Another 90 Feet.

He would sit for hours in his chair by the window staring out into the world in which he was no longer an active part of. He would dream, often while wide awake, of hitting baseballs into the deep green grass of the outfield at Turner park, the crowd would cheer him as he rounded the bases headed for home, and he would wave at them. He would give anything to experience the thrill of just running another 90 feet between those bases. But now, the roar of the crowd has grown still and silent, and the disease that eats at his body slowly, is all that there is now he thinks. What he would give just to run free one more time.

The young man enters the room and slowly sits down beside of Bobby Barton. But the man sitting beside of the window stares emotionless out at the drizzling rain, and barely acknowledges that he is no longer alone.
Charlie Barton puts his hand on his older brothers shoulder.
“Bobby? They’re saying that they have to fight you to take your medicine, Bobby.. Please bro you have to-”
He slowly turns to face him his eyes beginning to water.
“Have to what Charlie? Take their medicine so I can live another second, minute or day? Look at me Charlie.. Just look at me for once.. This cancer is eating me alive. Does this look like I’m living to you? Bro. I’m not living, I’m existing.”

Charles Barton looks away from his brother, he can feel the tears welling up in his own eyes.
“Charlie look at me man. And this time for the love of whatever God you pray to at night, this time, don’t just look at me Charlie, see me for once. Just see me.”
He turns to him.
“Bobby I don’t want you to die.”
“I’m already dead.”
He doesn’t answer.
“Charlie man, I was a professional baseball player , for three years running, I was the fastest guy in the Majors, nobody ever threw me out, nobody ever caught me. That was living man. This? This shit here? Now I can barely walk across the room without one of these nurses telling me to sit down. This shit here? This ain‘t living bro.. this is just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

They both sit in silence for a time staring out at the gathering rain clouds, many minute’s have passed when Bobby Barton turns to face his brother again.
“Charlie, we have to face it, I only have a few more days left, I know it, the doctors know it, hell everybody knows it, even if nobody wants to admit it. I’m going to be dead in a couple of days or so.”
He doesn’t answer.
“Charlie?”
“What Bobby?”
“Bro.. do you want me to die happy? With a little peace?
“What do you want me to do?” The younger brother asks.

He turns the study the nurse’s. the look of regret and disdain growing slowly like a slow burning fire in his eyes.
“I miss it. You know? Running I mean. The freedom, the feeling, that nothing on earth could ever catch me, Charlie?”
He kneels down in front of his Brother.
“Yeah?”
“Promise me something. Promise me that you’ll get me out of here before I die, don’t let me die in here bro. please?”
“And go where Bobby?”
“Anywhere that I can run just one more time bud, let me feel that just one more time.”
“There isn’t a baseball diamond around for miles, where would we go?”
“Anywhere but here Charlie.. Anywhere but here.”




He returns two days later to the nursing home where his brother is waiting for his last days, he checks in and asks the head nurse of the whereabouts of Bobby Barton. She nods towards the community room.
“He’s in there young man.” The older woman tells him. Her cold eyes never leaving her magazine.
“Ma’am? Would it be alright if I take my brother outside for some fresh air?”
She silently nods without looking, giving him a slight wave. At this point he is certain that his brother is correct in not wanting to stay here, they don’t seem to care. He warmly greets Bobby Barton and begins to push the wheel chair to the back sliding double doors that lead out onto the main patio. There is no one there but the two of them.

Charlie Barton waits for five whole minutes to see if anyone will come out and check on them, when no one does he pushes the wheel chair along the sides of the home until he and his brother are out in front of the building. He stops at the side of his car and loads his brother into the passenger seat, still no one is coming. He sits down in the drivers seat and drives away in haste. He looks over at Bobby Barton who is now smiling for the first time in months.
“So Charlie.. Where are we going?.”
“Just hang on Bobby.. I found a place.. Out on Crows Crossing Road.”
He shot a nervous glance at him.
“How long do you think it will be before they notice that you are gone?”
“I don’t know.. What time is it?”
“5:35 pm.”
“They are probably calling the cops right now. You’d better hurry Charlie.”

Within minutes they can hear the sirens coming up behind them as Charles Barton pulls out onto Crows Crossing Road and steps down harder on the accelerator pedal. The rain begins to fall as the sirens draw closer.
“Just another mile Bobby. Are you sure that you are strong enough for this?”
He pulls over the car sliding off of the shoulder and jumps from the drivers side of the vehicle. They are coming now so he moves quickly to get his brother out of the passenger seat. He points out into an empty field.
“Home plate bro, its 90 feet out, right there in the grass go Bobby its waiting for you!!”

And as his bare feet touch the soft green rain soaked grass, Bobby Barton feels a sensation that he hadn’t felt in over a years time. He feels alive, he walks out into the center of the field to where he sees carefully placed sandbags set at 90 feet apart, and when his feet touch home plate, he knows that he is finally where he belongs. He barely hears it coming from the roads edge behind him. As the policemen drag his brother to the ground. The words seem surreal and slowly roll past his ears like distant thunder.
“Runnnn Bobbbbby!”

For a time, for a very short time, it is as if he can hear the crowd cheering him on as he runs for home, his blood coursing, his heart pounding, legs reaching one in front of the next, and as his frail body falls to the ground they are on him trying to save him from fate. He stares up at the pouring rain, as they urge the paramedics into the field. His heart slowing with each passing second, he stares up at the Crow, and there is no more pain. For they may take his body, but his soul shall forever run free, here on Crows Crossing Road.

~Scratch.. A.B.T. copyright © 2008~