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

walking another circle around the dance floor. Without warning, the background music changed. Bryan Adams’s ballad “Do I Have to Say the Words” melodically echoed through the speakers. Shane’s went over to Olivia and grabbed her. She gasped and he pulled her close to him.
“Let’s dance.”

XXXI

Holding Olivia by the wrists, Shane dragged them onto the dance floor. Shane awkwardly positioned his left hand on her waist and then held his right hand tightly around her right hand. He carefully negotiated his proximity around her now swollen stomach.
“Whoa,” Olivia gasped.
“You came to Charleston to see the championship game,” Shane said, talking in the middle of his thought. “Why didn’t you see me after the game or talk to me before it started?”
Dodging the question, Olivia replied “Shane, you were terrific. I was really proud of you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that yourself.”
Shane leaned closer towards Olivia. He remembered how good it felt being in Olivia’s arms. She smelled sweet and her skin was always so soft. Shane nuzzled his cheek in her hair and breathed deeply.
“Shane, I am sorry that I made you choose between you and your mother.” Shane pulled back and he could hear Bryan Adams begin the chorus of the song.
“You didn’t. I did not have to choose. I chose you both. I will always choose you both.”
Olivia rested her head on Shane’s chest. The shirt was a bit moist, but Shane smelled like lye soap. “I was so afraid that you were going to abandon me after I got pregnant. I have been so afraid all along.” Olivia felt tears flood the corners of her eyes. “I just do not want that fear anymore.”
Shane placed his hands on Olivia cheeks. From a distance, Morton Mitchell looked on with a disdainful expression. Frank Miller walked up behind the mayor and observed Shane and Olivia’s tender moment.
“Leave it ‘lone mayor. She’s ready.”
Morton scoffed and folded his arms. Meanwhile, Shane leaned in and gave Olivia a passionate kiss. Olivia interlocked her fingers in-between Shane’s while they kissed.
Bryan Adams song was echoing the phrase “how good we are together” when Shane pulled away from the kiss. “I thought maybe you had met someone at Marshall.”
Olivia flashed a bright, wide smile. “Strike one.”
Shane reached into the inside shirt pocket of his yellow Pollo shirt, another gift from Phil Rodney. “Hey, I have something for you.”
Shane opened his palm and unlocked his fingers. Olivia placed her hands together. From Shane’s fingertips fell Olivia’s necklace, the necklace she lost several months ago when delivering the newspaper bill.”
Olivia’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She fixated a stunned look that met Shane’s gaze instantly. “I thought I had lost this. You had it this whole time?”
Shane felt like a little boy keeping a secret from his mother. “Yea, honestly, I had forgotten about it until just the other day.”
“I love you, Shane” Olivia said softly and sweetly.
Shane and Olivia’s fingers tangled around the chain as they kissed once again.
Olivia suddenly felt Shane’s body weight collapse. She secured her hands around Shane’s back, but he fell to one knee and began coughing.
Shane felt a coarse, unrelenting pain burst through his entire body. To him, it felt like his stomach exploded. Gasping for air, he looked up and reached for Olivia, who stood stunned. A crowd of spectators rushed over, including Joann, Chaz, and Ryan.
“S…somebody call 9..911! Ryan screamed repeatedly.
In a fit of physical shock and emotional stress, Shane began coughing harshly. Phil took a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to Shane.
“Just breathe, Shane. Take deep breaths.”
Shane coughed into the napkin repeatedly. Olivia looked at her father, who displayed an inquisitive look on his face.
“What’s wrong with Shane, daddy?”
“Please, someone do something!” Joann screamed hysterically.
When Shane pulled the handkerchief away from his mouth, still gasping for air and holding his ribs, he noticed several splotches of fresh blood covering the cloth surface.

**********
As the Sheaville Fall Festival concluded back in Sheaville, Frank Miller brought Olivia, Chaz, and Joann with him directly from the saw mill warehouse to the hospital in Charleston. Joann was insistent that Frank follow the ambulance to Charleston, which proved a daunting task because the ambulance was weaving in and out of traffic at frighteningly dangerous speeds and Frank, not accustomed to driving the Interstate, was overwhelmed with the task.
The ambulance was in route to Charleston Area Medical Center in downtown Charleston. By time Frank’s car reached the hospital, Shane’s ambulance had disappeared. Joann jumped out of the car, burst through the sliding glass doors outside of the CAMC Emergency Room and found herself in a sea of chaos and confusion. Children crying, phones ringing, and people flying past her peripheral vision was an altogether different, over stimulating experience from her time spent in the facility seeking counseling and treatment for borderline personality disorder.
She approached the information desk with Frank, Olivia, and Chaz right behind her. The square-jawed, chubby receptionist instructed them to Shane’s room.
The group had not spoken much since leaving Sheaville. As they passed the winding hallway on the fifth floor of the hospital, Joann noticed the pale, white phosphorescent light permeating throughout the hallway that made everyone, staff, patients, and visitors appear ill. Shane’s room was the last room on the end of the hallway.
Joann paused before walking through it. With tears streaming down her face, she gulped and faced the group; all of them nervously anticipating the next step.
“I can’t go in there and see him, I just can’t.” Her hands covered her face as she sobbed heavily.
Frank approached Joann to console her. Wrapping his arm around her, he motioned for Chaz and Olivia to go in first.
Chaz nodded, placed his hand on Olivia’s back, and nudged her gently through the door. When they arrived in the room, Shane did not resemble himself.
The room was small, with generically painted white walls with an aroma of plastic. Shane was reclined in the hospital bed with tubes jutting outward from all over his body. A small screen monitor beeped in the background with green and blue lines dancing quickly across it. Shane’s mouth was open but crowded with a breathing tube and his arms were laying by his side.
“Oh God!” Olivia screeched. “Shane!!!”
Chaz stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around Olivia’s waist. “We don’t have to see this. Let’s go outside until you’re ready.”
Olivia flung Chaz’s arms away. “No, I am not leaving him!” Afraid she might awaken Shane, she lowered her voice to a stern whisper and faced Chaz.
“I am not leaving him. Not now. Go and find out when he can come home…please.”
“Olivia, I am not sure it’s a good idea leaving you in here alone. You’re upset, let me stay.”
“Go!” With that, she pointed towards the door.
Alone with Shane for the first time, under the most adverse circumstances, Olivia reached for his hand. Squeezing it tightly, she massaged his fingers.
“Hey! It’s me.” Olivia wiped a tear from her cheek as her lip quivered. “I…I am sorry that our perfect moment ended not so perfectly. But its okay and you are going to be okay. You remember when you asked me about seeing someone at Marshall. Well, there is nobody else. There is not anyone in my life more perfect than you. I do not care about my father or anybody else thinks of us, I am in love with you and we are going to have a future together…all three of us. You are going to be the best dad and our child is going to grow up in a home full of love.” Olivia saw Shane inhale and exhale, but he remained motionless.
“I am so glad you came back to Sheaville and walked into my life. I do not want to think about anything now but getting you better and getting you home so that you can pitch next season, play the game you love, and you know what, the baby and I will be there for every game we can and for every practice.
Olivia heard a creaking sound over her shoulder. She abruptly stood up as Chaz, Frank, and Joann limped into the room. Frank gently closed the door behind them.
Joann walked towards Olivia. Her pristine makeup had faded and smeared and her once finely pressed dress was now a disheveled mass of cloth stuck on her skin.
“I am so sorry…so very sorry.” She wiped her nose. Olivia looked at Frank, who was staring at the floor and Chaz, with his arms held piously by his side, saying nothing and showing no emotions.
“I don’t know how to tell you, but the doctor told us in the hall that Shane….see he…he had, or has cancer. The doctor said the tumor started in his liver, it grew and quick and it’s spread to his ribs and other….other organs…and….” Joann could not finish the thought. She began whaling and covering her face with her hands. Olivia also began sobbing heavily.
Frank completed the thought, in an extremely low voice, devoid of emotion. “There is nothing they can do for him.”

XXXII
Bradeon Morton Triplet was born in March, nearly two weeks before the start of another Sheaville Loggers baseball season.
Olivia’s first day back in Sheaville after the birth of Bradeon in Charleston in early March was an exhausting occasion, physically and emotionally. In Charleston, Olivia endured eleven hours of labor before delivering a stocky eight-pound baby boy with several tufts of black hair. The timing of the birth also made it impossible for Olivia to finish the semester at Marshall University, so she withdrew, and decided to reenroll in the fall.
News of Olivia’s return spread throughout Sheaville. Her first day back in town featured a bevy of phone calls and home visits from neighbors as well as unopened cards that needed reading. The entire experience was overwhelming.
After making sure Olivia and Bradeon were at home and comfortable, Morton went into town, but returned home that afternoon. Morton’s arrival which followed with a visit by Jack Busby, who brought several platters of sandwiches and french fries.
As Jack was leaving, Frank Miller slid slyly into the door frame behind him. Frank and Jack exchanged smiles, with Frank patting Jack on the shoulder.
Morton walked over, kissed his daughter lightly on the cheek and then secured his hands around Bradeon and lifted him form Olivia’s lap. Bradeon was asleep, and his chubby, square face was light pink and his cheeks bright red.
“Hello Olivia,” Frank greeted affectionately. “Congratulations!”
Olivia stood up and gave Frank a half hug as her expression met his grandfatherly gaze.“It’s good to be home. I’m a bit tired, and sore.” She glanced back at her father, who was cooing with Bradeon and swinging the baby gently.
Frank leaned towards Olivia. Whispering, he asked “can you come to town with me…to the Clark Field?”
Olivia scowled, confused, but she agreed after getting reassurances that her father and Bradeon were okay.
As Frank and Olivia walked closer towards the ballpark, Olivia noticed that Clark Field stood like an old, faded steel monument. The ballpark was silent and the crisp, biting early March air sliced through the crevasses of the ballpark like a saw blade through a firm piece of wood and shot spurts of bitter air into Olivia and Frank’s faces.
Frank approached the partially rusted player’s entrance gate near the main concourse. Olivia, still uncertain of what she was doing at the ballpark, began crying.
“Mr. Miller, I…I do not think I am able….”
“It’s all right, this will not take long,” Frank replied, reassuringly.
As they stepped inside the ballpark, the field was covered in