Ollie’s Odyssey by William Joyce

Author:William Joyce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Ollie was, of course, worried about being in the street, especially since the dog hadn’t looked both ways.

“Say there, Mr. Dog Friend, you know, it’s against the law to be in the street without looking—”

But before Ollie could finish, he was yanked out of the dog’s mouth and thrown into the air, and Ollie wasn’t sure if he was flying or falling. And before he could even figure that out, he felt himself being caught. He was in the hand of a boy, a bigger-than-Billy boy, who was riding on a skateboard. IN THE STREET. AT NIGHT. All Ollie could think was, This kid is some other kind of kid. He does a lot of “against the law.” He’s kind of a Danger Kid.

Then Ollie noticed there were several of these Danger Kids riding skateboards in the street, and the dog was running along with them. He wondered if they were a pack. Like wolves.

“Speedy brought us a toy!” yelled the kid who held Ollie.

“Lemme see!” said one of the other kids, and suddenly, Ollie was tossed through the air and caught by the Lemme See Kid.

“What’s he supposed to be?” Lemme See said with a laugh.

“Gimme a look,” said another kid. And just like that Ollie was tossed and caught again.

“Looks like a teddy rabbit!” shouted Gimme a Look. And then Ollie was tossed, and not very nicely, from one laughing Danger Kid to another, as if he were a ball in a very unfun game of catch.

“Look out, here it comes!”

“Heads up!”

“Whoever drops him has to go home!”

The boys wove quickly up to the sidewalk, back down to the asphalt, and then around the parked cars, and Ollie was very ready to be dropped. And sure enough, Lemme See threw him so far that nobody caught him. He landed in the grass near a curb, and none of the Danger Kids came back to find him. They just laughed as they skated away. Speedy the Dog, however, did come sniffing after him. Ollie felt his wet nose on his back, his hot breath all over him as the dog flipped Ollie over, about to snatch him up again.

“Come on, Speedy, leave it!” yelled Gimme a Look.

Instantly, the dog lifted his head, turned, and disappeared into the night.

Ollie sat there, stunned. Those were older kids. The kind of kids Billy told him about. The ones who forgot their toys. Would Billy ever become one of those kids? And somewhere deep inside him came a feeling he could not understand. His hope came up against what he had just seen and experienced, and he wondered about the difference between pretending and real life. He did not like feeling that one might be stronger than the other.

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