269 Back to Dr. Moore 1 (1/2)

”You look good, Jake.” Dr. Moore smiled as I walked into his office with Mr. Atkins right behind me. ”Wayne, how are you?”

Mr. Atkins smiled back at him. ”So far, so good. Taking it one day at a time. You know how boys can be.”

”I couldn't imagine having that many sons.” Dr. Moore chuckled. He looked to me as I sat in my loner chair. ”I heard you have something you want to talk to me about?”

I clasped my hands together, and after a reassuring nod from Mr. Atkins, I spoke up. ”You know how a few weeks ago, I seemed to black out towards the end of a game?”

He nodded. ”You felt that no one would be there to cheer for you like how the Atkins cheer for their sons. Do you still feel bothered that your own family isn't there for you?”

I shook my head. ”Not really. The Atkins cheer for me too. It's a different feeling.”

”Why don't you describe the situation in more clear detail? What was going on in the game? What were your thoughts? Your feelings?” Dr. Moore looked close to asking me to write an essay.

I cleared my throat. ”It would be the last inning. Tentatively. It was the bottom of the fifth and we were up by eleven. Dave was pitching. In fact, he was trying to go for a perfect game.”

”And what does that entail?” Dr. Moore made me pause.

”Uh, no runs, no hits, no walks, and no errors.”

”No baserunners.” Mr. Atkins shortened for me. Then he added. ”If a high school team is up by ten or more runs by the end of the fifth, it would be a called game. A mercy rule.”

Dr. Moore nodded and made some scribbles on his yellow notepad. ”So hypothetically this game was coming to a close? Dave was personally trying for the perfect game as the team was trying for the called game?”

I frowned. ”No, we were trying for the perfect game too. For Dave. Kyle already had one, so...”

”So? So what?” Dr. Moore pushed me to continue.

”So I wanted them to be even..?” I mumbled.

”This is a little off track, but I'd like to expand a little more on it.” Dr. Moore tapped his pad with his pen. ”So Dave and Kyle are twin brothers. Who both pitch. And you want them to do equally as well as the other?”

I nodded. I truly did. Wouldn't that be fair?