Glimmer

Patch looked out at the lake. His grandfather always said that the lake had a certain glimmer to it after the rain. Today wasn’t one of those days. Today was hot and humid and it hadn’t rained for nearly six weeks. “Sorry Gamp”, Patch said out loud. I know you love a good glimmer.” It was August 27th. “Gamp” would have been 89 today. Patch turned to walk into the small, three room cottage. “Fucking brain tumor” he murmured.

His grandfather, “Gamp”, had died just before Thanksgiving during Patch’s freshman year in college. Chapman University, in Orange, California, was 3,000 miles away from his home in Connecticut. Patch didn’t even know Gamp was sick. His father had hidden this from him because he worried it would affect his capacity to concentrate on his courses. He may even want to come home, Donny thought, and skip the semester. He was probably right. Patch cherished Gamp. 

In the early spring of his senior year at Taft, Patch had given what they referred to as a “senior speech”. It was optional, and he wasn’t exactly comfortable speaking in public, but he’d do it for Gamp. In honor of his greatest role-model, he shared the most important things that Gamp taught him about character and authenticity. “One, when you’re speaking to someone, always look them in the eye. Make them feel like listening to them is the only thing you want to be doing in that moment. Two, know that good manners and a good vocabulary will get you a long way in this life. Three, Gamp taught me to dream big and work hard for what you believe in because nobody owes you anything and nobody can take that work away from you. And last, Gamp liked to say, when you get the chance…dance in the rain.”

Patch grabbed his fishing rod, went back outside and looked up at the sky. Perhaps he was looking toward heaven at that moment, either way, the sun was strong and the few clouds that were scattered showed no promise of rain. The grass needed it badly. It also needed to be mowed, he realized, but that could wait. Out on the dock, he cast his rod and took a deep breath and smiled. The lake was beautiful and serene and peaceful. Plus, he could always feel Gamp’s presence there. No feeling in the world topped that. 

“Hey Patch!”

Patch turned around to see his buddy Kyle coming down the stone steps to the cottage.

“Hey Kyle, ya bring a rod?”

“Sure did!” Kyle answered as he stepped onto the yard, a familiar smile across his face.

Kyle and Patch had played baseball together as kids and then went on to captain their college baseball team at a University in Massachusetts. Kyle walked across the dry lawn to the dock. “Man, Patch, the grass is like straw! Kyle said as he and Patch gave each other a ‘man hug’. 

“I know”, Patch answered. “The only thing this weather’s been good for is no canceled ball games!”

Kyle laughed in agreement then added, “I’d actually welcome a rainy day though. This dry spell is kind of killing everything. Did you know the frickin’ Rhine has almost completely dried up?

“Sure.” Patch said. “No surprise there. The lake is on the low side, too.”

“Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. What was it your Gamp used to say when we didn’t have any rain in the summer?”

“Oh”, said Patch, laughing. “He said, I’m looking for a dance, boys!”

“Right, right. What a great guy.”

“Yup”, Patch said as he secured his bunker and made the first cast. “He was the greatest.” 

“You miss him, don’t ya, Patch.?”

“Kyle, you have no idea,” Patch said as he looked up to the sky. 

Patch felt a little tug on the float and reeled in the first catch of the day. “A frickin’ crappie!”

Kyle laughed as he reached over to set the small fish free. “I think ya gotta get out on the lake for the good ones.”

“Nah,” said Patch. “I like it fine right here on the dock.”

“With the Gamp,” Kyle added.

Patch smiled. With the Gamp, indeed he thought.

“You know he would have been 89 today?”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah. And he’d still be raking the mussels out of the lake by the shore.”

“Oh, for sure!”

“Hey Kyle, you hungry? There’s some sandwich gumpage in the fridge.”

“You know me, Patch. I could eat.”

Sitting in the screened in porch, eating roast beef sandwiches, Patch and Kyle reminisced about their boyhood championship game. “We were a pretty good team, despite that coach’s asshole moves.”

“He knew the game, though,” said Patch.

“Sure, but come on, Patch. That championship game was a shit show. He kept his drunk son in the game to pitch way beyond the number of pitches allowed, and for what? Patch was laughing so hard he could hardly speak. “Yeah, and then he fucking fell down! That was hilarious!”

“I wonder why the hell he wasn’t removed from the game?”

“Are you serious, Kyle? Remove Rinaldi’s son from a championship game? That’d ostensibly be the talk of the baseball world across the state!”

“Probably,” agreed Kyle. “Rinaldi was a loose canon, though.”

“Yeah, he was.” Patch said as he fell into another fit of laughter.

“Jesus, he should have put you on the mound by the third inning. We were killing ourselves out there because Dougie’s pitching was so wild.”

“Yeah, but Dougie got what Dougie wanted. Remember, he actually did try to take him off the mound in the 7th inning and he had a meltdown right there on the field.”

“Oh my God, that’s right! He was yelling at his dad, ``No dad, I’m not coming out, I refuse!”

“Yeah, he almost fell then, too! Patch was holding his stomach trying to contain his hysterics. “Oh my God, that was funny.”

“Until he walked the next three guys and finally put you in in the 10th inning! You should have seen the look on coach’s face when you got out there to warm up. Straight strikes and then, you freaking struck out your first three guys at bat!”

“Yeah, I was so ready.”

Finally, we’re tied up but he had Dougie on third-even though he should have sent him straight to rehab, -then the batter hits a straight shot right to third and he freaking misses it!”

"I remember," said Patch as he took a bite of his sandwich.

“But the best play ever,- when a guy hits it toward third again and you flew across the infield to make the catch and win the freaking game!”

“Well, he still had Dougie at third and I couldn’t trust that he’d do anything right at that point.”

“I can’t understand the coach’s thinking that whole game. You were in line to start and he puts his son in.”

“Championship game, Kyle. Dougie took the win.”

“And that made me sick to my stomach.”

“Oh, me too.”

I cried, I was so sad for you, remember?”

“I do. My mom loves to tell the story about how ‘Kyle was so sweet, he came all the way back from his parent’s car to give you a hug’”, Patch imitated his mom.

Both of them roared.

“Hey, check it out,” Kyle said as he finished the last bite of his sandwich. “Clouds!”

“Oh crap, I promised my dad I’d mow the lawn.”

“I wouldn’t worry, Patch, fat chance it’s going to rain. It’s only a couple of clouds.”

Late that afternoon, Patch sat alone on the screened in porch. Lawn mowed, lunch dishes clean and a good hour and a half of fishing accomplished. The clouds had moved in some. Perfect reading weather, he thought and he dug his book out of his duffle, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. He was reading about how middle-class kids have an opportunity to learn teamwork and are taught how to interact comfortably with adults. Gladwell said that cultural legacies shape how we respond to our circumstances. He read how it affects how hard we work, how we look at opportunities, and our respect towards power and authority. Patch closed his eyes and thought about how badly he wished his grandfather were here and the great conversations they would have about this stuff until finally he dozed off. 

Patch was suddenly awakened by the slapping of rain downpouring against the tin roof of the cottage. “Holy shit!” He sat up and watched the rain. About time, he thought. It didn’t go on for very long and just as the rain became lighter and some clouds cleared, a thin streak of light broke through the blue-gray clouds. When he looked down at the long dock that stretched out into the lake, there he was. He could just make it out. Gamp. Dancing in the rain. He smiled and waited now for the glimmer.