A Chameleon at third base.

Bernardo moved forward some, to position himself parallel to third base. The manager had talked to him during field practice about defense on the left side. “One of the first responsibilities the third baseman has is to know how to position depending on the batter, the pitcher, the field and the game’s situation”. At times a power batter might bunt and, if the third baseman isn’t aware it means a runner at first base. This time the ball bounced in front of home plate and just rolled about six feet fair, up the third base line. Bernardo took the ball barehanded and made an off- balanced throw. The first baseman had to step back a bit behind first base to catch the ball. The squeeze play had taken place. That run meant a walk-off win for the Azulitos team against Bernardo’s Submarinos team. Bernardo stood for a couple of moments with his face against his chest. Once he walked to the bench and collapsed upon it, his manager sat next to him and patted him on the shoulder. “These things happen. But you have to reflect on where the mistake was made”. At the dugout’s exit, Josefa hugged Bernardo and removed some dust from the chest of his uniform. Felix pulled her away from him and commenced admonishing Bernardo turning his cap backwards, like a catcher using a facemask. Felix thought Bernardo was kidding about his complaints about the way he had played. Josefa tried to calm him down. Lucila put her arm on Bernardo’s shoulder until they got on the rear seat of the pick-up truck. Felix’s reproach continued all the way back home. “You were standing like statue right next the base! A third baseman must be aware, must be in the game.” As Bernardo tried to reply, Josefa placed her index finger to her mouth. Bernardo only had the consolation of Lucila’s gaze. Felix pulled the truck into the garage without even slowing down until the last second, stopping with a jerk and rocking all his passengers. “Dad always told me that there was a third baseman who never missed a bunt hit to his territory. His name was Luis Camaleón García”, said Felix. Something in Bernardo’s imagination crossed his mind, causing his curiosity. He spoke quietly with Lucila for a few moments before asking Felix.

“Dad, why did they call him Camaleón? Felix took the keys from the ignition and grabbed the steering wheel. Josefa opened the passenger door slowly, sadly on account of the bickering. “That’s not relevant. What matters is that the guy was always aware of the game and didn’t remain like a fool next to third base. A third baseman has to always be aware of every situation, because at any moment the opposing team changes their strategy and thst’s it. If you’re not ready, then they beat you”, said Felix. Lucila stretched her left hand towards Bernardo’s forearm. “Ok Dad, but you could explain it less harshly. Consideration for one’s feelings can go a long way.” “You’d better shut up because you don’t know anything about baseball”, replied Felix, who was still very upset. Bernardo got out of the truck and walked a few feet away. “Leave my sister alone! She only wants us to behave civilly to each other. Felix attempted to throw a punch from behind Bernardo’s back. Lucila hugged her brother and quickly led him to the garden. Josefa angrily glared at the roses and the windows of the house. “You can forget about going to fly that kite”, barked Felix. “But Dad, I’m almost done learning how to defend my kite from the other kites blades.” Felix dropped his hands from his waist in frustration and walked quickly through the front door. Bernardo crouched near the leaves of a philodendron. He made signaled to Lucila to watch a lizard that scampered between the stems. Bernardo advanced through the shadows at the end of the garden, still wearing his cleats. He spun his neck looking like an owl’s 360 degrees movement. He shook the philodendron and the grass. Lucila smiled. She raised Bernardo’s hand and aimed to some plants behind the roses. “That’s not a lizard! It’s too shiny and green. I’ve never seen a lizard like that. Before running to the house, she almost falls down iupon the granite step. The reptile’s tongue stretched beyond the bushes and trapped two flies over the roses. Lucila swallowed twice and crossed the door. Bernardo covered his mouth as he tried to get closer to the bushes. Two quarrelling voices came from the last window on the second floor. The sterner voice decreased gradually. The acute voice punched in all directions. Bernardo put his index fingers in his ears. He kept looking at the reptile. The green skin shined as emmeralds. Bernardo wished he could take the lizard and play with it as a toy. Josefa strolled on the japanese grass dunes. She whispered into Bernardo’s ears that Felix waited for him to continue fixing the kite. Bernardo gestured with his right hand opened.

“But Dad is angry with me!” “He’s no longer angry, son. Go. He’s waiting in the backyard.” Bernardo drew closer, crossing the garden site before, the yard. He could only see the orange cap which Felix wore when he was at home. He raised a little and stared through the fern plants from the garden site. It smelled of starch glue and camphor. Felix took two long sticks and cut them on the carpentry table. Leaving the knife on the table, he placed his right index finger in his mouth. Bernardo bordered the garden site, ran to the table and asked his father if he should fetch some medicine and a bandage. Felix shook his head and showed his finger with only a scarlet line, no bleeding. “Then, you didn’t hurt it?” “Of course I did. I cut myself. But saliva is a very good medicine for healing when a cut is superficial. Are you going to help me with the kite?” Bernardo dropped his gaze and put his hands in the pants’ pockets. “But you always get mad at me.” Felix closed his eyes. He bent the stick until it formed a semi circle, gave Bernardo the starch glue vase and pointed to the paper pieces indicating he should adhere them to the stick. “Tie that piece of candlewick here”, said Felix. Bernardo made some knots on the stick’s two edges and at the end he completed it with a double tie. Felix winked. He shook Bernardo’s black hair and took the hexagonal kite to the table. He tied a long piece of candlewick between the palm tree and the guava tree and spread some camphor tablet on the candlewick. If you played at third base as you tied those sticks I’m sure that not even Camaleón García could’ve played any better than you, not even the day when he replaced Pipita Leal. Bernardo shrugged, almost breaking the stretched candlewick. “Who is Pipita Leal?” Felix spread some more camphor onto the candlewick. He sensed the candlewick thickness from one tree to the other. “The Magallanes Navigators third baseman who Camaleón García replaced due to an injury. Do you know how many games in a row Camaleón played after that?”

Felix pointed to the candlewicks stretched at the back of the hexagon. He put three papers clipped like rhomboids on Bernardo’s hands and pointed the starch glue vase. When Bernardo stuck the rhomboids to the candlewicks, he looked for Felix approval. “Dad! I don’t even know who Camaleón is!” The man blew on the rhomboids and inserted a little stick between the candlewicks and the point where the rhomboid paper adhered to itself. That way the rhomboid could sound with the wind in order to know its direction. “Camaleón played five hundred eighteen games in a row at the hot corner”. Bernardo rubbed his hands. He wanted to know why third base was called ‘the hot corner’. He looked at his hands seeking a burning spot. Felix laughed. “That corner is hot because a lot of hard shots are delivered there. Because you have to come ahead or get back according to the game situation and because you have to have the best reflexes if some hard drive is batted and you’re playing inside”. Felix finished recollecting the candlewick and put it on the table. “The camphor makes the candlewick waterproof just in case it begins to rain. It also protects the kite from the other kites’ blades, because the blades slip and can´t cut the candlewick.” Bernardo opened his eyes and got closer to the roll of candlewick. “Why don’t you put some blades on your kite?” “Anyway it also adds additional weight, making the kite slower. The one time I put blades on a kite it dropped as soon as the wind decreased it speed,” said Felix. A movement on the highest fern leaves in the garden site’s middle zone, caught Bernardo’s eye. He knew the hands flying over the fern plants. The pink rubber bands on the left wrist and the jet stone ring on the right index finger were unique. Felix bent over his knees and allowed his hands to almost touch the ground. He leaned until his body weight nearly rested on his tiptoes. Bernardo looked to the garden site and also to Felix working out, similar to a bobble-head doll. He almost ran to the garden site. But as Felix talked about positioning at third base, he felt his heels as they became screwed to the floor. “That’s the body’s position of a third baseman when he plays inside”, said Felix. The sun reflection on the jet ring, made Bernardo read Lucila’s lips. Felix took the kite and went to the front door. He squeezed his eyes when Bernardo said he would go out afterward.

“Right now I have something important to do. I’ll catch you on at the field in front of the house”, said Bernardo. Felix tried to stare deep on Lucila’s eyes, but all he could see was an indifferent face. He smiled as he folded the kite’s tail. As soon as Felix went out, Lucila took a large book from the dining room shelf and called Bernardo. She read out loud the features of the “lizard” they had seen at the garden. What impressed them the most was the lizard’s ‘mimicry ability’ and the length of its tongue, which allowed it to trap insects from relatively long distances. Bernardo pressed his index finger on the lines talking about ‘big eyes.’ He opened his mouth when he knew the size of those reptiles could vary from 15 to 80 centimeters. “Now we know it’s a chameleon. I need to see it every day. Lucila, do you think that chameleon could stay at the garden for several days?” The girl smiled and push aside her long, brown hair. She got close to the window and looked to the garden. The chameleon still lunched on flies and mosquitos. “Yes, I think so. We can carry some fruits or food debris to the garden to attract more flies. That will lead the chameleon to come more frequently. We can verify if those color changes to its skin are due to the fear it feels when a stranger approaches, or if they`re due to the temperature variations.” Felix’s whistle came straight from the edge of a scrub at the field in front of the house. Bernardo began to stretch his steps on the granite floor of the living room. Before jumping on the fence, he looked at all the roses and the philodendrons but couldn’t see the chameleon. ***

The morning of the next game, Bernardo got several calls from his manager who said that he was being distracted by circling his right foot on the third base sand. While they were flying the kite Felix told him that the same way they looked for the place where the wind favored the kite, he had to condition the surroundings of third base. “And never stop looking at the pitcher and talking to the shortstop, most of all when there is a runner at second base.” At that moment Felix advanced three steps and pulled the kite some meters to his right. A metallic light struck the air. “Do you see? If I’m not aware they’ll cut my kite”. The game was tied 2-2, into the bottom of the sixth. Bernardo moved his glove over his left knee. In the second inning he caught a grounder and threw the ball immediately to start a double play. He had followed the ball with the same intensity that he saw in the chameleon’s eyes when it had climbed through the roses’ thorns. In the fourth inning a bouncing bunt reminded him of when Felix pulled the candlewick roll and took the kite out of reach from an air turbulence. “That’s why you have to be aware, if you get distracted, you lose everything.” Bernardo played parallel to the base and there came a tremendous line drive that looked like a three-base hit. Bernardo remembered the chameleon tongue´s movement to capture insects and dived to the third base line to catch the ball just behind the pad, he rifled a shot to the first baseman mitt and the inning was over.

Before throwing the ball, Bernardo shook his face and looked in all directions, when he was about to run to shallow right field with his head buried at his chest, he heard a voice from the stands. He knew that voice from different situations at home. “You got the ball in the glove, throw it to first base right now!” He put his hand into the glove and felt shivers throughout his arm. Everybody started to jump. Bernardo ran until they reached him, in center field, and from there his teammates carried him back upon their shoulders. He had been looking for a sign from the stands, when he saw the girl looming above the dugout, and he threw her his cap. “I love you sister!” Driving back home, Felix ordered Bernardo to put his visor’s cap forward. He tried to complain that Bernardo should have played deeper when he noticed the batter shifted his hands to hit longer. Josefa raised her hand and asked Felix to stop the car under an oak tree. “What’s the matter with you? The boy makes the play of the game and you keep scolding him. You’re the only one who hasn’t congratulated him.” Felix called Bernardo. They talked for a while. Shook hands and hugged each other. “I’m very proud of you son!”

Alfonso L. Tusa. ©