Going back to Cruz field is like stepping into a time machine. I can't to this day figure out why I waited so long to come back. Maybe it was fear, maybe it wasn't. Who knows?
Everything was exactly like we left it. The bases, though old, were still intact and the fence was still standing tall, guarding the tomb of our dreams.
I was the first to arrive. I only had to wait a couple of minutes before Cameron showed up followed close by Devon, Elliott, Flip, Grayson, Hayden, and Isaac. We huddled around home for a while just thinking. Waiting. There were only eight of us. We were missing one person. One person, that would never come.
I can still remember Andy like we were still here. Quick as hell when running the bases. Powerful as...anything. Graceful, yea graceful. She was beautiful. Long brown air always pulled back into a ponytail. Green eyes the likes of which have never been seen.
We took our usual places and just played catch for a while.
"Jesus I miss her" I was the first to speak
"yea" was all I could understand from the rest of the team.
We never thought we'd grow apart like this. And who knows? We might not have if she was still here.
"Y'all remember that time I broke my arm trying to get her out?" Hayden said
We all smiled.
"That one Saturday morning, we all woke up and came to the field. She was first and always early. "C'mon! lets' go!" Andy went right to it. She hit the ball right to me that day. I still had those thick glasses with the broken lens.
After we got ready, we started to play. We played hard that day. I had at least six bruises in one hour. Andy kept 'em comin' though. Just one time I wish I'd get her out to show y'all that I wasn't a complete dork. So when she hit it that last time, I called for it. Isaac threw it straight to me at second and I knew she was right there. She slid into that plate and kicked my foot. I completely lost my balance and fell over. . . right onto my arm.
When we were at the hospital, Andy kept telling me that I got her out. I knew she was lying. She knew I knew she was lying.
"Who could forget that?"said Devon. "We knew you broke something. We heard it crack."
We broke out into laughter.
"I never could understand it." said Flip "You always cried when you got hit by the ball but, when you broke your arm, we didn't see a tear. But we never thought you were a dork" he tossed the ball to Grayson.
"At least he didn't cry like Jordan did. That was just plain funny." he threw the ball to Elliott.
"That was your day Devon" he said. Threw it back to him
"Yea. I still remember. That was the day I found out my parents were getting divorced. I didn't think I would be able to play cuz I was so mad. I really wanted to hit something but Andy told me to take it out on Jordan's team.