Missing in Action by Dean Hughes Page B

been trying to practice a little and do what he told me.”
    â€œWho hits the ball to you? Patriarch Reid?” Gordy laughed at the idea.
    â€œNo. Sometimes I throw a ball at the garage out back, and then field it when it bounces back.” That was true, but it didn’t work very well.
    â€œSo was your dad really good at baseball?”
    â€œYeah, I think he was kind of a star in high school. He was good at football, too. He played in college.”
    â€œThen you’re going to be good. Stuff like that comes down through families. My dad didn’t play sports much, but he could break a horse when no one else could, and you’ve gotta be tough and have good balance and everything to stay on a horse when it’s buckin’. Take you.” Gordy started laughing, his voice scratching like a rusty saw. “You could probably shoot a bow and arrow like nobody’s business, if you tried.”
    â€œI don’t think so,” was all he said. He was thinking, though, that he would tell Gordy sometime to lay off that stuff.
    â€œMaybe what we should do,” said Gordy, “is tomorrow night, not play a game, but teach all the guys how to play right. It sounds like you know what to tell ’em.”
    They were walking past the show house. A poster out front said what was playing—a stupid show with lots of girls dancing in fancy dresses. “I remember quite a bit,” Jay said. “You’re supposed to get in front of a ground ball, get your rear end down low, and watch the ball all the way into your glove.”
    â€œNow see, I didn’t know that. Not about getting my butt down.” Gordy stopped and tried the motion, maybe hunching down a little too low.
    â€œYou do it about right. I’ve watched you. You don’t need to change anything.”
    â€œI’m a natural,” Gordy said. “And I don’t mean my face and my butt look the same.” That got him laughing again. He gave Jay a little slug in the shoulder. Skin was still peeling off his nose and forehead. It seemed like he was always sunburned. “I was born knowing what to do. There’s no stopping me.”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    Gordy stopped again. “I’ll tell you what, Chief. Let’s both work like crazy and get really, really good, and then let’s make it to the majors—maybe play on the same team and everything.”
    â€œI doubt I ever could.”
    â€œHey, don’t say that. We can do it. We got the ability,and maybe a lot of other guys do too, but we’ll work harder than them.”
    Jay liked that idea. All of a sudden, it seemed like what he wanted to do.
    â€œI’m good at basketball, too,” Gordy said. He made a motion like he was dribbling, and then he pretended to take a shot. “Gordy Linebaugh sinks another basket!” he said, in a voice like a radio announcer. “That boy never misses. And they tell me all the girls want to smooch with him after the games.”
    Jay was laughing now. He couldn’t help it.
    â€œDid you ever kiss a girl, Chief? You know, someone besides your mother?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI kissed Elaine Gleed one time. I chased her down at recess, back in fifth grade, and I tried to kiss her on the lips, but she turned her head. She slapped me too. But at least I sort of got her. She says she doesn’t like me now, but she does. Someday she’ll be standing in line after a ballgame, just hoping I’ll take her out and smooch with her.”
    Gordy walked all the way to Jay’s house, even though it was out of his way. “Don’t you have to get home?” Jay asked him.
    â€œNaw. My parents don’t pay any attention to what I do. I drive ’em crazy when I’m home. They say I talk too much. I don’t know why they’d say such a thing. You never noticed it, did you?” He grinned.
    It was turning out that Jay liked Gordy about as much