Travis had entered the minor leagues directly after high school with confidence and gusto. Single A had become Double A which had become Triple A. Only, the weekly stipend had never covered his expenses, even at the top tier. Dreams of riches gave way to bitterness. Especially once a shoulder injury had set in. After that her brother struggled to distinguish himself, unable to advance further. Ultimately, Travis had bottomed out of the minor leagues, injured and broke.
One could divide Travis’s life into before and after professional baseball. Her father had gone to every home game. Not a single graduation of hers. Not as a high school valedictorian or summa cum laude in college. She also finished top of her class in medical school but that happened after her father died.
Deanna and Travis had never been close, neither as children nor as adults.
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Her brother’s trailer park abutted the racetrack. The manager’s office anchored the entrance, a model home with a wraparound deck. A one-way lane cut through the narrow residences arranged in a horseshoe. Mostly new trailers and modular homes, almost all well kept. Flower boxes and hanging plants decorated the entryways.
Deanna’s Cadillac SUV pulled into lot 17, her brother’s abode. Used and abused, rusted and dented, the old silver ‘70s Airstream camper greeted her. Duct tape reinforced the frame of the front window. She noticed the blue tarp nailed on the roof. Travis had really needed that repair. The front door looked like an interior door picked up from the dump, sized roughly to fit the opening.
Deanna turned the plain knob, no lock apparent nor key needed. Legal papers tacked on to the doorway flitted about. First and second warnings from the property management company, Notice of Eviction and Notice of Foreclosure. Travis hadn’t told her. Of course not. She would have shamed and blamed him.
Deanna stared. Her pupils dilated with wonder as she took the sight in. The interior amazed her. She expected shambles, a mess for sure, but not this, nothing like this. Her thoughts hung in the air. A strange juxtaposition of squalor and beauty occupied the space filled with painted works of art. Color transformed found objects into treasures. Murals coated the walls. No couch, television or radio. Artwork. Everywhere. Travis’s world stunned and intrigued her. She never thought Travis was an eccentric.
Love this story!!!