Basics [A Sandlot Story]

10 || Thunderhead

The air was heavy as Ty finally wheeled her useless bike back up the main street in the early afternoon. Dark clouds had begun to roll in over the hills, giving the air a violet hue.

Benny was waiting for her behind the drugstore when she arrived. Together they walked back towards their houses, peeling off at the last minute and ducking into the laneway that led to the sandlot. He showed her a spot to dump the bike, before leading her towards the copse of trees off to the north side of the field. As they drew closer, she realised they hid a faded little treehouse.

"We come here for camp outs." Benny explained as he pushed through the trapdoor, leaning back to help haul her inside.

"Mm, they'll be thrilled I was here." She joked, ignoring his outstretched hand and pulling herself up. His nose wrinkled, but he shifted back to allow her through. What Ty saw made her halt.

Dusty beanbags littered the floor, scattered amongst boardgames and comic books. A little cherry red transistor radio sat in the corner, several action figures tacked to its top. But what had really made her stop was the walls. All four of them were covered in paper, drawings and magazine cutouts, little doodles and photographs. She took a step closer, letting her hand trace a finely detailed landscape of the diamond below them. Beside it, a photograph of the team was pinned to the wood, a boy she didn't recognise - she assumed it was this Elswenger - broadly grinning at the camera with the rest of them.

"Wow." She breathed, circling the room. "Who does the drawings?" She stopped, fingering a watercolour of a sunset. Benny coughed, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"I've done most of them." He admitted. "The portraits are all Yeah-Yeah though." He directed her to an incredibly life-like drawing of Timmy and Tommy, cheeks sunburnt and eyes blue.

Ty's eyebrows shot up.

"I didn't have either of you pegged for artists, I have to admit."

"It's not exactly something we advertise." Benny shrugged, dropping into a beanbag by the window and beckoning her over. "But this is what I really wanted to show you."

Until now, she hadn't realised that their part of the neighbourhood was on a very gentle hill. From here, she could see through the trees, back down the laneway, all the way to the hills that bordered the road to the seaside. With the thunderheads rolling in, the sky a turbulent mixture of yellow and grey, it looked like something straight out of a painting.

"That's quite a view."

Benny laughed.

"Understatement of the century."

She rolled her eyes, stooping to sit in a beanbag of her own. "Fine, it's an awesome view."

They sat side by side in silence for a few minutes, listening to summer's chorus. Somewhere, several blocks away, a dog barked. Children's delighted squeals floated up from the direction of the swimming pool. Cicadas screamed. A lawnmower hummed. She felt the air move as Benny repositioned himself, leaning back on one hand and glancing at her.

"I heard you started hanging out with Phillips and the Tigers." He sounded noncommittal, but Ty recalled the conversation he'd been having with his friends that day, after she'd hit that wonderful home run. He'd sounded almost worried.
She drew her eyes away from the view, levelling him a wary look.