Top Wing by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [Christopher, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780316094535
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 1994-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

9

Four to two, that’s a shame,” said Mrs. Bellamy. “But Dana, you scored both goals for your team. You must be very proud — and happy, at least, about that.”

“Uh-huh,” Dana replied. He closed the car door and slumped down in the seat.

“You don’t sound all that cheerful,” she said.

“Are you and Benton mad at each other?” Christy piped up from the backseat. “I saw you looking at him like he was poison — and he acted like you were the ’lectric chair.”

Dana hesitated. He just couldn’t keep it to himself. Benton’s accusation was too … too … it was rotten!

“Benton’s a no-good, miserable, dirty —”

“Whoa! Wait a minute!” exclaimed Mrs. Bellamy. “What’s going on? You don’t use that kind of language, Dana.”

“Well, Benton said something really bad.”

“Did he use a naughty word, like —”

“Christy!” Mrs. Bellamy snapped. “Quiet down! Now, Dana, what did Benton say?”

Dana gritted his teeth. “He said his mother told him it was Dad’s fault their house caught on fire.”

“What?” Mrs. Bellamy’s hands clutched the steering wheel. “Grace Crawford blames the fire on your father?”

“Uh-huh. She says the house caught on fire because of an electrical problem. And ’cause Dad did the wiring, the Crawfords blame him.”

“This is incredible,” said Mrs. Bellamy. “How could the Crawfords jump to such a hasty conclusion?”

“Why would Dad want to burn down their house, anyhow?” Christy said, fuming. “It’s stupid. The Crawfords are stupid!”

“Christy, behave yourself,” said Mrs. Bellamy. “I’m sure the fire upset Grace very badly. So naturally, she’s grasping at anything she thinks might be an answer to why it happened. And when she heard electrical, well, one thing led to another.”

“Sounds pretty weak to me,” said Dana.

“As far as I know, the insurance company hasn’t finished its investigation,” Mrs. Bellamy went on. “No one can be sure how the fire started.”

“I’m just telling you what Benton said,” Dana insisted. Then something occurred to him. “Maybe he told the guys on the team! That could be why Abe and Lance are ganging up on me.”

“I’ll give Grace a call,” said Mrs. Bellamy. “Meanwhile, let’s not make things worse by jumping to any conclusions like that, Dana. And don’t say anything about this to your father. We don’t want to worry him while he’s getting better. He’d have a fit!”

When they arrived at Mr. Bellamy’s room, they found him sitting up. He was sipping ginger ale through a bent straw. Both of his hands were free. There wasn’t a single tube sticking into him.

“Way to go, Dad,” said Dana cheerfully. “You ought to be leaving here pretty soon, right?”

“Not as soon as I’d like,” said Mr. Bellamy. “Doc Higgins said they have to monitor my breathing for a few more days. They want to make sure there are no glitches … or whatever he called it.”

“Last thing you want is a case of glitches,” said Mrs. Bellamy, smiling at him.

“Right, Dad,” said Christy. “They’re almost as bad as the itches.”

“Or even worse, the twitches,” suggested Dana.

“Or the snitches,” said Christy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.