[legendsport]

December 27, 1935: Egypt, GA:

"What are we going to do about this, Rufus?" Alice Barrell asked her husband as she climbed into bed.

"Hmm..." Rufus replied, head bowed over a pile of papers as he reclined on the bed.

Now that Christmas Day had come and gone, Rufus was poring over the recent FABL draft. This had become something of a routine for him: he looked at who was chosen by whom and mentally compared this to the "mock draft" his staff had begun working up. He wasn't sure if the FABL GMs even bothered to look at this, and he himself only had peripheral input into the mock itself (he believed in the "too many cooks in the kitchen" theory of spoiling things so stayed hands-off... mostly). But it was an interesting mental exercise. Especially when your grandson had been the first overall pick.

"Can't argue with the first couple of picks," he murmured, thinking that Deuce and Red Johnson were clearly the cream of the crop. "Oww!" he shouted a moment later. Alice had slapped him - hard - on the shoulder.

"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his shoulder.

Alice stuck a finger in his face. "We need to talk about this thing with Tom and Bob and you've got your head stuck in.... whatever that is!" she exclaimed, waving her hand at the mess of paper.

"They're prospect reports," Rufus said.

"We have two of our sons not speaking to each other and you're looking at prospects reports." She paused and glared at him. "In late December."

"Well.... yes," Rufus said sheepishly.

"Put that mess away and talk with me, Rufus," she insisted.

Rufus sighed heavily and began to neatly pile up the various pages. Truth be told, he wasn't really aware of any problems between Tom and Bobby. But he couldn't admit that to his wife. Well he could, but he didn't want to deal with the heavy consequences of such an admission.

"Okay," he said mulishly, "let's talk."

"Don't pout," Alice replied.

"I'm not," he said, defensively.

"You were," she said then held up a hand. "Not important," she added and then asked, "You are aware of the problem?"

Oof. Rufus hated lying to Alice. Time to fess up. "Actually... no," he admitted.

She shook her head. "You can still be such a rube sometimes..."

"That's not fair. We have a big family... you can't expect me to be up on everything."

The head shaking continued. "Maybe not, but you should be able to observe when two of your sons... who normally get on pretty well... are pointedly ignoring each other," she said. "Except for the occasional glare, that is."

Rufus spread his hands. "And why are they... I don't know... not talking?"

"I wasn't sure myself, not at first. Then Betsy clued me in."

"And...?" Rufus asked.

"It's a girl. Annette O'Boyle to be exact," Alice said.

Rufus racked his brains - and came up empty. "Who?" he finally asked.

Exasperated, Alice blurted out, "You can tell me the entire starting lineup of some team no one's heard of, but you can't remember people you've actually seen."

As Rufus opened his mouth, she added, "Unless they're ballplayers, of course."

Rufus took a deep breath. "So tell me who this girl is, then, since I'm so absentminded."

"She's one of Betsy's competitors in the sprints. Runs for Whitney College?" Rufus still looked blank. She huffed out a frustrated breath and added, "We saw her last year? She finished second to Betsy in the 100?"

Rufus had a vague memory of an attractive young woman that Betsy seemed to dislike, so he nodded and said, "Okay."

"Well apparently both Tom and Bobby took a liking to her. Both actually went to Chicago to see her."

"And now they're fighting over her?" Rufus asked.

Alice shook her head and a mildly bemused look crossed her face. "No," she said, "actually Bobby met another girl there and never even saw Annette."

Now Rufus looked confused. "So? What's the problem?"

"Well... apparently when Tommy went to see her, Annette told him that she was interested in Bobby, not him."

"Ohhh..." Rufus said.

Alice nodded and said, "And so Tommy is angry with Bobby for, as he put it, 'stealing his girl' and Bobby's angry at Tom for accusing him of something he says he didn't do."

"I don't see the problem," Rufus said.

"The problem, Rufus, is that Tom is still emotional about the way the season ended and having this girl he likes snub him for his brother, particularly when that brother says he's no longer interested, is tearing Tommy apart."

Rufus shrugged. "He's a grown man. He should just deal with it. Every pitcher gets his block knocked off sometimes, and lord knows that boy has had plenty of luck with women."

This was all true, Alice admitted to herself. But it didn't solve the problem and she told Rufus so.

"I don't see what you want me to do about it," Rufus told her.

"Talk to Tommy and explain what you just said."

So the next day, Rufus did. Tommy didn't take it well. For one thing, he scoffed at Rufus' advice on getting past the brutal end to the '35 season. "You never pitched in a FABL game, so what do you know?" he snapped at his father. Rufus' feelings were hurt by this, but he tried not to show it.

"So talk to Danny Goff then. He'll tell you the same thing," Rufus pointed out. "You need to put that stuff behind you and move on," he snapped, showing anger for the first time.

Tom wore a sulky look but after a moment, he nodded.

"And this thing with Bobby and that girl..." Rufus began.

Tom raised a hand. "I don't want any advice on women, Pop," he said and turned his back.

Rufus shook his head and replied, "Well that was blunt. But want it or not, you're going to get it. Bob did nothing wrong. From what he told me, he met this girl and yes, they seemed to hit it off, but when he was in Chicago he didn't even see her. He found someone else. He's not a competitor for this girl. Either give it up, or keep trying, but stop blaming Bobby for something he didn't do." As Rufus finished speaking, Tommy turned and looked his father in the eye.

"Yeah, that's right," Rufus continued. "You don't have to give up. But don't be pushy. Sometimes, it takes time, and effort" Rufus said with a smile. "I learned that a long time ago with a girl who at first wouldn't give me the time of day."

"Uh huh, sure," Tommy said, clearly not believing it. "You wooed this girl... and won her over?" he asked with a mocking smile.

Rufus slapped him on the shoulder. "I sure did. You even know her... you call her Mom," he said and laughed.

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