The Book of the One

INNING № 5

I could say I did it because the boy at the plate had a slow bat and I had a vision of myself sprinting toward a line drive that tailed away from me, knowing it would be close, but I would have to dive, and knowing everyone in our sorry little park—even the out-of-towners—held their breath and prayed in earnest for me to get there. In that moment, that eternal second, it would be me and only me who had their hearts and minds. 

I could say I did it because he was going to leave town and make it big or fail but either way he was never coming back and so he already wasn’t one of us and he never was anyway.

I could say I did it because I was never one of us for sure.