Sarah walked into the kitchen visibly upset. Ellen had her back to her, but Demetria was sitting at the table. She stopped Sarah as she was heading toward the living room.

“Wait, child, what’s wrong?” she asked.

Ellen turned around. Sarah was standing in front of Demetria.

“Nothing grandma,” Sarah said.

“Young lady, what’s the rule about lying!” Ellen said.

Sarah turned around and looked at Ellen, and then at the floor.

“To not to,” she answered.

Demetria ordered Sarah to tell them why she was so upset. Sarah explained that she shouldn’t play baseball or any other boy’s games or she was a tomboy. And she shouldn’t spend so much unsupervised time with Walker Blaine. When Ellen asked why, she wasn’t surprised to hear that Aunt Margaret was the cause of the problem.

“Do stop crying Sarah!” Ellen said. “Go upstairs and I’ll speak to you shortly,” she said, smiling at her.

Sarah went upstairs to her room. Then Ellen looked at Demetria.

“Pardon me, Mother Larimore, I must go speak with Sarah’s aunt.”

Demetria stood up.

“You go speak to your child. I will go speak to mine,” Demetria said, stomping out the kitchen door and heading to Margaret’s house.

“You must not listen to Aunt Margaret about such matters!” she told Sarah. “What does she know about baseball? When I was your age, I was a bit of a tomboy too. You may keep spending time with Walker; in a fitting and appropriate way, of course. I like Walker; he is a nice and respectful young man. Just like his uncle.”

Then things changed again. Walker suddenly showed up in town. Soon he returned to his uncle’s house. Before long, he was at the Larimore’s front door wanting to see Sarah. He told his uncle that he developed doubts about having left her behind. Then he was given a mandatory physical exam by a team doctor, and was told that he had a heart condition, and couldn’t play baseball anymore. It was recommended that he find an occupation less physically demanding. Albert was opening a second store, and begged Walker to return home and manage the new store. He agreed, and it turned out that he was a good salesman and a fine manager. He became a member of the Larimore’s church. Finally, he was able to persuade Sarah to start seeing him again. Ellen had much to do with that decision.

“He’s only back because he can’t play ball,” Sarah told her one day while they were making bread.

“That’s only partially true,” Ellen said. “I spoke with Walker at church. And he told me that he missed you very much.”

Sarah mixed the yeast and hot water in a bowl. “Sure, he’s says that now.”

“Sarah Larimore! Walker is an honest man. He wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t so. Sometimes a man needs to pursue something he thinks he wants, so he can realize there’s something he wants more. Walker would have come back no matter what that doctor told him. That’s what I believe, and I think he came back because of you.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Sarah said, staring into the bowl as she added the sugar. Then she turned around and smiled at Ellen.

“When you put it like that…”
******************************************
Between the entertainment center and the bed was a dresser. There were pictures on the dresser, some in frames, some just lying on top. She walked over and looked at an old picture of David sitting at a picnic table next to a girl with long dark hair. On the back was written “David and Aunt Lani.” She also saw a picture that looked very old. It was like a postcard, with a baseball player on it. He was standing in a batter’s pose. At the bottom of the picture she saw “W. Blaine. Yankees” written in cursive. 
******************************************
“Hi, Walker,” she whispered.

“Hi, Sarah; did you get it?” Walker asked. He looked at her and noticed that she had her hands under her baggy sweatshirt.

“Yup.”

“Let me see!”

Sarah pulled it out from under her sweatshirt and held it up.

“Oh boy, that’s a big one!” Walker exclaimed.

Sarah grinned. “Where’s Mrs. Lowery?”

“She’s gone; since I got here.”

“What about Mrs. Larkin?”

“She’s gone too! Are you really gonna go through with it?”

Sarah laughed. “You bet! Keep a look-out!”

Sarah went through the main door. It suddenly occurred to her that Mrs. Lowery might have locked the door that went directly into her office, the one that said “Anita Lowery, School’s Counselor” on it in black letters. But she saw that it was open just a crack, so she ran past Mrs. Larkin’s desk and into Mrs. Lowery’s office. She set it on her desk, and since the light had been left on, she hit the switch on the way out and pulled the door closed behind her. Then she walked toward the main door. Walker had been keeping the best lookout he could, but having to walk from each corner of the hall to the other made it difficult to say the least. Just as Sarah walked through the main door into the hall, Mrs. Lowery and Mrs. Larkin appeared from around the corner opposite to the one where Walker was standing at the moment. Sarah froze when she saw Mrs. Lowery. Then she whirled around and ran toward the corner where Walker was standing. Just as she turned the corner, Walker ran after her.

“Sarah Larimore! You get back here this instant!” Mrs. Lowery yelled.

It probably comes as no surprise that Sarah ignored her instructions and continued running down the hall, with Walker close behind.

“Walker Blaine! You’re in big trouble too!”

******************************************
Walker was sitting on the curb by the driveway. Dinner was earlier at Uncle Albert’s house than it was at the Larimore residence. So he had been sitting there for some time. He had his catcher’s gear with him, and he was pounding the inside of his catcher’s glove with his right fist. Two Louisville Sluggers lay on the ground next to him, and there were a couple of baseballs crammed into the big pockets of his baseball pants. He was about to give up, when suddenly Sarah walked out the front door, wearing her Yankees hat and her baseball glove. She sat down next to him.

“Did you get in trouble?” he asked.

“Yup! Did you?”

“Well, Mrs. Lowery called and talked to my uncle. He lectured me for a while, but that was pretty much it. I don’t think he likes Mrs. Lowery.”

Then Walker paused. “So what’s your punishment?”

Sarah sighed. “I didn’t get any dessert.”

Walker looked at her. “Apple pie? Your mom makes the best apple pie!”

“Yup, no apple pie.”

Walker stood up. “Can you play ball?”

Sarah jumped to her feet. Then she smiled. “Let’s go beat Willy!”

Then the two walked across the street toward Herr Vogel’s house. They opened the gate with the broken latch, and then disappeared into the backyard. Vogel wasn’t there, so they went through the gap in the fence.

Walker Blaine

Son of Gerald and Betty Blaine. Betty dies in childbirth and then Gerald soon after. Walker then lives with his uncle, Albert Blaine, owner of Blaine Electrical Appliances, a popular electronics store in Westbridge. Walker is fanatical about baseball, playing catcher for the Westbridge High Eagles. He becomes famous locally as a formidable "slugger." The stands are always full when Walker's team plays that of a friend of his, Walter Penrose. People count enthusiastically as Walker and Walter trade home runs. Originally, Walker's girlfriend is Beryl Ricks. until he decides that he likes Sarah Larimore better. Sarah, David's sister,  is an ardent baseball fan, who amasses an incredible collection of baseball cards. One day Walker asks her to fill in for an absent player, and she soon proves herself to be a formidable hitter...if she gets the right pitch of course. Sarah's parents like Walker and the two are soon dating. Then Walker gets an offer to play in the "farm leagues," well...that's how Walker put it.  He is slated to move on to the major leagues. Now away from home, he soon missed Sarah, who is somewhat angry at him for leaving. Then comes the sad day when the team doctor tells him that due to a previously undiagnosed heart condition, he can not  play ball anymore. He returns to Westbridge, and with a little help from Ellen, he and Sarah are soon dating again. Their one child is Courtney Blaine. Walker works with his uncle, the store name having been changed to Blaine Electronics. Walker dies suddenly, carried off by the same heart condition that sent Gerald, his grandfather Matthew, and his great- grandfather Reuben, to an early reward.  Sarah goes on to have two more husbands, both being dysfunctional marriages. Walker is the only man Sarah ever truly loves and she missed him for the rest of her life. Walker dies while Courtney is a baby, so she never knows him. But David gives her an old picture of Walker he finds in a photo album that one day mysteriously appears on his kitchen table. Courtney later names her only son David Walker Blaine.

Walker and Sarah spent more and more time together. When they were a few years older, they were seeing each other regularly. Sarah didn’t really play baseball anymore. She spent a lot of time helping Ellen and looking after her younger brother. Ellen and Carl knew that she was hoping to marry Walker and start a family. One evening on Tremont Heights, this changed suddenly.

“Well, you’d be crazy to pass it up,” Sarah said, looking out the car window.

“But I hate to go,” Walker said.

The news he had for Sarah was that he had been recruited to play in the minor leagues. This offered him the possibility of eventually playing pro baseball. It was hard for Walker, but he left Sarah behind to pursue a baseball career. Sarah didn’t follow baseball anymore, so she made no effort to keep up with Walker’s rookie year. He sent several postcards to her. She refused to respond to them. But she did keep them, and one particular postcard, which featured Walker in a batting stance, ended up on Courtney’s dresser in David’s house. Sarah dated a couple of men she met at church, but eventually broke off the relationships. Ellen encouraged her to be “presentable” to other men at church, should they show interest. She refused.

Sarah was sitting on the bleachers by herself. She was rearranging her baseball cards. The arrangement differed over time. Sometimes she preferred to organize them by teams, and in order of priority. This meant the Yankees players were first, and Babe Ruth was always at the top of the stack. Then she tried to arrange them by hitting stats; well, except for the pitchers. But she wasn’t very interested in pitchers. She liked sluggers; so home runs and RBIs were what mattered. But stats changed all the time. She even tried alphabetical order. But she always made sure that Yankees were first, and Babe Ruth was on top. She received a lot of cards from Carl, but Grayson also gave her some. They were very old, and Sarah didn’t know many of the players. They were smaller ones that were rather smelly. Grandpa Grayson told her that they came with his tobacco.

“Hey, Sarah!”

She looked up and saw Walker standing by the fence separating the bleachers from the diamond. She smiled.

“Hi, Walker.”

Sarah knew Walker from history class. They would shoot baskets at recess, trade baseball cards and do other such things. Eventually, they began walking home from school together. Ellen allowed Walker to study with Sarah at the kitchen table, and she would occasionally drop them off at the pictures. 

“We’re short; wanna play?” he asked.

“No,” she said, looking back at her cards.

“Why not?”

“My aunt says that girls don’t play in baseball games.”

Walker knew about Aunt Margaret, and from what Sarah told him, he didn’t care much for her. Sometimes at recess or after school he would pitch the ball to Sarah and let her hit. He knew that with the right pitch, Sarah had a mean swing. It never occurred to him before to ask her into a game. This time was he short a player.

Walker smiled at her. “Your aunt’s batty. It’d be swell if you played.”

“Hey guys! Walker needs his girlfriend to help now that he’s gettin’ licked!”

It was Willie Overton, who played shortstop for the other team. Walker and Willie didn’t get along, and the two were in trouble numerous times for having a go at each during lunch hour. Sarah put her cards in her back pocket and climbed down the bleachers. As she reached the ground, Willie’s friend tried to bunt, but Walker threw him out. That ended the inning.

Walker told the others on his team that Sarah would bat third. The first two batters each got to base. Then Sarah stepped up to the plate. Willie stood at the shortstop position and began making fun of her. Walker stepped out of the dugout and began heading toward Willie. Sarah looked at him.

“Not now, beat him up later. I want to hit.”

“Hey Willie, I’ll be sure to see you later!” Walker called out.

Sarah swung at the first pitch. It was low and outside, so she chided herself for swinging at it.

“Hey guys; Sarah swings like a girl!” Willie hollered.

Sarah swung at the second pitch. It was high and outside. Strike two.

“Walker has a new MVP!” Willie said, looking around at the rest of his team.

Walker called out to her. “Sarah! Relax, wait for the pitch you want.”

The third pitch was right down the middle of the plate. Sarah swung; the ball hitting the sweet spot. There was a loud crack, and then the line drive hurtled toward the infield. Willie wasn’t paying attention, and before he knew it, Sarah’s line drive bounced off his left shoulder. Willie went down, and the ball flew off into the outfield. Willie lay on the ground for a while, eventually leaving the game with an injured shoulder. By the time the center fielder threw the ball to home plate, two runs were scored.

“Take that you asshole!” Sarah yelled at him, making an obscene gesture as she stood at second base.

Walker waved to her. “Two RBIs on your first at bat. Not bad!”

Sarah became a regular player on Walker’s team. She played second base. Although she wasn’t a home run hitter, her batting average wasn’t bad at all.