When the Women Come out to Dance (2002) Read Online Free PDF Page B

yo u in the minors more'n your control." Not a half hour wit h Charlie Hoke and starting to sound like him a little. Darwin said, "You're a gamer, Charlie. I'll give you four pitches."
    Charlie set it up. He called Vernice at the Isl e of Capri coffee shop, told her please not to ask any question s and let him talk to Lamont, one of the busboys. Lamont Harris was the catcher on the Rosa Fort high school baseball team. Charlie knew him from going over there this pas t spring to help the pitchers with their mechanics, hit fungoe s and throw batting practice now and then. He told Lamont t o meet them at the field after work, bring a couple of bats, a glove, his equipment and, hey, the oversized catcher's mit t Charlie had sold him for ten bucks.
    By five-thirty they were out on the school' s hardpack diamond playing catch. Charlie took his warm-u p pitches, throwing mostly sliders and knucklers, while Bill y Darwin in his sunglasses, shorts, his silky shirt and sneaker s stood off to the side watching and swinging a bat. Lamon t strapped on his protection and Charlie motioned him out t o the mound. He told Lamont, a big seventeen-year-old he' d played catch with all spring, "Use the knuckleball mitt."
    "That's all you gonna throw?"
    "He'll think it and want to look the first one over. Whil e he's looking," Charlie said, "I'm gonna throw it down th e middle of downtown."
    And that's what he did, grooved it. With that poppin g sound of the ball hitting the catcher's mitt, Lamont called , "That's a strike," and Darwin turned his head to look at him.
    When he was facing this way again, swinging the bat out t o point it at him, Charlie said, "You satisfied with the call?"
    "It was a strike," Billy Darwin said, swung the bat ou t again, brought it back and dug in, Charlie observing the wa y he crowded the plate.
    This time Charlie threw a slider, a two-bit curveball tha t came inside and hooked down and over the plate and Darwi n swung late and missed. But he hung in, didn't he?
    Okay, with the count nothing and two Charlie was thinking about offering a big, sweeping curve, lefty against lefty, throw it behind him and watch him hunch and duck as th e ball broke over home plate. Or, hell, give him a knuckler, a pitch he'd likely never see. Get it anywhere near the plat e he'll swing early and miss it a mile. Charlie gripped the bal l with the tips of his gnarled fingers, his nails pressed into th e hide, went into his motion, threw the floater and watche d Darwin check his swing as the goddamn ball bounced a foo t and a half in front of the plate.
    "He came around on it," Charlie said.
    Lamont was shaking his head saying no, he held up.
    "We don't have a third base ump to call it," Charlie said , "but I'm pretty sure he came around."
    Billy Darwin said, "Hey, Charlie, you threw it in the dirt , man. Come on, throw me a strike."
    Shit.
    What he needed was a resin bag.
    Darwin was swinging the bat now and pointing it way ou t past Charlie toward the Mississippi River, then took hi s stance, digging in, and Charlie wasn't sure what to thro w him. Maybe another slider, put it on the inside corner. Or show him a major-league fastball--or what passed for one sixteen years later. Shit. He felt his irritation heating up and told himself to throw the goddamn ball, fire it in there, this gu y won't hit it, look at him holding the bat straight up behin d him, waving the fat end in a circle. Jesus, a red bat, one o f those metal ones they used in high school. You can't strike ou t a guy waving a tin bat at you, for Christ sake? Charlie wen t into his motion and bore down, threw it as hard as he coul d and saw the red bat fly up in the air as Billy Darwin hit th e dirt to save his life.
    Vernice, making the toddies this evening, said , "I don't understand why you threw it at him."
    "I didn't; it got away from me is all. I should've taken tim e to settle down, talk to myself."
    "But you lost your temper," Vernice said, handing Charli e his drink,