At the plate was Cletus Cragglemeister. Hammerhead was clutched in his hands, slowly moving back and forth, like the head of a cobra, preparing to strike. Oafish and hulking, Cletus narrowed his eyes at Sara, glowering. She supposed that he was trying to intimidate her, which seemed kind of silly. Neither he nor his brother had enjoyed much success for the entire game.
This was quite unusual, because the Cragglemeisters were generally the most productive hitters on their team. They must have found their dismal performance today to be particularly disheartening, for after their earlier humiliation in the cafeteria, they were desperate for payback against Sara. Jebediah had almost found it, but thanks to Neil, he had been robbed of his home run.
The only time either of the Cragglemeisters had been on base was this inning, when Jebediah had singled off of a weak grounder that had slowly rolled down the third baseline. Having advanced from first to second, he now stood atop the bag, crouched in anticipation. He was eager for the chance to score the go-ahead run.
Despite the fact that Sara had enjoyed great success against the Cragglemeisters so far in the game, she did not let herself become complacent. She did not fool herself? Cletus was dangerous at the plate. Sara remained focused. If the Beans could get just one more out, victory would be theirs.
"Wait for your pitch, son!" called Jasper from the dugout of the Summer Squashes, chewing at his corncob pipe.
The school janitor served as the coach of his sons' team. He was dressed in his usual garb, with his navy blue overalls, khaki shirt, and black boots. Jasper's mahogany broom was in hand, and he used it even now, sweeping out the concrete corners of the dugout. He couldn't help but clean? even when off duty from his janitorial obligations. The Summer Squashes kept a tidy dugout, that was for sure.
Sara briefly glanced at the one-eyed behemoth, and then toward her own dugout. Coach was standing calmly, his arms crossed against his chest. He nodded slightly to Sara, expressing his faith in her.
Coach's calm and his confidence were catching, and they helped Sara to keep her cool in this high-pressure situation. At their age, the Beans played for fun, not for competition. But they sure wanted to win this one. For the Summer Squashes were their rivals.
She also saw Mr. Murray in the dugout. He sat on the bench, and he was as calm as Coach was. At his side was Nibbler, who smiled at Sara, his tail wagging. Just beyond the dugout, her father, Chief Fresco, leaned against the fence, his wide-brimmed hat tilted back on his head. He had removed his sunglasses, and when Sara looked over at him, he winked.
Sara smiled at her father, then looked back toward the batter, and at her sister, crouched behind home plate. Maria held her glove squarely in the strike zone, providing a good target. As she did before every pitch she released, Sara visualized the path that the ball would take, and the sound mechanics she would employ to ensure such a thing. See it before you do it, she told herself.
She eyed the hulking Cletus, who glowered in return, trying to get inside of her head and psyche her out, as Coach called it. But this was a silly notion. For though Cletus was trying his best to strike fear in her heart, Sara knew that it was all just an act. The fear belonged not to her, but rather, to him. Fear of being beaten by a girl.
Sara smiled at Cletus, and she could see the uncertainty in his eyes, as the mask of strength and bravado temporarily melted from him. She wound up, squeezing the baseball with her throwing hand, inside of her glove. As she completed her delivery, the ball was released, rolling from her fingertips. It cut through the air, racing for the target of Maria's mitt, behind home plate.
Cletus swung his great, wooden bat, grunting with the exertion of it. His eyes followed the ball, and his tongue was pinched between his teeth in concentration. There was a great crack! And then the ball was in play.
The ball had been struck with a great deal of force, but the bat had connected with it high. Therefore, the ball remained on the ground. It zipped along the grass of the infield, right up the middle, heading back toward the pitcher's mound.
Sara saw it coming, but she was somewhat off-balance, because she had just finished her pitching delivery. Reacting by reflex, she reached her glove behind herself in an awkward movement, stabbing for the ball. But it was traveling too fast. It glanced off of the leather of her glove, and kept going, straight up the middle of the diamond.
As the grounder shrieked toward the edge of the infield, Jack dove for it. He leaped headfirst, with no thought whatsoever given for his personal safety. His glove was extended before himself, reaching for the ball.
He landed hard, sending a great plume of dust into the air, and the breath was forced from him in an oof! But the webbing of his glove remained just shy of the ball, which passed within an inch of the leather. It skipped over second base, and into the outfield, still traveling at a terrific speed.
Breathless, Jack pounded his fist on the ground in frustration, as the ball passed him by. The base-runner who had been at third came in to home plate to score. The runner who had been at second, Jebediah, was approaching third base on a rounded path, preparing to dash for the go-ahead run.
When Cletus had hit the ball, Neil had begun sprinting from his place in centerfield, where he had been fairly deep. Now, he was coming up on the infield, and the grounder continued forth like a laser, heading right for him.
Neil quickly took a knee, placing his glove on the ground, and using his body as a shield, should the ball squeak past his leather. As it was, the ball rolled into his glove, and its great velocity caused it to travel up the heel of his hand before he could squeeze it. His body blocked it, and Neil was able to grab the ball with his free hand, as it came up into the folds of his jersey.
With no time to spare, Neil sprang to his feet. He saw Jebediah rounding third base, going for home. If he scored, the game would be over, and it would end in victory for the Summer Squashes? and defeat for the Beans.
Amid the howling of the players, and the roaring of the fans, and the excited barking of Nibbler, Neil drew back his arm, and prepared to throw the ball.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Rivalry Lives On
There was no time to waste. Neil launched the ball forward. He didn't have the arm strength to get it to home plate in time, and he knew it. So he threw it to Sara, who stood just behind the pitcher's mound, her glove held high, signaling for the relay.
Neil threw the ball, and she caught it, turning even as it connected with her glove. She pivoted, and threw the ball home with all her strength.
Maria stood behind home plate in a half-crouch, awaiting the throw. Her catcher's mask had been tossed aside, and her eyes were bright with anticipation. Her face was scrunched in concentration, and covered with a thin layer of dirt that had accumulated during the baseball game.
A few strands of her ponytail had come loose and dangled before her eyes, but she ignored them. Maria could hear the base-runner, Jebediah, thundering closer. She braced herself for the impending collision.
The ball came in, true to the target, hitting Maria's glove squarely in the center. She dropped to one knee, bringing her catcher's mitt to the dirt directly in front of home plate, defending it from Jebediah. She placed her empty hand over the ball inside of her glove, to further protect it, and prevent it from being jarred loose.
Jebediah got there at precisely the same moment. He had known that it was going to be a close play. As he reached home plate, he launched his body into a slide, feet first. Dust plumed up from the area around home plate in an enormous cloud. The umpire hovered above, his mask removed, squinting into the carnage.
A couple of seconds passed, and then the umpire cried, "Out!" Pumping his fist, he said it again. "You're out!"
Jasper came running from the dugout to protest, his mahogany broom clenched tightly in one fist. But as the dust around home plate began to clear, it quickly became obvious that the umpire had made the correct call.
Jebediah's cleat remained just shy of home plate. It had been blocked
by Maria's glove, which remained planted in the dirt, stalwartly defending the plate. Maria had held her ground against her much larger, stronger opponent. She was average sized for a ten-year-old girl, but she had a heart that was anything but average.
Jebediah looked at this end result in a delayed horror, his eyes filled with disbelief. He was having a terrible day. With a groan, he covered his eyes with his hands, and fell back against the earth in defeat.
Jasper had come all the way from the dugout, and now stood over home plate, shaking his head in disapproval. "Sweet sassafras? What in tarnation were ya thinkin', boy?"
Jebediah reluctantly removed his hands from his eyes, and looked up at his father from his place on the ground. "I thought I had the throw beat, pa! I mean, they had to relay it and everything."
"You're darned right you should have beat the throw. Ya must have been doggin' it, to get thrown out like that!" Jasper hollered. After a moment of thought, he added, "Thrown out by a girl! And then, ya got tagged out by another girl!"
"Naw, I wasn't doggin' it, pa!" Jebediah protested, leaping to his feet.
The discussion between father and son continued, but the Beans paid it no mind. They were too busy celebrating. Maria had sprinted out to exchange high-fives with her sister. Jack, Neil, and the rest of the team quickly joined them at the center of the infield, where they whooped it up and slapped palms.
Watching their celebration, one would have thought they had won the game. But this was not the case. The game had ended in a tie. The runner had scored from third base, eliminating the one run lead that the Beans held.
But this was okay. They had been a hair's breath away from losing the game to their rivals, the Summer Squashes. The excitement of the final play had been enough to invigorate the team beyond words. Sure, the game had ended in a tie, and not a win? but it was better than a loss to the Cragglemeisters.
Coach, Mr. Murray, and Nibbler joined the ruckus, jumping up and down with the Beans in their excitement. Nibbler woofed in time with the cheering, lending a decidedly canine presence to the joy of the moment.
"Green Beans!" the players chanted, as they tackled Coach to the ground, piling atop him. Coach was so invigorated by the final, thrilling play of the game, he didn't even protest the abuse upon his creaky back.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A Place With Character
"Listen," Neil said. His speech was somewhat impeded by the presence of pizza, which he was wolfing down with a great hunger. "I'm telling you, guys. There's something in those woods. I'm sure of it!"
He was talking to Sara, Maria, and Jack. The four of them had circled up during the post-game pizza ritual.
Following each game at the Hollow Oak Baseball League, a feast of pizza was presented to the participants. Win or lose, the players of both teams got to indulge in the heaping platters of pizza goodness. And consume it, they would, for these middle graders played baseball with all their hearts. And baseball, when played with one's whole heart, was both thrilling and exhausting. These players needed to refuel!
The Hollow Oak Baseball League had been founded many years previous by a man who went by the name of Farmer Meriweather. Blessed with fantastic agricultural skills (and what Coach liked to call a green thumb), he was the premier farmer of the region. People came from all the neighboring towns, simply to purchase his robust vegetables, and he enjoyed a thriving business.
But blessed as he was in the arena of farming, he had no such blessings when it came to children. He had longed for children all his life, and he wished for the sounds of their laughter to fill his rambling farmhouse. But as the years passed by, and he became first a middle-aged man, and then an old one, Farmer Meriweather came to realize that parenthood was not to be his.
Undeterred by his lack of luck concerning children, he decided that he could still bring much happiness to the young ones, even if he was never to have any of his own. Using the money he had earned in his farming ventures, he independently founded the baseball league for the town.
Due to his passion for the cultivation of vegetables, Farmer Meriweather chose to name the teams of his newly formed league after these tasty and nutritious items. Thus, the teams had names such as the Green Beans and the Summer Squashes. Other teams included the Chickpeas, the Banana Peppers, and the Celery Sticks, among others.
Times had changed since the long-ago origins of the town's baseball league. In honor of Farmer Meriweather, however, the team names had remained constant. In this day and age, most towns named their teams after the businesses that sponsored them, as a means of raising money.
Although Hollow Oak would sell advertising space on the outfield fence, the townspeople had made it clear that the names of the teams were not for sale. They retained their quirky vegetable titles, in honor of their founder.
Another tradition that had remained throughout the many years of the town's baseball league was the post-game pizza ritual. Farmer Meriweather had understood that giving the players delicious pizza after the game was a key component of the recovery process. As mentioned previously, playing baseball with one's whole heart was an exhausting endeavor, on every level - physically, mentally, and emotionally.
And what better way to restore those depleted energies than with pizza? As an advocate of good health for children, Farmer Meriweather was interested in seeing that the young baseball players developed an interest in the wonders of vegetables. So the pizzas he had prepared for the players were loaded with them. Atop the whole grain dough, tomato sauce, and cheese, there were peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and olives. These pizzas were chockfull of nutritious ingredients.
Plus, pizza was undeniably delicious. Everybody liked pizza. Even Jasper, the cantankerous janitor, had a small smile on his stubbly face, as he nibbled at his pizza, murmuring to himself in satisfaction. "Mmmm," he mumbled thoughtfully. "Mmmm. That's darned good pizza."
Farmer Meriweather had long since disappeared, but his legacy of baseball and vegetables lived on. His property, along with the rambling farmhouse, was nowadays empty, lying at the outskirts of Hollow Oak.
Just because Farmer Meriweather was gone, however, did not necessarily mean that his farm was now void of activity. Tales of? happenings? at the abandoned property often circulated throughout the town.
But that, my astute reader, is a tale for another volume. For now, simply remember that Hollow Oak was a town with a history. A place? with character, you might say.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Plotting Over Pizza
As they devoured their pizza, Neil, Jack, Sara, and Maria stood behind the Snack Shack. It was a concrete structure that had been built just behind the chain-link backstop of the baseball field. It featured a super-large opening that revealed an interior that was filled with all manner of snacks and drinks, as well as two large pizza ovens.
Neil's mother, Loretta, worked within the Snack Shack, dispensing hot slices of pizza and cold bottles of water to all the players. Even as busy as she was, she found time to tell Neil that some cheese and tomato sauce had found its way onto his chin.
"Neil, use your napkin!" she called.
Wiping at his chin, Neil continued to tell his friends about his observations of the thing in the woods. The four of them stood in a small circle, amidst the center of the Green Beans, who were eagerly devouring their slices of pizza. Some distance away, the Summer Squashes morosely chewed on their own pizza, with the Cragglemeisters intermittently pointing fingers at their teammates and voicing their theories on the blame of others. Nibbler roamed about all the players, searching for fallen crumbs of pizza crust.
"Time seemed to slow, you understand?" Neil asked.
His eyes had grown wide with wonder, as he reflected upon his experience, when he had tracked down Jebediah's fly ball. For his friends, he recounted all the observations he had made in that moment, including the noises, the waft of strange breath, and (perhaps most convincing of all) the glowing, green eyes.
It might
seem that such a story would be greeted with skepticism and disbelief. And it might seem that his friends would think Neil was either exaggerating or playing a prank. But you must remember, these were not grownups, but middle graders. They had not yet been stripped of their imaginations by the boredoms and routines of adulthood. And so, when Neil told them of what he had seen and smelled and heard, they did not react with skepticism. They believed him.
Neil's excitement over the matter was contagious, and soon spread to his friends. They were as intrigued as he was in the matter, and they were thrilled with the prospect of adventure.
"We need to find out what's back there," Neil said, gesturing toward the woods behind the outfield fence with a cheese-covered finger. "We need to launch? an investigation. We need to do it tonight, before the beast moves on to other territories. We could launch an expedition, after our parents go to sleep."
"Uh? I'm all for adventure," Sara said. "But I don't know? we're kind of on thin ice, as it is. We got in pretty big trouble for the food fight, and dad said we should be on our best behavior until further notice."
"Oh, come on!" Jack protested. "How often does something like this happen in our sleepy town? This is awesome! It could be the opportunity of a lifetime."
"I gotta agree with the boys, sis," Maria said. Her eyes were aglow with the prospect of adventure. "Think about it? this could be the most exciting thing we've ever done!"
"Well? couldn't we just wait until Saturday to do it?" Sara suggested.
"Tonight!" Neil insisted. He wiggled his fingers for emphasis, as he explained. "I'm telling you, that thing was staring me down with its weeeeiiird, green eyes. I have to find out what's back there. I need to find out what's back there. It has to be tonight."
"You have to admit, Sara," Maria said. "It would be way cooler if it was a nighttime expedition. We could bring flashlights, and all sorts of handy supplies."
"Mmmm? yeah, that might be true," Sara said. She was on the fence, teetering at the point of indecision.
"This isn't the Sara that I know," Jack said, giggling. "The Sara I know is completely fearless. The Sara I know is the first to jump into the deep end of the pool. The Sara I know is always eager to show the boys that she can beat them at anything. Why should beast tracking be any different?"
The Green Beans, Volume 1: The Mystery of Hollow Oak Page 7
