another season passes

I hadn’t heard from her in over a year. I’d tried to call many times, but never got past the second ring, terrified to hear her voice because I knew it like one of those mythological sirens of seduction. Platonic and catching up were out of the question. I was feeling too damn greedy. I wanted it all….all over again including the separation anxiety feelings of me calling her at work and leaving 27 messages on her answering machine and those long kisses and feeding each other couscous and sardines. And then one day she sent me a letter, an actual letter, words on paper and stamps I’m sure she picked out because one of them was Ferguson Jenkins to no doubt sway me over to the Cubs side of things. We had both talked about him being kind of underrated despite winning 284 games and being in the hall of fame. She said she’d be in town, in Milwaukee, for a baseball card show and did I want to come along and after that have a drink at Axel’s and then maybe a gyro at the Greek restaurant next store on Oakland Avenue? I didn’t wait, my lusty greed kicking into 1st gear. I called her up and let it go past four rings and she answered the phone and said she had become an even bigger Cubs fan since moving to Chicago. I wished she would have chosen the White Sox as her object of desire but we decided to meet anyway. She ordered a couple of $1.99 Long Island Iced Teas. I drank beer and we picked up the conversation where we left off, about us both loving the number 8 and neither one of us being in a relationship and Cubs players from the 1980’s – Keith Moreland and Bob Dernier and Thad Bosley and then we went outside and walked around Riverside Park and kissed a lot and got thirsty again so we went back to the bar. I switched from beer to whisky  and she started drinking beer. The conversation got kind of heated when we rehashed the old times, of me leaving without ever saying a word. There were loud voices and more drinks and then at some point, I surrendered and apologized and we just started laughing. She held my hand and raised my arm up above my head, both of us looking like Jesse Owens brothers of the struggle salute and the Cubs game was on TV so we watched and talked about their pitching staff, tons of injuries just like every other team.