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14
The scrolling screensaver brought Cara back from her thoughts about the accident. Looking at those pictures always seemed to put her in a trance, reflective of both the good and bad times from her adolescence.
She looked over at her alarm clock, which read 2:32 am. She wondered how she would ever get back to sleep. As she was about to get up from her desk, she caught sight of the Chief Wahoo bobblehead doll that she was given at an Indians game in 1997, the year that the Tribe choked away Game 7 of the World Series.
The game they attended was one of the many Daddy-Daughter Dates that Cara and Charlie went on. Cara didn't care much for baseball, but she really wanted a bobblehead doll. Charlie took her down to Jacob's Field early, making sure that she was one of the first 15,000 fans through the gates to get one.
The thought of that day at the ballpark made Cara smile. It also jogged her memory that she wanted to learn more about the mysterious baseball player that she delivered food to earlier.
Cara moved her mouse so that the screensaver disappeared, and she opened up her internet browser search engine. One of the perks of living on-campus at CSU was that Viking Hall had high-speed internet lines in every dorm room.
Cara typed in "COOPER MADISON BASEBALL" and hit enter on her keyboard. The screen said that her search returned 54,027 results. One of the first was a Wikipedia page. Wikipedia, a relatively new online encyclopedia website in 2006, was fast-becoming a favorite of college students everywhere - including Cara.
She clicked on the link to Cooper Madison's Wiki page and was greeted by an entry that had his vital statistics at the top of the screen and a picture of him in a Chicago Cubs baseball uniform in the top right corner.
"Hell-low" she found herself muttering as she stared at the picture. Not only did he look every bit the part of a professional baseball player, he also looked like he could model for J. Crew. He was tall with a muscular, yet lean, build. He had a tanned complexion with brown hair barely visible under his baseball hat, a chiseled jaw-line with just the right amount of stubble, and his unique eye color was best described as steely-grey.
Cara now really wished that he had opened the door all the way when she delivered him food earlier. She never had a "type" in reference to men, but she was pretty certain that she did now.
After taking in the photo for another minute or so, she directed her attention to the rest of the Wiki page. He was born and raised in a town called Pass Christian, Mississippi, which explained the drawl she thought she heard.
He was about 6 years older than her, and as she read the section on his "Early Life" she learned about his mother's death, his amazing athletic feats, and the fact that he was the number one pick of the 1996 MLB Draft. His signing bonus was $1.9 million dollars, which was a record at the time. The thought of having that much money at any point in her life, let alone at the age of 18, was dumbfounding to Cara.
She continued on to his "Professional Career" section and learned that he breezed through the Minor Leagues in just two seasons and made the Cubs major league roster at the age of 21. Cooper made his first of five All-Star games the next season and went on to win three Cy Young Awards. He even helped the Cubs reach the playoffs in 2003.
Cara noticed as she scrolled down that the next section was "Personal Life", and she learned that he had dated the former Miss Mississippi from 1997-2002 and that they were even engaged in 2001. According to the Wiki page, she broke off the engagement in 2002 because she had moved to Hollywood to break into acting and the long distance relationship was a casualty, along with her acting career apparently because Cara had never even heard of her before.
The rest of the section was kind of a letdown, Cara thought, as she only read about two more romances - both of which were short-lived. One was a sideline reporter for ESPN, and the other was a publicist who used to work for the Cubs. She was certain that there had to be more. A guy that good-looking would have no problem finding a girlfriend even if he worked at a fast-food restaurant.
The thought of Cooper Madison taking her order at a drive-thru window made her chuckle as her eyes scanned down to the next section: "Tragedy and Early Retirement". She clicked on the section and immediately recognized the date mentioned in the first sentence: August 29, 2005. As she made the connection between the date and its significance, her heart sank.
