2064.01; The Start

[shoeless.db]

A baseball flew. Up and down. Again and again. Its path cresting within inches of a water-stained ceiling before falling into the hand of a 10-year-old boy. From his back, the boy flicked the well-worn ball from one hand to the other and tossed it upward again, its laces a blur of red as it spun, slicing through the suffocating air of his small bedroom. Baseball cards littered the floor around him. A Cobble Hill pennant hung on one wall.

“The fuck you are!” His father’s voice thundered from down the hall. “If you take one god-damn step out of this house, don’t ever fucking come back!”

The boy shut his eyes as the ball rose. Kept them closed as it dropped. Imagined himself tracking a flyball in deep centerfield at McDermitt Park. The hum of the crowd melting into him. Closer and closer the ball came, and with his eyes still closed, the boy reached out and caught it.

“Good! Then I won’t have to listen to your shit anymore!”

The boy grabbed the ball with his throwing hand. Saw himself planting his feet in the dirt of the warning track. He tossed the ball up again. To the cutoff. To the ceiling.

The sound of heavy, angry steps rumbled through the house.

The boy winced with each stomp.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

They rippled through him. Through his head. His body. His heart.

“Don’t fucking touch me!”

Again the ball fell into the boy’s waiting hand. He imagined himself tagging a runner out at home.

A body slammed into a wall. He heard a scream. His sister’s. More angry steps.

“I fucking hate you!”

The boy ran his thumb along the ball’s seam.

“Get the fuck out of my house!”

He twisted the ball in his hand, his thumb still following the seam.

The slam of a door. The slam of a fist against a wall.

He heard his mother crying in the next room.

More heavy steps.

The boy’s thumb continued along the seam.

Circling.

Around and around.

With no end.

[trmmilwwi]

So... this is set in 2075?

[Graham]

Feels like I have to report this to the proper authorities…

[Krathan]

The words “Cobble Hill pennant” confused me for a second there.