Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 103 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.
Watching the boys leave Junction had become as commonplace as wiping dust from his pickup's dashboard or watching government hay unloaded from freight cars. Now, as the Chevy eased down Main Street, Rob Roy focused on a scene that struck him as both surprising and odd -- several boys milling around the front door of the bus station. Most were wearing blue jeans and T-Shirts and had buzz haircuts. Texas A&M football players? Rob Roy thought. Nah. Couldn't be.Put today's excerpt in a baseball context.
As he pulled into the station, though, Rob Roy realized it was the Aggies. They must have sneaked off from the Adjunct in the middle of the night, he thought. Guess they didn't want to wait around to say good-bye to the old man. Many of the boys appeared to be anxious, and some were pacing. A couple of the boys had rolled-up blankets, but for the most part, they carried nothing but hangdog looks. He noticed that a couple of the boys were were chewing on beef jerky.
"Morning, fellas," Rob Roy said, sliding the key into the lock. In silence, they filed into the station as the ticket clerk took his position behind the counter. It was an amazing sight, these boys who had run away from Bryant and then sneaked two miles down the dark highway to make their getaway -- like wartime prisoners who had scaled the wall and were on the run from the camp commandant.
Rob Roy noticed a handful of other boys huddling in the shadows of the other side of the bus station, and it was apparent they were hiding from someone.
One of the boys spoke up, "We gotta get out of here before Coach Bryant finds us."
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