58
PARTISAN REVIEW
down or maybe he'd just escaped from somewhere. Jesus. The Skip
didn't seem to notice whether Kelly was back or not, and they were
down ten by the time Kelly got an at-bat, eighth inning, guy on third.
He took one good cut and felt something grab in the back of his shoul–
der; and when he swung the next time he got all of it but the ball died
in short left. The college kid had two bloop hits and got lucky on a fly
ball anyone else could have pitched a tent under but he had to grab
falling down to make it look hard. Jesus. Kelly's shoulder settled into
a dim persistent ache below his shoulder blade; he knew it would
keep him up so he went back to the fat lady's bar and had a couple of
bourbons before his three beers and played Willy Nelson on thejuke.
When he got to the hotel the beers hadn't touched his sore shoulder.
There was a note in Caldwell's bad spelling stuck on the door: "Call
your wive." Kelly decided it was too late anyway, and hadn't he
tried? He lay down with a pillow propping his shoulder and coasted
to sleep on the soft edge of the bourbon.
She woke him up. Six
A.M.
"Kelly, he's sick. In hospital sick,
tests and all. Kelly they're talking about a tumor for God's sake.
They're talking about let's have a few tests and see where we are and
when is your husband due back and it's really early to tell so don't
worry. Kelly, I think he's dying for God's sake. Dying, you know?"
Jesus.
The first bus left at noon. The Skip didn't make any fuss when
he told him "family trouble." It burned Kelly a little that it was no
big deal for the one decent ballplayer on the team to take an indefi–
nite powder. The bus stopped everywhere, six hours when he could
have driven it in two or three. The only seat he could find was next
to a bald-headed guy with a withered arm who wanted to talk, about
anything. Kelly tried to shut him up by saying he'd been up all night
worrying about his sick kid, but that just started the guy going on
diseases. Kelly had a hotdog and three beers in a diner next to the
bus station in some dim burg just over the Berkshires. When he got
back to his seat the guy was still talking. The last hour or so Kelly fi–
nally managed to sleep. He called from the bus station and his sister–
in-law Verna came to get him and to chew his ear off about why didn't
he call last night.
It
was like being locked. in the car with a snake.
When she was mad she drove even worse than usual.
In the lobby they were all there, clustered on a couch and a
couple of chairs: Jo-An's Aunt Esther and Uncle Harry, and the
neighbors who were Ricky's godparents, and the guy Verna was see–
ing, who looked just as bad as her ex-husband Frankie the Bastard
