Page 37 of Victory Lap

Tikh posts the picture at eight. No caption. All the while, the group chat is already detonating. Berger demands print rights. Marchetti asks where we got the jerseys because now Parker needs one.

Sadie leaves at nine with gumbo for three days and both of our hearts in her tote bag, same as always. The cats commandeer an empty box in the hall, a two-cat coup, bell dinging in the dark.

Some guys got parades. Some guys got hometowns. I got a Tuesday and a Wednesday in a tenth-floor apartment. A borrowed trophy. An inherited pot. A best friend in a custom shirt, two cats in tiny jerseys, and a man who keeps an archive.

I would rate the day, but Tikh says you don’t put numbers on the permanent things.

He’s right. He’s always right. Don’t tell him. He’s in the archive too.

Team Chat #3

Berger

LIVE from an undisclosed latitude: the water is a nine-four and i am unreachable until spring training

Marchetti

you sent coordinates with no caption. i checked. that’s open ocean

Berger

the coordinates were the caption

Baz

MEANWHILE. in actual news. the cats have gone up

Marchetti

PARKER NEEDS THE JERSEY. where did the jerseys come from. this is urgent

Baz

sadie has a guy

Murray

my kids have demanded a cat. this is your fault

Thompson

what does LITTER C mean

Baz

it arrived in a dream

Thompson

that’s not an answer

Baz

dreams don’t answer, cher. they announce

Marchetti

theory. C is for captain. the litter has a captain