Chapter 23
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game—the American game!
– paraphrased from With Walt Whitman in Camden by Horace L. Traubel
“Someone’s knocking. Were you expecting anyone to stop by?” Camdyn asked as she straightened up from where she’d been making out with Javi on his couch.
“Nope. Ignore them and they’ll go away,” he said as he tried to pull her back down onto his chest.
She swatted at him and laughed. “Stop. It might be your mother. Let’s see who it is.”
He groaned in protest but let her get up.
When Cam got to the door, she peeked through the peephole and her heart dropped. “It’s Lola, and she looks like she’s crying.” Camdyn hurriedly opened the door and Javi was up and by her side in a moment.
He immediately pulled Lola in and wrapped her in a protective hug. “Chiquita, what is wrong?”
Lola sniffled into his chest. “I need to speak with Cami. Privately.”
Javi looked over Lola’s head at Camdyn with concern. He didn’t know what to do, and she could tell he didn’t want to leave. Lola didn’t know it yet, but her cousin was protective and a fixer at heart.
Camdyn patted his back and gave him a sympathetic look. “It’s okay. Go next door and check on your mother. Lola and I will chat and then we’ll come over there.”
When Javi reluctantly released Lola, Camdyn reached for the girl’s hand and pulled her towards the couch, but Lola wouldn’t sit down.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Tía told me to come speak with you,” said Lola with a sigh.
“Okay. What about?” Camdyn couldn’t imagine what had the girl so upset.
Lola looked down and murmured, “La roja ha venido.”
It took a second, then Camdyn realized why Juana had sent Lola to her. Juana must have been past the point of needing feminine products, and had figured Camdyn might have some, only she didn’t. It wasn’t her time.
“I don’t have any feminine products here,” replied Camdyn.
“And I hurt,” whispered Lola, who looked like she was about to cry again.
Camdyn’s heart nearly broke for the girl. “Well, we can fix that now. I’ll find some medicine and I’ll send Javi to the store to get whatever else you need.”
“No!” exclaimed Lola. The girl looked horrified at the thought of Javier shopping for hygiene products.
“Listen to me, Lola. Soon you’ll be living with Javi. If you need something, he needs to know. Don’t be embarrassed. All women experience this, and he will have no problem getting you what you need or taking you to the store so you can choose products for yourself.”
“Are there no government rations here?” asked Lola.
Confused, Camdyn remarked, “Rations of what?”
“Intimate pads,” replied Lola.
So many cultural differences lay ahead of them.
Camdyn was sure there would be many more that she and Javi were not anticipating.
“Oh, well that’s very good that the government allotted you those, but no, there is no universal healthcare here for things like that.
You’ll be added to Javi’s health insurance, but it doesn’t cover those things.
We just buy them at the store, and there are lots of options, not just pads.
I’m going to grab the medicine for you, but you need to eat something with it.
Look around in Javi’s kitchen and see if you can find anything. ”
Camdyn walked into the bathroom and opened Javi’s medicine cabinet. She found a bottle of ibuprofen and shook two pills out into her palm.
When she returned to the kitchen, she found Lola with a familiar, yellow rectangular brick. The girl looked up at her. “This is all that was in the cabinet.”
Camdyn tried to suppress a smile; her man liked his espresso ground coffee, but that wouldn’t do much to line Lola’s stomach.
“Don’t open that. I’ve got the meds. Let’s go over to Juana’s.
We’ll find something to eat, and then we’ll go shopping.
We’ll get everything you need, and we’ll buy chocolate.
Because la roja calls for lots of chocolate.
Then we can come back here and watch a movie before Javi takes us to the baseball game tonight. ”
Lola looked like she’d just won the lottery and inquired, “We can eat chocolate for almuerzo?”
Camdyn smiled widely and then told Lola conspiratorially, “We could…but I think Javi will object. It’s not good for athletes to eat that many sweets. However, we can definitely have it for dessert.”
They walked next door and found Juana making a large Spanish omelette for their breakfast and Javi adding water to the base of a moka pot.
“We’ll need to go to a store,” announced Camdyn.
“We could go to my store. I would love to show you and Lola where I work, and I get a discount on purchases,” replied Juana knowingly.
“You get a discount because you work there?” asked Lola, sounding stunned.
“I do, and they pay me very well. I also have a pension and retirement plans, and they allow me to buy stock in the company. It’s why I’m staying here and not moving to Arizona,” stated Juana while looking at Javi.
His mother staying in Florida had been a point of contention between Javi and Juana.
When they’d realized that Javi had a better chance of securing Lola’s guardianship than his mother, he’d decided to change their course without a second thought.
He’d strongly believed that Juana would move to Arizona to help care for Lola, but his mother was still not willing to move, and Lola could not stay in Florida without Javi.
Camdyn understood Javi’s mother’s decision.
It wasn’t because Juana did not love or want to be with Javi and Lola.
It was because her job gave her security.
The company she worked for had supported her with bereavement benefits when she’d unexpectedly lost her husband, and they’d assisted her with relocating to one of their other stores when Javi had been drafted for minor league ball.
They had secured Juana’s loyalty when they’d hired her as a young woman who’d grown up in poverty, new to Miami, and, at that time, had spoken little English.
They’d taken a chance on her, and in return, they’d secured her devotion.
Camdyn hoped that Javi could understand his mother better now that he’d been to Cuba and seen the quality of life there firsthand.
For someone to be raised there without any security, taking a chance on something as fickle and ever-changing as an MLB roster was a big risk.
“Maybe I can get a job like that,” said Lola.
Javi turned to her. “Not yet, chiquita. You will have to focus on school. I was not allowed to work during the school year, and neither will you. Your studies will come first.”
“But I can help make money to pay for things,” she protested.
“It may sound ridiculous to you, but I assure you that I’m paid extremely well to play professional baseball. I can handle all your expenses. You don’t have to worry about paying me back for anything.”
“But how can I ever possibly thank you for all that you are doing for me?” Lola asked with tears forming in her eyes.
Javi rounded the cabinet and pulled Lola in for a hug while rubbing her back. “Just accept what I’m giving you. There are no conditions other than you doing well in school and growing up to be an amazing person. We love you, Lola.”
They’d then all sat down to the delicious breakfast that Juana had made. After that, they’d gone to the grocery store, bought a variety of items, then come back to the house to rest and watch television until it was time for the Pensacola minor league game that evening.
The stadium in Pensacola was probably the nicest minor league stadium Camdyn had ever been to, though she hadn’t been to nearly as many of those as she had major league parks.
And Javi had gone all out for Lola’s first game.
He’d gotten them tickets on the upper club level, overlooking the stadium and Pensacola Bay.
The tickets even included a buffet of ballpark fare.
Unlimited hot dogs, snacks, and sodas while the salty breeze blew in off the water made for a memorable experience that Camdyn was sure Lola would judge all future games by.
Javi had also talked to the team’s store and managed to get Camdyn and Lola jerseys with Javi’s name and number on the back, replicas from when he’d played for the team.
Of course, he and Juana had already had theirs, and everyone matching was just another special touch for the night.
About midway through the game, Javi had disappeared.
Camdyn supposed he’d gone off through the bowels of the stadium to visit, but she wasn’t upset that he’d left her.
She and Juana were having fun trying to explain all the aspects of the game to Lola.
Baseball was said to be the most popular sport in Cuba, but Lola knew very little; however, she was eager to learn everything she could about it.
“If the last two foul balls were strikes, why wasn’t the third foul a strike? Shouldn’t he be out?” asked Lola.
“It does seem odd, but the rule was created to prompt more action and keep the ball in play,” replied Juana.
Lola looked at Camdyn as if checking to make sure her aunt was telling her the truth, and Camdyn nodded in agreement to reassure her.
“Doesn’t seem fair,” Lola mused.
“What’s not fair?” asked her cousin as he reappeared behind them with three mini helmets of ice cream balanced in his hands.
“You got us ice cream!” exclaimed Lola, completely forgetting about the third foul ball.
“Not just any ice cream. This is pineapple-flavored soft-serve in a mini batting helmet,” he retorted seriously.
“Pineapple? Like Dole Whip?” asked Camdyn.
“Yes, it’s delicious,” said Juana as she took a helmet from Javi.
He handed one to Lola and the last to Camdyn before sliding into the seat next to her.
“You didn’t want any?” she asked.
“I’ll just have a few bites of yours. I couldn’t juggle another one, but I wanted you to have the helmet,” he replied.
He was the sweetest man she’d ever met. He was always thinking of her—of things to do for her or finding something to gift her.
Like something as simple as a miniature baseball helmet because he knew she collected them.
Such a simple but meaningful gesture. It seemed that Javi had her love languages all figured out.
She scooped up a big bite and held it up for him. He took the mouthful, and she was so busy watching him enjoy the sweetness that she was oblivious to the stadium’s goings-on around them until Lola poked her and yelled, “You’re on the TV!”
Camdyn looked at the big screen behind the outfield and her jaw dropped. She and Javi were on the Kiss Cam, and he was grinning like a loon. Her man had planned this, too!
He leaned towards her and slid one of his hands behind her neck.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” he said.
“Me too,” she replied.
When he kissed her, she could taste the sweet, tart flavor of the pineapple, and she knew that she would forever correlate this moment with that taste. When they pulled away, the crowd was clapping and cheering, and Javi looked like that cat who got the cream.
Camdyn was off-kilter. How had she found just what she had needed in a random rebound in San Diego?
She must have looked as off as she felt, because Javi motioned towards the helmet she was still holding. “Careful, hermosa, or you’ll spill your ice cream. It’s melting.”
Melting. That’s exactly what had happened. Javi had thawed her icy heart. He watched as she took a bite.
She savored the taste that she already knew from his mouth. It was delicious.
Then she decided to be spontaneous and just voice the thought running through her mind. “I love you.”