Change-up by John Feinstein Read Free Book Online

had caught her attention.
    “Of course not,” he said to Morra. “I really apologize ….”
    Norbert shook his head. “Don’t apologize. It’s a logical question to ask. The worst part, to be honest, is that the kids were so young they don’t really remember her.”
    “I remember her giving us baths,” Morra said quietly. “At least, I think I do.”
    “She used to sing me to sleep,” David added.
    “We’ve done a pretty good job of sticking together and getting through things,” Norbert added. “I know that’s what Analise would have wanted. That’s why the kids travel with me whenever they can. When they’re in school and I’m on the road, my brother and his wife take care of them for me. But I miss them a lot when I’m away.”
    The story, Stevie realized, had taken a turn he hadn’t expected. Time to switch gears.
    “So, Morra, David, sounds like you travel with the team a lot,” he said. “Tell me what that’s like.”
    Morra thought for a moment and then laughed. “It’s a whole lot different up here in the majors than the minors,” she said.
    “Charter planes instead of charter buses,” David said. “Dad’s been given more stuff—gloves, bats, caps, even
socks
—in the last two months than the whole time he was in the minors.”
    “Pretty close to true,” Norbert said, nodding.
    “They even put your number on your socks,” David added.
    “Why do you think they do that?” Susan Carol asked, suddenly curious.
    “I asked that myself,” Norbert said. “It’s so they can tell whose socks belong to whom when they do laundry.”
    “So they do your laundry for you?” Stevie said.
    “They do
everything
for you,” Norbert said. “When we go on a road trip like this one, there’s a clubhouse kid assigned to me—just to me—to make sure all my uniforms and equipment and anything I need gets into a trunk and gets on the plane. When I drive to the airport to meet the team, there’s no security check and I just hand my bags to someone, and the next time I see them is in my hotel room.”
    “On this trip they had a charter for the families,” David said. “It was amazing.”
    “A little different than Sumter or Boise or Greensboro, that’s for sure,” Norbert said. He laughed. “It was in Sumter that my battery blew in hundred-and-five-degree heat, and I didn’t have enough money to buy a new one. I had to go around the clubhouse and …”
    He stopped in midsentence. Nationals manager Manny Acta was approaching the table.
    For a second Stevie wondered if maybe they’d lingered too long and Acta didn’t like the idea of one of his players spending so much time with a couple of reporters on the morning of game two of the World Series. But he had a smile on his face as he approached. “Talking to my favorite kid reporters, huh, Norby?” he said as he walked up. Both Stevie and Susan Carol had spent some time with Acta during the playoffs, and he’d always been accommodating and accessible.
    “Telling them about every city I ever played in,” Norbert said. “That takes a while.”
    Acta laughed. “We play at eight-thirty tonight,” he said. “I’m not sure there’s enough time.”
    He shook hands with Stevie and Susan Carol and said hello to the Doyle kids, whom he clearly knew. He looked at Norbert and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
    The implication—that he didn’t want to talk to Norbert in front of everyone—was obvious. “Sure, Manny,” Norbert said, clearly a bit baffled.
    He and Acta walked across the restaurant and out the door.
    “What do you think that’s about?” Susan Carol asked. “I mean, it’s okay for your dad to be interviewed now, isn’t it?”
    “Sure, it’s okay,” David said. “I have no idea what this is about.”
    They sat quietly for a moment. Stevie wanted to say again how sorry he was about their mother but decided it wasn’t a good idea. Susan Carol broke the silence by asking what sports David and Morra