Chapter Twenty – Three

Sam

A few days later, the Mets played the Phillies on the Mets’ home turf.

Sam’s dad’s company got box seats for all of them. Sam, Bella, Mason and the rest of the McGargees, and Coach and Mrs. Lockheart. The box had a fancy shelf where they could get candy and popcorn. Mason and Sam filled up on junk food and lemonade. The lemonade wasn’t anywhere near as good as Anita’s, though.

It was cool in the stadium box. Cold, actually, Sam decided. The air conditioning was cranked high. At first he thought he was going to have to sit behind glass the whole time, like at school.

But then Mr. Culver pointed to the door and to the seats outside. Sam opened it and summer heat blasted through. It was wonderful.

“Close the door, Sam! Sheesh.” Anita went to sit with Mrs. Lockheart.

Sam couldn’t take his eyes off the heat shimmering on the baseball mound, or the players in their red-and-white and blue-and-white uniforms. And the teams’ mascots started leaping around, fuzzy green fur, big eyebrows, and jiggly eyeballs and bellies.

They looked a little like giant monsters in person. Seeing them on television always seemed a little weird, but here it made Sam laugh hard.

Mason was laughing too and not teasing him at all. Then she spotted someone familiar in the crowd. “Ms. Malloy!”

“That’s Acting Principal Malloy now!” Sam’s dad waved her over. “Congratulations!”

Ms. Malloy waved back and pointed to two seats, one that looked empty, next to hers. She put a box of popcorn on the seat and, as they watched, the popcorn disappeared rapidly. Bella giggled until Anita swooped in to smear them with sunscreen.

“Mom, quit it,” Sam finally said. Her hands hovered over his face and she blinked a couple times. Then she hugged Sam and left him with the bottle of sunscreen, a huge smile on her face.

“I’ve never heard you call her that before,” Mason said. “And I’ve known you practically the whole time you’ve known her.”

“I guess you’re right?” Sam stuffed a handful of popcorn in his mouth so he could chew while he considered it. “Maybe.”

He hadn’t thought of saying it before, but the word had just sounded right that time. Like he really meant it. “I won’t be careless with it,” he whispered.

“Aw,” whispered Tolver, snacking on popcorn on the back of his seat. His feet were invisible, but Sam could hear them swish. “That’s all right, though. I’d never steal a word like that.” Then the boglin nudged Sam with a sharp elbow and jumped off his seat, whispering “Oh, would you look at that.”

Before Sam could ask what he’d seen, Tolver climbed over the edge of the box. Sam could just barely see the ripple of his silver hair. The adults couldn’t see him at all. And then Tolver whistled. “Do you see that ad! They don’t mean any of those words!” Then he jumped over the rail, headed for the outfield.

“Let’s play ball!” The announcer roared, and the fans cheered.

As the teams ran out onto the field, Mason, Bella, and Sam cheered too while sitting in the warm sun under a perfect blue sky. It was really—finally—summer.