Going Batty

Story Submitted by Marci:

Will and I met online. He messaged me first, and aside from a few days during which he inexplicably went dark, we were in touch often. He asked me out to a date in a nearby town.

I arrived early at our meeting place, by a row of stores, and I sat on a bench. The time of our date came and went with no sign of him.

Twenty minutes rolled by and he finally showed up, in a t-shirt and cutoff jeans, dragging a wooden bat with him.

"You're late," I said.

He replied, "I know."

I pointed to his bat. "What's that for?"

He glanced down at it, as if it was his first time seeing it, and was surprised that he had brought it along. "Oh, this?" he asked, "In case I need to, you know, bat something."

"Would you mind leaving it in your car?"

He sighed and looked down, like I had just asked him to perform a monumental task. Finally, he nodded and said, "Be right back."

He walked off, and I returned to my spot on the bench. He didn't return for a while, and I called him up to ask him where bs was.

He said, "I'm putting the bat in my car, like you said."

I asked, "Why is it taking you so long?"

He replied, "My car's at home, and home's three miles away."

"You walked here?"

"Yeah. With my bat."

I thought for a moment, then said, "Maybe we should call it a night."

Silence from his end of the phone, then, "All right."

I went home, never heard from him or his bat again, and that was fine by me.