?”
    Nick wondered if it was something he’d learned in one of his late-night baseball quizzes.
    “There are,” Nick said. “Our class got to go to a game last year, remember? They’ve got this cool little ballpark near the water.”
    Paul Crandall smiled and said, “The Bluefish, I believe they’re called.” Now he really was like a kid in class with the right answer, and clearly pleased with himself.
    Nick reached over and offered his hand for a high five, and Paul Crandall, looking a little uncomfortable doing it, managed to give him one back.
    “Way to go, Dad,” Nick said.
    Brenda Crandall said to Nick, “Now you’re sure you’re all right with this move, really?”
    “I guess so.”
    “You don’t sound too enthusiastic.”
    Nick said, “It’s just that I knew everybody on the JV team, and the only guy I know on the varsity is Jack Elmore. I was talking to him online before,and even though he
said
he thought guys on the varsity would be cool with me playing with them, he wasn’t really sure.”
    “It’s a surprise,” Brenda Crandall said, “isn’t it?”
    It was as if his mom had hit the jackpot. “It’s a surprise,” Nick said.
    “You know,” she said, “surprises can be good sometimes.”
    It just turned out to be one more thing she didn’t know about baseball.

FIVE
    Coach Williams called all the varsity players around him before practice and told them that Nick was going to be their new catcher until Bobby came back and that nobody, not even Bobby’s doctors, knew when that would be.
    Nick looked around at all the different faces. It wasn’t as if Coach had told them that they were all going for ice cream after practice.
    “Listen, we thought we had our starting team, but injuries happen in sports,” he said. “So now the team we start the season with—and maybe play the whole season with, depending on Bobby—is the one that has Nick behind the plate.”
    Nobody said anything until Gary Watson, the star pitcher for the Hayworth Tigers, said, “Bobby’s the only catcher who’s ever caught me.”
    Coach Williams said, “I understand that, Gary. But I’m sure it won’t take long for you and Nick to get on the same page. And besides, even with Bobby, didn’t you basically call your own game, anyway?”
    “Well, not always.”
    Coach Williams grinned as if none of this was very big stuff. “And I don’t want to risk offending my ace, but it’s not as if we have to make a lot of decisions when you’ve got the ball in your hand. Fastballs in or