Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack
for Karen – Happy Birthday!
Newly-commissioned Lieutenant Alex Hopper gleefully high-fived his new fellow officers as he and his older brother Lieutenant Commander Stone Hopper made their way through the upper deck concourse of AT&T Park to their seats, joining what seemed like every member of all four branches stationed or passing through the San Francisco Bay Area until Stone gave him a not-too-gentle nudge.
"It's Memorial Day, Alex. It's not about you." To prove his point, he went up to an older man wearing a USS Saratoga ball cap. "Sir, thank you for serving our country."
He shook Stone's hand firmly. "Thank you, Commander." He turned and grasped Alex's hand as well. "Thank you, young man."
"It's an honor to serve, sir," Alex said solemnly.
As they walked away Stone gave Alex a grudging nod. "Not bad, princess." Alex grinned, pleased with himself. Stone rolled his eyes.
They stopped for food, but Stone ordered everything, cutting Alex off whenever he tried to change things up. As they walked away from the concession stand Alex grumbled, "I don't see what's wrong with garlic fries."
Stone informed him, "This is the great American pastime; it's all about tradition: hot dogs, peanuts, beer." Before Alex could protest about Stone's beverage preference he said, "Seriously? Orange slices? That's not beer. End of discussion. "
As they entered the seating area Alex looked around, surprised. When they'd been down on the field earlier he hadn't really gotten a sense of the stadium, but now that they were up in the third deck he saw that the ballpark was hard by the San Francisco Bay and probably if he leaned far enough he'd see their ship docked by the Bay Bridge. It was a stunning view, almost as if the game was being played aboard ship. When he turned around to look at the stands civilian fans in their section started clapping for them. Alex waved happily and Stone touched his hat in acknowledgement.
There were several rows of white uniforms towards the top of the section and Alex started up, assuming he and Stone were sitting with them, but Stone nudged him and indicated with his chin the aisle seats in the fifth row. "Sweet!"
A fan behind them thanked them for their service, and the brothers Hopper acknowledged the thanks and the brief stories people told them — my father was in the Navy, my sister's in the Army, served aboard the Carl Vinson, son…
The Giants were making the Diamondbacks look bad, scoring three runs in the first. In the middle of the second a dark-haired girl wearing a furry panda-head hat and a young woman with her blonde hair artlessly tucked into a faded baseball cap approached their row. Alex couldn't help noticing that even a shapeless Tim Lincecum jersey couldn't hide the fact that the blonde woman was absolutely slammin'.
"Officer and gentleman, Lieutenant," Stone reminded Alex in a stern undertone.
"Yes, sir," he answered automatically just as the woman excused herself and her young charge.
Stone, knowing his brother, didn't take him at his word and yanked him to his feet to let the ladies pass as he said politely, "Not at all, ma'am."
"Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am," Alex managed.
"No problem. Just don't call me 'ma'am' anymore," she said, her tone more amused than bothered as she and the little girl took the seats next to the brothers.
Stone shot a warning look at Alex. Out of your league.
Just watch me.
Flame out? My pleasure.
The little girl leaned around the blonde woman to stare at the two men. "Who are you?"
He gave her what he hoped was his most winning smile. "I'm Alex, and this is my brother Stone. Who are you?"
"Grace."
"And you are…?" Alex asked the blonde woman, taking advantage of the opening.
"I'm Hunter."
Before he could offer to shake her hand Grace explained, "I got all A's so I get to go to the game with Hunter because Mom doesn't like baseball." Then she narrowed her eyes at him and Stone and he realized he was going to need a lot more than charm to win her over. "Are you ballplayers?"
"Are we…?" He looked a question at Hunter, who asked for him,
"Why do you think they're ballplayers, Gracie?"
"I don't," she insisted. "They're wearing home white but there's no team on their jerseys. And their hats are funny."
Alex chuckled. "This is a different kind of uniform, Grace. We're in the Navy."
"What's that?"
"It's where we work. We work on a ship, out on the ocean."
The little girl seriously considered it. "When you go to work, are there whales?"
"Whales, dolphins — all kinds of fish."
"Whales aren't fish, they're mammals," she informed him.
Stone, of course, had to add, "Dolphins are mammals, too, Alex."
Grace gave Stone a solemn but approving look, then turned to the field. And almost immediately turned back to him. "You threw out the first pitch, didn't you?"
He nodded modestly. "That was me."
"Most people can't really throw, but you threw a fastball with the bottom dropped out. Was it a sinker?"
Stone, surprised at her observation, admitted, "Actually, I was trying for a cutter and I —"
As unobtrusively as possible, Alex switched places with Grace. At Hunter's raised eyebrow, he shrugged and explained, "A good wingman knows when to throttle back, let the lead plane take point."
She looked at him, incredulous. "Did you just insult me?"
"What? No! Did I?"
She wavered between laughter and indignation as she demanded, "Isn't it the wingman's job to distract the ugly secondary target so the lead plane can zero in on the incredibly hot primary target?"
Sometimes, he actually was quick on his feet. "When you have to salute your own brother you're always the wingman, even if the 'secondary target' looks as amazing as you."
She mimed tipping her cap to him for extricating himself. "You're good, Admiral."
"It's 'Lieutenant,' actually."
"Do I need to salute or anything?"
"Please don't." They laughed and Hunter handed over a hot dog to Grace, who barely paid attention to it as she tried to copy the pitching grip Stone was demonstrating.
"Gracie, eat up or your mom will kill me," Hunter urged. The little girl heaved a huge put-upon sigh.
Hunter held out a cardboard tray to Alex. "Garlic fries?"
"I would love some garlic fries," he said with all seriousness, helping himself.
"So while your brother was throwing out the first pitch…?"
"I was down on the field, too. I was supposed to stand with him but I was attacked by some overgrown wharf rat — "
She gave a snort of laughter. "That was our mascot, Lou Seal."
"You mean that big gray furry thing is given free license to jump innocent bystanders?"
"He only picks on people he likes," she assured him.
They watched as the Giants scored another run in the bottom of the inning, talking easily between batters, until Hunter considered him appraisingly. "I'd think it'd be hard to be a baseball fan when you're in the middle of the ocean for weeks at a time."
"Well, I might suffer from overwhelming whale ignorance – " She just managed not to laugh at him again. " – but I can keep up pretty well with a ball game, even if I don't know all the players." He sighed. "My game's football, so chalk one up for Stone."
"A little competition between you two?"
"All on my side," he found himself admitting. "Stone always knew exactly what he wanted, and I never did. For a while there I was just busy being his opposite — he flew so perfect I had to fly wild. And then he got fed up with me after I got tasered and — "
"You what?"
Alex looked abashed. "Yeah. Anyway, he signed me up and got me on the straight and narrow. He was right to do it, too. I needed the discipline. But now that we serve together…" He shrugged. "He's never had anything to prove and I do. Can't help it. Want to be like him; want to be better than him."
"That's pretty typical for brothers." Her gaze was unexpectedly warm as she added, "But maybe instead of being a better Stone, you should just work on being Alex."
He looked in her eyes for a long second, appreciating what she'd said, then laughed, letting the moment pass. "Nah." The Jumbotron caught his eye, where two Air Force officers were waving from what looked like overstuffed recliners, having won the Ultimate Seat Upgrade. "So how do I get my picture on the scoreboard?"
"Besides throwing out the first pitch?" He nodded. "Sing the national anthem."
"What else?"
Hunter considered. "A good homemade sign."
"That would be 'no.'"
"If you were on club level you could make a sign, they have a place with poster board and markers and stickers and photos — " She saw he was seriously considering sneaking down there and said quickly, "Kidding! Just kidding." He grimaced at being taken in and she volunteered, "Holding a baby in team colors usually gets you on the scoreboard, too."
"They have any of those for rent on the club level?" he asked, taking the joke at his expense.
"Or, just act like an idiot between innings and hope a cameraman finds you amusing."
"Now that I can do."
But before he could put his plan into action, Grace suddenly demanded, "Hunter, where's Frodo?"
Hunter checked around them, and then sighed. "We must have left him at the mini ballpark. We'll go get him next inning, after you've finished your hot dog."
As Grace finally took a bite of her hot dog Alex asked, "Frodo?"
"Grace's stuffed Lou Seal, she calls him Frodo. We were down there before the game —" She gestured towards the kids' play area in left field. "— before we came up here."
Grace actually looked scared. "But what if something happens to Frodo?"
"He'll be fine, Gracie."
"What if he's lonely? What if nobody's feeding him?"
It wasn't even as if Alex made a conscious decision; he just assured Hunter, "I got this," and excused himself as he hastily made his way down to the concourse.
Hunter looked over at Stone. "Your brother — impulsive much?" Stone just shook his head.
They watched as Alex, who had seen Lou Seal on the concourse, pushed his way to the mascot's side. The big seal held out his arms as if to give him a huge hug, but at the last minute he knocked Alex's hat off, got him in a headlock and gave him a noogie. Alex managed to extricate himself and as he picked up his hat he spoke rapidly with Lou and his handlers, gesturing up to their section and pointing at Grace, who was staring disconsolately at the mini ballpark. Then Alex took off.
Lou Seal came tromping up the stairs. Kids waved and yelled at him but he shaded his eyes as if searching for someone in particular. Then he pointed, and climbed all over Stone to get his flippers on Grace, who giggled with delight as he knocked off her panda hat and planted a big kiss on her cheek.
When Alex finally came back up the stairs he held out a gray stuffed animal in a Hawaiian shirt. "Hey, Grace! This your friend?"
"Frodo!" she cried, hugging the seal tight. "Was he okay?"
"He was sitting on a bench watching everybody bat. But you were right, nobody fed him, so I got him some ice cream." He held out a big hot fudge sundae. "He couldn't finish it, though. Do you want to help him?"
She started to take it from him, and then remembered her manners. "Do you?" she asked politely.
He held up several spoons. "I think we all can help him finish it," he assured her. She gladly accepted the sundae.
"Thank you, Alex," she said shyly.
"You're welcome, Gracie."
"My brother the hero," Stone said, both teasing and proud.
"You know me, always gotta rescue something," he replied, sitting back down beside Hunter and handing her a spoon. He found her regarding him thoughtfully and he cocked an eyebrow.
"I like you," she decided. "You didn't have to go after a stuffed seal but you did. You made a little girl happy. Thanks."
He felt himself turning red, but he held her gaze. "My pleasure, Hunter. Seriously."
"And you know what? I'm going to help you get your picture on the scoreboard."
She dragged him to his feet between every inning and they sang along to "Minnie the Moocher" and punched the air for the Fist Pump Cam and boogied to "Canned Heat" and cheered the paddleboard race in McCovey Cove and air guitared to "Lights" and swayed along to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." But it seemed as if the camera operators were showing every other member of the military but Alex.
After the Diamondbacks hit a home run off a gassed Barry Zito but Clay Hensley managed to hold the line and end the top of the eighth, Hunter slumped against Alex in relief. And then Frank Sinatra started singing "Strangers in the Night."
"We going to stand up?" Alex asked, still game.
"Nope," she said, staying pressed against his side. "Wait for it."
He did, and then realized it was the Kiss Cam. They all laughed as a woman refused to kiss her husband, indicating his Dodgers hat as the reason. They showed several other couples kissing, then a man and woman in Army fatigues sharing a bag of kettle corn. A cheer went up from the military in the stadium but the man and woman looked startled and the woman made a cut-off motion, emphatically shaking her head as their friends howled. Then the camera found a Navy lieutenant and a civilian in a Giants jersey sitting close.
"Yahtzee," Hunter said, turning to look at Alex with a challenge in her eyes. Smiling, he lifted her chin, tilted his head so their hats wouldn't bump, and kissed her.
The military cheered again. "Oh, gross," Grace complained.
Hunter's eyes were bright as she looked at Alex. "Worth it?"
"Absolutely."
After the Giants won and they had sung "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," Grace and Hunter consulted briefly and then Grace told Stone and Alex, "We're having a barbecue at my house, can you come?"
"If you have to be back on board your ship at a certain hour — " Hunter began.
Alex traded glances with Stone, who gave him a slight nod. "Not until midnight. And we'd love to," he said.
Grace raced Stone down the steps to the concourse. Alex put a hand on Hunter's arm before she could follow.
"Listen," he said. "Even without the whole scoreboard thing…I wanted to kiss you anyway, Hunter. And I'd like to again."
She looked pleased and shy as she suggested, "Maybe without hats next time."
He took off her baseball cap and her blonde hair tumbled down around her shoulders. She reached up and removed his hat, then guided his face down to hers.
"Yuck," Grace declared.
"Double yuck," Stone agreed, covering Frodo's eyes.
FIN