-Present moment. October 17, 1996, Mary Park Hall-

He was not aware, but death was staring into his eyes. Ironically, the uneasy chill looking down from atop his chest felt less awful than the years of his father's and brother's bitter criticism; years that are now submerged underneath the depths of some dark baptism by the tears he's cried since childhood.

The figure lunges forward, grasping El's arms that silently warns him of a coming storm; a deadly chill that would follow him like dark clouds do. From this moment on, this lingering entity chooses El to survive without understanding of what is happening.

Despite the surreal vision, the unthinkable thought of a girl occupying his bed fascinates El. Together, they seem like a pair of parallel lines that, somehow, defy the rules of geometry the moment she grabs him.

She speaks with a soft, scratchy desperate voice.

"Get out of my bed."

El turns his stare away from the eye peering from behind her slowly parting hair.

The sight of her screams a danger El cannot hear. With much effort, the vision of the girl, deduced by his logic to be nothing more than the consequence of having a Taco Bell dinner the night before, would not leave no matter how hard he attempts to wake from what appears nothing more than a bad dream.

Her second eye reveals itself from behind the now fully separating hair; together, they connect with stares that were not meant to intersect as would lines of an asymptotic graph.

Louder, her voice repeats as if to assure El this is more than a dream.

"Get out of my bed!"

As a bridge that connects two separate areas, her voice carries El over like some ominous mistake committed by the Universe that transports both of them into their respective realities, where each of their unique pasts are now shared...


-*Stockton, California, October 1989, the sandlot at Clairmont Elementary School-

The whispers were loud enough to expose the evident fear inside each batter observing from the side of the baseball field. The pitcher glares at El, the next hitter, from the mound.

"One mistake and El could die if a fastball hits him on the head!"

The pitcher threw a noticeable fastball that caught everyone's attention. A sprinkle of rain, probably caused by the Indian Summer that unexpectedly arrived to the Central Valley that day, begins to sprinkle at the moment El steps into the batter's box, his autographed Steve Garvey bat calmly gripped in his hands.

The cloudless sky somehow produces droplets of rain that sparkle in the Fall sun, producing a shining rainbow across the afternoon grass of the sandlot. The beautiful colors reminds El times he spent watching rainbows from the hose he watered his mother's flower bed.

"How's it possible that it's raining without a cloud in the sky?!" Jules asks El.

"Is this heaven?" another of El's teammate asks.

El smiles, enjoying the spectacle with inspiration.
"It's a sign," El replies, "Enjoy it."

The pitcher had just struck out the two previous hitters with six pitches, both swinging strikeouts. This enticed both teams to place bets on El, The Sluggers' last hope for heroics.

"Three bucks says El strikes out."

"Five dollars he strikes out swinging in six pitches."

"I'll give him five pitches tops, then he strikes out swinging."

"Don't make El mad. He's got pop. I've seen him hit the roof of the classroom once," one player claims, pointing to the building that, to this day, sits deep in centerfield of Clairmont Elementary school's grassy field.

"He's not going to hit it," Jules pessimistically exclaims, "The pitcher is throwing a hundred miles per hour! Jose Canseco couldn't hit that! At best, he'll foul a pitch. Five bucks he strikes out swinging in four pitches."

El ignores Jules with the same forgiveness he will apply in three years when Jules trades the entirety of El's G.I. Joe and Transformers collection for a semester's worth of french fries.

El's attention is directed toward the rainbow across the outfield.

The moment triggers another song to replay in El's head; its lyrics signaling the conclusion to the most perfect summer as the rainbow dissolved behind the radiance of the coming sun.

It is at this moment that nature deviates from its rules and awards one true believer with an unforgettable memory.