Page 32 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
Ruby grinned. ‘Staff discount.’
Madeline stood up. Her heart was racing with nerves. She patted her thighs and grinned. ‘All right. Why not?’
Five minutes later, she was standing behind the wicketkeeper on the boundary edge as the bowler came running in from the other end. She waited, expecting the batsman to either hit the ball or the ‘keeper to catch the ball, but instead neither happened. The ball missed both, and came bouncing down towards her. Completely unprepared for the speed at which the ball was travelling, by the time she’d got a hand down, the ball was past her and bouncing over the boundary.
‘Four wides,’ the umpire shouted, holding his arms out to the sides as the batting team cheered.
‘Get behind the ball!’ Ruby’s father shouted. ‘We’re three percent statistically more likely to lose now!’
Darren came running over from a nearby fielding position. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, patting her on the shoulder. ‘When the ball comes, drop your calf along the ground, like this. It creates a barrier in case your hands miss the ball. Good luck.’
His eyes lingered on hers a little longer than was necessary, but Madeline found herself staring back. They were nice eyes. Kind. She was almost disappointed when he turned away.
Ruby had told her that fielding at fine leg was boring and that she would rarely touch the ball. In reality, the bowlers were erratic, Margaret, the wicketkeeper, could barely stop the ball, and a couple of decent batsmen insisted on hitting everything over the ‘keeper’s head in her general direction. And on top of everything else, every six balls the bowlers changed ends, meaning that Madeline had to run all the way to the far end of the field, while the rest of the fielders just shifted back and forth. By the time the game came down to the last six balls, with the opposition nine wickets down and needing just four to win, she was puffing, her palms aching from stopping the ball, her arms aching from throwing it back, and the sides of her calves smarting from every time the ball had slipped through her hands.
Despite everything, though, she’d enjoyed it, and now, with the game down to the wire, she felt as excitedly nervous as the rest of the Milton Road team.
‘Keep it tight, keep it tight!’ Ruby’s dad shouted over and over again, clapping his hands together as the bowler ran in. ‘Just keep it tight and we’re in the final!’
The opposition’s last two batsmen were both beginners, barely able to get bat on ball, and by time the last ball came around, they still needed three to win. The game was practically in the bag for Milton Road, barring some last ball miracle hit. As the bowler came running in, Madeline found her mind drifting to the café, wondering how many coffees her sore hands were likely to have to make over the afternoon. The sun had come out, the air was clear … it was perfect park and coffee weather.
‘Catch it! Catch it!’
Madeline jerked back to reality in time to see the ball come sailing through the air in her direction. She barely had time to get her hands up before the ball was bouncing out of them, spinning away into the grass.
A groan came from the Milton Road players, a cheer from the opposition. Madeline felt her face prickling with shame. She had given the game away, lost the match at the last moment with a lack of concentration—
‘They’re running three! Get the ball back in!’
Madeline spun around, looking for the ball. It was a few yards away, lying in the grass. She dived for it, coming up in a roll with the ball in her hand. For a moment she was disorientated, finding herself facing away from the other players towards the boundary edge.
The wrong way. Turn around.
She spun, heaving the ball with all her might at the same time. It was a pretty poor throw, but it was in the general vicinity of the stumps, and for practically the first time in the game, Margaret managed to gather it. She twisted, breaking the stumps with the ball held in her large wicketkeeper’s gloves, just as the opposition batsman dived.
A huge cheer went up from the Milton Road players. Madeline, still smarting from dropping the catch, could barely believe it as players came running over to her, patting her shoulder.
‘Nice one,’ Ruby said. ‘That was epic. You sucked and ruled at the same time.’
As the players headed away, buzzing with excitement, back towards the changing rooms, Darren came over.
‘That was brilliant,’ he said. ‘You won us the game. You’ve only played one game and you’re already a club legend.’
Madeline just stared at him, nearly speechless.
‘Uh?’
17
The Face of the Enemy
‘So,you’re torn between your ex-boyfriend, who’s starting hanging around again, and this new guy who’s interested in you?’ Janine gave a slow nod. ‘Are you familiar with the seven deadly sins?’
‘Ah, a little.’
‘Greed. That’s the keyword here. You are infected, Madeline, with a sense of greed. That you can have any man that you want. Maybe that was true at school, when you were bullying weaker girls who had bucked teeth, but in the adult world, it’s an adjective that will ensure you fall into life’s firepit. Is that want you really want? To burn in hell?’
‘I … ah….’
