The Last Inning of Winter

Sarah moved through her apartment like a zombie, each step heavier than the last. Three months of layoffs at the firm had left her doing the work of four people, and somewhere around week six, she'd stopped feeling like herself at all.

Mark was already awake, sitting on the couch with a baseball glove on his left hand, absently tossing a ball into the air and catching it. The rhythm—thwack, smack, thwack—was the only thing keeping her grounded.

"You look like hell," he said, not unkindly.

"Feel like it too."

"Want to go to the field? Sunrise practice."

Sarah shook her head. "Can't. Presentation at ten. If I mess this up, I'm next on the chopping block."

"You're already gone, Sarah. Look at yourself. You're running on fumes and you're not even running anywhere."

The word stung. She'd been running from herself since the layoffs began, pouring everything into work so she wouldn't have to think about how empty she felt. The corporate zombie shuffle—show up, perform, survive, repeat.

She looked at the baseball in his hand—scuffed leather, red stitches, something real in a world of endless digital tasks. "What do you do when you strike out?" she asked.

"You pick up the bat and step back in. Or you don't. That's the choice."

Sunlight was painting the sky pink when they reached the abandoned diamond. Mark pitched easy, underhand. She missed the first five swings, frustration building until she wanted to scream.

"Stop thinking," he called from the mound. "Just feel it."

The sixth pitch came in slow. Sarah closed her eyes, let her body remember motion it hadn't performed since college, and swung. The crack of bat connecting with leather echoed through the empty park like thunder.

"There she is," Mark said, grinning as he jogged after the ball.

Sarah stood at the plate, breathing hard, something unfamiliar blooming in her chest. She wasn't fixed—the layoffs would still be waiting, the mortgage still due, the presentations still looming. But for the first time in months, she wasn't a zombie. She was just a woman standing in a baseball field at dawn, holding a bat, and for the moment, that was enough.