53 pages • 1 hour read
Kent HarufA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Louis drives Addie, Jamie, and their neighbor Ruth out to a café on the highway for lunch. When they’re done eating, he drives them to a local ballpark to watch a softball game. Louis takes Jamie into the bleachers and explains the rules of the game. Jamie tells him he has never played catch before. Waiting in the car, Ruth asks if Louis is still going over to Addie’s house even with Jamie there. When Addie replies that it’s okay because they haven’t done anything intimate yet, Ruth tells her to hurry up before she gets as old as she is. After dropping Ruth off, Louis goes to Addie’s house and finds Jamie already asleep in the middle of her bed.
The next day, Louis takes Jamie to the hardware store to buy softball gloves—one for each of them, and one for Addie—some balls, and a baseball cap. Louis knows the old man who works there, as well as the store’s previous manager and prior owner. He teaches Jamie to play catch and to hit the ball, and slowly the boy improves. That night, with Jamie asleep between them on the bed, Louis suggests that they get a dog for the boy so that he isn’t just playing with two old people and his phone.
By Kent Haruf