Phillips' Sister

Part 20 (last part)

-your POV-

We knocked on the door. An old man came to us. He had dark glasses on. So he must've been blind.

"Hello?" He asks looking around. But he can't see us so I think he was listening for noise. Squints shakes his head saying, "this is bad. This is very bad." He says. "Um, we-we brought your dog home." Smalls says stuttering. "Hercules?" The old man asks. "How'd he get out?" He continued. "I'm telling you guys, we should've just turned it loose." Squints says shaking his head again. "Um, uh, well, uh." Smalls says stuttering. The old man was moving his head around still to hear where we were. "Well, what happened was, we hit a baseball into your yard, and we tried to get it back." Benny says. "So you're the ones who's been making all that racket?" The old man says. The man opens the screen door. "Yessir." Smalls says nodding his head. "Ya get it?" The old man asks standing in the doorway. He holds his hand out. "Um." Smalls says grabbing the ball from my hand. "Y-y-yea." Smalls stutters again. I just roll my eyes. The man stiffs the ball. I make a confused face. "Well, first time anybody ever got the of old Hercules." The man states. Smalls looks back and Benny and I. "Why didn't you just knock on the door? I'd have gotten it for you." The old man says. My jaw drops. I ran over to Squints and started smacking him. Everyone else did the same. "Squints!" We all yell. "We got the ball back didn't we?!" Squints defends himself. "Yeah! Well, we almost got killed!" Ham exclaims. I walk back over to Benny and Smalls. "Didn't we get the ball back?!" Squints says still defending himself. He shoves everyone off him. "We got the ball back." He continued. Everyone else just ignored him. The old man laughs. He walks inside. "Thanks for bringing him home." The old man says. He invites us in. "We'll take about this baseball." He says walking inside. Benny grabs my hand and we walk inside.

-inside-

"You in trouble, aren't you, son?" Mr. Mertle asks. Smalls reminded me of what his name was because I forgot.

"Yeah, well, uh, that was my step-dad's ball." Smalls states with guilt in his voice. "I took it without asking." He admits. "It was signed by Babe Ruth." Smalls says. "George signed this?" Mr. Mertle asked surprised. "George Herman Ruth? Yeah." Smalls says nodding.

"I take it back. You're not in trouble, you're dead where you stand." Mr. Mertle says. We all kind of look around awkwardly.

"Hold on." Mr. Mertle says walking over to a cabinet.  He uses his hands to look for what he was looking for. He grabs a ball. He walks back over to his desk and sits in his chair. "Here." He says holding out the ball infront of us. "I'll trade ya." Mr. Mertle says. We all looked at each other. "That's really nice of you, but that ball really is signed by Babe Ruth." Benny says still holding my hand.  "So's this one, with the rest of the 1927 Yankees. My eyes widen. Benny let's go of my hand to grab the ball. "Oh man. Murderers' Row!" Benny says. "Lou Gehrig!" I mumble. "Babe Ruth!" Smalls exclaims. Mr. Mertle laughs silently. "But why would you trade? That ones all chewed up." Smalls says. "I got a lot of good stuff. Look at that stuff!" Mr. Mertle says. "Besides, you need it more than I do." Mr. Mertle says kindly. Smalls walks over to the cabinet of baseball stuff. Mr. Mertle takes a sip of tea smiling. Smalls eyes widen as he looks at Mr. Mertle. "You knew Babe Ruth?" Smalls asks. "George? I sure did. And he knew me."  Mr. Mertle said proudly. "He was almost as great a hitter as I was." He said. "I would've broken his record, too, but." Mr, Mertle said. "You went blind." Smalls said. "Yep." Mr. Mertle said. "I used to crowd the plate so the strike zone almost disappeared." Mr. Mertle said. I laugh quietly. He laughs. "Pitchers hate that." He states, I nod in agreement. "That's the way I played, 100% all the time." Mr. Mertle said proudly. "Baseball was life." Mr. Mertle says. I look at Benny. He makes a "that's true" face. I roll my eyes. "And I was good at it, real good." Mr. Mertle says. "And then, one day, a high fast one, and pow! Lights went out." Mr. Mertle says. I look down feeling bad. We all just stand there for a few seconds. "I don't think we can take this ball." Benny states. I nudge his arm. He glared at me. "Sorry." I mouth. "I'll tell you what," Mr. Mertle said before taking a pause. "You guys come by here once a week and talk baseball with me, and we'll call it an even trade." Mr, Mertle says. I nod making a "that sounds fair" face. I go up and shake his hand. "Now who is this?" Mr. Mertle says facing me. I look back at the boys. "I-I'm y/n." I say. "You play baseball?" Mr. Mertle asks. "Yessir." I state. "Is she good?" He asks. "Not-" I was going to say but Benny cut me off. "Best on the team." Benny says looking at me. I smile at him. I look back at Mr. Mertle. "Keep up the good work, show the world that woman can play ball too, okay?" Mr. Mertle checks. "Of course." I say smiling. "Now go on, go play ball." Mr. Mertle says. "Bye, Mr. Mertle!" I say. "Bye, hun." Mr. Mertle says kindly. Benny then takes my hand and we walk out.

The end.

I loved writing this book. It was so much fun, I hope I can get some ideas to write about. Tell me if you have any ideas! Luv ya!