Thwack!
Each time Maria caught the baseball that was thrown to her, it made the same sound - a sound that brought her an intangible sense of comfort, due to its great familiarity. Though the glove’s padding absorbed much of the ball’s force, she could still feel it colliding against her palm, at which point she would squeeze her hand to secure the catch.
Then, she would retrieve the ball with her free hand, gripping the laces beneath her fingertips. Throwing it back to her sister, she would complete the cycle. It was a process they had engaged in countless times, a process that was automatic.
Though there would always be an element of concentration to it, reflex and muscle memory had become so thoroughly ingrained in Maria and Sara, they could almost play catch in their sleep.
The girls were lucky, they knew. Their lives were filled with friendship and weird adventures that had lifted their spirits to great heights, transforming their perspectives of what possibilities the world before them held. Yet, for all the strange and marvelous things they had witnessed and taken part in, many of their happiest times had occurred right here, on the baseball field, playing the game they loved.
It was a place where they were filled with positive emotions. The smell of the freshly cut grass in their noses and the feel of the earth beneath their feet brought them a happiness that could not be put into words.
To throw a baseball back and forth gave them peace, happiness, and a great sense of camaraderie. There was also the feeling of satisfaction that occurred, as they engaged in something they had come to excel at, through endless hours of practice and repetition.
More than anything else, it was just plain good to be outside, under the sun, playing a game with their friends for the sheer fun of it, and nothing more.
Back and forth the baseball went in a rhythmic pattern between Sara and Maria, like the workings of a well-oiled machine. Another benefit of playing catch was that it had a meditative effect. It cleared the mind and let the sisters think, contemplating the thoughts that were running around their minds. Just as they were tossing a baseball between the two of them, they were doing the same for ideas, bandying them back and forth.
“I don’t know about this,” Sara said as she caught the ball. “I know Dad can take care of himself, but...”
“But he’s in the school on his own, trying to catch this Phantom character all by himself,” Maria said, continuing her sister’s line of thought. “And he just doesn’t quite understand what he’s up against, when it comes to Jasper.”
“And you know something else? He doesn’t even know about Ebenezer and all of his tomfoolery or that Jasper is actually a mechanical genius in disguise,” Sara pointed out.
The Beans had chosen to keep their parents uninformed of most of what they had been up to as of late, when it came to their adventures in weirdness. After all, how could they adequately explain their run-ins with monsters, mad scientists, robots, and things of a similarly bizarre nature? It wasn’t that the Beans lacked trust in their parents... it was just that they didn’t think it would be possible to explain everything they had found themselves in the middle of.
They also knew there was a good chance their parents wouldn’t believe half of what they were told, and who could blame them? On the whole, it was quite unbelievable. If they hadn’t been present to witness all the weirdness firsthand, the Beans weren’t sure they would believe it themselves.
Of course, an even worse scenario would be if their parents did believe what they were told, and then chose to keep their children under close watch in an effort to protect them. That would quite possibly be the end of their adventuring, and the Beans most definitely were not ready to give that up.
Though Sara, Maria, Neil, and Jack all loved their parents greatly, they felt there were certain things they just couldn’t share with them. Besides, what had transpired as of late for the Beans were experiences they felt belonged to them.
Their group had been through trials and adventures that had tested them on every level, and brought their strong friendship to insurmountable heights. It would have somehow seemed wrong to share the experience with adults... other than Jack’s Uncle Lefty, of course, who was anything but normal, and something of a big kid himself.
“Dad won’t let us help because we’re kids,” Sara said, as she brought her arm forward and released the ball from her fingertips, throwing it to her sister. “Sure, we’ve faced down giant machines, and mad scientists, and monsters, and insane janitors. But Dad doesn’t know all that!”
“Hmm... true. He has a ton of confidence in us, but he still underestimates us. But who can blame him? To him, we’re still his little girls. He doesn’t realize how much crazy stuff we’ve seen and been through,” Maria said. “He’s also worried about our safety. He really took it hard, when that museum almost came down on our heads. Since that happened, he’s been especially protective.”
As the girls continued catching and tossing the baseball back and forth, they let their eyes roam over the field. The other players of their team were spread around, hooting and hollering as middle graders were apt to do. Some of them were playing catch on the outfield grass or the diamond of the infield, just as the sisters were.
Others were hanging out in the dugout, excitedly recounting the day’s events and the disturbance that had taken place during the assembly in the auditorium. And some of them were simply wrestling and monkeying around with their friends and teammates as they awaited the arrival of Coach and the commencement of practice.
It was good to be on the field among their teammates, doing something they enjoyed so very much. But it just wasn’t the same without Neil and Jack, and the sisters found themselves longing for the company of their closest friends.
“Coach will be here soon,” Maria noted. “Practice will be starting in just a few minutes.”
“And once that happens, our course will be set. We won’t be able to take off to go check on Dad without arousing Coach’s suspicions,” Sara said.
“Maybe we could go check on Dad, see how he’s doing, and then come back,” Maria suggested. “We shouldn’t miss too much… right?”
They threw the ball back and forth, debating their decision. Theirs was a bond so close, they could oftentimes intuit the thoughts of one another without even giving voice to them. They knew they were on the same page, and they knew what they were going to do.
Thwack! As Maria caught the ball, she nodded her head to her sister, who returned the gesture.
It was decided. Together, they grabbed their backpacks and departed the field, jogging for the school.
Chapter Nine
Formidable French Bread