Natalie Sullivan, Bill’s daughter, was seated next to Mona Parsons, Jake’s mother. The crowd was booing the batter and the pitcher. Natalie slouched deep into her seat, after noticing the clenched jaw and obvious anger in Mona’s face. Even though she was only thirteen she knew the batter had deliberately taunted her father, but her father shouldn’t have tried to hit Chavez in the head. He could have hurt the guy.
“Drama queens!” said Natalie.
Mona snorted, having heard Natalie’s comment over the crowd, and glanced over. Except for her dark hair the young woman was far different than her father. She was petite, polite, and personable. Mona remembered the first time she had met Bill, when he joined the team and became immediate friends with Jake. Despite his rough start in life, Bill Sullivan was a driven man. Through determination and single-minded focus, he had become one of the best pitchers in the league. And he was involved with his daughter’s life, which Mona admired, now bringing Natalie to home games at least once or twice a month.
“I don’t understand this, Mrs. Parsons. I don’t understand why they are being jerks.”
“At the professional level, the mental game is important. Your dad and Chavez are trying to upset each other, trying to force a mistake by the other. Bill wants to strike him out, and the batter wants a home run.
“There is ego and pride involved, and your dad hates to lose.”
Natalie didn’t have anything to say.
Chavez was stepping into the batter’s box.
The crowd stopped booing and started chanting for Sullivan.
“Eric! Eric honey are you okay?” asked his mother, Caroline.
David Hall charged back into the family room after grabbing his cell phone upstairs and calling 911.
“The EMT’s and an ambulance are on their way.” He kept the cell phone to his ear in case anything changed in Eric’s condition, or instructions needed to be relayed.
Eric was becoming alert. He had not lost consciousness but had been unresponsive. Caroline’s face was white, her fingers trembling, as she stroked Eric’s face with one hand and held a cold cloth on his forehead with the other.
“I’m okay, Mom,” said Eric, trying to sit up.
Tears streamed down David and Caroline’s cheeks.
“How do you feel, Eric?” asked his father, who had grabbed a water glass from the table and handed it to his wife.
“I have a little headache, … and I’m pretty tired.”
They all turned their heads, hearing sirens approaching and getting louder by the second.
“Is that for me? I,… I don’t need an ambulance!
“I’m okay!”
“I’ll go let them in,” said David, heading for the stairs.
“Here honey, please take a drink,” Caroline said, handing Eric the glass of water.
David entered the room followed by two EMT’s, carrying medical equipment cases.
“Hi Eric, my name is Matt, and this is Beth. We are here to help you, Eric. Is that okay?”
“I guess so, … but I’m fine!”
“We know you are, Eric. Is it okay if we take your blood pressure and ask you a few questions?” asked Matt. Beth was watching Eric’s face carefully, starting her medical assessment, while Matt was pulling the blood pressure cuff from one of the cases.
“Eric, can you try and give me a smile? Is your team winning?” asked Beth.
Eric smiled. “Yes… they are!”
Beth did not notice any droop or abnormal movement on either side of Eric’s face.
“That is great Eric. Now can you lift your arms a few inches off the floor?”
“Blood pressure is a bit high,” stated Matt.
Beth noticed Eric’s left arm was a bit unsteady, but she just smiled.
Caroline’s eyes widened.
David heard knocking upstairs and came back a few minutes later with two more EMT’s who had arrived with an ambulance.
“Thanks, Eric. Can you tell me how the game was going?” asked Beth.
Everyone had picked up Eric’s slow speech pattern, and slight hesitation.
Beth and Matt kept their concern off their faces. Beth stood to speak with Eric’s parents, while Matt asked Eric if he had any headaches.
“Mr. and Mrs. Hall, I think to be safe, we need to transport Eric to the hospital for observation and a CT scan, maybe even an MRI,” said Beth. “Has he fallen recently, or hit his head on something?”