6) The Baseball Card

After cake and ice cream came presents. They had already spent the day at the miniature golf course, and went to the museum. Jeremy had eaten two hot dogs, three cokes, and a hamburger. The cake was his favorite, raspberry swirl, and he had devoured two whole pieces. As tried as he was, it was doubtful that his stomach would allow him to sleep well tonight.

The first present was from Grandpa, a CD player. Jeremy had been listening to cassettes on an old tape deck with one speaker missing. He’d have to start saving for compact disks. Jeremy loved Mozart as much as Nirvana and almost as much as Elvis Costello. He had eclectic taste, a sign of a bright person.

The next was from Grandma: a new pair of Nike high-tops, his favorite. The size was right too. Mom gave him a new set of Expert Builder Legos, the ones marked for 13 and older, that Jeremy had been building with since he was nine. Jeremy loved birthdays and his couldn’t have been better.

Before he ran off to his room to play with all his new gear, his mother made him stop and open the birthday cards that arrived in the mail.

“Ah Mom, c’mon. Can’t I do it later?” Jeremy moaned.

“There might be money in those cards kid!” Rebecca responded. Jeremy urgently ran back to the table and started tearing the envelopes in two.

There was a card from Robert’s mother with $5 in it. It was the only contact they usually had with her. Rebecca tried to call her each Christmas, but the conversations were always cut short by something Caroline had to go rush off to do. Rebecca was sad that Jeremy never got a chance to get to know his grandmother. The money was greatly appreciated.

Jeremy ripped through a few more. Ten dollars from one of the professors on campus, a note from his favorite teacher at school, and another $5 from Great-Aunt Joan. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy his first new compact disk.

The last envelope was missing a return address. The post mark read Houston, Texas. Rebecca and her parents tried to remember who they knew in Texas. But there was no one. Jeremy opened the envelope and took out a $100 bill. He was thrilled. It was the best gift of all. Now he could go buy all the CDs he wanted. “Birthdays are good,” he thought.

But that was not all that was in the envelope. He went to search for more money and discovered a souvenir baseball card. It was like the ones he’d seen at the card shop, but different, older. Jeremy didn’t recognize the player at first. He didn’t know much about baseball cards. Jeremy handed it over to his grandfather.

“Why, let me take a look,” Grandpa said. “Well… this is a 1964 Tommy John Rookie card,” he marveled. “I’ll bet this is worth a bunch of money.”

“Tommy John?” Jeremy asked. “Who’s he?”

“Well, he was a pitcher who played nearly 30 years in the majors,” explained Grandpa. The two sat for close to an hour as Jeremy’s grandfather told him all about Tommy John. Jeremy was fascinated. He sat riveted to each word that spilled from his grandfather’s lips.

As the boys enjoyed their baseball history, Rebecca and her mother sat at the table trying to solve the mystery.
“Mom, Dad didn’t send Jeremy that card, did he?” Rebecca probed. The two spied the envelope trying to come up with a reasonable answer. But no luck.

Jeremy had fallen asleep on the floor of his room listening to his new stereo and playing with legos, and wearing his new Nikes. Her parents had left to go home, and Rebecca sat on the couch in front of the television. Who sent Jeremy that card and the money? Could it be Robert after all this time? No, not like this. It didn’t make any sense. If he was going to come home, why didn’t he just do it? Maybe he couldn’t? Maybe he was in jail? Maybe not. She decided not to worry about it. Jeremy didn’t seem to care where the present came from, and that was good enough for her… for now.

The “Tommy John” sat on the bookshelf in Jeremy’s room unattended for a few weeks. Then, exactly one month after his birthday, another envelope arrived. This one also lacked a return address. The post mark read, Atlanta, Georgia. Jeremy asked his mother who she thought it might be from, and she said it must be some junk mail.

Jeremy opened the envelope to find another $100 and a baseball card. This time it was a 1954 Hank Aaron. This caught Rebecca’s attention. She had no idea if a Tommy John card was worth any money, but she knew an original Hand Aaron was valuable. She looked carefully at the envelope and took it to compare with the first. There were absolutely no similarities. Different stamp, different type, and still no return address. What was going on here?

Jeremy took the Hank Aaron and place it next to the Tommy John. This time he stood the Tommy John up against some books so that he could see both of them from wherever he stood in his room.

The next day after school, Jeremy asked his Grandpa about Hank Aaron. He was intrigued by the baseball story. Jeremy started watching baseball on TV, sometimes instead of doing his homework. He adopted the Dodgers as his favorite team and begged his mother to take him to a game. Rebecca agreed. After seeing the game live, Jeremy was hooked for life.

The following month, another envelope, another $100.00, and another baseball card. This time a Babe Ruth. However Rebecca was more interested in the envelope. The post mark read Vancouver British Columbia. What was going on?

The stipend to Jeremy's allowance forced Rebecca to put a cap on his spending. He could only buy one CD a month, and the rest of the money had to go into a savings account for college. She wasn't worried too much about the money. If Jeremy attended her university he'd get a free ride. And he was so smart anyway that he'd be sure to earn many scholarships.

The fourth month after Jeremy's thirteenth birthday, another envelope arrived. Another card, another $100.00. Rebecca couldn't think of anyone willing to pick some random child and give them so much. It had to be someone she knew, but who? She thought it might be Robert's mother. But Caroline didn't have enough money to continue to send so much, and where could she possible find the baseball cards?

The only logical conclusion as Robert himself. She was almost sure of it. But that wasn’t the problem. She knew that Jeremy was getting more suspicious each time it happened. And he too thought it might be his dad, but didn’t know how to ask about his mother about the man whom he had never met.

For the next eight months Jeremy received an envelope full of cash and a baseball card in the mail. It became routine. The mystery remained, but his patience was running thin. Jeremy was becoming frustrated by the lack of written correspondence included with the envelopes. Never a letter. Never a picture. Never a clue of what was going on with the mystery sender, or who it was. He believed it was his dad. If it wasn’t, then someone was playing a cruel joke.

Jeremy began to dream about his father. He’d seen the pictures of him when he was younger, but what did he look like now? What did he do? Was he a professional ball player using a different name? Or a baseball card collector? There were no answers, only questions. Jeremy never felt like he missed his Dad before, but now he was beginning to feel something new. He'd reach out to his dream-father's hand, and wake up screaming his father's name.

Rebecca kept every envelope and began tracking their point of origin. She had post marks from Tulsa, Twin Falls, New York, Albuquerque, San Francisco and even as close as San Diego. There was no pattern she could decipher; no indication that the sender had any home base. She, like Jeremy, was frustrated, and was beginning to feel hurt by this enigma.

Jeremy kept his cards in a folder with special pouches designed for souvenir cards. He had eleven cards, almost three full pages, all of them rare. Jeremy never let anyone handle his cards. They were too special.

Jeremy's best friend from school, Billy, collected cards as a hobby. Billy knew all there was to know about baseball cards. Billy told Jeremy that he should have the cards appraised at the local hobby shop. Jeremy had always discussed the cards with the shop owner, Pete, but had never brought them in for show. Billy was a good motivator, and easily convinced Jeremy to bring his prized possessions in to share.

Pete poured over the eleven cards in wonderment. "You have quite a collection here, young man." "Do you wish to sell them?" he greedily asked. Jeremy turned him down.

Jeremy’s fourteenth birthday was in two weeks. He couldn’t wait to see what would come in the mail next. He dreamed that night about his dad. It wasn’t a good dream. Jeremy was running through a maze like a rat. Every time he go close to his father, Jeremy would run into a glass wall. Each time his dad laughed at him. His father was dressed in a baseball suit and was throwing baseball cards at Jeremy like the scientist throws cheese to the rat.

Jeremy woke up crying. He felt terrible. His father had just been stringing him along that whole year. Teasing him with money and baseball cards. Why couldn’t he just come home? Why couldn’t he write him a note that said, “I love you”? Jeremy was finished with the charade. The next morning he went down to the hobby shop and sold Pete his baseball cards.