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On my way home, I received a call from Caryn.
“Congratulations, I heard you won.”
“Thanks. What’s up?” I asked.
“I was talking to Mr. Baum, the owner of the Quickie Mart. He told me he has a handful of customers who come in and ask for food. Staples like bread, peanut butter, and milk for their kids.”
“You can’t be serious. There’s a food bank and government assistance for folks like this. Why aren’t they signed up?” I asked.
“I did a little digging. Some didn’t know what was available to them. Some aren’t here legally and were afraid to ask for help. Others don’t have transportation to go to the food bank or to sign up for the services. I also discovered something else.”
I had images of several terrible scenarios but tamped those images down.
“Tell me.”
“Do you know about the school lunch program for low-income children?” she asked.
“I guess I realized there was one, but none of the details,” I admitted.
“The normal price of a school lunch is three dollars. Sixteen percent of the students in the school system qualify for reduced-price lunches at just fifty cents per meal. Three percent qualify for free meals. Even with the reduced prices, not all the kids can afford lunches. The schools make it a point to feed them all. I’m told that 175 students had lunch debts of over ten dollars. I suggest you could make an anonymous donation to pay off their debt,” Caryn suggested.
“You’re always telling me we need more write-offs,” I said.
“You don’t even want to know how much it is? I was shocked.”
“Sure, how much?”
“It’s over eight thousand dollars.”
“What about the people who need food and are coming to the Quickie Mart?” I asked.
“I talked to Mr. Orange at the Homeless Coalition, since he has the same issues. If they need a roof over their heads, they also need to eat,” she explained. “The county has a department, Health and Family Services, which helps people in need. He says they have a list of organizations and governmental services, like SNAP—the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program—which can help. He said the biggest problem is that once school’s out, the kids getting lunches at school may go without food over the summer.”
“It absolutely astonishes me that there are kids in our area who might be going to sleep hungry each night.”
“Once they get into school, they can get some help. It’s the preschool children that need the most assistance. The first three years of life are important for establishing a good foundation; that has implications for a child’s future physical and mental health, academic achievement, and economic productivity. The woman at the county said they have a special program called WIC, which stands for Women, Infants, and Children, that helps. The problem is getting the word out.”
Fritz pulled into my driveway.
“Hey, I just got home. Let me talk to my parents and see if they have any ideas. Put this on our agenda for our Sunday meeting.”
“Do you want me to go ahead and make the donation to the school?” she asked.
“Let’s hold off until Sunday.”
“You’re right, it isn’t urgent. But I will feel better knowing I’m spending your money on something good.”
Fritz opened my door to let me out of the car. Sometimes having him do that irritated me, but he’d explained it was part of the security protocol. Even in my own driveway, he wanted to make sure the gate was closed, and no one was threatening me. I said goodbye to Caryn and got out.
“Oh, wow! They started the fence,” I noticed.
I didn’t think Fritz was impressed with my powers of observation. My excuse was I’d been talking on the phone.
They’d poured the foundation for the fence. The bottom part was going to be a reinforced concrete barrier, faced with brick. Fritz had made the change so it would prevent a car from driving through. I thought it was a little overboard, but he was doing his job. The top would be a stylish wrought iron. Mom would be happy the giant chain-link fence was going away.
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I walked in, and Mom didn’t look happy.
“They started it,” I said to head her off.
“You do realize that it’s all over the Internet. Frank called and wanted to know when you thought you might get around to telling him about it,” Mom chastised me.
“I talked to Moose to get the full story,” Dad said. “We both agree that your theme music has to stop. I realize you didn’t arrange it, but he thinks the novelty has worn off, and all it’s doing is causing problems like today.”
“It was fun, but I think they took it too far today when they played it while I ran the bases after my home run. It really made their pitcher mad. I tried to apologize, but it embarrassed him and caused him to throw at me to start the unpleasantness.”
Mom let out a long sigh.
“Unpleasantness?” she asked.
Dad chuckled and drew her attention away from me. God love him, but would he ever learn?
“How the heck did you get up after he hit you in the nuts like that?” Dad asked.
“Sandy Range sent me new equipment to try out, which had a cup in the shorts. It also has a gel layer that spreads the impact.”
“Still, that had to hurt.”
“I wouldn’t volunteer to do it again, but it was better than just a regular cup. I bet that pitcher wished he had one on,” I said and smirked.
“David Allen Dawson,” Mom warned.
I put on my puppy-dog face. Dad laughed again, and Mom made him take her to bed as I made myself a bowl of chili. Duke must have figured out I was home because he wandered down from the third floor. I let him out so he could do his business, and he followed me to my apartment.
I turned on SportsCenter to watch while eating my chili and half-concentrating on studying. Then something caught my eye, and I turned up the sound on the TV.
“Have you ever heard of instant karma? In a high school baseball game, David Dawson was up to bat and squared up to bunt. That had to hurt,” the announcer said as it showed me get hit square in the balls by the pitch. “If you watch the replay in slow motion, you can see it hit him where it hurts.”
Even I could see that it was a direct hit, and I can attest that it did indeed hurt.
“He shakes it off, and that’s when the catcher decides to grab him. This looks like a planned attack. Hit him with the baseball, then the catcher holds Dawson so the pitcher can punch him. This is what I call instant karma.”
I was amazed at the splits I did. If I’d thought about it, I would never have tried it, because I didn’t believe a guy’s legs should do that. The punch thrown by the pitcher hit the catcher right on the nose. It instantly began to bleed like crazy. The look on the pitcher’s face was priceless. It went through stages, from pure fury to ‘oh shit!’ to pain. As he sunk down, I just got up and trotted to first base.
Cassidy would be happy about how I dealt with it. I eliminated the threat and then walked away.
After they showed what had happened, they did a Top Ten instant karma segment. My favorite was an oldie. It showed Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, at age 46, throw a ball that hit Robin Ventura. The 26-year-old charged the mound to fight Ryan instead of taking first. The crafty veteran put him in a headlock and got in six good shots before all hell broke loose as both benches clashed in the middle of the diamond. Watching that suddenly made Ryan my all-time favorite pitcher.
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Chapter 37 – That Got a Reaction Friday April 29
“We have to stop meeting like this,” I told Tracy as I got out of my car.
“Two things. One: please thank Adrienne for the dresses. Tyler sent us pictures, and even Halle and Brook are excited. Number two: I have your date lined up for tonight.”
“This is the last one,” I warned her.
“Does that mean that you finally forgive me and want to make me your girlfriend?”