Mooshie flinched as Grandma’s eyes warmed her face like an over-heated washcloth.
“Now we’re gonna sing. I don’t care how rotten your voice is. You sing or Dara’s gonna find you.”
A Dara HG in a black witch’s outfit whizzed past to loud laughter. Mooshie shook her head, grinning.
“Let’s do it.”
An HG Honor Guard marched out of the scoreboard and presented arms. In huge red, white and blue letters, the words hung over the infield.
“Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.”
The crowd started finding its footing, buoyed by Grandma’s lusty singing.
“Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight.”
Now a huge American flag filled the entire infield, flanked by marching soldiers.
“O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming
And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air.”
Oohs and ahs as HG bombs and rockets exploded.
“Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The HG flag covered the entire infield. Holographic soldiers climbed aboard and saluted the crowd, floating over the stands. The fans stomped and whooped and whistled.
The flag faded and was replaced by FORGIVENESS. The crowd yelled a little louder and Grandma sighed in relief.
Mooshie returned to home plate, waiting for everyone to settle down. “Now we have another wonderful tradition. The throwing out of the first ball. Don’t worry, Hsen is still pitching for the Cubs and Puppy for the Yankees.” She paused to let the barking subside. “But this ceremonial toss will be from a couple of my…” Dara stopped just in time. “Couple of our all-time favorite players. You remember the Three Amigos?”
The crowd cheered for the HGs of Mooshie, Derek and Sun Yen dancing with baseball bats.
“Well, the greatest player of all time, Mooshie Lopez, is no longer with us.”
You’re just incorrigible, Puppy shook his head, chuckling.
“But we still have the great third baseman.” Sun Yen hobbled to the pitcher’s mound. “And the amazing right fielder.” Derek joined him. “Easy Sun Yen and Derek Singh.”
Grandma, waving a Yankees and Cubs cap in each hand to make sure there was no doubt about her impartiality, came onto the field to make it a threesome.
“Gentlemen.” Grandma smiled at the players, who bowed.
“Honored,” Sun Yen said.
“Thank you, Grandma,” Derek added.
“No, thank you. Now how embarrassing is it going to be when I can’t reach home plate?” She held up the baseball.
“It’s going to be way worse when we can’t.” Derek grinned wryly.
None of their tosses made it past forty feet; the crowd cheered anyway. They walked off the field while Mooshie tossed the ball into the air.
“Are you ready?” she shouted.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Yes,” the crowd ratcheted it up.
“I can’t fucking hear you.”
The old ballpark shook.
Mooshie winked at Puppy. “Then let’s play ball.” She flipped her hair side to side, back and forth, winding up and firing the ball into the second level behind third base.
Play Ball!!! cried an HG umpire.
• • • •
ALL THE TRAINS had stopped at 235th Street. Someone, somehow, had relocated one of the forty-foot vidscreens across the tracks at 234th Street. There weren’t enough cops to move it since all of the Bronx’s Blue Shirts were on duty within half a mile of Yankee Stadium.
At least they wouldn’t get arrested for public defecation, Annette thought, since Clary had threatened to pee on the street unless she found a toilet. Annette jiggled the jiggling child to be still as she searched up and down the jammed block.
“Hurry.” Clary squirmed and bent her knees.
“I told you to go on the train.”
Clary erupted into angry Spanish and took to squatting every few feet.
Just past what was once a traffic intersection, a thick line poured out of an old ethnic-styled pub, the sort of place Annette’s father would call “a place for people with calluses.”
Annette pointed hopefully toward the entrance. Clary growled when they didn’t move.
“El patience,” Annette hissed.
A loud gagging noise blasted out of Clary like she was a music speaker. Heads turned and the child clutched her stomach, groaning. Annette yanked Clary, feet scraping listlessly along the ground, through the path of drunks unwilling to house someone else’s vomit, and into the bar.
“Bathroom?” Annette shouted over the deafening noise at the bartender, who jerked his head around the corner to the left.
“Puppy Beisbol,” Clary shouted at the vidsports screen over the bar where Puppy clenched his fist after striking out a batter.
“You’re supposed to be dying,” Annette rasped. “Beisbol later, pee now.”
Clary made scary noises and darted between bodies. A thick-set man sympathetically shook his head.
“Easier when you could smack them.”
“Cooking them would be better,” Annette grumbled. The man edged away.
She watched the game a moment. It was already the third inning. When was this disaster supposed to happen? Annette glanced around impatiently, landing on the two Brown Hats squeezing into the bar.
Recognizing the Detectives, Annette frantically crouched behind some beefy guys screaming encouragement at Puppy as Buca and Y’or eased through the crowd, eyes narrowed. Looking for someone.
Relax. There must be other dangerous criminals let loose. Just tell them there’s a terrorist attack about to happen and you’ve done your duty. Have you? It sounded so stupid. Where was the evidence? Look at all those children, she thought as the camera panned over the crowd. They’re terrorists too?
She ducked as the Brown Hats scanned the bar. Of course if she’s right, she’s uh, what did they used to call them, heroes, back when everyone had to be rewarded to behave selflessly. Kenuda would have to marry her. Her shoes would be required buying. She’d probably get her own vidshow about fashion, Annette warmed to the idea, slowly rising.
Clary’s head bobbed around the end of the bar. What about her? If they wanted the brat the first time, they’d probably want her more now. So, Annette, so? She’s a demon child. Zelda should’ve kept her.
If she were supposed to be a mother then she
