Curveballs at Midnight

I was running my third lap around the neighborhood when I saw him—this golden retriever sitting on a baseball field, staring at nothing like he was waiting for a pitch that would never come. My legs burned, lungs screaming, but something about the way the dog's ears perked up made me stop running.

"Hey, buddy," I called, jogging over. He didn't have a collar. Just a dirty red bandana and eyes that had seen too much.

That's when Maya's text lit up my phone: *dude i think my parents are getting divorced*. I stared at the screen, thumb hovering over the keyboard. My best friend, and I didn't know what to say.

The dog nudged my hand with his wet nose. I sat on the pitcher's mound, and he flopped beside me, head on my paws.

"You ever feel like everything's changing at once?" I asked him. He thumped his tail. I took that as a yes.

I thought about the cable guy who'd come to our house yesterday, disconnecting everything because Dad said we needed to save money. No more late-night streaming, no more background noise to fill the silences. Just quiet rooms and conversations we weren't ready to have.

My phone buzzed again. *are you mad at me?*

"No," I typed back. "just at the baseball field with a dog."

Maya was there in seven minutes. She brought her glove and a baseball she'd stolen from her brother's room. We played catch under the streetlights while the dog chased down every bad throw, returning the ball with ridiculous pride.

"I'm sorry," she said, throwing a perfect strike. "About avoiding you. I just didn't want you to see my house falling apart."

"I get it," I said, the ball smacking into my glove. "My parents took away the cable. Like that's gonna fix anything."

We laughed, and the dog barked like he understood everything.

By midnight, we had a name for him—Cable, because he connected all the broken pieces. We walked home together, Maya, me, and the dog who'd become the glue we didn't know we needed.

Some changes knock you down. But sometimes, if you're lucky, you find the ones who'll help you back up.