Amy Makes a New Life

A day in August

I was awake early and although I tried, sleep wasn't going to come again so I left Meredith in bed and went to make tea. Today was going to be quite a day.

Meredith joined me half an hour later and we kissed. As I was going to turn away, she grabbed me in a wonderful hug. "Thank you for letting us into your life. I love you."

"I should be thanking you, letting me have a small share of Sarah has been something delightful and that I'd never expected. Of course, I quite like sharing my life with you as well." After a few minutes, she let me go and I was heading for the shower, but stopped to look at the pictures on the shelves.

Meredith saw me and asked, "You, okay?"

"Yes, honey. I was thinking about Dee, she would love to be here today. It doesn't make any difference to how I feel about you, but I still miss her a bit."

She smiled, "I know how you still feel about her and it's okay, as it should be. It doesn't change how much you love me as well; I know that."

Meredith was back by 9.30 am and brought her parents upstairs, along with Olivia and Karen. "Hi, are you both okay?" I asked Cathy and Eric.

"Eric is excited beyond belief. He didn't want to use his wheelchair, but I've told him, no chair, he's not going."

"It'll be fine," I told them. "Olivia, Karen are you okay?" They confirmed that they were, but they were a bit more reserved because Sarah wasn't here.

Meredith looked at me with concern, her nerves were jangling as well. "I'm a bit nervous about Dad and we should've organised a picnic."

"I've got it all covered, including food. It'll be fine."

It was almost 10 am when Hayley's parents; Josh and Pauline and Josh's mum, my friend and former colleague Celia, pulled into a parking space at the rear of the apartment. We went downstairs to meet them, where there were lots of introductions and several hugs. It only took us a few minutes to walk to the ground and I shepherded them all through security and directed them to the far end of the ground.

Meredith took my hand as we walked and asked, "Are we all sitting together?" I nodded, "How did you manage that? There are nine of us."

"No problem, plenty of room." I grinned.

Several of them looked at me questioningly, but it was Meredith who asked, "What do you mean?"

I smiled at her and said, "Wait and see." At the back of the big grandstand, I headed for the reception desk and noticed some puzzled looks on their faces as I spoke to the Commissionaire, who simply said, "Take the lift on the right Ma'am."

Meredith grabbed my arm, "Where are we going? What's this about?" I ignored her and the questions from the others as we ascended in the lift. When it stopped, I set off checking the room numbers before showing my pass to one of the staff who opened a door for us to step inside. Meredith walked in first and I heard her gasp before she turned back to face me, "A box, you organised a box?"

It was a room on the second floor of the stand. One wall was all glass with sliding doors and a balcony with seats beyond giving an amazing view of the ground. There were two tables in the room set out with tablecloths, cutlery and crockery, a long table against the wall held refreshments, including some steel containers that I knew contained a hot breakfast.

The others stood looking a bit shell-shocked as I spoke to answer their questions. "Yes, I've organised a box. My 'almost daughter' is playing her first one-day international game for England and I'm so proud I wanted to do this in style. I want to share it with all of you and Hayley's family because it's a special day for them as well. There's food and drink laid on all day and, as you can see above us, a TV so we can watch the replays. Now, there should be bacon rolls and hot drinks. Who wants coffee? Who wants tea?"

Olivia took my hand as she spoke, "Miss King, I was excited when you asked Karen and me to be here to see Sarah play, we're so proud of her. But I never expected this, it's wonderful and now, before I cry with delight, I'm going to call my Dad and brag. He took the day off today to watch on TV, he couldn't get a ticket."

We were sorting out coffee and I heard Olivia on the phone to her Dad. She was grinning when she finished the call. "He's so jealous."

"If you go down to the boundary, you may be able to wave to Sarah, as they're warming up. While you're there get yourselves a cap or hat each if you want one and you'd better bring back a couple of those radios for the commentary as well. Take this pass so you can get back." I handed them a bundle of notes and off they went.

We watched the activity from the balcony, sipping our drinks, as the teams warmed up. I saw Olivia and Karen, in the distance standing by the boundary rope talking to Hayley and Sarah. They pointed up in our direction and the four of them waved, so we waved back. Eric looked at me, "Amy, I'm so proud of my granddaughter and excited for this special moment, but you arranging this makes it doubly special. I confess I worried about where I'd be sitting in my wheelchair."

"Well, you won't need it up here, you don't need to go anywhere except the loo which is a couple of doors down. Just let Meredith or I know if you need anything." He hugged me.

The girls arrived back just as the anthems were playing and they showed us their caps. "They couldn't believe we had a box and Sarah is nervous."

"She's not the only one," I added.

The South African women got off to a racing start and it had us worried. Runs were coming freely and the batters didn't look to be in any trouble.

Fifteen minutes after the game started there was a knock at the door, which opened to reveal Olivia's Dad. She stared wide-eyed and said, "Dad?"

I jumped in. "We can't have jealous parents, so I phoned him and told him to get a taxi. He's been kind to Sarah over the years and we have the room." I turned to Roger and made quick introductions.

"I thought you were joking and now I'm here. I've never seen the ground from here, this is lovely, thank you, thank you very much."

Heather, the English Captain, called for a change of bowling and threw the ball to Hayley. She conceded only one run in her first over. The flow of runs had stopped, at least for a few minutes. It seemed to signal a slight shift in the balance of play and that was confirmed when Hayley had the opening batter caught by the wicket-keeper. That was an exciting moment for us and Josh was almost overcome with joy to see his daughter's first-ever international wicket in person, rather than on TV. I was pleased for him.

For the next twenty minutes, it was pretty even and then we heard the Announcer, on the public address system, "In her debut international, from the Pavilion End, Sarah Hardy." There was polite applause from the crowd and gasps in the box. Meredith was shaking and everyone looked apprehensive. That wasn't helped when the batter sent Sarah's first ball to the boundary to score four runs. On her next ball, she overstepped the crease and was called for a 'no-ball'. I could see that she was nervous and at the end of the over both Hayley and the captain spoke to her. From where we were, it looked like encouragement. I watched her as she trudged into the outfield to take up a position near the boundary at deep square leg, the spring in her step wasn't as pronounced as it had been.

Hayley delivered her next ball which looked short, the batter took a mighty swing and missed. On the next delivery she tried the same thing, this time she connected with the ball, but not cleanly and made it soar high into the air. I jumped up from my seat yelling, "It's heading towards Sarah!"

Sarah ran a few yards towards the ball and I could see her concentrating, never taking her eyes off of it as it came down and she caught it with a slight wobble. The crowd went crazy, but compared to the behaviour in our box, they could have been asleep. Eric looked up at me with a huge grin and said, "That's my girl."

Olivia and Karen were dancing a jig and whooping. "I can't believe that my friend is playing for England and I was there for her first game. I'm so proud of her. You must be chuffed Mrs Hardy and you Mrs Sharp." Josh and Roger high fived, then toasted Sarah and Hayley with another beer

Sarah's shoulders were no longer slumped, she looked relieved. I suspect that they'd planned that scenario and it made me happy that the team had confidence in Sarah to play her part. Her second over didn't result in any runs for the opposition, a 'maiden over.' I knew that would have helped her confidence a lot.

It was still fairly even when Sarah stepped up to bowl her fifth over. Her first ball raced to the boundary and I could lip-read as she swore to herself. The next ball seemed to puzzle the batter and when I checked the replay, I saw that she'd found some turn or spin, the ball had deviated from the trajectory the batter had expected.

The next ball did the same, but it must have nicked the edge of the bat and one of the fielders in the 'slips,' behind the batter, caught it low down by her ankles and threw the ball upwards in celebration. Sarah turned towards the umpire with her arms raised, her long hair flying out behind her as she appealed with confidence. The Umpire didn't hesitate and raised a single finger to indicate that the batter was out. Sarah punched her fist into the air, she'd claimed her first wicket, on her debut. She was mobbed by her teammates and for just a moment she looked up towards us with a huge smile. If I'd thought that the celebrations in our box that followed her taking a catch were a bit crazy, now I realised that they were restrained. I sat down with a bump and as I looked around, I saw that Eric and Cathy were both in tears. Meredith grabbed me, crying through a huge grin and she used her tissue to dry my eyes. She leaned in and whispered, "That's our little girl."

I was shocked by her statement, then moved and flattered. I'd tried to help and encourage Sarah. I didn't ever expect her to be so good, but I was happy and very proud.

Hayley took two more wickets and didn't concede many runs either. She'd also been excellent in the field saving many runs with her athleticism. Josh, Pauline and Celia tried to be restrained but failed and even Eric danced with them.

Sarah took another wicket late in the game, trapping the last batter, leg before wicket. The South African women had scored 221 runs. Not a bad score, but given that they got off to a good start, it should have been more than 250.

We all managed to sit down for lunch happy and for the time being, not full of pent-up nerves. I stood up to pour myself a glass of wine and saw Sarah's picture on the TV screen. I turned up the volume to hear a discussion about her performance. One of the expert team said, "I saw Sarah on the development team tour in Barbados earlier this year and she impressed then. I thought that she was a good prospect, I was a bit surprised that she's in the team today, she's barely twenty, but that's been a fine debut so far."

One of the other experts added, "And she's making her debut on her home ground, where she saw her first game just five years ago. I'd guess that her family are thrilled."

"Got that right" I muttered.

When the England batters took the field for their innings, they scored consistently and kept up with the required run rate, but only just and they lost a few wickets along the way. Hayley was batting at number five and as her name was announced there was a hush in our box. But she immediately looked assured and confident, managing to keep scoring runs without any drama.

England needed another forty runs to win and it looked as if it was going to be close when a sixth-wicket went down. The stadium Announcer induced more nervousness, "Batting at number eight, Sarah Hardy." We stood to cheer and clap, but my nerves were bad and I had to sit down again. I laughed when I heard Eric asking, "Would someone bring me a brandy. I'm going to need it."

Hayley went a few yards to meet Sarah as she walked out swinging her bat. She put an arm around Sarah's shoulder, I presume, to offer some words of advice. I turned to the others and said, "I'm pleased the two of them are together, it should help Sarah. I know that she was excited to be playing with her hero."

Sarah blocked the first three balls, not too bad, but they needed to keep scoring runs. The fourth ball was a fast vicious delivery that lifted off the pitch and soared towards Sarah's head. The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion, as Sarah raised her bat, the ball hit the edge of it and sailed high over the head of the wicket-keeper before it whacked into the advertising boards along the boundary. She was off the mark. The next ball was sent back past the bowler and they ran two runs.

England were on 217 with eight deliveries still to come and Sarah was at the crease. She drove the ball towards mid-wicket and they dashed a quick single, taking her score to 15, not bad for a debut. That meant that the next ball was faced by Hayley, it was short and she leaned into it driving hard, back past the bowler and it barely slowed as it raced to score four runs hitting the boundary rope right below us, taking the total to 222. Hayley and Sarah hugged each other with delight and we went nuts again. Through my tears of happiness and pride, I happened to see Sarah and Hayley both grab a stump each before running off the pitch to join their teammates.

A few minutes later the two teams came out onto the field to shake hands and that was followed by the prize presentation. I wasn't surprised when Hayley was named player of the match, handed a cheque and a bottle of champagne. Her parents were ecstatic and I felt very proud of her. Celia grabbed me by the waist, "Thanks for today, it was spectacular. I'm so proud of Hayley and I'm pleased for Sarah. Josh is in pieces." His tears flowed freely as he watched his daughter on TV being interviewed.

I'd arranged champagne for us as well. I sat there feeling happy but drained. It took half an hour before I saw Hayley and Sarah making their way across the field towards us. They disappeared from view below us and it took another ten minutes before they appeared in the box, having had to sign autographs along the way. There were lots of hugs and many more tears. Sarah took Eric's hand and bending down, said, "Grand-dad, I'm so pleased that you were able to be here today. I took this stump as a souvenir and I'd like you to have it."

He looked at her with affection before barely managing to utter, "I'm so proud of you, I've always been proud of you. You were terrific today. I'll look after your stump and I may take it down to the club, to brag a little."

I sat in the far corner of the box looking at the people who were there; my friends and family. I loved Meredith and Sarah dearly, my life had changed a great deal in the last few years and it gave me great pleasure. I was lost in thought when Cathy sat next to me and took my hand. "Thinking about your wife?" She asked.

"Sort of, I was thinking about how much my life has changed. I love your daughter and Sarah, I'm very happy, but I wish that Dee could have enjoyed today as well."

"I remember once asking you about your age difference and you told me that if Dee had been twenty years younger, she wouldn't have been the same person. She influenced you, she helped to make you who you are today. Because of that, you've enhanced my family's life no end. I wish that I could thank her myself."

I started to weep; she was right. I'd enjoyed the love of a lot of special people.

But there was no point in tears, so I stood up and said loudly, "Right you lot, everyone back to our place, I have champagne and I want to celebrate."

The end

Thank you for reading; I'd love to hear your comments. I've decided that there will be follow-up stories centred on Sarah and her friends.