In the Land of the Lawn Weenies by David Lubar

Author:David Lubar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

SLUGS

The good part about playing ball on a dead-end street is that there isn’t a lot of traffic to worry about. The bad part is that Old Lady Flugle’s house is just foul of right field. When our ball went over her fence, I figured it was lost and gone. To tell the truth, I’d never really seen the woman close up or spoken to her, so it probably wasn’t fair of me to think bad thoughts about her. But everyone just knew she was spooky.

“Get it, Sally,” Danny said to me.

That wasn’t fair, either. Just because I’d hit the ball didn’t mean I should be the one to get it. “Hey,” I told him, “if you’d pitch a little faster, maybe I wouldn’t have such an easy time knocking it so far.”

And that’s where it should have ended. Nobody expected anyone to actually go into Old Lady Flugle’s yard. But Ronald, stupid, lazy, mean Ronald, had to open his big, fat mouth. “Scared, Sally?”

“I’m not scared,” I said.

“Then get the ball.” He stood there grinning like he’d just produced the world’s greatest argument. “Go on, get it.” He gave my shoulder a little push. I should have slugged him, but he was a lot bigger than me, and a lot meaner. He shouldn’t even have been playing with us, but he was the only one around who didn’t mind being catcher.

There was only one response that could get me off the hook. “Are you scared?” I asked. I looked around, then said, “Hey, Ronald’s scared.”

Most kids would have been ready for that, but Ronald wasn’t very quick. He thought for a while, I guess, or tried to think. Finally, he said, “Am not.”

Bad move, Ronald. He probably expected me to come back at him with something weak like Are, too, but I rushed in with the finishing touch. “Then you go get the ball.”

“But …”

I knew I had him. It was perfect. There was absolutely no way for Ronald to escape my trap—until Danny spoke up and ruined it. I guess he was annoyed that I’d made fun of his pitching. “Why don’t you both go get it?” he asked.

This was spinning out of control. I didn’t want to go anywhere with Ronald. But it looked like I had no choice. The best I could do was to force the others to come along with us. I turned to Danny and said, “Why don’t we all go get it?”

I figured this might make everyone decide to forget about the ball. Unfortunately, the gang seemed to be feeling adventurous today. Next thing I know, we’re all creeping through the front gate of Old Lady Flugle’s house, hoping to spot the ball right away and get out of there. Somehow, I was stuck in front, followed by Danny, April, Beth, and Mark, with Ronald trailing along at the rear, probably looking for a chance to slip away. I felt like one of those soldiers you see in the old movies, sneaking into the enemy camp.

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