Heart Of Glass

Heart Of Glass

“Lydia! Come here or I call your mother now!”

Lydia stopped and turned back to the neighbor’s house. She didn’t look at the damage her baseball had done. She trudged up the steps to the porch. Stopping in front of him, she hung her head.

“Young lady, do you know how much money a new window can cost?”

Lydia nodded without looking up.

“I’m on a fixed income. Can you pay me for the window?”

The girl shook her head.

“What should we do then?”

“I could help you around the house and yard,” the girl said tentatively.

“That’s a grand idea, what else?”

Lydia looked up finally.

“Let me teach you baseball. Those neighborhood boys don’t know squat. I played semi-pro.”

The tween broke into a grin.

“Let’s go into my garage. You can show me what you’ve got!”

As Coombs opened the side door, he asked.

“I heard you taking their bets. What did you do such fool thing for?”

“I wanted to get my mom a Valentine’s Day present. I didn’t have enough money, so when they bet me, I couldn’t hit a long fly ball, I had to take it. It was the five dollars I needed."

“Tell you what, I’ll pay in advance for work you going to do for broken window. Let’s get at ‘er! You can start in here, Okay?”

Lydia worked for the rest of the afternoon. For breaks, Mr. Coombs played ball with her, giving advice on holding the bat and keeping her eye on the ball. When it got to be around suppertime, he handed her a ten-dollar bill and sent her home.

The next morning, Mr. Coombs hailed her as she was headed to the park.

“Go girl!” he shouted and gave a double thumbs up.