Wednesday morning.
At work, I can see the eyeglass, weekday version of left fielder Jeff Black in full Ralph Lauren regalia, quietly dispersing cross‐platform wisdom and time management knowledge out the corner of my good eye.
Jeff is casually sincere. As always.
Like Software Jesus without the beard, all those that come to him are troubled and furrowed. Then they leave him not only with a solution but now they see this and all their problems in a whole new light of truth that makes everything seem so simple now. And their leprosy has mysteriously disappeared, too.
Jeff is a gentleman in the company of gentle people.
Jeff stops by my cube and raps on the partition edge; the proverbial knocker of so many door less offices here in The Big Valley.
I wonʹt be able to hear on that side until they remove the spoon‐feather earring from my head when I fell at practice a three Tuesdays ago.
Hey Rick yer lookinʹ better, Jeff says as he waves to get my attention.
I nod and smile.
Jeffʹs been visiting me a lot lately. I look forward to his visits but have been unable to tell him. I can speak but not without a lot of drooling or swallowing the part of my tongue I didn’t bite off.
I bet the girls like that shiner you got, Jeff says with a crooked smile.
Yeah, thatʹs what I was thinking! I start to say excitedly but I loose my balance, which is happening a lot since the concussion.
Jeff catches me right as I fall out my chair and says, Hey, yer balance is gettinʹ better!
Yewʹll be ready fer the Summer league no problem, right?
I give Jeff a confused look.
Jeff nods slowly to help me get the words in my head to go to my mouth. I now recognize that Jeffʹs helping me with my speech therapy exercises. Jeff volunteered to help me learn to walk again and exorcise the stuttering that now plagues me. Iʹm so happy to merely repeat what he just said, ʺYeb. Iʹow be reaby bor buh bubber beague, bo brobbremʺ.
Jeff smiles and shakes my good hand. We both smile crooked but now for different reasons.
Iʹm just starting to get some feeling back in my right hand now that the vertebrae that cracked in my neck has been fused successfully. I canʹt help but smile when I think of what a good guy Jeff Black is, helping me mend and taking me to the ER and all.
But when I smile ‐ and I do now smile more often these days ‐ it makes controlling my wheelchair difficult.
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