Baseball is Not Just for Boys

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

My mouth opened and I dropped my apple. My father? I haven’t talked to him in 4 years, back when I was 11. I couldn’t speak, I just stared out the window ahead of him, trying to find my voice. My father, Benjamin M. Love, met my mom back in high school. He was the football quarter back and the superstar of his school, very handsome and charming. He could get any girl in his bed if he wanted, but one girl interested him the most, my mother, Bethany M. Kilmer. She had long brown hair, beautiful green eyes and an amazing physique, no boy could resist, and she also was the captain of the cheerleading team. They started dating in their Junior year and continued into their Senior year, that year they got very drunk one night and they took it to the Ben’s bedroom at his house. A month later my mother found out she was pregnant with a baby. Nine months later she found out she was pregnant with not only one baby, but two. Ben promised he would support the family he made, around this time they had graduated high school and they were both in college. He promised he would be there for us, no matter what. They went to college and for awhile they thought everything would be alright.

On some weekdays while our parents would be at college, Blake and I spent the days with our grandparents, who are still alive. My mother graduated college with a degree in nursing and my father graduated with a degree in business. He was destined for greatness, but the pressure of starting his own business and raising two hyper kids had gone to his head. He turned to drugs, taking them and selling them. When I was in 11, I thought everything was perfect. Softball was my whole life, and football was Blake’s number one priority. We were at home doing our homework and mom was cooking tacos, we were just enjoying a normal Wednesday night until we got the call. The police called our house at 7:24 at night reporting that my father had be found selling drugs and was on them himself. He was going to jail for 4 years. I barely understood at that time, but I vowed that night that I would never talk to him again, even when he was out of jail. I did not want Ben Michael Love to be my father.

Now I stand in the kitchen, the phone in my hand shaking, my poor, poor apple on the floor and I am having flashbacks to the good days. I finally regained consciousness and snapped out of my daze. Should I answer him?

“H-H-Hello?” I shakily asked.

“Oh, Kat!”

“Yes?”

“I missed you, Kitty.” A sudden rage had come up into me and I gripped the phone until my fingers hurt.

“Don’t you dare call me that! What gives you the right to just call here and expect me-us to forgive you?”

“Kat, I know, I screwed up-“

“Screwed up? Screwed up?!” I laughed. “You did way more than ‘screw up’, you messed up your- our lives! I now live my life with out a father! I go to my games or Blake’s games and I look up into the stands and see all the fathers proud of their children. And all I think about is why my father is not here. Because he’s on drugs and is in jail-“

“Now you stop right there, young lady.” I stopped talking. “I know I messed up your lives, you think I don’t know that? I am constantly reminded of that. Kat, your, Blake’s, and your mother’s name is tattooed on my shoulder. I am reminded of it every single day!” I heard him yell.

“R-R-Really?” I stammered.

“Yes really, Kat!”

“Can mom call you back later?”

“I would like that, yes.” He calmed down.

“Ok, well I’ll tell her you called.”

“Thank you. Kat, I love you.”