The Jaguar Versus the Wolf

Chapter 32 – Base Ball?

Orbiting Satellites Book Two, Chapter 32 - False security companion


It's been a month since I tried my hand at cooking and still hadn't found anything else to do. Sure taking my advanced age into consideration, compared to a human's lifespan, percentage wise one month wouldn't be that long; but thirty days of sitting around this house not doing anything was beyond boring.

Okay so it wasn't like I was not doing anything. I didn't want to fall back into my previous depression and sleep the days away. I decided that maybe the Cullen's were onto something with their various activities and decided to try my hand at each of them.

It didn't go well.

Surprisingly Bella's reading hobby came the closest to not making me want to gouge my eyes out.

She had been nice enough to suggest some books to read and while I found the ones she suggested abhorrent others in the three houses various collections held slightly more interest for me.

"I thought Rose was the only one who read those trashy romance novels," Emmett said when he came into the library just as I was getting to the good part. "What's the matter? Life's a little uninteresting now that you can't kill anybody? Or are you just running out of ideas to keep your hand entertained."

Huh? What was he talking about? And why did he think that was so funny?

I slammed the book shut, and got right in his face. "Is there something I can help you with?"

He rolled his eyes, obviously not seeing me as a threat. Not that I was one, but still…

"Relax, Alice says there's gonna be a thunderstorm later and I was just going around and rounding up players, but I can see you'll be busy," he chuckled. "Just kidding, we're leaving around nine if you're coming."

"I don't think…"

"Come on," he whined. "Joham's still out there somewhere. If you don't come then someone's gonna get stuck here protecting you."

"Fine," I huffed.

"Sweet, off babysitting duty;" he chuckled under his breath. I didn't understand what was so funny but he took off before I could ask.

"So how do you play this game?" I asked no one in particular when everyone got out of their various vehicles at the empty field.

It was pretty large. We'd driven for over an hour to get to it. Whatever we were going to be doing it seemed we needed a wide open space. There were few small hills, now and then, but for a state as mountainous as New Hampshire, finding a space as flat as this was pretty remarkable. Looking towards my feet I saw there were stubs of crops, most likely corn, poking out of the ground. It was April and these were old, left over from last year's yield. Either nothing new had been planted or it was too early for them to start springing up this year.

Almost everyone gave me a strange look like I was stupid for not knowing how the game worked, but why would I? It's not like my Aunt and I played it in the middle of the rainforest. Carlisle was nice enough to fill me in on the basic details. "It's pretty straightforward. I'm sure you'll pick it up as we go," he added when he finished, and tossed a small white ball to me. I caught it, looked at it, noticing the strange red stitching, and tossed it back. "Why don't you take left field to start."

Left field?

"Over there," Edward gestured to the opposite end of the clearing, with his head.

Just as I feared the game was as boring as I first thought.

The other team was up at bat first. Alice pitched. Jasper immediately hit the ball on his first try, which Edward, as fast as her ran was unable to catch. He threw it to Esme, who was doubling as both teams catcher and umpire, but Jasper managed to score a home running. Then the dog was up. Ha! He swung at the ball but it sailed passed him and landed in Esme's hand. It did the same thing two more times and he was kicked out for now. Rose hit her ball on the third try but it went to the other side of the field by Emmett who threw it to Edward. He wasn't fast enough though and she managed to safely get to the middle base. This went on for a while. None of the hit balls came anywhere near me. Left field seemed to be the position you put players in that only needed to stand there and not do anything.

Finally it was our teams turn to hit the ball. Edward, Bella, Alice, and Emmett all managed to hit the ball, Edward more than once, but when I was up at bat it seemed every time I swung at the ball I always managed to be a fraction of a second too late. I thought, at first, it was just because I was a hybrid and they all full vampires - naturally faster and stronger than me, but when Renesmee and the dog managed to connect their bats with the ball on their next turns that theory seemed to fly out the window.

In the end, after many, many hours, Jasper, Carlisle, Rose, Renesmee, and the dog's team lost 14 to our teams 17. Finally we could go home.

"You did a wonderful job for your first time," Esme graciously told me once the nine exasperatingly long innings were up.

"Yeah, for a beginner," Emmett scowled, while giving a wad of cash to Jasper. "You played better than I thought you would."

How did I play better than he thought? I didn't score a single run or catch a single ball. I didn't do anything. The only thing I did manage to do was stay out of everybody's way.

"That's what he means," Edward quietly told me, with a hint of a smirk. "He thought you would have kept our team from winning."

While I'd ridden in the car with Emmett, Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme to the field, on the way back I decided to go with Bella and Edward. I'd seen Renesmee and the dog piling into Rosalie's car with Alice. This seemed safer judging by the looks Emmett was giving me.

"What was it you were doing in the outfield," Bella asked me out of the blue as we drove.

"What do you mean?"

"He was composing," Edward answered for me.

"That wasn't what I was doing," I corrected him. "I was just bored and needed something to take my mind off of things." It was something I would do back in the rainforest when there wasn't a lot going on. There's always noise in the jungle - birds singing, insects chirping; the forest was always making music. I just had to pick through it and clear away all of the clutter to be able to sing along in my head. During the game with all of the sounds of the raindrops, thunder and lightning, stomping on the ground, and the swishing of the bat through the air, I didn't have anything else to do when it wasn't my turn at bat, so my mind tended to wander and natures songs broke through.

"I really liked them," Edward said. "You're more musical than I realized. I know you've been searching for a purpose in life. Perhaps song writing could be it."

"It's not that impressive. It's just something I do." I don't even think about it.

"Well then, that makes it even more impressive. You have quite an amazing gift Nahuel," he replied to my thoughts.

"It's not a gift. What you're doing right now," intruding into my mind, "is a," rather annoying, "gift." That worked as well as I hoped and it put an end to this ridiculous conversation, sitting in silence for the remainder of the drive.

But maybe it wasn't so ridiculous after all. Not that I'd admit it to him of course, but once we were back home and I was left staring at the ceiling above my bed with nothing to do I started thinking about it and maybe he had a point.