“I think everyone’s here,” whispered Marlene, eyes trained on the team.
A crowd had formed around Jerry and the coach, not far from the shed where they were hidden.
“Can I get you all to come over here a minute?” said Mr. Horowitz. “I need to talk to the team.”
“We’re not all here yet, Coach,” said Gary. “Roger isn’t here. I don’t see Marlene, either.”
“That’s what I want to talk about,” said Mr. Horowitz. “Roger is all right, but he isn’t here yet because I’ve been told something happened to him that was so unusual that I’m not sure I still believe it myself.” He stopped and looked around and rubbed the back of his head with a hand. “Sometimes something happens that changes the way you look at the world. This is one of them. You see, yesterday Roger … well, his appearance has altered radically.”
Looks of surprise and concern spread over all the faces. “Was he in an accident?” asked Julie.
“Oh, no, no,” said Mr. Horowitz. “Like I said, he’s fine. This was something that is, frankly, unexplainable.” He took a deep breath. “Roger McGillicutty has become something very much like an insect. A praying mantis, to be specific. I have seen photos.”
Dead silence for a moment. Then several team members snorted. “A what?” said Carl.
“Ewww!” said Julie, making a face.
More than one team member looked over at Jerry with suspicion. “Martinez,” said Carl, “you’ve slung some pretty fancy bull before, but this is a personal best. What I really want to know is, how you got the coach to go in on it with you.”
Jerry put both hands out to his sides and shrugged, the picture of indignant innocence.
“So … Roger’s a little bug now?” said Julie, her face radiating confusion.
“Actually,” said Jerry, “he’s taller than I am. Maybe taller than Mr. Horowitz. Even taller if you count the antennae. Cool, huh?” Julie went pale.
“How the heck can anyone turn into a giant mantis?” said Henry, adjusting his catcher’s equipment.
“Who knows?” said Jerry. “Maybe it’s some bug going around.”
Roger couldn’t roll his eyes. Marlene did.
“I don’t like bugs,” said Julie, nervously. “Not even little ones.”
“Come on, Julie,” said Ricky. “It’s just Jerry horsing around again.”
“If it’s a joke,” said Mr. Horowitz, “and I don’t believe it is, I’m on the wrong end of it too.”
“It isn’t a joke!” Jerry interjected. “Really! I’ve seen him! I’ve played ball with him!”
“You … played ball with a giant bug?” said Ricky.
“The important thing here,” said Mr. Horowitz firmly, “is that we are told by many people and traditions that we respect that what is inside a person is much more important than what they look like. My own experience has only reinforced this idea. Whatever Roger’s appearance, he is still Roger, and needs to be treated like it.”
The team members nodded, but most looked confused, looking around at each other to see if everyone else was getting something they were missing.
“Excuse me, Coach,” said Jerry. “Can I put in a few more words here?”
“By all means,” said Mr. Horowitz, looking a bit relieved.
Jerry turned to the team. “Look,” he said. “It’s probably some kind of mutation thing, like in the comic books. Remember the Thing? Normal guy, hit by cosmic rays, turns into this big rock monster? But he’s still a normal guy inside?”
The nodding from some team members got more enthusiastic. This was more familiar territory.
“That’s Roger now,” said Jerry. “He’s a big green bug, but he’s still Roger! And that’s the important part. Oh, and he’s also gotten even better at hitting a baseball. Which is even more important, since Centerville’s waxed us three games in a row.”
A few team members looked interested at this sudden turn in the conversation. Beating Centerville was an important priority. Most of the rest looked like the sudden turn had put them in the ditch.
“Where’s Marlene then?” asked Charlie. “Did she turn into something too?”
“Pffff,” said Carl. “I still think it’s a pantload. Can we play some ball?”
Exasperated, Jerry looked over at the shed and put up a hand. Roger ducked back behind the shed.
“Jerry’s waving us over,” said Marlene, still peeking around the edge of the shed. “And the coach is nodding. This is it.”
“Aw, jeez,” said Roger anxiously. He’d hoped Jerry and the coach would soften everyone up a bit more, but apparently nobody was really buying the story. Yeah, imagine that, he thought.
“Well, come on,” said Marlene. “If you’re going to cause a panic, you might as well get started.” She looked at Roger, tilting her head thoughtfully. “Wait a minute, I’ve got an idea.” She took her baseball cap off and stuck it firmly on Roger’s triangular head, jamming it between his wiry antennae so it wouldn’t fall off.
“Ack! Cooties!” said Roger.
“I cannot believe you just said that,” laughed Marlene. “You are a cootie!” She stepped back and appraised Roger’s new headwear. “Yep. It works. Anything in the world looks friendlier if it’s wearing a baseball cap. You know, from now on, we can call that ‘Marlene’s Law.’ Let’s go.”
Roger held his claws tight against his body and tried to look small and harmless as they stepped out from behind the shed. At least this time, he had actually practiced his pose in front of a mirror. Marlene waved happily, trying to look like she hung out with giant insects all the time.
There was no sound at all from the staring faces. Even Coach Horowitz looked a little bit stunned. Apparently, Polaroid pictures or not, he’d still harbored some doubts about what Roger’s father had told him.
“Well,” Mr. Horowitz said, a bit shakily. “Now there’s something you don’t see every day.”
Julie squealed and ran to the far end of the field.
“Don’t worry,” Marlene told Roger. “That’s just Julie being Julie. Say something!”
“Hi, guys!” said Roger loudly. “So who’s batting first? How about Miller? He really needs the practice.” Roger’s joke fell flat. After Roger, Gary Miller was the best hitter on the team.
The team backed up a step, but no farther. Julie watched, wide-eyed, from the outfield.
“Roger?” said Gary. “Holy cats, I think it is Roger!”
“I think Gary’s right,” said Henry. “Look how he’s kicking one of his feet in the dirt. Roger always does that while he’s on first. Practically makes a hole out there.”
Roger noticed he was doing this and stopped. Then figured maybe he should start again, but now that he was paying attention he couldn’t remember exactly how he did it. “Aw, jeez,” he muttered.
“‘Jeez.’ Yeah, that’s Roger all right,” said Ricky. “Besides, if Marlene, Jerry, and Coach say it’s him, that’s good enough for me.”
“It’s not Roger’s voice exactly,” mused Gary. “It sounds a little like Mrs. Clancy. But it sounds like him, if you know what I mean. Kind of goofy.”
“Stop helping me, Miller,” said Roger. The team broke into laughter. It wasn’t very loud, and a bit nervous, but it was laughter.
“Yeah, but look at him,” said Carl. “How the heck can a bug play baseball? Why is he here? Shouldn’t he be in a hospital or something?”
The other players looked at each other, faces showing the same skepticism Carl’s did. Roger’s heart sank, and his antennae dropped like overcooked spaghetti. He’d been counting on support from at least his own team! He’d been so sure everything would work out once he started figuring out how to play again.
Jerry piped up indignantly. “Marlene and me have been practicing with him! Give Roger a bat! We’ll show you how a bug can hit!”
Some of the players smiled. Mr. Horowitz smiled too but said nothing.
“I’ll be
honest, though,” said Jerry, shaking his head with exaggerated sadness. “He can’t run worth beans.”
Laughter broke out again. Roger’s antennae perked up a bit.
Mr. Horowitz took a deep breath and then clapped his hands once. “Come on, ladies and gentlemen, let’s see how well a giant mantis can play ball!”
Chapter Eight
Mr. Horowitz’s relaxed attitude helped to calm everyone except Julie, and they settled down to practice. Marlene was convinced the baseball cap had made all the difference. As the afternoon wore on, the team’s only problem was lack of concentration because they couldn’t take their eyes off the giant mantis playing first base. Julie stayed as far away from Roger as she could but had otherwise played pretty well.
Roger’s running and throwing shortcomings became obvious fairly quickly, but his hitting made up for it. Whenever it was Roger’s turn at bat, he’d swing the heavily-wrapped bat in his big right claw, and almost every time, sent the ball over the fence. Roger suddenly realized that it didn’t really matter if he ran slowly as long as he was hitting home runs. He had already decided that flying around the bases would probably be a bad idea.
It wasn’t long before his team cheered him each time at bat before he’d even taken a swing. They were soon joined by four or five other kids, watching from outside the fence. Roger was a little worried. He hadn’t figured on having to deal with anyone today besides his team (fortunately parents rarely hung around for practices). Roger recognized some of the kids from school and noticed two other kids that were from the Centerville team that Highland Falls was going to play next weekend. Centerville was just across the river, and kids from over there were always hanging around Highland Falls.
“Well,” said Jerry, as the team shifted positions, “the cat—or bug—is probably out of the bag now. Those kids are going to tell other people. At least nobody has a camera.”
“They don’t seem all that nervous,” said Roger. “Well, the Centerville kids don’t look too happy, but they also don’t look scared.”
“Nobody’s going to be scared of a giant mantis playing a baseball game,” said Marlene. “You look like a bug, but you act like a kid. Particularly when you’re trash-talking Gary from the field. And there’s the baseball cap of course. Marlene’s Law!” she practically sang.
“You know,” said Jerry, “it’s too bad you didn’t end up a giant grasshopper. Then you could have spit tobacco juice just like a big leaguer!” Everyone laughed.
Roger looked back at the fence at a kid who was scowling instead of cheering. “Jeez,” he said. “That’s Barry Wilson out there!”
“That kid who didn’t make the team this year?” said Ricky, squinting. “He took it kind of bad.”
“Hey, he just needed a bit more work,” said Marlene.
“Yeah, but he’s also kind of a jerk,” said Ricky. “Who wants to play with him?”
“When he tells his gossipy mom,” said Roger, “every last person in town’s going to know about me!”
“How do you know his mom is gossipy?” said Marlene.
“My mom was talking about her,” said Roger. Marlene raised an eyebrow.
“Well, not much we can do about it right now,” said Jerry. “You’re back on first base, so let’s get your glove taped back on.”
After practice, Mr. Horowitz gave a short talk to the team about discretion, how important it was that Roger be protected from people who don’t know him, and being careful about who they talked to about this. It was a good speech, but Roger looked over at the fence, now empty of watchers, and decided it might be a little late for that.
Then Mr. Horowitz took Roger aside for a few minutes. “This is quite amazing,” he said. “I definitely owe your father an apology for my skepticism. There are indeed ‘more things in heaven and earth … ’ Tell me how this happened.”
Roger related all he knew, which wasn’t much. “I woke up, and there I was. A bug.”
“And here you are,” said Mr. Horowitz. “Right out in public as if you had every right to be. You have a lot of courage, young man. I’m very impressed. So what are you planning to do about school?”
“Well, my dad thinks I should keep going to school,” said Roger. “Oh, I do too, of course,” he added hastily. “But I don’t know … ” He looked back at the fence again.
“Excellent, Roger! I’m impressed with your father, too, but since I’ve known him for years, I’m not all that surprised. I think, with the proper precautions, keeping you in school would be a wonderful idea and a learning experience for everyone. I’ll set up a short assembly before the first class tomorrow and introduce you to the students and staff so they aren’t caught off guard by your … condition. Meet me by the back auditorium door in the morning as soon as you get to school.” Mr. Horowitz smiled and patted Roger on his thorax back. “And don’t worry; I’ll get you all the help I can to manage your classes.”
“With all the kids here at the practice,” said Roger, “and Barry outside the fence, I don’t think it’s going to be much of a surprise anyway, Mr. Horowitz.” Roger didn’t like the idea of being trotted out at a school assembly like some kind of circus animal, but he could see how it might help.
After practice, Roger, Jerry, and Marlene headed back out to Roger’s house. They took the back way through the fields again, although there wasn’t much point. Half the team followed them.
Well, not much point in ducking down now, thought Roger, amid all the excited chatter around him. His sharp eyes saw one or two people from the distant houses on the far side of the road peeking out to look at what was going on. He tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and hoped their eyesight was much worse than his.
The rest of the afternoon, Roger hung out in the vacant lot with the other kids. He broke a board for them and finally even showed them a bit of flying (down low, of course). Marlene told them more about insects and mantises than any of them probably wanted to know, but that was sort of fun, too.
It was the most normal Roger had felt since he first woke up and found he had way too many legs.
Sunday supper was a big roast beef, one of Roger’s favorites, and Roger ate most of it himself. There was corn on the cob, too, which had also been one of Roger’s favorites but didn’t appeal to him now.
Roger and his parents didn’t get much chance to talk over dinner. They were interrupted by several phone calls, one right after the other. His father got up and grabbed the kitchen phone each time, increasingly frustrated (roast beef was one of his favorites, too). From his father’s half of the conversation, the calls seemed to be from parents of his teammates, wondering about the weird things that had happened at the ball field.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Jefferson,” said Roger’s father. “ … no, your son didn’t make it all up … this is a very complicated issue. I’m hoping there will be more we can say tomorrow.”
“I’m glad you called, Mrs. Clark … I’m sorry Julie is having a bad time … No, it wasn’t a practical joke … Medical advice? I’d put her in a quiet dark room with a cold compress on her head.”
“No, Mrs. Ellis. Roger can’t come to the phone … a what? A salve your great-grandmother makes? … I’m sure it works fine for that, but this is very different … I agree, that’s a very unusual ingredient … I’m really very busy this week, Mrs. Ellis. Maybe you can leave it in the mailbox?”
And some more like that, including one call from Mr. Alderman, Charlie’s dad and the team’s main sponsor. Roger worried a bit about that one.
Finally, Roger’s mother said, “That will be just about enough of that,” took the phone off the hook, and sat firmly back down to quietly finish what was left of supper.
Roger’s father put his head in his hands for a few moments and then started eating again. “Who knows?” he muttered to himself. “Maybe the salve will help. The world has become a very strange place.”
After supper, Roger and his parents sat down in the li
ving room. Well, his parents sat. Roger just stood.
“Well, now we can talk,” said his father. “We’ll leave the phone off the hook for now. How did you do at the team practice today? I haven’t had a chance to talk to Mr. Horowitz about it yet.”
Roger’s mother grimaced. “He’s probably been trying to call for a while now and getting a busy signal.” She looked at Roger. “When you got home, you said things had gone okay, but then you didn’t want to talk about anything else until you’d eaten.”
“Sorry,” said Roger. “Actually, it went a lot better than I expected. Most of the other kids took it okay. Well, except Julie, I guess. Mr. Horowitz handled it really well. Almost as well as you guys did, but you’re my parents.”
“Hmmm,” said his father. “You know, that’s not as unusual as you might think. You know that Jacob Horowitz’s parents narrowly escaped from Europe before World War II?”
“I think my history teacher mentioned it once,” said Roger.
“Mr. Horowitz has very strong feelings about people being treated badly because they’re different,” said Roger’s mother. “He participated in the civil rights marches, too.”
“That I didn’t know,” said Roger.
“Not many people do,” said Roger’s father. Then he smiled. “In any case, I knew we could rely on your coach to stand up for you. He’ll be in your corner tomorrow, too. Count on it.”
Chapter Nine
Sunday night, Roger got to sleep a little faster, but later that night the nightmare began.
He dreamed he was out in the woods, eating some kind of furry animal and really liking it, until he realized it was Lou! Lou was looking right at him with his usual, goofy dog grin, as though he wasn’t in the claws of some horrible monster with his leg getting chewed off.
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