Touchdown for Tommy by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher [CHRISTOPHER, MATTHEW F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316096089
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2009-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

11

What happened, Tommy?” said Mr. Powell quietly.

They were home, sitting in the living room. Usually the TV set would be turned on at this time of the evening. It was off now. Betty wasn’t home yet. Tommy was thankful for that. But she would learn the bad news when she came home, so it didn’t make any difference. No matter how he looked at it, he was in a fix.

Why hadn’t he stayed in the house and played with Wag? Why?

Tommy looked at the floor. He blinked his eyes and swallowed.

“Maybe you’d rather wait and tell us tomorrow,” said Mr. Powell.

Tommy nodded. He didn’t take his eyes from the floor. “Yes,” he said softly. “Yes, I think I would, Mr. Powell.”

“In that case, you should probably go to bed, Tommy,” said Mr. Powell. “Get a good night’s rest. There’s football practice tomorrow, remember.”

Tommy raised his head. “Yes, sir,” he said. As he got up from the chair, a car drove in the driveway.

“I think that’s Betty now,” Mrs. Powell said.

A moment later, Betty came into the house.

“Hello, Mom, Dad, Tommy!” she cried excitedly. She ran forward and kissed her mother and father. “I had a great time! Kathy can’t wait to come here!”

“Well, that’s nice,” said Mrs. Powell with a smile.

“Where’s Wag?” Betty asked suddenly. She looked around.

“In his house,” said Mrs. Powell. “Don’t worry about Wag. He’s fine.”

Betty turned to Tommy. Her eyes searched his closely. “Did you play with him a lot?”

Tommy turned away. His heart began to pound. All at once he felt very lonely again. He wished he had somebody to turn to. He needed help. He needed someone to tell him what to do. What should he do? Should he tell the whole story now? Or should he wait till tomorrow?

But why wait till tomorrow? What difference would a day make?

He looked up. He swallowed the ache in his throat. He would tell them. He would tell them everything.

“Yes, I played with Wag,” he said. “I took him outside with me. I played with him on the lawn for a while. Then I took him down to the creek. That’s — that’s where the accident happened.”

He paused. He remembered the whole thing very clearly. He could even feel the coldness of the water on his body again.

“I slipped on a flat rock. I didn’t know it was covered with ice. I fell. And then Wag fell, too. We both got wet. Then I picked up Wag and ran to David Warren’s house, because it was the closest. And because I was scared to come home.”

Betty stared at him. “You fell into the water? And Wag fell, too?”

Tommy nodded. “Yes. The Warrens dried us off. They — they were nice.”

Then he turned. He walked quickly toward the stairs. He stumbled on the first step, then caught himself.

“Good night!” he yelled over his shoulder, and hurried up the stairs to his room.

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