Everything

He’s out there in right field, getting harder to see him with my bad eyes
But he has on red socks.
Just for me.
So I can find him on the field.
Hands on his knees.
Baseball ready, he’s told me. That’s baseball ready, Grandma.
All the boys look alike, hunkered down because
the next batter up is a big kid, a year or two older.
I see Josh moving side to side, and I think, nerves.
I think, hold steady.
The boy hits hard and high to right field and I hold my breath.
But there goes Josh,
hand up, reaching,
and everything, I want to tell him suddenly, everything —life, dreams, jobs, love—comes down to that
to that reaching up, that effort, that hope.

Caitlin Hamilton Summie earned her MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University. Her short stories have been published in Puerto del Sol, Wisconsin Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, The Mud Season Review, and Long Story, Short. She has stories forthcoming in Hypertext Magazine and Belmont Story Review. Her short story collection, To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts, is forthcoming from Fomite in August 2017. In addition to fiction, Caitlin also writes poetry.