Pancake

Robert E. Cartmell

Description

As an incredible high school pitcher headed to the big leagues, Chris Pancake is torn apart by two tragedies but finds the strength to continue through faith.

Chris Pancake loves the Lord and loves baseball. He is the best high school pitcher in his district, perhaps even in the state. A major league scout pursues him and informs him that the Pirates intend to draft him second overall, but Chris has other plans. Then, he accomplishes a feat that has rarely been seen before from a high school pitcher.

Still coping with the loss of his mother, he has a near perfect relationship with his father, Charles. Conversely, his faith and his relationships with his best friends are put to the test. On the cusp of turning 30 years old, Chris looks back and reflects on two tragic events that shaped his character as an adult. Pancake is a tale of faith and forgiveness, tragedy and triumph, and lives transformed.

Throughout his young life, Chris retains an unwavering commitment to his faith despite societal pressures and personal struggles that threaten to pull him away. His is an amazing journey of sports, family, and the love of God.

Sujets

• Fantasy
• Fiction
• Christian

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 21 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664298279
• Langue: English

Extrait

PANCAKE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ROBERT E. CARTMELL
 
 
 
 
 
 


Copyright © 2023 Robert E. Cartmell.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The Kline’s name used by permission.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9826-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9825-5 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9827-9 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907528
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 06/08/2023
CONTENTS
Chapter 1Tragedy
Chapter 2Eleven Years Later
Chapter 3The Next Day
Chapter 4Another Game, And A Bit More
Chapter 5The Dinner
Chapter 6Perfection
Chapter 7After Perfection
Chapter 8Conversion and Restoration
Chapter 9Game of Surprise and Fortitude
Chapter 10Prom Night
Chapter 11Mercy and Salvation
CHAPTER 1
TRAGEDY
CHRIS PANCAKE HAS loved coaching. That fact was established some time ago. It has accorded with his love of preaching, which to him both contained two similar elements—the effort to motivate and teach, and Chris excelled at both. When someone can no longer physically play a sport, the way to remain close to that sport is always coaching, and he fell in love with it by default.
He stood there, tossing balls toward home plate. The players got two throws, and on the third pitch, if necessary, he set the ball on a tee; then the batter could swing and, hopefully, hit the ball squarely. There were parents in the bleachers taking in the warmth of the weather and encouraging their little boys, and a few girls, to play their best. The air was warm enough for late May; the humidity had increased throughout the afternoon, with showers and storms in the forecast.
As the time came for Chris’s six-year-old son to bat, memories of his own time in T-ball crept into his mind. Chris remembered his father coaching him about the same age, and the terrible event that happened when he was just six; another terrible incident occurred just days before he turned eighteen—a couple of weeks before graduation. Coincidentally, both incidents occurred within the same week, eleven years apart. Chris was now just days from turning thirty. He had been and was still doing the things he loved, and he had no complaints.
He heard a woman’s voice encouraging the boy. It was his wife; they had been married for nearly seven years. High school sweethearts? Sort of. She became his girlfriend just days before he turned eighteen and just a couple of weeks before graduation. They even went to the prom together, which they still reminisced about, for better or worse, to this day.
Of course, Chris could never forget the scout who had pursued him relentlessly. He had been on track to be drafted by a Major League team. He was on the radar of this Major League team and that scout. He was expected be their top pick in the draft that year, but all that changed drastically. However, the scout, a hardened sinner, had also been changed after he met Chris and Charles, his father. The scout repeatedly said that. He said he had been searching for truth in his life and praised the Almighty for having found it. He often said he had been doing much soul-searching; he also said he had been doing much more drinking. Conversely, he’d been trying to find a way to quit but could not find the strength or a way to force himself to give up the booze.
Charles arrived just in time to see his grandson take his cuts. Charles was a pillar in the community and had a long history of activism, but not the kind some would prefer. For many years he refused to carry a cell phone, or a beeper when they were popular, due to the first incident. In fact, Charles often said he wished he had ignored his beeper that day, but he’d had no choice because he was on the school board and an elder at his congregation. Answering that beeper and what occurred that evening had changed their lives forever.
This ultimately brought Chris’s remembrance to Janet, his late mother. His memories of her were fading as the years passed, and he felt a bit slighted for growing up without her around, since he had been so young when she was lost, yet he still considered his life to be blessed beyond measure. Charles often told Chris stories about his mother when he was a child. It was an effort to keep the memories of Janet alive.
But all that had at last been put to rest in recent years. Mostly because Charles finally remarried. He had known this woman for many years. She was a faithful member of the Lord’s church and a godly woman who had lost her husband several years ago to cancer. They were kindred spirits, in a sense. They promised to love each other, not to replace the spouses they’d lost.
 
Twenty-Three Years Earlier
“Here you go, Chris,” Charles said, pitching to his son. The boy swung and hit the ball sharply through the hole between shortstop and third. Charles noticed how well his son excelled at T-ball. He did not want to read too much into that, though, because Chris was only days shy of his seventh birthday. It may have been a bit of naivete, but Charles believed all parents saw their kids as gifted. Every youngster, in Charles’s estimation, possessed some sort of gift—athletic, academic, and the like.
Charles cherished these moments when he had opportunities to coach the boy. He regretted how he had had fewer opportunities with his two older children. Work always seemed to get in the way in past times, but now Charles was taking every chance he could with Chris. It was almost cathartic to Charles to cure the part that ailed him. He claimed he had good relationships with his two other children, but those who knew Charles well would say they were not as close as he perceived, and Charles refused to admit it. That is why, they would say, he was spending extra time with his youngest child.
It had been an overcast and damp afternoon, which was in welcome contrast to the previous days. Charles could hear his beeper from the pitcher’s mound but chose to ignore it for the moment. It chimed twice more before the end of the inning.
When the inning ended, Charles looked at the beeper and recognized the number from the school board. He knew there was a meeting was that evening. Charles had called the superintendent earlier in the day to say he would be late. He preferred spending time with Chris, so the meeting could wait. The meeting would be at seven, which also conflicted with Wednesday night Bible study. It perturbed Charles they would do things like that, but he had known what he was getting into when he ran for the school board. He had run for school board to make a positive difference in the community; he never truly fathomed the difficulty he would encounter. He was always in direct conflict with the educators in the city. And why? Because Charles was trying to bring God back into the school.
Charles was about to leave, but he had arranged for Janet to come to the ballfield directly from her job at the hospital. Afterward, she was going to Grottoes to see her parents, which she would do sometimes on Wednesdays. She would listen to her father, a preacher there, then go and spend a little time with them. Most occasions, she would go alone.
About fifteen minutes before seven, she arrived. “Okay, I’m here,” she declared.
“Thank you for coming,” Charles said, relieved she was finally there.
“Charles, when are you going to quit being on the school board?” she asked “You’re not accomplishing anything there except making enemies. It’s a waste of time. Besides, it’s getting in the way of your eldership.”
She had been begging Charles to quit the board for months, especially because he had been ordained as an elder, and there were the constant scheduling clashes, in addition to his sleep deprivation.
“I know,” he said sadly. “I was sure I could do both, but I suppose I was wrong. At some point, I need to make some changes here because I can’t keep this going forever.”
She kissed Charles on the cheek and said, “Well, you go ahead. I’ll take Chris with me to Grottoes. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Charles said.
“Dad, I want to go with you,” Chris cried.
“You can’t,” Janet said. “It’s for grown-ups. We’ll go to Nanny and Pop Pop’s tonight. Besides, your brother and sister are studying, and they need some peace and quiet.”
“Okay,” Chris replied, but the disappointment was evident.
 
Charlie and Olivia were upstairs, studying for exams