Chapter 9

"Thanks, Tim; I truly appreciate you letting us in," I say as I shake his hand.

"Anything for you, you know that. You've played ball with my daughter Liz since you both were little. You both did." He said with a sad smile. Zoning out but reeling it back in just as quickly as he went out.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours to close up. Be ready by then, okay?" I give him a small smile.

"Will do. Alright, Hope, let's go. The pitching machine is all set up for us." I say, grabbing my bag and leading her to the batter's box.

"Okay, so this is your batter's box. This is where you will stand, wait for the ball to be pitched, then hit it. I have it set on five-minute intervals. So it'll pitch a ball, then five minutes later it'll pitch another one. It'll give us enough time in between each hit to adjust you and fix your form." She looked at me, completely lost. I smiled and chuckled.

"Okay, want me to show you first?" She gave a quick nod.

"Okay, so everyone has a stance that feels good to them. Don't worry too much about it being different from mine. I just want to mainly focus on your form when you swing." She nodded again.

I went through explaining an open vs. closed stance and the pros and cons of both of them. I talked to her about getting the timing of the pitch down. I showed her how to hold the bat and where to line her hands up. I taught her how to do A to B contact, keeping her eye on the ball the whole time, putting her hips into it, and following all the way through the hit. She observed me intently, mirrored me, and when it seemed like she got it, we moved on. I turned on the pitching machine and hit the ball exactly how I explained she should. I looked over at her to see her staring in awe.

"And that's how it's done, Hope. Are you ready to try?" I held the bat out towards her. She looked back out to where the ball went, then back to me. She timidly grabbed the bat.

"I just want to let you know now that there is no way I can hit it that far." I shook my head with a smile.

"First off, you can do whatever you put your mind to. Secondly, I'm not going to judge you; you don't have to hit the ball that far at all, just have fun." I said reassuringly with a smile. She smiled at me back and got in the box, just how I showed her.

The first pitch comes in, and she swings, horribly missing. I went up to her, gave her reassurance that she could do it, pointed out what she did well, and went over what she needed to improve on. I stepped back and watched her attempt again. Her form started to look a little bit better. She looked at me, saying what she did wrong. I confirmed, told her how she's getting better, and gave some more pointers. The next pitch, she swings so hard, spinning herself around to fall on her ass. I let out a loud laugh and went over to help her up.

"Hey, don't look so down, and yes, that's a pun. You've got this. You don't have to swing that hard, okay? Here let me help you. I'll stand behind you and help you go through the motions, and then the next one, you'll do it by yourself." I help her up, and she looks at me determined.

Once she was in the batter's box, I got behind her and put my hands over hers.

"Okay, now move your hips just a little bit. Yes, right there. Now keep your eye on the ball, swing all the way through, rotate, and put your hips into it. That's where most of your power should come from. Okay, now get ready." I felt we both focus on the machine, waiting for the pitch. I hear the ball get spit out, and I take Hope through the motions. She was starting her swing off too slowly, but I pulled her to speed just in time to get a piece of the ball. We hit it towards where the second baseman would be positioned. She jumped out of my arms, cheering. Jumping up and down with a huge smile on her face. I'm glad she doesn't know I have the camera set up recording this all. She looked back at me, running towards me, and jumped on me, hugging me. I'm glad I was somewhat prepared and caught her.

"That was so amazing! Oh my god, did you see that?" I laughed at her being so enthusiastic. I put her back on the ground.

"Yeah, I saw it. I was right behind you, remember? You did a great job; you were just a little behind on starting your swing. Now go up there, and do it yourself. You've got this, okay? I know you do." I gave her a reassuring smile and handed her the bat. She took it with a determined nod of her head and took confident strides back to the box. I heard the ball spitting out, and then I watched Hope react perfectly. She hit the pitch back in a line drive, right between shortstop and second.

She just stood there, shocked, and I just ran up to her. I picked her up, spinning her around, celebrating. She finally snapped back into reality and held onto me tighter. I stopped spinning us around and pulled back to see her crying.

"Oh, Hope. Please tell me these are happy tears." She just nodded her head yes, as she put her face into my shoulder. I held her closer to her. Telling her how great she did.

Tim showed back up two hours later on the dot. I helped put everything back up and thanked him for doing this for us. We got to my car not too long afterward. Hope got in the car as I put my bag in the trunk of my car.

"So was that everything you hoped it would be?" I asked, driving towards our diner. I saw her huge smile in my peripherals. I smiled to myself at that.

"Yes. Are you kidding me? Is that even a question? That was amazing. Did you see how good I hit that ball!" She exclaimed! I smiled at how happy she is.

"You did amazing. You ready for a shake, and then I'll take you home?" I looked over to her, holding her head. She looked up at me, and I noticed her nose was bleeding. I immediately turned into the closest parking lot. I grabbed the tissues out of my center console and held it up to her nose.

"Hope, are you okay?" She started to sway a bit in her seat. I reach out to hold her steady. I grabbed another tissue and held it to her nose.

"Hope. Come on, talk to me. Are you okay?" I saw her eyes flutter closed, and I started freaking out. I was being reminded of the wreck—so much blood. I zoned back in when she grabbed the tissue from my hand. She gave me a reassuring nod.

A little bit later, and a full pack of to go tissues, and half of another later, her nose finally stopped bleeding. She laid her head against the car window.

"Take me home, please. I just need to be home. This happens sometimes. I just get terrible nose bleeds. Don't worry." She says quietly right before she drifts off.

I drove her home, and instead of waking her up once I got to her house, I just went to her side and picked her up. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer the door.

An older man answered the door. Hope and this man shared some similar features. The jawline, the eyebrows, and the nose. Other than that, they looked nothing alike. His light brown hair contrasted with Hope's red hair. His hazel eyes contrasted against Hope's green ones. This was her dad. He looked at me so confused until I looked down at Hope. His gaze followed, and he immediately looked distraught and ushered me in. I was barely in the door when he hurriedly rapidly fired off questions at me.

"Is she okay? What happened? Hayley, honey, I think we might need to go to the hospital again." The man shouted for who I assume is Hope's mom. He didn't give me a chance to answer him.

"Who are you? Where did you find her?" I was trying to answer, but he asked questions at a rate I couldn't get an answer in. He was interrupted by the voice of a woman.

"Paul, calm down. The poor lady can't get a word in to answer you. Hey sweetie, you must be Hope's friend, right? The one who took her to the aquarium, and she stayed with you last night?" I nodded. This was Hope's mom. They practically looked identical.

"What would you like me to do with her?" I asked, slightly holding Hope up a little higher.

"Follow me. Her bedroom is just right back here." She took me to the right down a long hallway. The second door on the left was Hope's room. I knew this not only because her mom stopped in front of it, but it was also the only door painted baby blue, that's her favorite color. There were some clouds painted on it, with a big one that had her name written on it. Her mom opened the door and let me in her bedroom.

"Meet me in the kitchen once you get her settled in." She said right before she closed the door behind her. I played Hope in her bed. I took off her shoes, I changed her into clean clothes, and I got a face wipe from her bathroom to clean off her face and residual dry blood. I then made my way to the kitchen to find Hope's parents.

"Hey, you must be Hope's parents. It's very nice to meet you." I went and shook both of their hands.

"It's very nice to finally meet you too. Hope has talked a lot about you. You can call me Hayley, and you can call him Paul." I nodded as I looked over to Hope's dad. He was giving me a very pensive look. I watched Hope's mom smack Paul in the arm.

"Stop it. It's not her fault Hope passed out. You know what happens when she gets those nose bleeds." He just rolled his eyes and muttered a sorry.

"So, what did happen?" Hope's mom asked me.

"We were at the softball field. She wanted to learn how to hit a ball. She did a great job. Do you want to see the video? I recorded the whole thing without her knowing." I said with a smile. I looked up to see her mom smiled widely, and her dad gave a faint smile too.

"We would love to." Hope's dad said. I propped my phone up to where we all could see. They watched where I helped her hit it that one time, and she got all excited. Then it cut to where she hit that line-drive all by herself. It showed me spinning her around and us celebrating. It played to the end, showing her huge smile and happy tears. Once it ended, I looked back at her parents and found them crying while smiling. I guess it runs in the family.

"That's amazing. She's so happy. She did such a great job." Hope's mom said aloud. Not directing her statements to anyone in particular. Hope's dad put his arm around Hope's mom's shoulder and pulled her closer to him. He kissed the temple of her head before whispering into her ear.

"I know, honey. I know." His voice broke a little bit towards the end. I felt like I was intruding on a very intimate moment.

"Umm. Hope just had a nose bleed on the way back. She said she was fine, that she just needed to go home and rest. She fell asleep before we got here. I'm going to go ahead and head back home. Is it okay if I go check on Hope before I leave?" I brought their focus back on me.

"Of course, sweetie. You can stay if you'd like. Thank you again. You don't realize how happy you're making Hope and how all that you're doing with her means to her. Could you please send me that video?" She gave me a small smile as she wiped away her tear tracks.

"That's fine. I live just a couple of blocks away. I'm glad she's happy and having fun. I'm grateful to be on this bucket list journey of hers. I'll go ahead and send you that video. I'll also send you the video and pictures from when we went to the aquarium." She smiled at that. She gave me her number, and I sent everything to her. Hope's dad had me program their numbers and programmed mine for in the future.

I made my way back to Hope's room. When I got to her bed, I noticed her sleeping peacefully as usual. The small rises and falls of her chest as she took breaths were soothing to see. Seeing her still breathing and alive got rid of most of my anxiety. I don't like having flashbacks. I sat beside her being careful not to wake her up. I gently brushed some of her hair off her face and gently caressed her cheek.

"You're so amazing, Hope. I can't wait for our next adventure." I whispered, leaning down and kissing her head. I got up to leave when I felt a small handhold onto mine and slightly tug.

"Don't go, stay." Hope groggily said. She scooted over to make space for me. I took off my shoes and took off my shirt, climbing in next to her. She rolled away from me, taking my hand with her, placing me as the big spoon. I just pulled her closer to me, and I drifted off, focusing on her warmth.