The Shoes of Baltimore (NaNoWriMo Day 1)

Charlie was going to punch Dustin in the face. The parents in the stands didn’t know that was going to happen. All they saw was a 10-year old boy rapidly walking to the mound.

Dustin shrugged his shoulders as Charlie approached.

“Oh well,” Dustin said. “I guess we can get them next time.”

This response to walking the batter with bases loaded and losing the game justified to Charlie even further why Dustin deserved to be punched.

Charlie pulled his arm back, thrusted it forward with as much power as a 10-year old boy could, and connected his fist with Dustin’s nose.

It wasn’t the knockout punch he was hoping for, but Dustin still fell down.’

Charlie jumped on top of him. He got a few body punches in, but the coach and his teammates were pulling him away.

There was now a barricade of parents and players standing between Dustin and Charlie. The only person on Charlie’s side was his mom.

“That’s it,” the coach (also Dustin’s father) yelled. “That’s the final straw Julie! Your kid is out of control! He’s done. Get him the hell out here!”

Charlie started to charge Dustin’s dad just like he did his son.

His mom held him back.

Tears started racing out of Charlie’s blue eyes.

“You get out of here! You shouldn’t be the coach! Dustin only gets to pitch because he’s your son! He’s lost us so many games! He doesn’t even like playing baseball! He told all of us you just force him to play! You have no idea what you’re doing! You have people playing all the wrong positions! Were you drunk when you made the batting order? You should be fired!”

Charlie’s mom was now standing between Charlie and the coach. She was gently pushing him back, trying to get him to the parking lot.

Charlie took one last look at the coach, gave him a death stare, and turned around to walk to the car.

“Some great kid you got there,” the coach shouted. “We will miss all his temper tantrums and fits.”

Julie turned around and walked back towards the coach.

Charlie started to follow, but his mom put her hand behind her. That was a signal for Charlie to stay in his place.

Julie walked right up to Dustin’s dad and was inches away from his face.

“Yea? Well, we aren’t going to miss you either. Charlie’s right. Even if no one else here wants to say it to your face, Dustin should not be pitching. She looked at Dustin, who now had an ice pack on his bloody nose. “Dustin, hunny, I’m sorry Charlie punched you. He should never have done that. But what you’re daddy doesn’t seem to understand is that he’s putting you in a position to fail.”

She stared at Dustin’ dad, who was her height at 5-foot-6. But unlike Julie, Dustin’s dad had a massive belly.

“You see, hunny, your daddy needs to realize he should stop trying to live through you. I knew him growing up, and he was never very good at sports. You are much more athletic, but I know you don’t like baseball. Your dad needs to stop forcing you to play. And if he is going to keep forcing you to play, he needs to stop keeping you in the game for so long. That’s not good for your arm.”

Dustin’s dad gritted his teeth.

“You and that little monster get out of here! If you had any money, I’d sue you!”

Julie looked in her purse. She pulled out a checkbook and a pen.

She scribbled her signature on the blank check and filled it out.

“Her you go,” she said, handing the check over to Dustin’s dad. “Whatever the cost of getting Dustin fixed up is, use this check.”

She knew dustin’s dad was bluffing about suing. He was correct, though, that she had no money to pay him if he did sue her. In fact, she was just informed that morning that her last check at the grocery store had bounced.

But she had her pride, and she was going to call the coach’s bluff about suing her.

After holding out the check for what seemed like five minutes, Dustin’s dad just looked away from Julie.

“Fine,” Julie said. “And Dustin, hunny, it’s not okay that Jimmy hit you. He is going to be punished for this.”

Charlie starred at the grown as his mom walked back to him.

She held out her hand. He took it.

During the 20-minute drive, Julie and Charlie just listened to the radio. When they got inside, Julie’s mom finally spoke.

“It wasn’t okay that you hit him, Charlie.”

“I know. But he deserved. It isn’t right that he was playing. We have better pitchers on the team. Dustin lost the game for us! He was too afraid and walked that batter.”

Julie always had a balancing act on her hands with Charlie. He had a very clear sense of fairness. Even at such a young age, he knew it wasn’t right that Dustin was the starting pitcher and got more playing time just because he was the coach’s son. Julie also wanted Charlie to keep his competitiveness. He needed that and his stubbornness if he was going to make anything out of himself. She knew that teachers wanted everyone to be average at school, so the other students wouldn’t feel bad if someone stood out. She didn’t want Charlie to ever lose his drive to be the best.

But the violence is where it crossed the line.

This wasn’t the first time he had an issue with hitting another child his age. The first time it happened was when he was five years old. The children were standing in line, waiting to go out to recess. One of the kids started to get board and kept jumping in and out of the line. Charlie punched him in the arm and told him to stand still.

He got better at handling his emotions at school. But he still had issues when it came to sports. He just wanted to win so badly and couldn’t understand why some of his teammates felt losing was acceptable.

“That all may be true,” Julie said in a calm voice. “But now you just got yourself kicked off the team. It’s okay if you get upset. I know how hard you try to win every game. But you have to realize that sometimes, people are going to let you down. You can’t control the actions of others. And you also know that it’s impossible to win every single game? Right? Even the best teams of all time don’t win all 162 games in a season.”

“Maybe they would if they had me,” Charlie said sheepishly.

His mother had to smile at this.

“Well, I know you would be just as competitive as they would be. But tomorrow, you’re going to write an apology letter. You’re going over to Dustin’s, you will read it, and you will be sincere. You’re also not getting any allowance for the next two weeks but I’m going to have double the chores for you to do. Do you understand?”

The smile disappeared from Charlie’s face. He couldn’t argue that what he did was wrong. But he still didn’t like that he had to apologize to Dustin.

Charlie begrudgingly nodded his head that he understood his mother.

At this point, Charlie’s mom started taking him to a therapist. He was lanky and still looked like a regular 10-year old kid, but Julie was worried what would happen as he grew. He could seriously hurt someone after he started puberty.

Through breathing exercises, coloring books, and talking out his emotions, Charlie didn’t have any incidents over the next three years.

He was banned from the baseball league, but he luckily found a spot on a soccer team a town over.

Charlie still had an edge, though, and he hated to lose. If one of the player’s messed up or if he messed up, he would have to focus on his breathing to stay calm.

His mother would still see him clench his fists from time to time.

And if they lost, he would sulk around the house for the entire day. The loss would even stay with him sometimes for a full week until the next game.

Charlie would be entering 9th grade in a few months, and he wasn’t sure if he would try out for the high school team. He was good at soccer, and the coach encourage him to try out, but there were just so many other people to rely on in soccer. You could go and score a goal, but the ball could get past the midfield, the defense, and the goalie. Charlie didn’t like having to rely on that amount of people. He had the same issue with baseball, and any other team sport he had played.

He even got upset in gym class when he was younger during dodge ball games if he felt the other kids weren’t taking it seriously.

At his last spring practice, Charlie heard one of the showboats he didn’t like, Kevin, bragging about how fast he was.

“Yea the race was for kids between 13–15. Most of them were 15, but I still came in second,” Kevin told one the kids on the team. “Even the high school coach was at the race and said he thought I could make varsity as freshmen. There’s actual another race in two weeks down at Creek Mills. It’s a 5k. The coach said he will be at that one too.”

Creek Mills, Creek Mills, Creek Mills, Jimmy said to himself.

He knew he was faster than Kevin. If he finished in second, Charlie didn’t think there could really be that much competition.

When he got him, he looked up exactly when and where the race was.