Last Call by Laura Pedersen Read Free Book Online

would get her mind off her troubles. Baseball cheered everyone up.
    “We’re Mets fans.” Hayden throws on the charm as if he’s selling a million-dollar insurance policy. “They’re playin’ the Cardinals. Are you a Mets fan?”
    “I’ve never been to a baseball game.” She ponders the invitation, as if this is a forbidden outing, or something even more outrageous, like Hayden has suggested firebombing the United Nations. Pushing aside the movable table holding the lunch tray, up until then a prospective weapon in her hands, she finally says, “That sounds splendid. Would you mind waiting in the hall while I change?”
    Hayden exits and vaguely wonders if he’s just started a new career as a social worker or, alternatively, asked a woman out on a date for the first time in over thirty-five years. Before he became ill his sweet twenty-six-year-old neighbor Bobbie Anne had been bothering him to ask a woman out. Well, now he’d done it. And a feisty one, at that.
    Hayden locates Joey counting tiles on the floor of the patients’ lounge at the end of the corridor. The boy was forever counting things. Hayden is beginning to think he’ll grow up to be a math teacher. Or else a bookie. Wouldn’t that give his mother a fit!
    Joey is relieved to see his grandfather return. He believes that if The Cancer Monster has a secret hideaway, it’s probably here in the hospital, maybe in the basement or up on the roof.
    “So? Did you give that lady your Suicide for Dummies lecture?”
    “I prefer the term
self-euthanasia
if you do’an’ mind. And yes, I have convinced her to check out,” he announces, ever the proud salesman.
    “She already took the pills!” Joey exclaims, not even trying to hide his astonishment for the benefit of the other patients in the room. “Wow, Grandpa, you could sell ice to Eskimos.” He parrots ones of Hayden’s favorite sayings.
    “No, no. I mean check out of the hospital in the traditional sense of the word. I’ve invited her to the game with us. And here she—”
    Hayden is struck dumb as Rosamond appears in full nun regalia, like a vision out of a stained-glass window—long black habit, white wimple, black cloth veil, large cross on a long silver chain dangling above her waist. Her face is smooth and pleasant now, dairy-fresh skin and a small upturned nose. “I’m ready!” she announces.
    Unable to hide their shock, Hayden and Joey simply stare at Rosamond and then at each other, mouths agape.
    “You didn’t tell me she was a nun,” Joey whispers to his grandfather.
    “I had no idea,” replies Hayden. “It wasn’t on her chart.”
    chapter seven
    I t’s an exuberant summer afternoon that fills the landscape with motion—flocks of birds crisscrossing the sky, trees swaying and trembling in the breeze—and the confused noisy jumble of wildlife and traffic that combine to make a sort of disjunctive parade.
    Outside Shea Stadium Hayden listens carefully to the coded shouts of scalpers in an effort to determine which way the ticket market is going. Almost as much as the game itself Hayden loves the haggling—lowballing, arguing, and then pretending to walk away.
    Sometimes by waiting around he can get a bargain as the sellers worry they might end up stuck with their wares. Alternatively, holding out until the last minute on a day like today can result in overpaying for seats in the stratosphere. Bad weather or a potentially boring game can send prices tumbling. But today is gorgeous, the teams are closely matched, and Hayden is possessed by a sudden urge to abandon his usual thriftiness. He pays a little more than he normally would for three tickets behind third base, where Joey can study the catcher.
    Once inside the cavernous arena Hayden sends Rosamond and Joey on ahead while he waits in line at the snack bar. Rosamond is overwhelmed by the noise, vibrant color, activity everywhere one looks, and the overall energy of a fast-filling stadium. The hospital had seemed loud