The Prospect by Eliot Parker (epub ebook reader .txt) 📖

/> As the passion ensued, Shane could hear the grinding sound of brakes and pattering feet near the Triplet home. It was his belief that the state police and Morton had arrived, looking for his whereabouts. And yet, all Shane could care about was pleasing himself and enjoying the moment.
Shane knew that nobody was home. After all, Mamma was in Charleston receiving treatment for her mental disorder. Frank Miller had arranged for a mutual friend to pick Joann up at Charleston Area Medical Center and drive her back to Sheaville at the end of the day.
Once the two cars sped off, Olivia collapsed onto Shane for a final time, and the young pitcher moved against the trunk of the tree once again.
“I figured that you would come here and be around here someplace. Those rocks you threw really hurt,” whispered Olivia, exhausted but satisfied.
“Anytime,” Shane winked in response.

***********
Shane and Olivia spent the rest of the day watching the fading yellow sun slip behind the mountain, with just a few golden rays illuminating the ground in a brilliant dull orange.
“…I am really sorry about my father. If I had known the story, I would have told you. He never said anything to me about your family or your father. I sure wish he would have.”
“That’s okay,” Shane whispered, kissing Olivia on the back of the head, inhaling a large amount of her soggy thick hair while situating his interlocked hands under her voluptuous breasts near the base of her stomach.
“I just needed to know the truth. And there have been clues. I just did not face them. But when we were at the mill and I began looking around…I sensed things. It was almost like my dad was speaking to me there. He was telling me that something happened there. Something I needed to know about.”
Olivia jerked her neck around for a split second, looking into Shane’s eyes. They were soft and relaxed, but concealing a dull pain that was eating away at his always fiery intensity.
“Where are we going to go from here Olivia?” Shane asked rhetorically.
“Exactly where God wants us to go,” Olivia responded. “He has a plan for us. Right now, we are going to be family.” Her speech began to resemble toddler speech. “It is going to be you, and me, and our little one. Then I can begin to tell him or her about its daddy, and what a good man and a good baseball player he is.”
Shane snorted. “Yea, and how he runs from the law, is hated by its grandfather, as well as Biggie Rowan and probably half of everyone else in this town.”
“No way,” Olivia refuted. “We’re together.” She flipped over and faced Shane.
“I love you so much Shane. We are going to be okay. My dad is going to have to get used to you. But God is watching out for us. He always does.” She leaned up and kissed Shane lightly on the lips. Shane pulled away after the first kiss and then again softly tickled Olivia’s lips with his own.
“And what about Marshall? You have been accepted. I mean, it will be okay for a while, but when I play again…I may not be in Sheaville for the whole year. There is going to be times where you and the baby will be alone and I won’t be there. The thought of me missing the baby growing and crying…I just don’t know how I will feel about that.”
“It will be okay.”
“I wish that I had not pulled you into the mess that is my life. Everything in my life is one big screw up. First, mamma and her problems, and the next thing I know, you are pregnant. Mamma loses her job, I get into it with Biggie. Then, we are suspended, and reinstated. Now this with the fundraiser and your father...it’s like everyone in my life is doomed. I am so afraid that I am going to lose everyone in my life that cares about me.”
“Hey, hey…” replied Olivia, obviously concerned by Shane’s doomsday tone. “You are not going to lose anyone. We all love you Shane. Maybe you are having a hard time believing that, but everyone does. I do, your mamma does. Mr. Miller, Mr. Rodney, Ryan, Chaz, Harry, your manager…everyone does. You are not in this world alone. God puts people in our life to influence and inspire us, and to make us better, stronger people.”
“That is where Biggie and your father fit in, right?”
“Yes, even them,” Olivia reminded him. “Even if those people leave you, I will always be there. I will always be therefore you because I love you. And love is something that baseball, or my father, or mental illness, or the police, or anything else cannot take away or tame.”
“You are the love of my life,” she continued. “I always dreamed about meeting someone like you. Daddy believed or hoped that it would not happen until I was at Marshall, but it happened now. If you had not been so mean to me when I was delivering newspapers or when Chaz introduced us…..” Olivia’s voice trailed off and then reemerged. “My life would be empty. When we are apart, there is a whole in my heart. But when we are together, I am complete.”
Shane slid himself up the front of the tree, interrupting the conversation. “Listen, you had probably better be going. I do not want your dad any more upset at me than he probably already is.”
“Don’t you worry, I can handle him.” Shane helped Olivia stand up. She looked at Shane, almost disappointed that the moment had to end.
“Night,” whispered Shane. Olivia embraced him tightly as Shane rested his chin on her head.
“I love you,” she said and Shane watched her climb over the hillside into the impending darkness.
On her way past the Triplet house, Olivia noticed the back door was open. Her initial thought was that the police left it open when they were looking for Shane earlier. Puzzled, Olivia decided to investigate and at least close the door.
She walked up the chipped concrete steps sandwiched into the ground and stepped onto the sagging porch. Peering around the open door, she noticed a small light beaming from an adjacent room. In the shadows, she determined the entry room was the kitchen. She stepped into the room and reached for the handle when suddenly two hands grabbed her wrist.
Olivia screamed. The hands nearly pulled her into the adjoining room while nearly pulling the left arm out of socket, sending pain shooting up her elbow into her shoulder. Olivia stumbled, and when she regained her balance, Joann Triplet was standing in front of her, with a grimace on her face.
“Hey! What’s that for? Who are you?” Olivia shrieked.
An open hand smacked Olivia across the face, almost causing her to lose her balance once again.
“I’ll do the talking missy,” ordered Joann. Her voice was rigid. Shane’s mother appeared none to pleased to have a visitor.
Joann was still wearing her blue hospital gown. Olivia could determine that much from the small light on the floor of the room. Joann’s dark red hair was pulled tightly in a bun. With no evidence of makeup, the markings and indentations of wrinkles were evident.
“You must be the tramp that suckered my son into getting her pregnant!”
Pressing her fingers against her swollen lip checking for blood, Olivia obliged. “Yes, I am Olivia. Shane’s girlfriend.”
“Shane’s whore is more like it! Trash like you ought to be taken out with the rest of the garbage.”
“Mrs. Triplet, with all do respect…”
Joann grabbed Olivia by the shoulders and sandwiched her against the wall. Joann was husky and stronger than she looked, and her strength overpowered Olivia’s attempts to squirm and get away.
“Let me tell you something, Oooolivvvia,” offered Joann, hissing through gritted teeth. “I have had Mitchell blood ruin my life once, and I will be damned if I let it happen again. You two are the talk of the town, just like your dad and Roger were all those years ago. Think I do not know anything? I heard the entire story on the radio when I was coming back to Sheaville tonight. You dad said it all started at the mill wearhouse. I know what’s up there…what happened there. I then went to convince Jack Busby to give me my job back. Everyone in town was still talking about it, asking me where I was. Now, I am going to settle the score.”
Joann was whisked around violently and shoved away from Olivia. In the darkness, Olivia could not determine who the individual was, but she could discern the voice.
“Mamma, that is it!” Shane demanded. “Leave her alone. Get away from her and me. You are sick and have not taken your medicine!”
Angered and yet disappointed, Joann faded into the darkness of the next room.
“Shane…” Olivia called, relived and excited to see him. She attempted to throw her arms over his neck, but he waived them away.
“Olivia, you need to leave! Now!”
“But Shane, we need to talk about this…”
“We can talk later!”
“But….”
“Out Olivia! Damnit! Just get out!”
Olivia paused. Her face began to quiver as her mouth fell forward. She bolted from the room, out the kitchen door, and away from the house.
Shane stood in the small room, placed his hands behind his head, closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.
Once again, Shane thought, another mess.

XXXV
The Sheaville Loggers versus the Delmarva Shorebirds: a three game series that would determine the fate of both of these teams. The series winner was going to face the Charleston Alley Cats for the Appalachian Baseball Association championship and the loser was going to have a long winter to think about the series in preparation for next season.
Clark Field in Sheaville was a sellout. Over 5,000 fans packed the small, rickety ballpark to witness the return of Sheaville’s best player prospect, Shane Triplet. His return had been the topic of discussion at Miller’s Drugstore, Ruth’s Diner, Rodney’s Department Store and anywhere else that a large contingent of Loggers fans gathered on a daily basis.
The reinstatement of Shane and teammate Biggie Rowan made front page news in The Charleston Gazette. Over the past several weeks, the sports stories regarding the loggers featured embedded pessimism regarding the Logger’s chances of championship success without Shane and Biggie.
Bud Parker, commissioner of the ABA, when grilled about the suspensions in a feature story in the Gazette did not believe that his punishment of the Loggers’ or River Dogs players was extremely harsh, but he did eventually bow to public outrage from fans all across the association as well as sports writers and broadcasters. Many of the journalists accused the commissioner of being “short sighted” and losing relevance as commissioner of the baseball league. When these stories and fan letters crossed his desk, Parker was compelled to reinstate those players or face a further barrage of fan and media disdain.
Parker was not the only man who managed to escape anarchy. Morton Mitchell also survived being thrown out of office for his antics during the fundraiser for the Sheaville Fall Festival. After the Thursday afternoon fiasco, the mayor’s office was besieged with telephone calls and threatening visits demanding him to drop the charges against Shane. At the same time, they were congratulating him on becoming a grandfather. Facing ouster from office, something Frank Miller promised would happen if a town hall meeting was conveyed, the mayor dropped the charges against Shane and decided to let his smashed nose heal peacefully.
Amidst the turmoil, manager Walter Mann never lost control of his team. He remained