You Throw Like a Girl by Rachele Alpine

Author:Rachele Alpine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

THANKFULLY, MY AWFUL VIDEO-GAME-PLAYING SKILLS were forgotten by our next game and the only thing I had to be good at was pitching. And that was something I didn’t have to pretend I could do. I struck out five batters, and we won by six runs. I rode my bike home in the best mood ever and was still smiling when I walked into the house.

“There you are,” Mom said. She was on the floor and helped Ava stack some blocks on top of one another. Ava’s hair was in two tiny pigtails with bows wrapped around them, and Mom had on another one of her sundresses. “I was about to go to the ballpark and get you.”

“What? Why would you do that?” I asked in a panic. Mom couldn’t come to the ballpark to get me. Ever.

“It’s your dad—” she started.

“Is everything all right? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Mom said quickly. “In fact, he’s supposed to be calling in half an hour. I was worried you weren’t going to make it home in time.”

“He is?” I asked.

“Yep, pretty soon, so why don’t you go clean up and meet us back down here.”

She didn’t have to tell me twice. I showered and changed in less than ten minutes, and slid into my seat at the kitchen table, ready to tell Dad about how Coach Marshall gave me the pitching position.

Except Dad didn’t call at six p.m. like he had said he would.

And he didn’t call at seven or seven thirty, either.

Two hours had passed with no Dad, when Mom finally spoke up.

“It looks like we won’t be talking to him tonight,” Mom said, and she sounded so sad. And not sad because you finished your cupcake or it’s raining when you’re supposed to go to the zoo sad, but sad like the day we dropped Dad off. That afternoon she’d been in her bedroom, and I’d come to ask her a question, but when I’d seen her sitting on their bed looking at her wedding picture, I’d backed out, not wanting to bother her.

“Remember he was late last time,” I said to help calm myself and everyone else.

“You’re right.” Mom gave me a weak smile, but two hours was beyond late. And when he still hadn’t called after three hours, we had to admit that we weren’t going to hear from him, which gave me a shaky feeling in my stomach. Dad had said he’d call, and if he didn’t, what did that mean?

“I don’t think he’s calling,” Mom admitted, and this time none of us argued or tried to come up with an excuse.

“Why didn’t he call?” I asked, which was my way of asking if he was okay.

“I have no idea,” Mom said. “But I’m sure he had a good reason.”

“He probably had work to do that he couldn’t get away from,” Grandma added to make me feel better.

“Yeah, I bet he was busy,” Mom said, but it didn’t sound convincing. She turned to Ava, who had fallen asleep in her high chair.

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.