M., but nothing that would kill me. I might be a bit tired the next day, but I knew I could easily catch up on sleep through the rest of the week. ‘...ou think we have any chance,’ I asked midway through the sixth inning. ‘I mean we’re down by eleven and our best hitter is out with back trouble.’ ‘Hey man, let’s at least make the seventh inning stretch,’ Richard moaned, ‘It’s not a game unless you make it through the seventh inning.’ ‘Okay, that’s one more inning and we’re gone, right?’ ‘What if. "It wasn't that far was it?"They both nodded their head when Ryan replied. "You just pulled yourselfup somewhere in the neighborhood of a football field using just yourhands."The EMT stared at me in disbelief. "You climbed that far with twoinjured ribs?"I shrugged my shoulders. "Guess I'm in better shape than I thought."Dave pointed to a clearing. "I've got a chopper on the way to take youback down to get checked out."Ryan cautiously handed me his phone. "I called Dani as soon aseverything. He put her back in her car seat.He's slouching in the rocking chair, one arm on his belly, the other,the one with the surgical tubing, hanging.The man thinks he might be back in the Mexican clinic. But then he hearsAllison's voice. He can only hear them in the store when he's high. Hecan hear everything when he's high.Allison is selling a teddy to a forty five year old trophy wife. Thewoman - she's blonde, he decides - reaches out to feel the fabric. Fromthe crook of her arm, he can hear. That was her nature, a fighter,5'2" of feisty determination. Perhaps she thought he didn't understand.He was difficult to read. He was mysterious. They would be marvelous together. The next day, he picked up the phone and asked her to meet him. She didn'tknow why she agreed. She needed time to think, but she was drawn. A magnetpulled her. Two hours later, they stood toe to toe. "You want to fight with me, don't you?" he asked. "I don't know what you mean," she replied, taken by surprise. "You.