Joyanna Adams

The Betrayal of Best Friends

Nobody Remembers

When it comes to betrayal, nothing hurts more than to be betrayed by your closest friend.

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I had a very dear friend named Shelly. She used to crack me up. She was beautiful. She had dark hair, and didn’t live very far from my house. But, our Senior year, her parents got divorced. So, she and her mom moved to L.A. while her dad stayed here, and remarried.

Shelly and I wrote each other every other week. She got a job quickly, and so, one summer, I went out to L.A. to stay with her. I remember we were both big Cardinal fans, and so we went to see the Dodgers Play the Cardinals at Dodgers stadium. I had a crush on Jack Clark at the time, and that day, he ran into home plate and practically destroyed the poor catcher. It was also that day that he looked up at me leaning over the railings, and asked me to come down and he would sign an autograph. He was warming up with Ozzie. We were WAY up in the top bleachers and Shelly kept saying we CAN go down there. I kept saying…no that’s for the rich people, but somehow, we got down there and Shelly took a picture of us, and he signed a baseball for me, which I still have that ball which said “God bless, Jack Clark.” Then he asked me if I could come to San Fransisco. Well, I said, I don’t know. BUT…Shelly gave him HER telephone number and later I found out that he did call her, and SHE told him I wasn’t interested. I believe she was trying to get in good with him. I don’t really know if she did.

Still, I would have NEVER done that to her. Never.

Later I found out he was married, so it’s a good thing I didn’t go. But that didn’t stop me from going to the games. Jack Clark was an amazing batter. I remember the first time I saw a home run in my lifetime, he hit it high up into the upper deck…and I was blown away by the sheer power. Jack Clark never took steroids. He was a big man. A great player. Unlike the steroid use after the big baseball strike, Jack Clark was the real thing.

Now, did I ever forgive Shelly? Yeah, she ended up becoming a prostitute in L.A. and dying of a cancerous brain tumor at the age of 47. She grew up in the area of cold-water creeks, where the military dumped the radioactive waste from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. Josh Hawley, is trying to get money for all the poor people who died from exposure to the waste, which is still here of course. But, it’s too late for Shelly.

Even though Jack and I never got together, I never missed a game. And the game of baseball is much like life. If played without ‘rigging’ you can see a lot of comparison to life. You can hit a home run. Or strike out game after game. Most games are like that, and the people that get hooked on them…can cry when the season is over. They must go back to their dreary lives.

We just watched the Superbowl…and stupid me, since I don’t follow sports, assumed that Taylor and her super stud boyfriend were with San Francisco, that town being VERY liberal, as we all know that Taylor is a big Biden fan. No, Taylor was jumping up and down for Kansas to win. You would have thought she was the coach.

The game was fun, but clearly, they can rig any sport nowadays, and like a script, nobody realizes it. Sports have been rigged for years. Just like elections. There too much money in it. Not all of them of course, but the money making ones.

But I’m getting off theme.

Whenever I think of those days in the 1985’s, when the Cardinals went on to win the World series, I realized I was just a lonely woman. My mother felt sorry for me and said, “Why don’t you go to the ball games, maybe you’ll meet somebody.”

The only man I actually met was Jack. The rest of them would come up and speak. “We have a bet going, me and guys…how old are you?” And I always said “56.” I was much younger of course but really, moms advise was…needless to say…really off. She had good intentions.

My current husband had the same thing happened to him. He was on a mission with the Seals when he came home and found out his wife was sleeping with his best friend.

And I wonder…how many people in this world have been betrayed by their best friend?

So, can you trust anybody? Can you trust your best friend?

If you find someone you can trust, better hold to them. They are diamonds in the mud.

Besides, I didn’t know it then, but lots of ball players mess around on the road, and they have loving wives and kids at home.

But when I think back on those days I think of the song “The Boys of Summer.”

And I watched the boys play. What else did I have to do? No body would ask me out. At least I had something to do.

And when they were gone, the winter always came hard.

And then Spring always comes back eternal…doesn’t it?

And spring for most of human history has been hope for a new beginning..no matter what.

February 12, 2024 - Posted by Joyanna Adams | Uncategorized | Books, fiction, horror, reviews, thriller