CHAPTER FOUR
The Curve
“Watch out for the curve!” David yelled to his son from behind home plate. Then he turned to his wife. “Not many high school pitchers even have a curve, but Jackson’s is pretty good.”
Even after ten years of Little League and school baseball, Clara still didn’t understand all the nuances of pitch selection, but she smiled at David’s enthusiasm and played along. “Hope he doesn’t throw the curve, then!”
David looked at her in surprise. “Well, if he HANGS it, Dan can take him deep. He just has to watch for it.”
On the mound, Jim Jackson went into his windup and strode toward home plate to deliver the 2-1 offering. From his vantage point slightly above the field, David could see the pitcher’s grip and recognized the pitch as a curve ball. He flinched as it dipped inside, then watched horrified as Dan began his swing early and, by the time the ball was even with the plate, his son was twisted around facing away from the ball. A sickening crack confirmed what David feared: the pitch crashed into the right side of Dan’s head, and the boy staggered around his bat for a couple of seconds before dropping it to the ground.
A moment later, Dan sprawled across the plate, motionless.
“No!” Clara screamed, and David squeezed her knee for reassurance.
“Hold on, Clara,” he said. “I’m sure Dan will bounce right back up.”
But Dan didn’t bounce right back up, and when Coach Croft came out of the dugout several seconds later, David leaped over the empty bleachers in front of him and sprinted to the field. The small crowd in the stands were all on their feet, and David could hear a mix of whispers and gasps. Both Clara and Gabbie, who had been seated along the third base line, were calling Dan’s name as they made their way toward home plate.
By the time David got to his son, the Eagles’ coach, the home plate umpire, and a couple of teammates were already gathered around. Together, they turned Dan on his back and shook his hands gently, trying to get a response from the boy, but his body was limp. Coach Croft grabbed one of Dan’s wrists, held it for a few seconds, and leaned in to put his ear close to Dan’s mouth. He looked to David and said, “He has a pulse, but it’s weak. And he’s breathing, but it’s shallow and jagged.”
Then, turning to one of the players who had gathered around, Croft held up a key chain and directed, “Take these keys and open up my office, dial 0, and tell the operator that we need an ambulance. You got it?”
The young man nodded vigorously and grabbed the keys, then sprinted off toward the building.
Gabbie and Clara rushed onto the scene and poked their heads through the small crowd of boys and men, trying to get a glimpse of Dan’s face. Clara pushed her way through to her son and crouched down at his side, caressing his cheek. She looked to David, who nodded, and she moved in close to Dan’s ear and whispered, “It’s OK , honey. Mommy’s here.”
Gabbie shrieked when she saw Dan’s face, prompting David to stand up and put an arm around her shoulder. He turned her away from the scene on the field and spoke softly to her.
“Gabbie,” he said. “You need to calm down, OK? There is nothing we can do for Dan right now other than wait for the ambulance to get here, and carrying on like this will only make it harder for everyone else. I’m sure Dan is going to be fine, but only if we keep clear heads and do what we can to get him the proper help. Sound OK?”
Gabbie took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, yes, you’re right,” she said. “It’s just that …”
“I know, Gabbie,” David said. “But I need to get back to Clara.” He pulled away from the girl and pointed to the stands. “Why don’t you go sit down until the ambulance gets here, and then we can figure out what we’re going to do, alright?”
She nodded again and ambled toward the bleachers while David walked back to Dan and crouched down again to slip an arm around Clara’s waist.
For 15 long minutes, David and Clara huddled around their son, talking to him and watching for any tiny movement. Clara stroked his face, and David told him stories from the current Major League Baseball season, about how the Cincinnati Reds would be in a dog fight all year with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League West crown. They did all this to give Dan some comfort assuming he even knew they were there, but mostly to avoid thinking about how bad he might be hurt and why it was taking so darn long for help to arrive.
Finally, an ambulance from the Pickens County Hospital screamed to a stop on the driveway between the school building and the ball diamond, and the driver backed the rig up through the grass and parked along the fence, as close as possible to home plate. Two paramedics hopped out of the vehicle and hurried to the huddle of people in front of the backstop. Seeing them, David took his wife by the hand and helped her stand to the side.
While one of the medics checked Dan’s vital signs, the other unfolded a stretcher in the grass beside the boy and began palpating his extremities.
“Shallow breaths, and a slow, unsteady heartbeat,” the first said.
The second nodded and said, “I don’t find any displaced fractures, and he isn’t showing any edema. Let’s get him loaded up and get a mask on him.”
“What’s going on?” Clara wanted to know. “Is he going to be OK?”
The first paramedic answered as they were straightening Dan’s body and moving him onto the stretcher.
“We don’t know the extent of his injuries yet, ma’am,” he told her. “For now, we need to make sure that he’s getting enough oxygen and transport him to the hospital so the emergency room doctors can check him out more thoroughly.”
“We’ll follow behind you,” David said and guided his wife away from the field. As the paramedics lifted Dan up on the stretcher to carry him away, Clara reached out to touch his arm and blew him a kiss he never saw.
“Come on, honey,” David said, tugging on her arm.
On the way to the parking lot, David stopped to tell Gabbie their plan. She wanted to ride to the hospital with the Hodges, but David reminded her that her mother would soon return to the school to pick her up. Meg Jordan would be panicked if she showed up to find Gabbie gone. Gabbie finally agreed to wait for her mom, but vowed to come to the hospital later.