Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid

by Walter Dean Myers

  “Hmm!” Dad's jaw tightened a lot.

  I went to see Mop at the Academy the next day. The way I figured, the team had more than enough players. If I dropped off, it wouldn't really matter.

  “I'm thinking about quitting myself,” she said. “I even thought about running away.”

  “Like you did before?” I asked.

  “You mean just to the corner?” Mop shook her head. “I mean the whole megillah. Maybe I'll go to China and get married or something. Or maybe to California.”

  “How come?”

  “I don't know, I just got a bad feeling,” she said.

  You could see it all over her. Her voice was low and she talked down at her hands.

  “Did Maria say something bad to you in the bathroom?”

  “No.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don't know.” She sniffed a little and pushed on her nose. “Soon's she came in I felt kind of funny—like I always do around her. You remember what I told you about the way she watches me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, that's it. She looks at me and then I get all nervous. I dropped that stupid pizza on myself and then I went into the bathroom and all I could do was—you gonna tell anybody?”

  “Who me? No.”

  “You do and I'll wipe you up!”

  “I'm not gonna tell anybody!”

  “I just started crying and carrying on. Then she come in and said everything was okay and that we'd beat the Eagles after a while. I wanted to say something to her. You know, something cool, like how I knew we were really gonna kick the Eagles’ butts or something. All I could do was boohoo all over the place. She probably thinks I'm a nut case.”

  “You're not really going to run away, are you?”

  “I don't have the nerve,” she said.

  “Maybe we'll beat the Eagles,” I said. “Who knows.”

  “We gotta come in at least second,” Mop said. “I found out that the team that comes in first plays the team that comes in second for the championship.”

  “If we can't beat them in the regular games, we won't be able to beat them in the play-offs,” I said.

  “T.J., we gotta beat them,” Mop said. “We stick together and we'll do it, too. You just wait and see.”

  I was just about to split from the Academy when I ran into Sister Margaret. She tells me to get her a cold glass of water. When you see Sister Margaret, she always tells you to do something. It didn't make any difference that I was adopted and don't live at the Academy anymore. Not with Sister Margaret.

  “And don't put your finger in it to see how cold it is,” she said.

  Mop went with me down to the kitchen. Sister Car-melita was there with a new kid. She told us his name was Artemis and then he left.

  “What kind of name is Artemis?” Mop asked.

  “He's a nice boy,” Sister Carmelita said. “Maybe later, when he gets used to this place, I'll bring him out for Little League ball.”

  “You making tea?”

  Sister Carmelita had a large pot of water on the stove. It was just starting to bubble.

  “Nope, I'm getting out of trouble,” she said. “I'm using hot water to get out of hot water.”

  “What happened now?” Sister Carmelita was the youngest nun at the Academy, and always getting into trouble.

  “You remember yesterday the Little Choir was supposed to sing at Mass and they didn't show up?”

  “Right,” Mop said.

  “Well, who do you think was sitting in the front row with her hands folded in her lap instead of bringing the Little Choir to Mass.”

  “You.”

  “You got it, baby.”

  “So what you doing now?”

  “Now I am going to surprise Sister Marianne by cleaning all the good glasses. They're crystal, but you couldn't tell because they're so grimy. Nobody's really cleaned them for a long time.”

  They didn't look that bad to me, but I had seen them

  prettier. At Christmas, or when a big shot like a bishop or somebody came to the Academy, Sister Marianne used to put them out.

  “So I'm using hot water to get out of hot water/’ Sister Carmelita said as she took pot holders to lift the boiling water. “This hot water will loosen the grease. Then I will use elbow grease to remove the rest. Stand back!”

  She poured the hot water onto the crystal.

  It made a nice sound. You know what it sounded like? The first notes ofthat song about “My Favorite Things.” Sometimes when they play that song, they start it off with bells. This wasn't bells, it was the sound of the crystal breaking into little pieces. Sister Carmelita was in big trouble again.

  The next time I saw Sister Carmelita, she was in exile or something. Me, Moondance, and Brian are on the field throwing the ball around and waiting for Mop. Mop comes and I see Sister Carmelita is with her. She said Sister Marianne keeps sending her on errands out of the Academy.

  “What did she say when she saw the good glasses were broken?” I asked.

  “She was so mad, she fell right down on her knees and started praying!” Sister Carmelita said.

  “Right there on the spot?”

  “Right there on the spot!” Sister Carmelita said. “She turned red and everything!”

  “So what did you do?” I asked.

  “I got right down next to her and told God I didn't mean to break her crystal and for Him to keep that in mind when He listened to her.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Then she got up and just walked away. I don't mind, though.” Sister Carmelita said. “I think she really likes me.”

  “You better watch out she don't shoot you with some arrows and make you a saint!” Brian said.

  id I tell you that Moondance had a secret? The S^r secret is his bear. The bear's brown and about eight inches high and he's not fuzzy anymore. In fact, I don't even know if he was ever fuzzy. Dinky looks like he might have been fuzzy once, though. Dinky, that's the bear's name.

  Moondance has always had that bear. Even back when we used to call Moondance by his real name, Billy, he had the bear. Neither of us remembered where he got Dinky from and it didn't matter a lot. But he loved him. He was a little ashamed of loving him too. You know, a kid his age loving a bear and all. I liked the bear too. I didn't love him the way Moondance did, but he had been with us for a long time.

  I got home about four o'clock and Moondance was really upset.

  “Dinky's in the toilet.”

  “How can a bear be in the toilet?” I asked. “A bear can't pee or nothing. At least a toy bear can't.”

  “I dropped him in the toilet.”

  “How come?”

  “I had him in the bathroom washing him,” Moondance said. “And Mom started to open the door. I jumped and he fell in the toilet.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Then I flushed the toilet.”

  “How come you flushed it if Dinky was in there?”

  “So Mom would think I was using the toilet.”

  “Mom came in the bathroom?”

  “No, soon as she saw I was in there she closed the door real quick and started saying how she was sorry and everything.”

  “So he's flushed down the drain?”

  “Yeah, except it's stopped up,” Moondance said, looking real pitiful. “Mom said not to worry about it because Dad would fix it when he got home.”

  “Oh.”

  “You think you could fix it?”

  I knew Moondance wouldn't want Dad to know it was Dinky that was down in the toilet. I started for the bathroom and Mom told me the toilet was stopped up.

  “If you don't have to … I mean, I guess you do have to …” she said. She had this worried look on her face.

  I nodded and went in.

  Soon as the door was closed, I lifted the toilet seat. The whole toilet was just about filled with water. I didn't know what to do. There was a thing on the wall that held paper cups and I took one of them and dipped some of the wat
er out and dumped it in the sink. I didn't know what else to do, so I kept dipping the water out. You know what happened? When I had dipped most of it out, the toilet made a funny noise.

  Gollub¡

  That's the way it sounded. The water made a little funny noise and up popped Dinky's arm¡ I grabbed it and pulled for all I was worth. It tore a little bit, but the head came up next. I held it by the head and the arm. I didn't want to hold Dinky just by the head because I didn't want his head to pop off.

  One more pull and he was out of the toilet. Soggy, and a little wet, but he was out.

  I rinsed him off real quick in the sink, took an undershirt from the dirty-clothes hamper, and wrapped him up in it. Then I wrapped him in a towel and left.

  I gave him to Moondance. “Sorry about his arm,” I said.

  Moondance smiled this nice little smile he has sometimes. Man, that's a nice little smile he has. Makes me so glad he's my brother. Really.

  “Moondance!” It was Mom calling.

  Moondance stashed Dinky in the back of the closet where he usually keeps him and we went out to the kitchen.

  “You want to help me fix supper?”

  “Okay,” Moondance said.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” I said.

  “You were just in the bathroom.”

  “I got to go again.”

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The toilet's still stopped up, isn't it?”

  “I don't think so,” I said.

  Mom gave me one of those is-something-strange-going-on looks and went into the bathroom. She flushed the toilet and it worked fine.

  She came out and gave Moondance a look and Moon-dance gave her a smile. Then she shrugged and went back to finishing supper.

  That night just before I went to sleep, or maybe it was just after I went to sleep and he was waking me up, Moondance came to my bed and shook me.

  “What's the matter?” I asked.

  “Thanks a lot for saving Dinky,” he said.

  “We had to save Dinky,” I said. “He's your best friend.”

  “No,” he said. “You're my best friend. Dinky's my second-best friend.”

  That was a cool thing for Moondance to say. Really.

  So the team is on the playing field with Sister Car-melita the next day and we're throwing the ball around a little and talking a lot, the way we usually do, when this guy Peaches comes over to us.

  First time me and Moondance saw him was when we were playing football in the park last fall. He's a wino. I don't know why they call them winos. Sister Carmelita once tried to teach us some Spanish and she said that in Spanish the names of boys or masculine things end in o. Maybe that's why they called him a wino, because he was a man.

  “What y'all doin’?” he asks.

  “Fixing to go to the moon,” Brian said. “You want to come?”

  “Don't you be fresh-mouthing me, boy,” Peaches said. “ ‘Cause I don't take no fresh-mouthing!”

  “This is our Little League team,” Sister Carmelita said. “We're practicing.”

  “I used to be one of the best ball players there is,” Peaches said. “You know what they used to call me? The Alabama Peach!”

  “The what?” Moondance looked at Peaches as if he didn't really believe him.

  “The Alabama Peach¡ They used to have this white guy they called the Georgia Peach and they used to call me the Alabama Peach!”

  “Ty Cobb!” Sister Carmelita said.

  “You knowed that white boy?” Peaches asked.

  “I've read about him,” Sister Carmelita answered.

  “Here let me show you how to—”

  “We don't need you to show us nothin’!” Brian said. Peaches had reached for Brian's bat and Brian snatched it away from him.

  “Why don't you split, man?” Mop said. “You don't look like you can teach anybody nothing.”

  “Aw, I could teach you plenty,” Peaches said. He waved his hand at us and started away.

  “Would you teach me how to hit?” Sister Carmelita called after him.

  “You gotta be kidding!” Brian looked at Sister Carmelita with his face pushed forward and his hands on his hips.

  “I'll teach you,” Peaches said. “Let me take my coat off here a minute.”

  He went over to the benches near the field and took off the dirty old suit jacket he was wearing. We watched him as he folded it carefully and laid it on the bench.

  “Yo¡ Nun lady!” Brian went up to Sister Carmelita. “He's a wino!”

  “He's right,” Mop said.

  “He's a human being,” Sister Carmelita said. “One of God's creatures. Now, is there anyone else who would like him to help them?”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said.

  I didn't really want Peaches to help me, but I kind of felt sorry for him. I couldn't tell how old he was, really, but I knew he was old. And I knew he looked kind of thrown away too. I had felt like that before.

  “You stand right over here,” Peaches said. “Fix your feet like I got mine fixed.”

  I stood at the plate and placed my feet the way he had his. Then he took the bat that Brian had dropped on the ground, gave it to me, and asked me if I was ready.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, when I throw you the ball you keep your eye right on it, but make sure you don't swing the bat until the ball get to you.”

  He threw the ball. It was high but I swung anyway. I just missed it by this much.

  “You swinging too soon!” he said. “Wait till the ball get right up on you and then you gotta swing quick!”

  He threw the ball and I missed it again.

  “Oh, great, he's teaching you a lot, T.J.,” Brian said.

  I missed three more balls and Peaches kept telling me to do this and do that. Then I hit a ball and it bounced right back to him.

  “Best hit you had all season, T.J.,” Mop called out.

  I gave her a look and then missed the next three balls.

  “You gettin’ closer!” Peaches called out.

  I threw the bat down. Brian was right.

  “I'll try it!” Sister Carmelita picked the bat up.

  “Me and TJ. are gonna go play catch,” Brian said.

  We started off to one side. Moondance came with us and Mop stayed behind.

  Crack¡

  Me and Brian turned around at the same time. We saw the ball go flying through the air and land almost at the fence.

  “That's the way to do it!” Peaches said. “That's the way!”

  Moondance went over and got the ball and threw it back to them. Peaches did this funny little windup and pitched the ball to Sister Carmelita again.

  Crack¡

  The ball shot over the infield out toward us. Brian tried to flag it down, but by the time he got his glove up it was too late. The ball rolled all the way to the fence. I went over and got it.

  “Let's see that ball,” Brian ^aid.

  He took it, looked at it, and then put it in his pocket. He took out another ball he had brought with him and threw it to Peaches. The ball went right to Peaches. Peaches tried to catch it but dropped it when it hit his hand. He shook his hand a little and gave Brian a mean look for throwing it so hard.

  Brian just smiled.

  Peaches turned, did his funny little windup, and pitched the ball again to Sister Carmelita.

  Crack¡

  You didn't even have to turn around to know it was gone. I mean g-o-n-e. Over the fence¡

  “That was an official Little League ball,” Brian said.

  By the time we got the ball and brought it back, Peaches was putting his little dirty coat back on.

  “She learn real good,” he said. “Yeah, she all right. Y'all have her on your team and you be okay.”

  “I was telling Mr. Peaches that we'd better have some infield practice now and that maybe he could help us with hitting another day.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Brian said. He was really looking at
Peaches hard. “Maybe.”

  Peaches did more of a shuffle than a regular walk and I watched him as he shuffled out of the park and down the street.

  We were getting ready to have infield practice when Jim showed up with the rest of the team. Moondance started telling him about Peaches, but he wasn't interested. He had brought along a ball of string and he gave me one end of it and told me to stand at home plate. Then he held the other end of it and went out to shortstop. He held it as high as he could and then told everybody to jump up and touch it.

  Evans and Mike were the only ones who could touch the string where Jim held it. Then Jim got a box from his car and stood on that and held the end of the string up. No one could touch it then.

  “That's the angle we have to hit the ball at,” he said. “That way it's right over the infield for a base hit.”

  You could tell he was proud ofthat piece of string. He made us take turns standing on the box and holding the string up while the rest of us hit the ball.

  You know who came by to watch us practice? If you're thinking Mr. Treaster from the Eagles, you're right.

  “Why don't you get some ribbons for those girls!” he shouted out.

  Everybody was mad at him. Really. He was standing near the fence and Maria went over and stood right in front of him.

  “Why don't you worry about your own team!” she said.

  “I got ball players,” Mr. Treaster said. “I don't have to worry about them.”

  Mike got up and touched the string with his bat. Then Jim threw the ball and Mike missed it. But he hit the string that Mop was almost holding. Actually, she had tied it to her finger and when Mike hit it she fell off the box. Naturally, Mr. Treaster laughed. I laughed, too, a little.

  “You know what I would like to do to him?” Brian said. “I would like to punch him right in the nose.”

  “I don't think I could approve of that,” Sister Car-melita said.

  The whole practice was ruined.

  “Suppose we just stuck an arrow in his rear end and made him a saint like that Sebastian dude?” Brian said.

  As we packed the bases and things up, Sister Carmelita asked if any of us wanted to help her distribute food to the needy that weekend. Nobody volunteered. We were all too down. Before I left, I asked Sister Carmelita was she good in arithmetic when she went to school.