The Incognito Parallel -14-

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Sump-Thing Happens

incognito.gif

by Wanda Cunningham

Chapter 14
Double Steal

 

Chapter 14 - Double Steal

Tony pulled his arm back to throw and started his motion forward. I took off running. Andrew had managed a huge lead off third and now ran for home. Mattress at the plate saw me running, probably heard Andrew bearing down on him from behind and stepped out of the box -- well, pit in the soft dirt of the field where the batter's box would be on a real field. Walking backwards up the slope, he sort of tripped on a clod and sat down hard in the dirt.

The pitch bounced once on the ground behind home, Amy scooped it into the big first baseman's glove she was using as a catcher's mitt, looked up and saw Andrew coming home and Mattress falling onto his butt practically right in front of her and, well -- she panicked. A first baseman's glove is designed to hold the ball tight, it's not as easy to get the ball out of as a real catcher's mitt is. Amy tried to stand up and dig the ball out at the same time while yelling, "He's stealing home! He's stealing home!"

"Ah-hoo-gah! Hoo-gah! Hoo-gah!" Andrew screamed like a car alarm, scaring the heck out of a lot of the little kids watching. He came toward the plate with his arms in the air above his head, waving around like a maniac -- bad technique, except with a panicky catcher.

Tony ran toward home from the pitcher's pit, too, yelling at Amy to toss him the ball. Mattress tried to get out of everyone's way, crabbing backwards on his heels and elbows. Amy, really rattled now by the yelling, finally managed to get the ball out of the glove and threw it to -- Andrew!

"No! No! No!" yelled Tony. A lot of the spectators and other players were yelling, too. I barely saw this as I ran toward second but it made me laugh.

Surprised to see the ball coming at him, Andrew slapped at it with his hand. He got a good swat and it flew back toward Amy, hit the plate, hit Amy in the head as she stood up, bounced off her and hit Mattress in the chest just as Tony dived for it and Andrew collided with -- well, everybody.

While they were all lying on the ground laughing and yelling at each other, I turned the corner at second and stole third, still giggling, I guess.

"Dead ball! Dead ball!" called Jimmy, running in from right field again. He didn't want me to keep going and steal home, too, but he was laughing like everybody else.

I knew the rules. It's not a dead ball unless it's out of the playing area or in the umpire's or pitcher's hand or someone is injured and with no ump to make a ruling I might as well keep running for home. The worst that could happen was I would get sent back to third. So, I ran, whooping and laughing.

I yelled something, maybe "Corn Flakes!" as I dived into the pile of kids at home. I wiggled around, got my arm under Tony and Andrew and touched the big piece of flat plastic being used as home plate. "Safe!" I screamed into Andrew's ear.

All the little kids sitting on benches or the ground watching ran in then and jumped on the pile, too, yelling things like, "Rhinoceros!" and "USA! USA!"

It took a while to get everyone sorted out, what with all the laughing and fielders running in to join in the dogpile. I got tickled several times; once by Jimmy as he dragged me out by my foot.

"Where's your hat, Tinker Belle?" he asked after putting me on my feet.

I checked to see if I still had my barrette then looked for the hat. Delia had it, someone had already rescued her and she had the hat on, standing by the bench near the sump-thing. "I gots your Twinkie Bell hat, Annie," she called, holding it up and giggling.

I dodged around the still kicking and laughing mess of kids in the pit around home plate. I took the hat from Delia's hand and put it on her head, then tickled her ribs quickly. Her shriek of glee nearly caused me to fall over, surprised but laughing, too. We sat on the bench and she climbed in my lap again.

Jimmy eventually got everyone back to the game and since there is no scorekeeping in work-up, everyone just stayed where we were so Andrew and I got away with our double steal. He came over and sat on the ground near the bench, winking at me. He had a mark under one eye, maybe someone kicked him in the face during the dogpile.

Okay, I know I meant to laugh at him but it came out a sort of strangled giggle so he laughed and Delia shrieked again, deafening both of us bigger kids.

"Hogfat!" Andrew shouted. "Kid, you need a muffler." He darted one hand at her belly as if intending to tickle her again which, of course, produced more shrieking.

I covered my ears and she slipped off of my lap to run around chanting, "Hogsfat! Hogsfat! Piggie, piggie, pig!" And then a shriek. Andrew and I laughed.

After Nacho grabbed Delia and told her to not be such a noisy brat, she quieted down and sat in the dirt to play with some of the other little ones. Nacho gave me my hat back again and I put it on carefully, tucking some loose hair up inside.

"I guess you can play a little," said Andrew.

I grinned at him. "You play a lot?"

He nodded. "I'm on a Pony League team back home. We're just here visiting my grandpa."

I realized his accent had more Texas in it than the local version. "I'm in Little League," I said.

"You're little all right. Jim says you're eleven?"

I nodded then thought of something and added, "Well, almost. In a couple of months." No sense letting him know my real age.

He grinned. "I'll be sixteen next month, myself." He laughed and lay back on the dirt. "Man, I love baseball. I want to make it to the Big Leagues."

"Me, too," I said. "Except...."

He looked up. "They don't take girls, not even at second base."

"Rats," I said, like I hadn't already known that.

Andrew laughed. "Don't worry about it, Tinka. In a few years, you're going to be so pretty, you can have a boyfriend who's a star in whatever sport you like. You'll probably end up marrying a Triple Crown winner," he teased.

Yikes. I didn't really intend to stay disguised quite that long. He laughed again, probably at the face I made.

"Maybe you're still too little to care about boys, huh?" he said. "I got a little sister about your age, she went from 'boys, oh, gag' to," and here he did something really funny, fluttering his eyes and pitching his voice up, 'oh! boys!'"

I got the giggles and pulled my hat down over my face.

About that time we heard the crack of the bat and looked up. Mattress hit a long fly ball out to right field, Jimmy ran to get under it and let it fall into his glove. Which meant Mattress went to the outfield and Jimmy was now up. Except Jimmy waved it off and yelled, "Work-up!" meaning everyone move up a position. He went over to center field and Mattress trotted out to right field.

Andrew shook his head. "That Jimmy, he's probably going to grow up to be governor or something."

"Huh?"

"He's always trying to make everyone happy. Either a politician or a minister. Priest, I guess, in his case."

"Oh," I said. I looked out toward Jimmy and thought about that.

"You like him?" asked Andrew. He grinned at me and I know I blushed.

Nacho popped out to the pitcher. Another quirk in the rules, pop-ups to the pitcher are just outs, not swaps. Before Nacho headed for the outfield, he rounded up Delia and carried her over to sit next to a slightly older girl who looked to be another sister. "You're supposed to be watching her," he said. The two girls stuck their tongues out at each other and giggled.

What would it be like to have a sister, I wondered. Or be one?

"You're up, Tinka," Andrew reminded me.

I grabbed the too heavy bat and headed to the plate, holding my hat on against a sudden gust of damp-smelling wind.

The first and third basemen came way in, almost halfway to home. With no one on base, it wasn't a risk. Nacho at right and Jimmy at left now moved in to cover the corner bases.

Andrew started laughing behind me. I looked back and he pointed. Mattress had moved in from centerfield to stand behind Luz-Maria, the new pitcher. Tony and Amy, the other two up-players now were laughing, too.

"Five-man infield," said Andrew. "You're a bunting terror, ain't you, Tinka?"

"Her name is Annie," I heard Delia say. Her sister shushed her, and she shushed right back.

Luz-Maria, not the same girl as Luz or Lucy, glared at me. "I'm gonna walk you, you so little," she said, like she was complaining.

"I can't help that," I said.

She tossed the first ball and it bounced on the plate. "Ball one," said Andrew.

I moved to bunt the second pitch then pulled back because it went wide. "Ball two," said Andrew.

"Aw, crap," said Luz-Maria. She threw two more balls and I took my base, trotting out toward Julio, standing near first. He put a fist out and we did a bump. I think I giggled again.

I took a lead off first and Luz-Maria threw to Julio. I dove back to base and Julio touched me on the back of the neck with the ball. "No stealing on my watch, unnastand?" he said.

I just lay there for a moment and giggled at him. I got up and dusted myself off after he threw back to the pitcher. He pretended to try to grab my hat and I pretended to kick him in the shins.

Luz-Maria stood and held the ball for a while, waiting out a big gust of wind. Maybe she didn't wait long enough. When she finally threw the ball, it sort of seemed to hang there in the air, held up by the wind, before it came down near the plate.

Andrew reached out with the long bat and popped it foul. Julio and the catcher ran toward it, trying to catch it in the air. Another gust of wind carried it deep into foul territory, almost to the trees. Everyone gasped when it disappeared into the top of the sump-thing.

"Holy crap," Luz-Maria said and Julio laughed like a dog barking at the mailman. I just stared at him -- that was one weird laugh.

Andrew said some really bad words. "Doesn't that thing have a lid on it?" he asked after he got through cussing. He started toward the sump-thing.

Julio shrugged, pointing at a broken concrete circle lying under one of the trees. It looked kind of like a manhole cover with a rusty iron handle sticking out of it.

Two little kids had been sitting on it earlier. One of them went over and kicked at it. He missed, which was good, it would have hurt his foot. But missing caused him to lose his balance. His friend grabbed him and they both went down, crying.

I figured the ball was dead -- no one was going to tag me out with it in the sump -- so I started over toward the two crying boys to see if they were hurt. Luz-Maria came, too, and we knelt down. "Qué pasa?" she said to the boys. "Are you guys okay?"

"Bien," said one of them and they both giggled so Luz-Maria and I giggled, too.

I saw Delia running toward me with her sister chasing her, so I stood up to catch her. "We winned! We winned! Annie, we winned!" she shrieked.

"We sure did," I said, grabbing her to keep her from starting a new dogpile by jumping on top of the boys lying on the ground.

Jimmy came trotting up. "Game over," he said.

Andrew stared at the sump-thing. "That was our only ball? Hogfat! I'll climb in and get it." He started up the iron loops that made a ladder on the side of the concrete cylinder.

Jimmy touched his arm and motioned toward the clouds that had gotten a lot closer. "No, man," he said. "Flash flood fill that sump up like lightning, man. Fill it up from the bottom, even if the rain is miles away."

"Huh?" said Andrew.

Jimmy tried to explain but I stopped listening; a police car had turned onto the side street and pulled to a stop against the curb, facing the wrong way. I pulled my hat down tighter and started walking around the outside of the crowd, heading back toward the motel.

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Comments

Argh...

Soon as the ball went into the Sump Thing (Sounds like a D&D monster ;)) I started having a panic attack about someone getting caught in storm runoff... :S

Keep going, its fun. :)

The Legendary Lost Ninja

Me too!

Wow you can really write a gripping story. The second that ball went in the sump, my heart caught in my throat, because that is just how kids get in serious trouble. Sudden storms even miles away can cause those things to flood in a heartbeat. Great stuff Wanda!

hugs!

grover

just fun

kristina l s's picture

You can picture the whole thing. That innocent goofy silliness that is or should be a big part of childhood. Very nicely done and the end with that hint of tension was neat too.

Kristina

childhood

As someone who played a lot of improvised baseball games the description of a child's game feels real. I enjoyed the story and the sudden ending

Catcher's Mitt

I love the way you write. I can see the storm over the mountains, the dusty ball field, the game and all the screaming kids. As kids we played a varsion of baseball like that, but we called it "scrub". The rules were a little different, but then our rules seemed to change a bit every week. Mostly we played softball. Most of us couldn't afford to buy a baseball mitt. I eventually got a second hand catcher's mitt which didn't work too well in outfield (or the infield for that matter).

Aechel

Aechel

Teams

I'll bet you always got picked early for a team. Kids with catcher's or first base mitts always did. :>

I mostly played right field, too short and too slow and I couldn't throw worth beans which is terrible for a right fielder. Like Annie, though, I could bunt.

We played another game with a small playground ball, smaller than a soccer ball, and no bat, you kicked it instead. You had to throw the ball at runners to get them out. Sort of a combination of cricket, kickball, football and dodgeball because there were no bases, just two lines for each team. When you kicked the ball, you had to run to the other team's front line and back to yours before you got "pegged". ;> I think we called it "rover" and that was what the runner was called.

Rovers had two "wings" and a "back" from their own team to help them get across by running interference. The opposing team had "tackles" and "forwards" but I don't remember what the difference was or how many they had. The rest of both teams had to stay behind their own front lines.

Anyone who had the ball could be tackled by the other team, or blocked if they didn't have the ball. Only the rover was not allowed to be blocked but couldn't touch the ball except to kick it if it were loose. Only the backs were allowed to run with the ball but had to stay closer to their own team than the rover was. If a back got the ball, they could drop kick it or run back to their own back line and "down" it, which didn't count as the rover making a run but wasn't an out either.

You couldn't be rover again until everyone had been rover. The winning team was the one who got all their rovers across and back first or had more rovers score by dinner time. ;> Teams could have any number of kids. Games went on for hours, running and screaming the whole time!

That game was exciting and featured a lot of bloody noses! ;>

{{{;>
Wanda

Dangerball

erin's picture

I remember that game, though THAT description makes it sound more organized that I think it ever was. The boys played it with enthusiasm, broken bones and all.

I thought for years that it was called, "Red Rover" but that turns out to be a game that is only superficially similar and much less chaotically violent. :)

I've used "rover ball" as the basis for the game in my unpublished futuristic novel, "Dangerball!" The twist in Dangerball is that the spectators have buttons to make the ball explosive. :)

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Hey Tink :-)

Cool chapter!! And a very interesting way to end game and chapter.
May Your Light Forever Shine

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

This sounds like fun ...

... even if I don't understand it :) When we played cricket with a proper ball (ie very hard) rather than a tennis ball I always liked to be the wicket keeper because that was the only fielding position that had gloves. That ball hurt when catching with bare hands.

You're an entertaining writer, Wanda, if you can please me with a story about a game I have only the vaguest idea about. Good stuff!

Geoff

Rover

I may have had a catchers mitt, but since it was a rotation thru all the positions before you got to be up and the next guy up was the catcher, nobody wanted to trade gloves much specially if they owned a much coveted first basemans mitt. I couldn't catch balls worth a hoot, but I could throw it in from CF to home place with reasonable accuracy.

We used to play a game called "Rover Red Rover". You chose up sides (8-10 to a side) then lined up 40-50 feet apart holding hands. One side would holler "rovert red rover let (name someone) come over. The person named would run like crazy at the other line and try to break/smash thru. Succeed and you got to pick someone to come back over to your teem. Fail and you had to join the other teem. The big guys most always broke thru. Little guys like me got bounced off and knocked down a lot. Lots of bruises either way

Aechel

Aechel

Good fun

The dialog is great, too.

This is one well-done chapter, girl.

KW

Just got home from a family

Just got home from a family trip and as I was catching up with several stories, I read this chapter. It brought back all kinds of memories of different childhood games we made up and the fun they gave us. Without computers, cell phones and the other electronics children have today, we were able to create fun for our selves. I somehow believe that today's kids are missing out even with all the "stuff" they have.
This is such a neat little story, Wanda and very fun to read. Annie is more girl than she realizes right now. J-Lynn

Writer's block?

Wanda-

After such a rapid series of chapters, I was starting to expect that you had TIP all laid out and would pop 'em out like waffles. Is the dreaded real life getting in the way? Having a plot issue? ¿Puedo ayudarle algo?

avidreader

Not writer's block exactly

The next chapter is mostly done but it was difficult to write and real life did get in the way for a bit. I'm actually hoping to post it later today. ;>

{{{;>
Wanda