Prologue:

I told myself to step away from this for awhile, but I just couldn't. I wanted to share it so badly. Slowly, I will be putting chapters up here. I hope you enjoy. Roan James begins his adventures:

My feet kicked the dirt as I watched the fingers flip between the catcher’s legs.

One"no

Two"no

Three"yes

A slight nod moved through my head and I backed up on the mound. My mind focused and the screams from the crowd silenced in my head leaving me alone in my own solitary state. Slightly my chin slanted looking at the player on first base"ready to steal. My chin snapped back to its usual position and I looked to the catcher who planted his fist in the center of his mitt. The laces of the ball grazed, three times, along the fingertips of my left hand just like they had millions of times before this, but this time was different. This time meant everything. My arms curled into my chest and I took a deep warm breath.

I held my breath and leaned back on my left foot. My shoulder cocked back and I gritted my teeth hard against each other. With a flick of my wrist and a shift of weight I sent the ball soaring as fast as I could. I caught myself on the mound as I followed through with my shoulder. I felt the muscles pull with all their strength and the pain rippled through my whole arm. My mitt reached around and cupped the painful extremity. There was a moment where I knew, where life came into realization, but I ignored it.

The batter hit the ball and I watched as it flew up over my head to the outfield. I looked over at the batter and he winked at me as he ran over to first base. The ball was caught and the batter was forced to run back to his dug out. I didn’t watch. Instead I knelt down on the ground and dropped my mitt into the dirt. I shook my head as I grabbed my shoulder, “unbelievable.” I said quietly to myself and slowly picked myself up. The roar of the crowd yet again filled my ears. I shook my head again and took my cap off. I knew what was happening. I understood. I knew that walking out now would ruin everything, not only for me, but also for the team.

My coach and the catcher both ran out to my mound. Coach looked up into my face and I took a deep breath. “I only have a few more pitches in it.” It was the bottom of the ninth 4-3 with our team up. There was one man on first base with two outs. I couldn’t get a tighter situation. I was needed on this field. I couldn’t give up now.

My coach grabbed my shoulder and rubbed the sore muscle. “We can just throw curves if you’d like?” The catcher, Isaac, answered his eyes watching me carefully. He knew what throwing on this shoulder could do to me, could do to my career. Still, he motivated me to keep going, not asking to have me benched, but asking what I needed, because he needed me just as much as I needed him in this moment.

I shook my head, “fastballs are all I have left.”

The coach took his hands from my shoulder and moved so that I could stare straight into his eyes. “You do realize what taking you out of the game will do?”

I knew exactly. I would be the first left-handed rookie pitcher to go undefeated all season. If I was taken out now I wouldn’t be complete this last game"forfeiting my triumph. I nodded and looked up into the older man’s wrinkled brown eyes. “I’ll catch whatever you throw.”  Isaac chimed in behind the coach’s shoulder.

Isaac’s mask was pulled off and he also was looking at my shoulder. I nodded and looked up at the coach. He took a deep breath, “This is up to you, Rook.” I closed my eyes and let my mind go to my shoulder. I’d been in this pain before. I’d had surgery for this pain before and somehow I had pushed through all of that. If I could do that, I could pitch these last few balls. I had to throw these last few I was hearing the words of these two men: ‘do you understand what taking you out will do,’ ‘I’ll catch whatever you throw.’ They were begging for me to finish this game. My triumph was theirs as well.

“Alright, I can do it.” Coach smiled and tossed the top of my hair. I had given him the answer he had come out for. Isaac smiled and rubbed my sore shoulder his eyes more determined than I had ever seen them.

“Throw wherever and I’ll catch it.” I nodded and he ran back to his own position. I placed my cap back on top of my head and watched as coach ran back to his post. I shook the ball in my hand, the laces again flipped over my fingertips three times.

I looked over the crowd, keeping my eye on the first base runner. I happened to catch two blue eyes staring straight at me. Noah stood at the end of our dugout, next to our coach, looking seriously at me. He pursed his lips together and I knew what he was asking. He needed to know if I could do this, if I wasn’t just being strong for Coach and Isaac. I could truthfully tell him if I was fine.

I slowly nodded my head towards him and he backed up behind the fence. His tan hand gripped the cage in front of him as he watched, on edge. The batter hit his bat against his feet and stood against the plate. One more time I took a quick glance towards the runner. I cocked my arm back and flicked the ball off the top of my fingertips. The ball whizzed from my hand and flew straight into Isaac’s mitt.

A twinge of pain exploded through my whole entire arm. ‘Two more strikes and this will all be over.’ I thought to myself over and over. Isaac threw the ball back and I carefully caught it in my mitt. I turned my back for one second and the runner took off towards second. My arm cocked back and painfully sent the ball flying to the second baseman. I was too late, the player slid perfectly into second. I huffed loudly and caught the ball one more time. I didn’t take time to prepare myself. I caught eyes with Isaac, he nodded, and the ball flicked from my fingertips once again.

One more time it flew past the batter and into Isaac’s mitt. He smiled and stood while throwing the ball back. My left hand began to shake with the deteriorating muscle trying to hold on. ‘I have to do this. If I can’t do this for me then it has to be for…for"Jules.’ The one simple name sent strength through my entire body. The tears that were forming in my eyes slowly faded away and my vision became clearer than it had been the entire game.

I elevated my shoulder and forcefully threw the broken appendage only to have the ball leaving my hand connected with the bat at the other end. I watched as it soared to my right perfectly over the line. The outfields man tried to run for it, to catch it, but he didn’t get there in time. Miraculously the ball landed on the outer part of the white line. The umpire handed the catcher another ball, trying to get the game going and Isaac threw it to me. ‘Two strikes, one ball, man on second, bottom of the ninth: you can do this Ro, you can do this, this is all you"all you.’

My shoulder burned with more pain than I’d felt in a long time. I let out one last breath and threw the ball as hard as was possible. The tendons pull around my socket and I let out a yell. As I fell into the dirt in front of me I listened for the ball to connect with the bat. As I listened intently I heard the sound of a ball hitting leather.

I looked up to see Isaac holding the ball out towards my face. “The World Series belongs to the Believers!” The announcer screamed over the loud speaker and the crowd’s screams once more filled my mind. I smiled and sunk my head into the dirt below me. The tears seemed to come naturally as all my wildest dreams had come true. I balled my fist and hit the dirt with it.

My team surrounded me and lifted me up onto their shoulders. I held my fist up and pointed a finger to the sky. “All for you!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. My finger pointed as I looked up to the sky. The tears ran down my cheeks in steady streams as my team carried me to the end of the field. There was only one person I want to tell about our victory"and he already knew. 

Author's Note

Anything at all. Here or Facebook. Most of the " are actually dashes, but for some strange reason when you put it on here it changes them to quotes. So if there are misplaces quotation marks that's probably a dash. So think of it as that. They're dashes in the main manuscript.