Under The Southern Sun

Under The Souther Sun: Chapter One

1953

 My small town really was a small town. We only had one school located in our town, and Lincoln High School, the school I was currently enrolled in, was located in the next town over. We had this little soda shop downtown called Turner’s Corner, where most of us kids hung out. Adults tended to stick to other places that we children or teenagers didn’t dare to enter. To me personally though, my most favorite place in the whole town was the baseball field located behind my high school. It was a simple field. From the worn down dusty dirt that would fly up behind you when you rounded the bases, or the rusty cages that we stood behind screaming as we cheered on our other teammates.

 Why did I love this baseball field so much? It was just so easy to lose yourself in the game. But there was always more to why I loved the distraction of the baseball field. I really did love the game. I played with the guys all the time, and had been playing as first baseman on my school’s team since I was fourteen and entering the school. Now, at age sixteen, I was prepping myself for an upcoming spring season.

 First basemen, which is what I played, is a vital position in baseball. You get the first chance at stopping a runner from getting to base. I was constantly training myself all year round. But now, I sat in tapping my pencil against my desk, waiting for the bell to ring. The storming rain during this early September was pounding against the window, and whenever there was rain, that meant no outside training for me. So I was forced to use the always empty music room downstairs on the first floor. I just took my bat, and stood swinging in the middle of the room. Even a small amount of training is better than none, right?

 The bell finally went off at 3:00 on the dot, and all of us students jumped up out of our seats. I gathered my books, carrying them under my arm as I exited out of the classroom, my baseball buddies trailing behind me. They were all going home, not even bothering to train with me. They only trained with me when it was nice out. Slackers.

 “You coming with us to Turners?” A male voice asked. I turned my head and saw my best friend James Carswell.

 I had know James since our times’ beginning. Thick and thin is what we had been through. Everybody in town knew if you said either one of our names, the other’s was followed shortly after. The bond James and I shared was metal chain tight; nobody would even be breaking it anytime soon.

 I shook my head back and forth and James gave a dramatic sigh. “Sometimes, I wish you just be getting out and having a little fun. I managed to get all the finest ladies in town to come down with us. Will you come now?”

 “I got stuff to do.” I answered. The music room came up on my left, and I quickly made my way towards it.

 “See ya’ll tomorrow!” I called out as I walked into the music room. They all waved goodbye as I shut the door to the room. My baseball bat rested gently in the corner where I had placed it earlier in the day when I had first arrived.

 Our school’s music program had shut down when I was still in my kindergarten through sixth grade school. At first, the towns’ residents were furious over the shutdown. It was the topic of school board debates and it was etched upon our town’s newspaper headlines for weeks. I could still remember the disappointed faces of some of the older children in the high school. Like every big news story or fad, the music program shutdown became nothing. At times, somebody would make a comment to try to spark up a revolution, but nothing ever came of it. For now, everything in the music room sat in a thin blanket of powdery gray dust, silent and long forgotten from the minds of many.

 I grabbed my bat and walked to the middle of the room. Quickly looking around, I made sure none of the dusted covered intrustments were in my line of swinging. Placing the bat on my shoulder, I put myself in my stance position and began to swing and swing.