After a rollicking afternoon at our subdivision pool on Monday, we got ready to go to one of Jake's last baseball games of the season. It was in Banks, about 30 minutes northwest of here. We weren't even to the highway yet when Jake called out that his stomach wasn't feeling very good. I dug around for the plastic sack I brought for "Karcyn accidents" and tossed it back to him. It didn't take long for the poor kid to toss his own cookies. But it's no biggie when the kid is self-sufficient in this way. As soon as I could get off the highway, we turned around and went home.
Right when we got back, I looked up the coach's cell phone number and left him a message. I also emailed him just in case. He emailed back later that night and included the game stats. Our team won 27-14. The biggest victory yet.
I was actually afraid to tell Jake the news. He's pretty tenderhearted. I didn't want him to be crushed that he missed it, or worse, feel like they won because he wasn't there.
But I told him anyway to ease whatever pain he might bring upon himself before he heard it from his teammates.
Quite the opposite happened. Jake was ECSTATIC! I was half-surprised and very pleased at his reaction. There was no pity party because he missed the game and no selfish absurdity thinking his absence caused the feat. It was Cooper's response that has me shaking my head. Cooper was doing something in the kitchen off the family room when he heard the news. Cooper called out to his brother, "Hey Jake--maybe you should miss the games more often. Then it would bring the team good luck and they'd win even more!"
As I braced myself for Jake's reaction to that, Jake surprised me again.
"Yeah! Maybe I SHOULD get sick more often!"
2 comments:
What a team player he is. That is a good attitude to have and keep.
What a good kid to only care that his team wins! Looks like you've really taught him how to be a team player!
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