Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

Sil was a good man, though set in his ways and stubborn by the time Olivia had married him. They’d wed later than was typical, she forty-three and he a year older. It was a first marriage for both.

Olivia loved musical theater. Sil loved sports. Though she attended games with him periodically, he had steadfastly refused to give theater a chance. To keep peace in the house, she had long ago given up asking. She had consoled herself through the years with their shared love of old movies and had scratched her theater itch with her girlfriends.

Tonight, as Sil sat beside her in the darkened theater on their thirtieth wedding anniversary, he grumbled, “You said we were going to watch baseball.”

“No, she whispered back, “I said we were going to see the Yankees.”

As the curtain rose on opening night of a revival production of Damn Yankees, Olivia smiled at her husband’s grunt of surrender. When Sil started laughing during the first comedic scene, she allowed herself a smug smile. She mentally ticked another item off her bucket list. For once, the hen had outsmarted the fox.

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It took a little bit of thinking to come up with a story for the words peace, bucket, and fox. I started with the idea of someone scratching something off their bucket list, and the story grew from there.

I thought Damn Yankees, a 1955 musical comedy, would be a good compromise for Olivia and Sil, as it was both musical theater and old. Though she was devious in her methods, I felt Sil needed to reciprocate a little more, especially after thirty years of getting his own way.

I also know people who insist they hate something and refuse to even try it, only to find they like it when they finally give it a chance. Olivia knew Sil was missing out on something he would love. I’m happy to report they enjoyed another twenty-five years together, living to a ripe old age, watching all the musical theater they could.