Authors: R.D. Power
Kim permitted Robert some action, but warned him to stay quiet. Before they went to sleep, Kim whispered, “I assume from your bawdy conduct with me that you’re still not serious about any woman?”
“No, I’m not.”
“You plan on ever settling down?”
“I think I blew my only chance.”
“You mean with Kristen?”
“Yes. I think I miss her more every day. I made a huge mistake pushing her away. She’s long gone, I guess.”
“There are other fine women in the world, Bob,” said Kim. “Maybe someone right under your nose,” she added, as she pulled him on top of her.
“Maybe,” was all he said.
She sighed and made love with him for the last time. The next day she accepted a date with a handsome associate professor at Western. She’d wanted to see how things went on the weekend with Robert before moving forward with this exceptional prospect.
Robert ended his rookie season with a mediocre record. He was proud of making the majors, but disappointed in his performance. The injury done to his fingers in Iraq had begun to take its toll. His wonky fingers had forced a slight change to his pitching delivery, which maintained his former effectiveness but increased the strain on his arm. At the college and minor league levels, he was able to perform well because the competition was manageable. At the major league level, though, he’d had to pull out all the stops to keep the opposition at bay. He finished the season with a very sore shoulder.
The father’s Achilles’ Heel is the son’s
, he thought, envisaging a quick end to a forgettable major league career.
The Twins didn’t make the playoffs. Robert intended to spend his four-month layoff vegetating, but could brook no more than two weeks of it. So, for lack of anything more productive to do, he took a few graduate courses online, his first step toward a PhD in computer science.
He also visited his son in Kilworth twice. On the first trip, he learned that Kim had met a man, a professor whom she was getting serious about. Robert had to sleep in the spare bedroom. He brought a pintsized Twins uniform, plus a glove, bat, and several baseballs for his son and started teaching him the basics of the game. One of the baseballs was the one he’d pitched first in the majors. Brian treasured that one.
On the second visit, he learned Kim planned to get married soon. She assured him he could see his son whenever he pleased, however. He asked if Brian could stay with him when they went on their honeymoon, and she thought that was an outstanding idea; she was going to ask if he didn’t offer. Father and son spent a delightful fortnight over Christmas season sightseeing in California.
R
obert had held back on calling Jennifer throughout the autumn; it was her cousin he wanted. In early January, though, he decided to call Jennifer. Maybe he could learn what had become of Kristen through her, he reasoned.
“Hi, Jenny, guess who,” he greeted when she answered.
“You know what? You’re the second person who’s called this morning asking that, and this is like the fifth call already from guys looking for action or money. I don’t care who you are.”
“Okay, well, I guess I caught you at a bad time or in a bad mood, or maybe you’ve turned into a real bitch now that you’re famous. Come to think of it, you’re not much different from the last time I saw you in Kilworth.”
“Bobby? Bobby Owens?”
“Never mind. This was a mistake. Goodbye.” He hung up determined to forget about her.
“Bobby? Bobby! Oh, shit!”
Jennifer had never lost interest in her first love. With her looks, not to mention her newfound success, she could have had a better-looking man, a richer man, a more famous or accomplished man, a nicer man—well, any man she pleased—but this was the only man she’d ever loved, and he was the only man who had saved her life, or so she thought, and that tends to bedazzle a woman. It wasn’t so much that she felt she owed him for that, for he never once made her feel she did, which she thought estimable; it was more that the Taylor women required gallantry of their men, and what could be more gallant than a dashing war hero who’d saved her life?
Knowing how Kristen still felt about him, Jennifer hadn’t done anything about her desire for him, but why did he call? Was he interested in her? If so, why should she step aside and leave him to Kristen? Kristen had no greater claim to him; he had always preferred her to Kristen in her view. She tried *69, but it didn’t work. Then she called the Twins’ head office, but the team refused to share contact information with anyone without the player’s prior approval, and she didn’t have it. “Where and when is spring training for your team?” she asked.
•
On GRAMMY night in late February, Jennifer and her date arrived to grand fanfare. Her finery got more publicity than the ferry that sank that day in Indonesia, killing 879 people. Kristen, who was watching the show on TV, almost fainted when she saw Robert enter with her.
Jennifer had wanted to forewarn her cousin about this, but couldn’t find a way to tell her. The day spring training for pitchers opened, Jennifer had gone to see him in Ft. Myers to make amends, and to investigate her prospects for him. Maybe now that he was older and she was getting rich and famous, he might be willing to make a commitment, she hoped. Had she phoned, he would have told her to go to hell, but she showed up in person. Once he saw his charmer in a halter top and short denim shorts that looked like they were drawn on her, he was under her command once more.
They spent the next two months together in Florida, but her hold, as ever, was tenuous, for a bond based on physical attraction alone is easily made, but also easily broken. One needs the physical for the initial draw and the spiritual to make it stick, which prompts some doggerel that could make Robert Frost sit up in his coffin and bang his skull: “Baby, I am the base, you are the fixer/ together we make glue that really sticks, sir.” (Kristen was supposed to recite that verse, but she flatly refused to do it.)
Dressed in a slinky black mini-dress so short that no man in the audience blinked for her entire rendition, she performed her song. As the song was coming to an end, she sauntered into the audience, went to Robert, sat on his lap, put her arms around him, sang the final words while looking in his eyes, kissed him, and flashed her prepossessing smile at him to end her performance. She appeared to say, “I love you,” to him as she turned to return to the stage. Kristen felt like the thirteen-year-old little girl who was invisible to him while she stood next to her fabulous cousin.
Jennifer’s video took the GRAMMY. Four people lined up to give tedious acceptance speeches. “I also want to thank my hairdresser, Georges, my dog walker, Johan, and his assistant, pooper scooper Lance,” ended person number three before stepping aside in favor of Jennifer.
She thanked a few people and concluded with, “Only one thing could make this wonderful evening perfect: if I get the offer I’m hoping to get later on.”
Had Kristen kept listening, she would have learned that Jennifer was talking about a long-term recording contract. But concluding,
Oh, my God, he’s going to ask her to marry him!
she was incapable of hearing anything else. Her ears started ringing, her forehead and neck burned, her mouth went dry, and she trembled.
Lying in bed that night, staring at the darkness, she said to herself,
She’s gorgeous and she’s famous. I’m nothing. I have to give up on him.
Logic trying to assert domination over emotion, she told herself,
He’s just a man, one with a lot of issues. There are probably a million men better than Bobby, Andrew for one. Andrew is at least as smart, and there’s no question he’s handsomer, warmer and more caring than Bobby. Andrew’s work is so much more important than playing baseball. And if Andrew had a chance to be a hero, I’m sure he would be.
After tonight, Bobby is gone forever anyway
. The miserable woman went to sleep.
•
“Gertrude,” remarked Mr. Carlton, “the paper says that that pretty singer we never heard of—you know, the one on TV last night in the short dress—and that baseball player we never heard of—you know, the one she sat on—is both from London. I hate them spoiled, rich baseball players. I bet that guy don’t got no idea how hard real life is or how lucky he is. Today’s high is s’pposed to be ten below. I ain’t delivering mail in that. Call in sick for me, will ya?”
•
The next morning Kristen woke up determined to make one last stab at Robert.
I can’t let her win without a fight!
she decreed to herself. Before she could change her mind, she called him. He didn’t answer, so she left a message: “Hello, Bobby,” she started anxiously, “Um … this is Krissy. Uh, I’m not sure … Um, I need to talk to you. Please. I miss you. Please don’t marry Jenny. You won’t be happy with her. Something deep within you must know that our souls are one.
Please
call me.”
She gave him her number and hung up. The next several hours were anxious ones for the young lady as she waited in vain for his call. Hours stretched into days and still no call. Kristen made up her mind to get serious about Dr. Katz.
Over the next several weeks, Kristen and Andrew dated extensively. She enjoyed the time she spent with him and was beginning to think he could make a good husband. He was thinking she would be a first class wife, too, judging by the engagement ring he offered her after an extravagant dinner date in early May.
“This is such a shock, Andrew.”
She had convinced herself to give up on Robert, but when it came time to do it, she hesitated. Her logic commanded her to accept. She opened her mouth to accept, but no words came. As she thought about losing all prospects for Robert, her stomach tightened, and she felt a wave of panic washing over her. She couldn’t imagine anything worse. There had been no word within the family about Robert and Jennifer. Maybe he was still available.
Finally, she said, “May I have a few days to think about it? I just need to think it through, okay?” He said that was fine.
Six days later, Kristen called up Andrew and asked him to meet at a San Francisco nightclub they liked. She had decided to reject his proposal. As long as there was a sliver of hope for Robert, she couldn’t marry anyone else. “Enough of this nonsense!” she declared. The Twins were due in Oakland in three weeks, and she was determined to present herself to Robert at that time to ask him about her prospects. She even bought a ticket for a front row seat by the bullpen. Had she looked at the roster, she would have seen Robert wasn’t on it. He had failed to make the club out of spring training and was sent to Rochester to pitch at the triple-A level.
While she was preparing for the date with Andrew, her phone rang. “Hello?” answered Kristen.
“Krissy, honey?” said Lisa.
“Mom? Is everything all right? You sound upset. Is Dad all right? Is Jeremy?”
“We’re all fine. It’s … Oh, this is hard … I just heard from Uncle Jim. Krissy, honey … Jenny has married Bobby. I’m sorry.” Kristen dropped the phone as everything went black. “Krissy? Krissy? Oh, my God, Bill, I think she’s fainted.”
After several seconds, Kristen came to her senses, but started sobbing. She picked up her phone and cried, “How can this be? I don’t un … un … understand how … we’re soul mates … aren’t we, Mom?”
“Krissy, honey, I … I don’t know what to say.” Lisa, so sad for her heartbroken daughter, began to cry, too.
“What is it all about?” Kristen said. “I guess I … don’t understand anything. I convinced myself he was made to love me. Now he’s gone … so what’s the use of anything?”
Lisa asked her husband to pick up the extension to help settle down their frantic daughter. “Krissy? Please talk to us,” Bill implored.
“Your father and I are coming to see you,” said Lisa. “We’ll get the first flight out. Okay?”
“We’ll be there tomorrow morning,” assured Bill.
“Um, no, Mom, Dad, I’ll be okay,” she said as the initial shock started to wear off, and her weeping ebbed. “I didn’t tell you this, but Andrew has asked me to marry him.” She blew her nose. “Funny thing is, I was going to turn him down this evening. Now I guess I’ll say yes.”
“You shouldn’t make this decision in your present state,” counseled her father.
“I was going to reject him only because I couldn’t give up hope for my soul mate. I thought somehow, someway, some day it would work out, that I would marry Bobby. I even resolved to go see him next month to give fate a nudge. Now I see that was all romantic twaddle. How could I be so wrong about something I believed in so deeply? I must be wrong about fate, God, too. There is no God.”
“Please don’t say that,” said her devout mother.
Kristen took a deep breath to keep from weeping more. “You’ll like Andrew.”
“Krissy,” said Lisa, “your father’s right. At least sleep on it.”
“I have a date with him in less than an hour. I’m going to accept his proposal. Be happy for me.”
“Krissy, listen to us,” said Bill. “You made this mistake with Dominic.”
“Andrew’s no Dominic. He’s a good man, a great man. Everyone admires him,” she insisted, sniffling. “He’s a leader in the oncology field. He’s compassionate, handsome, brilliant, and a little funny.”
“And?” said Lisa.
“And what? Isn’t all that enough?”
“You haven’t said you love him,” observed Lisa. “Do you love him?”
“I … I think so. I mean, it’s nothing like my feelings for Bobby.” Her crying started afresh.
“You’ll be okay in time, honey. But please don’t marry a man unless you’re in love with him,” advised her mother.
“At the very least, do not make your decision tonight,” ordered her father. Kristen cancelled her date with Andrew that evening to give her more time to think about it.
•
After meeting Robert at spring training, Jennifer had begun scheming to corral this fine young man. The complaisant lass was on her best behavior and made sure she looked her best every day during the courtship. He continued to be mesmerized by her, although he seemed to be too curious about Kristen. He tried to be cagey about it, but Jennifer saw right through it.