Nightmare Series - 7

Tito Meets a Legend

"This is a real treat for me. I've read a ton of material on this person and this makes for a detailed look at the legend we meet in this article.

If anyone was known as the quiet shadow of the Red Sox perhaps it would be Terry Francona. He was dedicated, calm, sometimes sanguine, but mostly reserved. He sat at his desk. David wasn't hitting. Lugo was there. David wasn't hitting. Santana beat us. Dice-K got shelled. Pressure is intense. Always pressure. He could love the game but hate the moment.

He leaned back against the rocky chair. It was late. Where was his family? Where was his daughter? Where was his family? It was all about the game. It always was.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He felt sleep calm his spirits down. He felt relaxed.

The piano woke his eyes up. It was loud and the clubhouse was far from this place. It was a long a beautiful prairie with a piano resting against the grasses. Tito was sitting down on the grass. Tito felt his hands to ensure they were still connected to his wrists.

“Tito Francona, it's about time. Come on over!”

She was short, a bit stout and rather ordinary looking, but there was nothing ordinary about this woman. He recognized her immediately.

“You play?”

Tito nodded.

“Well you should take it up. I never get tired of playing the piano or singing or seeing the world around me. Damn, I'm living Tito!”

Terry nodded in compliance and tapped a note.

“Don't be afraid. Make it sing. Oh to hear and see...I never grow tired of it.”

She got up and ran along the prairie.

“Come on Tito....the day is young.”

Tito sighed and ran as hard as he could but couldn't catch up to the lady who then fell on the ground. The grasses were tall and almost covered her but she didn't care. Tito stopped and fell down next to her.

“I tell you Tito...I love it here. “

Tito., struggling for breath, knelt down next to her as she propped herself up and smiled.

“Come on!”

She was unstoppable. She was in incredible shape and as they crossed the prairie grasses he saw the breathless ocean and couldn't believe the strange landscape. The lady ran down the sand dunes and fell into the warm ocean water.

“Come on...it feels great!”

Tito fell on the sand and sucked in air. The lady came back from the ocean water and sat next to him.

“Oh...you have not lived until you fall into ocean water and taste the salty air. I always loved the water but to see it, to hear it. It's God talking to us!“

Tito leaned back against the sand. She moved out of the water. Her black dress was soaked. She couldn't have been more than twenty but she was a lot older than that. She sat down beside him and starred at the ocean wind.

“Life's too short Tito. ”

Tito touched her hand.

“Careful Tito....I may start to enjoy this!”

Tito forced a laugh.

“Oh...to be free...to not have to watch every word I say and to not be blind and deaf and so damn lonely. Oh Tito...it's true freedom. Did you know I graduated from Radcliffe college. Did you know that hardly anyone attended my ceremony? Course the press made it seem like I was elected President. My own mother was too sick to attend. That was hard. “

Tito looked away.

“I spend too much time away from home.”

Helen held his hand.

“You know, I had to fight so hard to get into that damn college and to fight even harder to stay. Annie and I would be up till 12:00 am in the morning just about every night as Annie finger spelled every single line of text into my hand. There were no Braille textbooks back then. Oh how computers would have made that so unnecessary.”

Tito leaned forward and said, “So you found your happiness hero?”

Helen pulled his face into view.

“Hero?, “sighed Helen leaning back and munching on potato chips. “I just wanted a life. I only did the public speaking to earn money. Annie and I were poor Tito and nobody wanted to hear anything but about Helen Keller by the well. I didn't die after I said 'water' “

A large smile grew on her face. Tito knew the moment. The moment in the play. It was true though. Everyone thinks Helen's life ended when she said water by the well. In truth it was only beginning.

“But...the great part about my life was I did get to be friends with Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, oh the list goes on and that was nice but I loved Mark. He had a wicked sense of humor. Oh when he died, a part of me died with him. ”

Helen threw a chip at a waiting seagull who carried it away.

“Having Annie sign everything into my hand is not the same as hearing his voice and laughing at his jokes and then Annie died. Oh listen to me!“

Tito turned towards Helen and said, “Helen Keller...of all the people I know, I never thought you would be the one to feel sorry for yourself.”

Helen laughed and tossed the bag of chips at Tito.

“Hmmm...I remember at one meeting, Annie and I arrived at the city and a crowd of people poured over us. I wanted to go to the hotel room. I was tired. They didn't have plane flights back then. Oh how the press tore into me that next day. Evil Helen Keller needs sleep – the nerve of her!

Now...is that better!”

Helen laughed at her own joke and got up sitting on the sand.

“When you become that brave and heroic figure, everyone forgets you're human. Why when I was around, blind people and deaf people were the burden of the state. When I came along...oh Helen must have the best sense of touch in the world...oh how brave Helen is...how wonderful she is...but let Helen give an opinion about civil rights or about politics and oh...Helen...they're manipulating you. Certainly a sweet deaf and blind person like yourself can't have an opinion of your own. That's not right!”

Helen laughed and grabbed some watermelon.

“Why'd you want to meet me anyway Tito.?”

Terry Sighed. He looked at the ocean water.

“I'm tired Helen. The pressure is getting to me. The demands are getting to me. I guess..I wanted a sympathetic ear. “

Helen smiled and said, “if I were alive today...with all this media...oh, they wouldn't be making friends with me...but you have something that I never had Tito...and I envy everyone who has it. God put me on this earth for a reason and I fulfilled his wishes but having sight and sound changed me. I guess I began to have envy. Does that make me horrible?”

Tito held her hand.

“I give my heart and soul for a ball team while I abandon my family. Does that make me evil?”

She smiled with a tear welting in her eye.

“I suppose no more evil than me. Oh how I wanted a family, children, a husband to care about me...I wanted a life where I didn't have to depend on someone always being around me. I once said that every struggle is a victory...but sometimes I think that getting sight and hearing is a curse. It made me realize what I lost.”

Tito held her hand and said, 'but look at what you accomplished. You helped start the ACLU, brought the blind into the sunlight, standardized raised print to one system – Braille. You helped to start the Lions club on their crusade for the blind...those are things that you should be very proud of.

Helen chuckled.

“Nobody even knows about my political views – oh, can't talk about that. Might smear my name. Helen Keller the socialist...but all I ever wanted was unions and the common man's voice. That doesn't make me evil. “

Tito said nothing to that but starred at the passion in her face.

“Oh...did you know the FBI had a file on me...on ME!”

Tito nodded and said, “so what. They followed Martin Luthor King around. Come on Helen...what's really bugging you?”

Helen looked with tears draining from her face.

“I want to live again Tito. I want to be part of life and see it and feel it. I want to be part of this planet. “

She turned towards Tito.

“Stay with me for a while. We can talk about baseball.”

Tito nodded and fell against the sand.

“I really have to get back Helen.”

Helen grunted and threw a stone at the ocean water.

“Call your daughter Tito. Love her with everything you have. Never let the game get in the way because one day you'll be on a field with nobody watching you.

Tito leaned forward.

“I'm sorry...I really am.”

“The life you live Tito is a precious, wonderful gift. Please...don't lose that. I lived a long and wonderful life and even when I feel sorry for myself, I realize that. “

Helen wiped the tears off her face.

“However...if you would just hold my hand and watch the seagulls...that would mean everything to me. “

Tito smiled and leaned back. Helen fell against the sand and starred at the clouds.

“Thank you.”

Tito smiled and kissed her on the cheek.

“Watch me at the game tonight. “

She gave a thumbs up.

Tito yawned and saw the crew starring at him.

“What?”

David leaned down and said, “never seen you smile so much!”

Dustin just nodded.

Tim Wakefield looked confused.

“Hey...life's short right!”

Everyone just stood in awe as Tito got up and walked away singing a song.

“Love ya guys but I gotta call my daughter!”

Tito chuckled as he heard David Ortiz say, “man...he never calls his daughter before a game. “

Then everyone nodded and said, “he had a dream.”

Tito fell into his office chair and picked up the phone. He dialed the number but put the phone back on the receiver. He looked over at the photo on the wall. He then looked at the paperwork on his desk.

“Oh Helen you always could see better than anyone even without your eyes!”

Tito pulled the paperwork aside and picked up the phone. Baseball wasn't a life. The phone rang. The machine answered. Tito grieved.