Been In Love Before: A Novel by Bryan Mooney

Author:Bryan Mooney [Mooney, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503937314
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing, Seattle
Published: 2016-07-11T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Eian had called twice to make sure the grass on his Delray vacant lot had been cut and trimmed and the trash removed. The property manager had assured him that it was taken care of, but Eian had received a notice from the city that it would take legal action if the grass and trash situations were not addressed. What a pain. He decided to drive by on his way home, just to make sure everything was done. The lot was much more convenient to drive to from Ryan’s house than from where he had been living before.

He drove to Delray, turned onto Clinton, and saw for himself that the lot had indeed been cut, weeded, and cleaned up. He made a mental note to make sure the management company kept it that way. He sat in the car watching some neighborhood kids play baseball on the now-cleared lot and thought back to when he and his brothers had done the exact same thing so many years earlier at home. Those had been fun times. Great times. No, those had been the best times of his life. Hanging out with his brothers, playing baseball just for the fun of it. Before college, before the big leagues, before making the big money, just playing baseball for the sheer fun of playing, and throwing a baseball.

Eian decided to watch the boys awhile and got out of his car. He watched them throw, catch, hit the ball, and field the hits.

“Great catch!” he shouted without thinking, causing the group of boys to look in his direction. He clapped, and they smiled but kept on playing, stealing short glances in his direction. Finally, the tallest one in the group conferred with the catcher and set his bat down on an old piece of cardboard that served as home base to approach him.

“You’re Eian Macgregor, aren’t you, sir?”

“Yep, guilty as charged. Watching you guys play ball just now brought back memories of when my brothers and I were kids and we used to play in a small field down the street from our house. We had some great times.”

“Really?”

“You bet. You guys keep playing this way and you’ll make it to the big leagues when you get older and get out of college.”

“Hummph. College is for idiots,” said the tall one, now surrounded by the eight other boys.

“Oh, you think so?”

“Yes . . . sir.”

“Well, let me tell you, college is the best place to get not only a top-notch education but also some of the best baseball practice in the world.” They looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language.

“Come on, you guys know that the pro scouts come to all the big schools searching for talent, and if they like what they see, they’ll ask you to try out. Then one day that phone call comes, just when you least expect it. Somebody says on the other end of the line, ‘Hey, kid, we got a spot for you. Be here tomorrow.

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