The GHOST and Charlie Dusenberry

PG. 72 TGACD R. ZEIS

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GETTING DOWN TO IT

“Hi, coach!”

Charlie was surprised at the greeting. He stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of his school’s hallway and looked to see who had greeted him. It was Cleon Jones, complete with his earbuds in.

“Hello, Cleon, how are you?”

“I’m OK. I guess I’ll see you at practice?”

Charlie, still not comfortable with being addressed as ‘coach,’ said, “Yes, Cleon, you will.”

Cleon nodded and then took off on his way down the hall. Charlie turned into his classroom and sat down at his desk. He was very tired. Last night had been a nearly sleepless night. His mind kept replaying the disaster that he’d watched on the baseball field. Following the game, his kid’s parents had either ignored him or given him the ‘evil’ eye. A couple of parents did try to cheer him up, but it was clear that most felt he had done a poor job of coaching.

Yawning, Charlie thought he’d better turn to why he was here and that was to teach. Today’s lesson involved how the United States government worked. Smiling, he thought to himself he needed to teach how the government was SUPPOSED to work. The three branches of the government, Executive, Judicial, and Legislative, were set up to keep an eye on each other. Charlie felt this was important for students to learn and that not enough schools were doing it.

Charlie’s students filed in and found their assigned seats. One student, however, passed up his seat and came to stand in front of Charlie’s desk.

“Seen any good baseball games, Mr. Dusenberry?”

Of course, it was Zeph Yarnell. Charlie sighed, “I guess it depends on what team you were on, Zeph.”

“Well, I saw a great game yesterday! I bet I’ll see a lot more great games too! Will you see any great games, Mr. Dusenberry?”

“I hope so, Zeph.” Charlie thought a moment and then added, “Will I see any improved class participation from you?”

PG. 73 TGACD R. ZEIS

“Huh?” was the response.

The smirk that had been on Zeph’s face had disappeared. “You know, will I see you answering more questions during the class? I look at it as a game. It’s an important game. Do you know why?”

“Huh?”

“It’s an important game because part of your class grade depends on how you respond to my questions. Did you do your homework last night?”

Zeph appeared to get real uneasy. “Gosh, Mr. Dusenberry, that was a lot of reading you gave us.”

“It was only five pages, Zeph.”

“Yeah, but they were LONG pages.”

Charlie shook his head, “Well, Zeph, whether they were long or not, it was what you were assigned to do. Go sit down.” As the large child turned away from him, Charlie suddenly felt compelled to add, “Zeph, try to listen and learn about today’s lesson.”

Zeph gave Charlie a puzzled look and then went to his desk to sit down.

“Listen and learn,” Charlie repeated to himself. A catchy phrase he thought.

Baseball practice began at five o’clock. Everyone was there except for Skinny Mickelson. There was still no word from his parents despite repeated calls from Charlie. Skinny’s departure from the game Tuesday still wore heavily on Charlie’s heart.

Charlie, with DD’s help, tried to pick up the team’s spirits during the practice by encouraging the players whenever possible. There were a lot more ‘way to go’s’ and ‘that’s the spirit’ than before. Charlie hoped that would help.

After about an hour-and-a-half, Charlie decided to call a halt to practice. He called the team to gather around. This time he remembered to tell them to take a knee. While the team put equipment away he saw a brief flash of light behind the stands. None of the parents sitting there seemed to notice the light or the man who suddenly appeared. As he watched, the man walked from behind the stands and strode towards him. Charlie inhaled quickly. It was his dad.

Gus walked up to his son and greeted him with a simple, “How goes it?”

“So, I’m not going crazy,” said Charlie. “I really did talk to you the other day.”

PG. 74 TGACD R. ZEIS

Gus could see that his son was still shaken by his appearance. He couldn’t blame him one bit. He still found it hard to believe what was happening. “It’s OK to be shaken up by all this. Me too.”

Charlie had to ask, “Why are you here? How are you here?” His voice still trembled.

“I told you before I’m here because of your prayer. I’m still as much in the dark as you are as to what I can do to answer that prayer. But, I think it all starts with helping you coach.”

“You came here to help me coach baseball?”

“I think that’s part of it,” answered Gus.

Charlie turned from his father and saw that his team was looking at the two of them. They were too far away to hear what they were saying, but you could see they were curious as to who Gus was. “So, I’m supposed to tell my kids you are a ghost who wants to help me coach them?”

Before Gus could reply a thought, really more of a message, formed in his mind. He repeated it to Charlie. “No, you tell them that I’m a volunteer who is here to help.”

“What about DD? He’ll soon recognize you even though you’re a lot younger looking than he will remember. “

Again, a message came to Gus. Again, he repeated it. “DD won’t recognize me.”

“You’re sure?” asked Charlie.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Go ahead and introduce me to the kids.”

Shakily, Charlie walked over to the gathered team who were watching them approach. Gus followed close behind.

“Who is that?” Mohammad asked in a low voice to his teammates.

“Never saw him before,” DD answered.

Charlie stopped in front of the kneeling children. Still shaky, Charlie said, “I’ve got some good news for you.” Keeping his eyes on DD for any kind of reaction he continued. “We’ve got someone who has volunteered to help us this season.”

Mohammad asked, “Is he replacing you, coach?”

“No, he’s not. He’s here to help,” replied Charlie. “Say hello to Mister…” Charlie paused and turned to Gus with a questionable look.

PG. 75 TGACD R. ZEIS

Gus picked up on the problem quickly. “I’m Mr. Baxter. It’s nice to meet you guys.”

Charlie kept his eyes on DD and it didn’t appear he was any wiser as to who Gus was. He let out a sigh of relief.

All most everyone replied at the same time with ‘nice to meet you’ or ‘glad you’re here.’

Gus continued, “I’m here to give you some advice on how to play this game.”

“Ever play before?” asked Jason Helmuth.

“What a stupid question!” ripped his brother, Jack. “Of course he’s played. Everybody has played baseball.”

“No, they haven’t,” fired back Jason.

“You’re an idiot!”

“No, you’re the idiot!”

The twins once again went face-to-face. Charlie watched Gus’ reaction to what was happening. Welcome to the Yankees he thought.

“Guys, quit it!” said Gus. Jason and Jack stopped in mid-argument and faced Gus.

“For your information, I did play. I played…” Gus stopped abruptly. He almost said he played pro ball and that would not be the right thing to say. It might draw too much attention to him by the kids’ parents. Instead, he said, “I played varsity high school ball.”

Jack turned on his brother again, “See, I told you…”

“OK, that’s enough,” broke in Charlie. “It’s time to go home. Practice tomorrow at the same time.” With that said the kids scattered with most of them going with their parents to the parking lot. A few started walking to the nearby neighborhood. Soon, only Charlie, Gus, DD and Grego were left.

“Thanks for helping my dad, Mr. Baxter,” DD said this as he walked towards Gus with his hand extended.

Without hesitation, Gus shook his grandson’s hand. “My pleasure. I hear you’re a good ballplayer.”

DD smiled. “Thank you. It’s in our bloodline. My grandfather was a pro.”

“How about that!” said Gus. “Maybe we can talk about him sometime.”

PG. 76 TGACD R. ZEIS

“Sure. That would be great.” DD then turned to his dad. “Is it alright if I walk home with Grego again?”

“Absolutely. See you in a few minutes.”

Gus and Charlie stood silent for a minute as they watched the two boys head off the field. “Good kid,” said Gus.

“Yeah, I got lucky,” replied Charlie. Remembering what happened a moment ago, Charlie asked, “I guess you found out it was OK to shake hands.”

“I found out when you found out. I guess both of us will be learning the rules as we go along.”

The man and the ghost talked for quite a while. Mostly they talked about the team and tomorrow’s practice. They talked until the now familiar fog appeared and Gus disappeared in a flash of mist and light.

Now standing alone, Charlie was left to guess how all this would work out.