Bowling a Maiden Over

"I should be getting back," Chantal said, looking at the time. "I have practice early tomorrow."

"Before you go, take this."

Sorcha took out a business card from her wallet and held it out.

"I may not be a shrink any more, but I'm still a pretty good listener. Any time you need to talk or even just be heard, give me a call."

"Thanks," Chantal said, taking the card. Sorcha stubbed out the remainder of her cigarette on the floor beside her. She got up and put her arms out. Chantal took the invitation and wrapped her in an embrace.

"I've seen so many kids who felt miserable because they could not come out of the closet. If I can save one person from feeling that way, it's worth it. I know how you feel right now, all the doubt, all the confusion. Trust me, you'll figure it all out and it will get so much better."

Chantal smiled. When she had walked into the bar, she had no idea how the next few hours would go. In retrospect, she was glad she had picked this bar.

"Just so we're clear," said Sorcha. "If you come back to my bar next year and neither of us is in a committed relationship by then, I'm bringing you back to this roof, but for much less conversation."

Chantal blushed. Sorcha seemed to find the pink tinge on her brown skin adorable. She could not resist planting a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"It's pretty much taking all my will power not to push you up against that wall and have my way with you right now. Next year, I might not try to resist the temptation so hard."

* *

Early morning Sydney was different from Perth. Chantal had her kit slung over her shoulder as she headed to the practice facility. Even then she could see people on the street. It was as if there was a mass epidemic of insomnia.

She reached the locker room area and was about to change her clothes when she became aware of someone else there. Unsure what to expect, she put her bag down and made her way to the changing rooms. Her heart missed a beat at what she saw.

Ellie was sitting on the bench. Her head was in buried in her hands and her lustrous red mane splayed all over. Her body shook with periodic sobs.

"Ellie?"

She looked up to see Chantal at the entrance. Her eyes were red from crying and tears had streaked down her face. Chantal felt the overwhelming urge to rush to her captain's side and hug her.

It was abundantly clear that the surprise homecoming to save her marriage had not gone well.

* *

"Are you sure you're up for this?"

Ellie nodded. She looked nothing like the weeping wreck Chantal had walked in on a few minutes back. On seeing her visitor, Ellie quickly went to the washroom and composed herself. Now, she stood with ball in hand looking down the practice pitch.

"I am. I need the distraction."

Chantal took her stance and waited patiently. Ellie charged in with her ball in hand. Her run up seemed uncharacteristically rushed. The ball flew out of her hand straight towards Chantal's unprotected head. Chantal barely had time to move out of the way as the ball crashed into the net behind them. The ball whistled past her left ear, missing it by less than two inches and the sudden motion made her lose her balance. Before she knew it, she was in a sprawled heap on the ground.

"Oh my God."

Ellie rushed over to see Chantal trying to sit up.

"Are you all right? I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. The ball didn't hit anything."

Ellie helped her to her feet. If that ball had been bowled in an actual match, it would likely lead to her disqualification. Even more so if the ball had actually made contact with the batter and caused any injury. Both she and Chantal knew how strict the rules were regarding balls aimed straight at the batter without bouncing.

Hell, even if Gus had seen this in practice, he would have benched her from the opener. Captain be damned. Someone who bowled like that was a liability.

Chantal got to her feet, still a bit dazed by her near miss with head injury.

"What happened, Ellie? It's not like you to do that in practice. I have never seen you bowl a beamer. Ever."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's just..."

She threw the ball away and stomped back to the locker room. Chantal followed nervously to find her sitting down. She sat down opposite her and put both hands on her shoulders.

"Talk to me."

"I came home to surprise Julia last night. I even got two tickets to the ballet, which she loves. After what you told me on the beach, I was determined to patch things with her."

"It did not go well?" Chantal asked, almost dreading the answer.

"She was having dinner with another woman. In our house. On our dining table."

Chantal gasped and clapped her palm over her mouth.

"I walked in on that, and do you know what Julia said?"

Her precocious mind was reeling at the stunning barrage of information that she was currently bombarded with.

"She calmly sat me down, offered me some carbonara and told me what was going on. The woman was named Rebecca. They had met when Julia's financial services firm had hosted a party a few months ago. She then explained to me how it was my fault for being away from her for so long and how she needed someone who was going to prioritise their relationship."

Chantal gritted her teeth. She felt a sudden burst of rage towards Julia Townsend despite never having met her.

"What did you say?"

"I ended up saying I understood and I was sorry for not being there for her."

Ellie let out a long sigh.

"I knew I was right and she was wrong, and yet, her hold over me is such that I went in to confront her and ended up apologising and agreeing to a quick divorce."

The anti-climax made no sense to Chantal. Ellie went on.

"It took me the ride over here to realise how far apart we had grown. I don't know, but I had some vague hope we could find our way back to each other again. I don't think that any more. Worse, I realised that I was in a relationship with someone who could convince me her cheating was my fault. I couldn't see straight with her any longer and the more I stayed, the more I was letting myself be manipulated. We went from being the couple who would take a knife in the chest for one another to a couple who have a meeting with a divorce lawyer next week."

Chantal listened in slack jawed amazement. Ellie took a step towards her and put an arm around her shoulder.

"You're a good friend. I'm happy it was you who saw me like this and not someone else. I know you'll keep this between us."

Chantal nodded.

"Let's back to practice, shall we? I promise not to try to take your head off again."

They shared a laugh and Chantal took her bat and walked to the practice wicket. She felt a strange mix of emotions within her. A part of her should be giddy that the woman of her dreams was no longer attached, but the overwhelming feeling was of sadness.

Sadness, because someone she had grown to care so deeply for was in pain.

* *

"You've all outdone yourselves over the past week," said Gus, beaming from ear to ear. "I'd even go so far as to say you've earned yourselves a break tonight. Go have fun. I'll see you at tomorrow's match."

The players went out of the change room. Chantal hung back. Ellie and Gus were fine tuning some last minute plans for the match. She came out last.

"How're you feeling?"

"At the top of my game. I'm going to need to stay there if we're going to win tomorrow."

It had been a week since Ellie's ill-fated visit to her wife (now certain to be her ex-wife). Her method to deal with the pain was to immerse herself in practice. She came before anyone else and continued bowling long after the last batter had left. Chantal watched with slight concern as she came perilously close to overworking herself to injury every day.

It was almost painful to watch at times, but Ellie needed this.

Today, however, she seemed in a better mood. She walked with Chantal all the way to the exit of the training facility.

"Do you have a decent dress?"

"Why?" Chantal asked.

"I still have two tickets to the ballet which I would hate to see go to waste. Since Julia's not coming, would you want to?"

Chantal's heart almost leapt into her throat. Ellie was asking her to the ballet. It was almost like a date, right?

Half an hour later, they met in the hotel lobby. Chantal had chosen the very formal pant-suit her mother had picked out for team events. Ellie went with a more stylish black dress that went past her knees.

"Where's the show?" asked Chantal, getting into the cab.

Ellie looked down at her phone with a smile on her face. A few taps later, she had the required image on screen. She held it out to Chantal who was barely able to contain her excitement.

"Congratulations, Chantal. You are about to find out what the Sydney Opera House looks like from the inside."

* *

"This has to be the best seat in the house."

Ellie's selection of seats was impeccable. They were on a balcony under one of the arches and had an unobstructed view to the stage. It was far above the main rows of seats. A private two person bubble where no one else would know they existed.

"Didn't you tell me your sister trained for the ballet? Was that when you started following it?" Chantal asked, settling down into her seat.

"That's right. I loved watching her practice. Each movement seemed so effortless and graceful when she did it. I couldn't do half of them without needing to go to the ER. If only my parents had thought to support her passion as much as they supported mine."

"You told me about that," Chantal recalled from the beach house. "Are you two still in touch?"

Ellie sighed and held her friend's arm. In a few short weeks, this young girl had learnt things about her only a handful of people knew. She was a godsend... someone to whom she could finally unburden and not receive a trace of judgement in return.

"Not exactly. Let's just say she was a prima donna long before she started dancing. We had a falling out after our parents died. A really ugly, messy falling out and we both said things which we would like to take back now. I don't even remember what it was exactly about. She simply hated me for how Mom and Dad treated her. That day, when she finally slammed the door and stormed out, I didn't think we could ever be in the same room again."

Chantal listened intently.

"That was the last I had seen of her until around ten years ago, when I was recovering in the hospital from being stabbed. The attack had made headlines and touched something within her. She sent me a friend request on Facebook. We chatted online at first. Then finally, I got the courage to call her. Not regularly, but on important days -- birthdays, Christmas... she even made a point to talk to me on Australia Day."

"Where does she stay now?"

"London. Do you know how I found that out? Remember the World Cup final in London 2012? After I had won, I got a message from her. It was a selfie she had taken at the stadium and another picture of me bowling that day."

Ellie opened a folder on her phone and showed the picture. Her sister looked almost like her, high cheekbones and red hair, but had a more regal, more statuesque look about her.

"That's where our little tradition began. Whenever she is in a city where I am playing, she cheers me on from the stadium and whenever I am in a city she is performing in, I return the favour."

"No way," said Chantal. She hurriedly flipped open the itinerary in her hands and sure enough, the lead dancer's face was a powdered version of the selfie she had just seen.

"Evelyn Cooper."

"My kid sister, Eve. You can bet she will be at the SCG tomorrow cheering us on."

Chantal immediately went through the printed bio on the programme and was astonished at the number of high profile performances she had been the lead of -- London, New York, Paris, Milan, Shanghai, Vienna, Budapest, Hong Kong, Geneva, Moscow, Tokyo, Dresden, Barcelona, Los Angeles... there was no end to the sheer weight of her portfolio. All Chantal could see were enthralled reviews by critics who had deemed her a "once in a generation talent".

"And my parents thought I was the overachiever in the family," chuckled Ellie, peering into Chantal's screen.

"She seems incredible," said Chantal, looking at a picture of her, mid-fouette on her phone. "Why don't you go meet her after the show?"

"We're not quite there yet. Phone calls and admiring each other's work is one thing. Neither of us is ready to meet in person yet. There's a whole childhood of bitterness to undo before that can happen. Probably some day, but not today."

Chantal looked a bit disappointed.

"Cheer up, the performance is about to start. You do not want to miss her in Swan Lake. I saw her in this role in London once and it blew me away."

Chantal peered down as the curtain started to rise and was met by thunderous applause. Rows of dancers from the Australian Ballet Company lined up in their starting poses, but the red haired lead had the haughty look of owning the whole opera house and everyone in it. Within minutes, she too was an admirer of her effortless skill.

It was almost therapeutic watching the performance. A soothing calm after the intense training she had undergone in preparation for her opening match.

A lull before the storm.

* *

"I know the odds are decked against us. I prefer it that way. There's no fun in winning if we start off as the favourites."

The team huddle held each other tightly. Chantal was almost hidden in the circle of Perth Scorcher jerseys.

"We've trained hard and made the best strategy possible, but now comes the hard part. Now we have to execute it. This is the season opener we have on our hands. Let's get off to a winning start."

The huddle dispersed. Chantal took in the atmosphere all around her. The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) was massive. Pictures and live telecasts did not do its true size justice. She could barely see an empty seat in the stands -- a rare sight for her. The Sydney Sixers had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Chantal stretched and took her assigned fielding position at the edge of the thirty-yard circle. She was young and Ellie had put her there so her quick reflexes would be of use cutting off boundaries. She knew the opposition were the defending champions and a much more highly rated team. The latest odds on almost every major sports website overwhelmingly favoured the home team. Perth Scorchers were basically there for them to show off their new additions.

Even as she loosened her joints, two of those additions strode out onto the field with a bat in hand. Mel Southall, the Australian national team opener and Danielle Freeman from England. Both had fearsome reputations for being able to take the best international bowling line-ups apart with unerring regularity. Chantal admired them to no small extent.

The opening bowler from Perth, Erin Burns, limbered up and ran in. The crowd's cheer grew to a crescendo as the first ball of the Woman's Big Bash League 2018-19 was thrown down and Dani Freeman played it off her waist quite comfortably. Chantal looked on with some concern as she knew the pitch was tailor made for easy batting.

True to her fears, the very next ball drew an attacking shot from Dani. A perfect cover drive, one of the most aesthetically pleasing shots in cricket. Chantal could only admire the shot as it sped past the cover fielders to the boundary. Dani did not move from her stance, knowing fully well there was no need to run after hitting a shot like that.

The next ball was similarly cut through backward point. There were two fielders present, but the ball was placed in the precise gap between them. The next one flew a few yards to Chantal's left. She pulled out a valiant dive, but the ball was past her even before she hit the ground.

The rest of the over followed a similar pattern as Dani plundered another boundary before finally throwing caution to the wind with a towering six. Chantal followed the graceful parabolic trajectory of the ball as it flew into the crowd.

It was not the start of her dreams.

The next over was equally bad as Mel took over and smashed four boundaries. If this onslaught went on for much longer, Perth would have no way back.

It was in the fourth over that Ellie finally picked up the ball. The team strategy was to save her for the second half of the innings, but the Sydney openers were in a particularly rampant mood. Mel and Dani discussed how best to approach the bowling change. Dani was on strike as Ellie delivered her first ball of the new season.

Chantal watched on from her position at the thirty-yard circle at mid on. She never got tired of watching Ellie glide in and throw down the ball. Unfortunately, Dani was much less inclined to admire her and instead smashed the ball back down the ground for a boundary. Ellie stood with her hands on her knees and looked over at Chantal. Chantal smiled, hoping to comfort her.

Ellie charged in once more and Dani was already winding up to deposit this ball beyond the boundary. An instant later, she realised her mistake. Ellie had bowled much slower than her usual speed. Dani's eyes widened in horror, but it was too late. Her instinctive arms had almost completed the shot when the ball finally reached her bat. It hit the edge and ballooned up in the air.

Before Chantal could marvel at Ellie's guile of bowling a slower ball, she realised the ball was coming straight at her. It had gone high, but she was the only fielder near where it would drop. She looked around to see her whole team looking at her expectantly. This catch was absolutely vital.

The ball was lost in the glare of the floodlights. She desperately scanned the sky for a speck. It finally appeared and she settled down under it and cupped her hands in anticipation. Her focus shifted from the ball for the merest moment when she saw Ellie staring in her direction.

It happened all at once. Chantal forgot where the ball was and her legs turned to mush. It was all too much for her. That Ellie could have this effect on her simply by standing with a smile on her face. The ball fell onto her forearm before dropping harmlessly onto the grass.

A collective gasp went around the stadium. Pain roared through her arm, but that was the farthest thought from her mind. She looked up at the big screen to see the replay of her failed catch. A replay that was being televised to hundreds of thousands of homes around the world, including her living room where her father would have just sworn in a way unbecoming of a minister.

Cricketers were human and dropped catches, but not her, not off Ellie's bowling. She did not look in her direction, but she knew. Ellie had been playing long enough to see others drop catches off her bowling. At best, her disappointment would last a minute before she was focussed on the next ball. That solitary minute of disappointment seared into Chantal like a white hot dagger. She would have given anything for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.

When she finally dared to look up, Ellie was already charging in for her next ball. The scoreboard showed no wickets against her name and it was all Chantal's fault. No one could convince her otherwise.

* *

The mood in the dressing room at the innings break was sombre. Thy mighty batting line-up of the home team had amassed a towering total. Perth was staring down the barrel of a loss... and a bad one at that.

Chantal was in an adjoining area testing out her shots with her bat. It would be a while before she could forgive herself for dropping a catch of Ellie's bowling, but helping them get near that total with the bat would go a long way towards making amends.

Each air swing and each shadow drive was with resolute purpose. She had let her team down. Worse, she had let Ellie down.