Mental Notes & Random Musings

The impact of the rock hurt. The impact of the rock just hurt, and nothing more. The fact that it looked like a bullet while it was screaming at my stomach but felt more like a sharp rock being thrown from a long distance, barely reaching its target, as it should have made me intensely angry. Totally enraged would be a more suitable description of it, because like it was purely instinctive, I started running towards Ricky like I was shot from a gun myself. As I look back on it all I can remember is that I was going to kill him. I think about it, and I do not even know how I was going to do it, I was just going to kill him, and it was all I could think of. The look of horror on his face as I was running down the street would have told me that he knew I was going to kill him, and he could not stop me from doing it. The indignation that he “thought” he was going to kill me or disable me with that rock must have been the factor that was flooding my brain. The fact that he could not do it, ...

Miguel Barceló was not exactly heading to the hall of fame as his zero and six record this year was merely 3 wins shy of his 3 and 3 record this time last year. Lily took a little time this morning to figure out the pitcher who she noted has a “seriously nasty sinker ball” which Jack had conquered, and watching the tape she saw that the catcher that she appears to be replacing had hardly ever called it. “What was up with that? He so rarely called for a sinker pitch and Barceló could have thrown seventy percent sinker pitches and simply let the ground balls dominate the game, couldn’t he?”  Jack shook his head a bit and looked on at the tape before saying, “Well actually, it does not look like he pays any attention to the signals anyway. There is a fast ball up, and in comes a cutter down. Here is the signal for the sinker and it is a riding fast ball,” and then Jack looks back again and makes a strange “pffft” noise before stating, “You just do not know with those two, they really ...

I cleared my eyes, but I could not figure what my next move would be because I did not have a clue as to where my location was, or what time it was for that matter. It was within an hour or so either way of noon, but what day it was is a total mystery. My life is a total mystery. The parchment was blank in my hand now and I did not really know what caused it to write to me. I knew that I was not letting go of it because as far as “weird” goes it has been a more “friendly weird” than all the “ghastly weird” that goes on around me these days. I imagined that the first thing I should do is look up from this hedge and see where I was, but at the same time I was terrified that something bad was about to happen. It was hot outside, so at least that has not changed. I heard a familiar voice say to me, “What are you doing down there?” and of course that voice made me jump up from my crouched position in the hedges. Craning my neck, I saw that I was in the bushes of Bob Culvin, since I had allu...

“Oh God Jack, I can’t wait to hear Nolan now when you call him to tell him that you just tied his no hitter record!” comes booming down that long corridor underneath the park. The long, wet, and scrawny corridor, which Jack has walked down 80 times a year for the last 20 years, still smells funky, but Jack knows that he is going to miss it badly this time next year.  “He’ll remind me that he got about 1500 more strikeouts than me and lasted an extra six years in the game, so I’m going to have to tell him that I’m dating his daughter too,” Jack yells back to John as they make their way onward towards him but then pipes up over the confused look on John’s face “Yeah when he gives me that look I’ll say ‘oh yeah that was the love child your wife had with Seaver’ and then hope that his knee is still bad” and the two of them started cackling away.  The hallway is not much bigger than Lily and her 230-pound brother to walk down, side by side, as Jay is mimicking her every step perfec...

I understand that to most people it will be reserved to the movies, and I will admit that the whole scenario is growing more intimidating to me regardless of my acceptance of it. There really is nothing right now that would make me feel any better, but I am starting to believe with every passing moment that there are about a million things that can make me feel worse and that list grows by the minute. I could hear a faint voice that was like a quiet yelling “Stacy, Stacy!” and after looking around in my confusion I saw my son pointing to a corner of the room and just being quiet otherwise. I darted to the corner where my telephone hung from its usual perch on the wall and grabbed the receiver “I’m here Mary, I got rather busy there for a moment and then I spaced out a bit,” my mind started reaching for the right words to avoid having to explain to much like I always do, “I’m sorry that I didn’t get back to you …” She finished my sentence for me, “… but you were sitting there with a sev...

Lily is having a tough time of it now as Jack is shaking off everything. The one to nothing score is not making the events any easier to deal with as Jack is out of gas with a no hitter on the line, one strike out away from 4000 strikeouts and two outs in the ninth inning. Lily finally calls “Time” to the umpire and then trots out to the mound, where Jack looks increasingly pained as she gets closer. “Listen Jack, do you want that 4000, or do you just want to get out of this game with the no no?” Jack looks at her with the sweat rolling down his cheek, and says to her quite frankly, “I just want to get out of here with a win Lily. The only stat I have ever cared about is the W, just so you know and the two of them hear the umpire starting to make the usual noises that they make to speed the conversation along. Jack then adds, “Besides I have a few no noes, and I have a whole season to get 4000, so I’ll probably get there, God willing.” Lily’s trot back to the plate is a bit confusing, ...

With the force of the blow that Jake had used on the back of Mary’s skull, and the force that must have hit the front of her eye socket when it hit my jaw you would have thought she would be out like a broken light bulb. That would be too easy, and Jake never took his eyes off her thank God, because he had his foot on her throat the second, she shook off the blow and seemed to be getting up. “We really need to call the State Police or something here mom. Mary is completely nuts.” Mary started exclaiming in a croaky voice “Do that Jake, call the police, your mother is going to kill me! Hurry!” and then she started to act like a poor pathetic old woman again. A poor pathetic woman who was strangling a woman half her age and took the entire force of a baseball bat to the back of the head from a young man who bats over three hundred for the high school team. Nothing major really? Jake looked down with disdain and exclaimed, “I’m not deaf Mary, I was listening to you two from upstairs,” he ...

Lily barely had enough time to put her catcher’s equipment on before she had to get back out on to the field. The next batter was sat down on his second pitch with a towering pop fly that almost made it out of the infield. The second baseman caught it with little effort, and the team was to take the field, but not before Jack, who had been talking Jay’s ear off still, grabs Lily by the arm and says to her, “Thanks, for the lead Lily. Time to go humiliate the other nine players some more,” and then he trots out of the dugout ahead of her, in hopes of seeing the crowd’s reaction when Lily comes out in her catcher's equipment. He was right as they all started screaming louder as she pops out of the dugout. Her attention is focused on the crowd as she trips over an imaginary curb in the base path and barely recovers herself by stumbling forward into a sort of stumbling half run. “I’ll have to talk to the ground crew about making the chalk lines so high after the game,” she quips at the...

I looked down at Mary beneath me and being jaded helps in times like these. I did not allow myself the luxury of being confused, an obvious reflex action of those that do not want to believe what is happening to them. I know what is happening to me and even though I hate it happening to me, it is happening to me. I also know more about Mary in this time than I had known before I had jumped back in time. My mind was able to process this quickly given the circumstances and I maintained my composure as I looked down at her and adjusted my knees to hold her down to the floor. She seemed none too happy about what was happening and let me tell you she seemed none too frail for a woman her age too. My mind whirled around in circles as I placed my knees on top of Mary’s arms, and she hissed and spit at me. Her snakelike qualities did not end there either since she was squirming back and forth like one. I finally reached down and grasped her around the throat, which snapped her into a semi cata...