Alec slowed down, stopped, and looked back over his shoulder at him. “Yeah?” he said. “What kind of idea?”
Barry took a deep breath and let it out before he went on, his heart pounding. “Let’s make a deal,” he suggested, eyeing Alec closely. “If I get one hit off you, you give back the dog. Deal?”
“Deal?” Alec echoed. “They call you the hit-away kid, don’t they?”
Fuzzy laughed. “They won’t after the game,” he said and started to skateboard away. “Come on, Alec. Let’s go. Forget him.”
“No, wait,” Alec said without taking his eyes off Barry. “Sure, I’ll give you a chance to get this toy back, if it’s your brother’s.”
“It is!” Susan shouted.
“But you’ll have to hit two home runs,” Alec said, ignoring Susan.
Barry stared at him. “Two home runs? You crazy? Who do you think I am, some big leaguer?”
“The hit-away kid,” Tony Workman said, smiling from one side of his mouth.
“Right,” Alec said. “And, if I strike you out twice, I keep it.”
“And if I strike out twice and get two home runs besides?” Barry countered. “What then?”
Alec shook his head. “A real dreamer, aren’t you?” he said.
He started to turn away, but Barry swept up in front of him. “You’re not giving me a fair chance, Alec. In the first place, that toy doesn’t belong to you.”
“Sure it does. And you made a great catch yesterday. Out of my way, mudface,” Alec said. He shot past Barry up the sidewalk with Fuzzy, Tony, and Dick trailing after him. A few seconds later they vanished around the next block, screaming like hyenas.
“I’m going to tell Mom,” Susan said, her voice ready to break. “She’ll get it back.”
“No, you won’t,” said Barry, his face shiny with sweat from the encounter with Alec. “I don’t want Alec to think he’s a better pitcher than I am a batter. I’m going through with the deal.”
“All you care about is your dumb game!” Susan wailed.
“You just don’t understand,” said Barry.
“You’ll have to practice more,” José broke in quietly.
Barry looked at his friend. He and José had been close all their lives. But suddenly a frightening thought occurred to him. Had the awful things Alec said about him changed José’s feelings? Were they still as good friends as they ever were?
“Will you pitch to me?” he said, looking hopefully into José’s dark eyes.
José grinned. “Of course I will!” he cried.
They agreed to meet at the ballpark after they went home to get their equipment. Susan came along, too, to make sure Barry practiced hard. She didn’t want to go home (to Tommy) empty-handed after the game.
Barry stood in front of the backstop screen, taking warmup swings with his bat, while José stood in the worn patch of grass between home plate and the pitcher’s box. Susan ran out to left field, where Barry usually hit the ball.
There were five kids playing tag, all of whom Barry knew. Before Barry hit out three balls, all five of them quit playing tag and began helping Susan field the balls.
A good feeling swelled inside of Barry as he saw one ball and then another sail over the left-field fence. But most of the hits were shallow drives over the infield, and there were a few grounders.
“Ha, ha, ha!”
He heard the laughter coming from behind him and signaled for José to hold up his next pitch while he looked around.
Standing behind the screen was Alec, on his skateboard. This time only Fuzzy was with him.
“You got the idea, hit-away,” Alec said, grinning. “Practice, practice, practice. But it’ll take more than that for you to win back your precious little doggie!”