The Fox Steals Home by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316095617
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

9

I’ll be right back,” he told Bobby, and walked briskly across the diamond to the car. He talked with the woman for a few minutes, then came back. The woman started up the car and took off.

“Okay,” said his father, back on the mound. “Get on first. We’ll go through it once more, then head for the game.”

His attitude had changed. Bobby could tell by the sharp way he spoke, by the expression on his face. Had something the woman had said to him bothered him that much? Who was she, anyway?

But Bobby didn’t ask his father who she was. He didn’t think it was his business to pry.

Finished with the base-stealing practice, Bobby brushed himself off as thoroughly as he could and got in the car with his father.

“You’re probably wondering who that woman is,” Roger Canfield said.

Surprised that his father should mention it, Bobby shrugged. “I don’t care who she is,” he said.

“She’s a friend,” explained his father, nevertheless. “A widow. Met her at a bowling party.”

“That’s okay, Dad. You don’t have to tell me about her.”

He didn’t want to hear about her. The less he knew the better. He still had hopes of his mother and father’s reuniting again sometime when the dust from their marriage problems had settled. Maybe that was looking for a miracle, but he hated to see another woman enter his father’s life, making sure that the miracle would never happen.

They drove to Municipal Park and got there a few minutes before the Giants–Foxes game started. They stayed the full nine innings, even though it was one of the dullest games Bobby had ever seen in his life: 1-0, in favor of the Foxes. And that single run by virtue of an error. Super super dull.

“Fast game, but Dullsville,” said Bobby as they drove out of the parking lot.

“You should’ve said something,” said his father. “We would have left earlier.”

“I was just hoping for something to happen,” said Bobby. “But nothing did.”

His father laughed.

“Are you still going to church with your mother?” his father asked after a brief silence.

“Nine o’clock every Sunday,” answered Bobby.

She was almost fanatic about it. She never missed.

“Good. You never know when you’ll need someone to lean on, someone other than a mere human being. Know something? I just bought one of the bestsellers ever published.”

Bobby didn’t know much about bestsellers, except for something like Charlotte’s Web or Fog Magic, kids’ books that his father had probably never heard of. Or books on famous athletes. He gulped them down like cereal.

“I don’t know any bestsellers, Dad,” he admitted.

“You know of this one,” replied his father. “It’s the Bible.”

Bobby looked at him, a little embarrassed. “We’ve got one, but I’ve never read it. It’s pretty long.”

Roger Canfield shrugged. “I know, but I’ve been reading one chapter at a time, and I’m about a third done with the book already. Can you believe it? Me reading the Bible? I bet if your mother heard about it, she’d flip.”

His dad didn’t press about the Bible reading, but Bobby could tell it meant something special to him.

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