Unexpected

Chapter 23

Benny, Smalls, and I decided to knock on Mr. Myrtle's door to tell him we found his dog.

A man walked up to the door. "Hello?" he said.

"We... we brought your dog home," he said, pointing at the dog.

"Hercules?" he questioned. "How did he get out?"

Smalls started to stutter, "I.. uh we-"

"What happened was... we hit a baseball into your yard and we tried to get it back," Benny explained.

"So you're the ones making all of that racket," Mr. Myrtle says, opening the door.

"Yes sir," Smalls said nervously.

"Why couldn't you guys just knock? I would've gotten it for you," he said.

Everyone in the back started to yell at Squints for his stupid story.

Mr. Myrtle laughed. "Thanks for bringing him home, come on in!" he says, "we'll talk about this baseball."

We three followed him inside to a room full of baseball stuff.

"This looks familiar," I mumbled to myself, glancing at little details in the room.

Mr. Myrtle was holding the ball in his hand. "You in trouble, aren't you son?" he asked.

"Yeah.. well um, that was my stepdad's ball. I took it without asking, it was signed by Babe Ruth," Scotty said.

His face started to turn into a smile. "George signed this?" he asked.

He nodded his head. "George Herman Ruth? Yeah."

"I'd take it back, you're not in trouble," he says, "you're dead where you stand."

Scotty's face started to turn into a frown of worry.

"Hold on," he says, walking around the room trying to look for a specific item. "Hold on..."

He grabbed a baseball with a bunch of autographs on it.

"This," he offers, "I'll trade you."

We all walked closer to him to take a closer look.

Benny pointed, "That's really nice of you, but that ball is really signed by Babe Ruth."

"So is this one!" he said. "And the rest of the 1927 Yankees."

Benny grabbed the ball from his hand and started to name every name that was on there.

I looked over at Mr. Myrtle. "Just saying if you think I'm weird for just standing here, I'm not a huge fan."

He chuckles, "It's fine, but don't you play it?"

"Yeah with them, I'm actually a cheerleader," I said.

He gasps, "I didn't know cheerleaders liked baseball! When I was your age, those popular girls made fun of me. That's why I'm here alone with Hercules!"

"Damn, sucks for you," I said. "But they do hate it, I'm just built differently."

Benny lifted up his head and looked at me. "Good thing, because if you never insulted Lisa, we wouldn't be here right now... looking at this beautiful ball!"

I started to laugh a little. "Did you just call a ball... beautiful?"

He smiled, "Of course, it has one of my favorite players on it."

I chuckle, "Okay, I'll be outside."

Smalls and Benny both gave me a thumbs up and continued to look at the ball.

I went outside, where everyone else was waiting.

I guess Smalls wasn't going to get in trouble after all.