Okay for Now

Doug Swieteck cannot stop gushing about the time when baseball great, Joe Pepitone, and his teammate, Horace Clark, came to Camillo Junior High and threw balls with him and his friends. Joe Pepitone gave Doug “his New York Yankees baseball cap” (1). The hat was Doug’s most prized possession until Christopher beat him, stole it, and sold it. Doug felt especially crippled by this loss because it was his only possession that was not a hand-me-down from his siblings.

Doug tried to approach his father about Christopher’s actions, but his father was surly and self-involved, as usual, so his first attempt fell on deaf ears. In his second attempt, he begged his father to take him to Yankee Stadium so he could tell Joe Pepitone what happened. His father vehemently struck this suggestion down, this time with the aid of physical violence.

Soon after the incident with the stolen cap, Doug’s father lost his job for yelling at his boss. He came home, told Doug’s mother, “Don’t you say a thing,” and went upstairs (5). Many hours later, he came back down and announced that the family would be relocating to Marysville, where he would work with his friend,