In Between Innings I remember when I was four years-old my father would be watching the baseball game in the living room a big stocky man unshaven in an easy chair he would call me over during a commercial break and grab my nose and pull his fist back with his thumb sticking out of it that trick big people do to children and I knew it was his thumb but unlike most big people he would never give it back then he pull me on his lap rub his hard, black stubbles into my cheek I would smell cigarettes and beer on his breath then he would ask me out loud to point to who I liked better him or my mother and I would look around for my mother he would assure me that she was in the other room cooking so I pointed to him out of fear and as I directed my finger towards his large shape he would laugh because he had signaled my mother from the kitchen to catch me in this horrible act of betrayal ___________________________________________