Going, Going, Gone.

Suzie's Story.

by Barbara L. Clanton.

Acknowledgments.

I'd like to acknowledge the people who supported me while writing this story. Big giant humongous thanks go out to Sheri Milburn, Mary Jane Ambrico, Carmen Roldan, and Diana Schnitzer, for being ever ready to critique my words when I called, texted or emailed for help. I also need to thank the Regal Crest team for their help and support -- Mary Phillips, Trinka Kittle, Cathy LeNoir, and Donna Pawloski.

I want to thank my family as well. My parents Paul and JoAnne Clanton who are amazingly supportive; my older brother Paul Clanton and my sister-in-law Kim Thuon who have encouraged me and who have been excellent role models for my awesome nephew Ian Clanton-Thuon and my equally awesome niece Adria Clanton-Thuon; my younger brother John Clanton and my sister-in-law Melissa McCurley with their big giant hearts; my life partner's family Mamie, Joe, Joey Weathers who are the perfect "in-laws".

And, then there is Jackie, my granite, who once said, "Life is like putting on 501 button jeans. You close one button at a time, rest, and then work on the next. It takes work, but you can do it." Life is so much fun with a built-in philosopher like her in my life.

Dedication.

To the memory of my mother-in-law Mamie Victoria Weathers.

Chapter One.

No One Would Care.

SUSIE SMACKED HER fist into her glove. The East Valley Nor'easters needed one more out to beat the Elmhurst Rage and then she could whisk Marlee away to their private place. No one would miss them for two, maybe three hours.

"C'mon, Marlee," Susie yelled from left field. "Fire it in there." She leaned back on her heels and breathed in the sweet July air. Without thinking, she tucked a lock of auburn hair under her hat. Dios mio, Saturday morning games took forever.

When school had ended, Susie figured they would have all the time in the world to be together, but Marlee worked at D'Amico's restaurant in Clarksonville, and Susie babysat for Mrs. Johnson's kids in East Valley. Susie wanted to ditch the kids that summer, so she could get a real job, but her mother wouldn't let her. Mrs. Johnson was her mother's boss after all. Aay, but why worry about that mierda when it was Saturday and Marlee was there.

Susie cheered when Marlee pitched the second strike to the batter. "One more, pitcher," she called. One more and we're outta here.

Susie admired the sleekness of Marlee's cat-like grace as she pitched, the way her athletic body moved so effortlessly. Susie stood in the outfield and watched Marlee go from standing completely still to exploding off the pitching rubber toward the plate, throwing her whole body toward the catcher. Marlee expended so much energy in that one fluid motion, that Susie almost felt guilty standing in one spot in the outfield. Somehow that didn't seem fair.

Susie rubbed the heel of her glove. She couldn't wait to run her fingers through Marlee's short silky blonde hair and then pull her down on the blanket. She'd rest her head on Marlee's chest and run her fingers over Marlee's tight abs. Marlee would hold her close and stroke her back. Was it possible to stay that way forever? Safe and secure? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Dios, she needed the game to be over.

Susie's eyes flew open when she heard shouting. Crap, a line drive was heading right for her. She made a split second decision to dive, but as soon as she was airborne she knew it was wrong. The ball careened off the grass just in front of her outstretched glove and whizzed by her head.

She landed with a thud. With a grunt, she pulled up to her knees and leaped to her feet to chase the ball down. Rachel, the center fielder, was already tracking it down at the fence. Rachel picked up the ball and heaved it to the shortstop. Abby held on to the ball as the runner glided easily into third base with a stand-up triple.

"Shit!" Susie muttered under her breath. She hated making errors, especially in front of Marlee. She slammed her glove against her thigh in frustration.

"Where's your head, Torres?" Coach Gellar called out to her. "No more bonehead mistakes."

Out of the corner of her eye, Susie watched her coach pacing in the dugout. What was the big deal? They were winning by a score of 31, and it was only the second game of their six-week summer season anyway.

Marlee grinned at Susie. Susie shrugged back and pounded her glove. She felt her cheeks get warm. "My bad, Marlee. My bad. Pick me up."

Marlee struck out the next batter as Susie had hoped and sealed the Saturday morning victory for the East Valley Nor'easters.

"Ball game!" the home plate umpire yelled and took off her face mask.

Susie sprinted toward the pitcher's circle to join the infielders already in celebration. She patted Marlee on the back. "Way to go, Marlee."

Marlee's crystal blue eyes and devilish smile melted Susie all the way down to her toes. Susie wondered if Marlee truly knew the physical effect she had on her. Later. She'd show her later when they were finally alone.

Susie and her teammates lined up for the high-five's with the other team. Susie got in line behind Marlee and pushed her ever so gently on the back. Marlee pushed back. It was their way to make physical contact in public, to say, "Hey, I like you," to give each other a hug with the whole world watching.

Once they got through the high-five line, and huddled up for their team meeting with Coach Gellar, the razzing began.

"Nice catch out there, Susie," Rachel said with an exaggerated eye roll.

Susie felt the heat rising in her cheeks. "The sun. It got in my eyes."

Coach Gellar raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure that's exactly what happened. I'm sure it had nothing to do with daydreaming."

"Nope," Susie said, but could tell that her coach wasn't amused. At all.

"Mm hmm." Coach Gellar pursed her lips together. She shook her head in clear disapproval, her short salt and pepper hair barely moving. "Anyway. Nice win, girls. Elmhurst is usually a pretty tough team. They travel all over the state, but their pitcher seemed kind of green today."

Marlee leaned against Susie ever so slightly. The bare skin on her forearm sent tingles up Susie's arm. Her heartbeat quickened, and she had trouble focusing on their coach.

"We're undefeated, but if some players don't start to take summer softball seriously, that'll change quickly." She looked each one of her players in the eye, but Susie was sure Coach Gellar glared at her for an extra-long moment. "But," the coach continued, "I'm going to challenge that. Most of you want to play softball in college. In order to do that, you have to play on a travelling team like ours. You have to compete with the very best. We've got mostly East Valley High School players on our team--"

"Panthers! Hoot hoot!" Abby started a chant, and most of the team enthusiastically joined in. All except Marlee.

Marlee leaned over and whispered to Susie, "Hey, Panther, you'd better stop hooting if you know what's good for you."

Susie clamped her lips shut, but couldn't help the smile creeping up her face.

"If Lisa were here, she'd be kicking some Panther butt right about now and taking names," Marlee added.

Susie laughed. Lisa Brown was Marlee's usual catcher. She and Marlee played for the Clarksonville High School Cougars--East Valley's arch rivals. The Cougars had squeaked by East Valley during the last school season to win not only the North Country League Championship, but the entire State Championship as well.

"And," Coach Gellar gestured toward Marlee, "since we've invited McAllister here and her catcher Lisa Brown from the Clarksonville Cougars to play with us this season, it behooves us to put in a hundred and ten percent during every game." Coach Gellar's gaze again lingered on Susie for a moment. "We don't want them thinking we're a bunch of slackers on the other side of the county."

The team chuckled, but Susie sighed. Coach Gellar never let anyone forget a mistake. It would be a while before Susie would be able to accrue enough atta girls to combat her bonehead mistake.

"All right, girls," Coach Gellar continued, "our next game is Tuesday. Six o'clock sharp. Those of you who can get here by four will be able to take batting practice."

Susie groaned. What Coach meant was that she wanted every single one of them there by four o'clock for batting practice. That was going to be really tough because Mrs. Johnson didn't get home until four. Sometimes later.

The coach dismissed them, but then turned back and added, "Nice pitching, McAllister."

"Thanks, Coach." Marlee seemed to hesitate for a second and then added, "I miss my catcher Lisa, though."

Coach Gellar nodded as if she understood. "Back when I pitched at Cortland, I had a favorite catcher, too. You're stuck with Baxter for now until your catcher's hand heals."

"That's at least two more weeks." Marlee groaned.

Coach Gellar nodded, almost sympathetically. "Okay, girls, see you Tuesday."

Susie and Marlee headed back to the dugout and sat hip to hip on the bench. Susie grabbed her bag and tossed her glove inside. She wanted to take off her hat, but that would have to wait until she got in Marlee's van and brushed her hair. No sense scaring the rest of the free world with hat head.

"Hey," Marlee said with a tap on Susie's thigh, "are we going to the usual spot?"

Susie stopped untying her cleats and sent Marlee a smoldering glance. She nodded once.

Marlee sucked in her lower lip. "Hurry up, then, slow poke," she whispered. "It's bad enough we didn't see each other on our anniversary yesterday."

"Aay, mi vida, you're so impatient."

"Three month anniversaries don't come along every day you know." Marlee flashed a smile.

Susie melted. She lived for that smile, because it was just for her.

Marlee threw her cleats into her bag and put a pair of flip flops on over her white socks. "Are you going to finish taking off your cleats today or what?"

Susie whispered low, "I'll take off anything you want."

Marlee moaned just loud enough for Susie to hear.

Susie yanked off her cleats and threw them in her bag. She put on a pair of red crocs and stood up. "Ready to go?" If the team hadn't been milling about, she would have reached for Marlee's hand. She didn't think anybody knew that she was seeing Marlee, and she wasn't ready for them to find out yet. Neither she nor Marlee had come out of the closet to their respective families, either. If Susie's parents ever found out, it would be as bad as the time she backed the car into the garage door. Aay, who was she kidding? This would be way worse. This would be off the Richter scale of disasters in her mother's life. She would never be able to show herself at another family reunion again.

Marlee sprang up off the bench, threw her bag over her shoulder, and winced. "Yee-ouch."

"Shoulder?"

"Mm hmm. Sometimes it gives me trouble."

"I'll rub it for you later," Susie said with a seductive grin.

"Promise?"

"Si, claro." Susie nodded. "Here, let me carry your bag for you."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Susie shouldered Marlee's gear. "And now we need to go talk to the one who sent you to the hospital with that shoulder injury in the first place."

Marlee looked up and grunted. Christy Loveland was sitting on the first row of bleachers. "I forgave her for that a long time ago."

"I know. C'mon." Susie reached for Marlee's hand, but then pulled back in frustration. Someday maybe they'd have the courage to hold hands in front of people.

Christy stood up when they opened the gate from the field. "Yo. What's up, chicklets?"

"Hey, Christy," Marlee said.

"Hey." Susie gave Christy a quick hug, "Thanks for the ride today."

"No problem. I hear Puerto Ricans are bad drivers, so I'm making the roads safe for--"

Susie whacked her in the arm, so she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Can't take it, Rican?" Christy smiled as she backed away out of whacking range.

"Chistosa. Very funny." Susie rolled her eyes. "Actually, it was nice not having to drive for a change."

They headed toward the parking lot. "Where are Sam and Lisa today?" Christy asked.

"Oh," Susie said, "they're at Lisa's dad's wedding."

Christy cocked an eyebrow. "Are her parents divorced?"

"Not exactly." Marlee exchanged a look with Susie. "It's kind of a long story. One that we just found out this week, actually. Apparently, Mr. Brown, the man we thought was Lisa's dad, is really her step-dad."

"No shit?" Christy's eyes grew wide for a moment. "I'm not the only one with issues then, am I?"

Susie shook her head. "Apparently, Lisa's biological father wanted to get back into her life, so there you go. She's at his wedding and Sam's with her."

"Cool. Tell Lisa I said, uh--" Christy furrowed her brow. "Are congratulations in order? Well, whatever, tell her I said hi. Hopefully, I'll get to see her and Sam before I split for the golden land. And Jeri, too. I haven't talked to her since our last game. I don't know what Clarksonville's gonna do for a center fielder now that Jeri's graduated."

"Me, neither," Marlee said with a sigh.

"Hey, come to our game next Tuesday," Susie said. "Sam'll be back, and I think Lisa's coming to meet the team."

"I'll get Jeri to come, too," Marlee added.

"Yeah, I can do that. I'm not leaving until Wednesday."

"Que bueno." Susie threw Marlee's softball bag in the back of the van and threw her own on top. She unzipped a side pocket and pulled out her hairbrush. She brushed her hair into a reasonably manageable mess. It would have to do for now.

Marlee asked Christy, "Are you all set for your big California move?" "Just about." Christy nodded. "It's funny. My mom's been all teary-eyed about me going to college."

"Pfft," Susie spat. "Why? Is she actually going to miss you? She wasn't around for most of your life."

"Yeah, really. I think maybe she has to face that fact that I'm all grown up, and she's the mother of two college-aged girls."