Mock a Mile in My Shoes

Chapter 5

Cackling madly Robbie picked up the football helmet and saddled it in the seat of the swing. He backed up and pulled, forcing the chain to creak and stretch, the whole swingset groaning and bending under the power he exerted.

"Bombs away!" he called out, and let go. The swing snapped back like a slingshot and the football helmet careened into the sky. It shrilled a high note from the wind whipping through the face guard, growing fainter as it disappeared over the row of houses a few blocks away.

"Sportacus? Is that you?" Pixel and Ziggy ran into the playground. They found Robbie in the middle of pulling the swing back again with a catcher's mitt loaded in the makeshift sling.

"What are you doing?" Ziggy cried. "That's not how you play with the sports equipment!"

"Who says there's a right way to play?" Robbie pulled the swing back until the every link in the chain strained.

"But it's making a mess," Pixel said. "All that stuff's falling all over LazyTown, it could be dangerous. Just let it go."

"If you insist," Robbie said. He released the swing and the catcher's mitt shot off in a blink. The children gawked, unable to do anything but watch it disappear. They turned their bulging eyes back on Robbie.

"What did you do that for?" Pixel asked.

"What? I'm only playing," Robbie said with a wicked grin.

"But how is anyone going to play any sports with all of the equipment thrown around broken everywhere?"

"Yeah, I don't understand this game," Ziggy said. Robbie glanced at him and narrowed his eyes at the Mind-Me-Matic remote still clasped in the child's hands.

"It's all very simple," Robbie said. "You don't need toys to play. Why don't you put down that ray gun and play with me instead?"

Ziggy's eyebrows did a dance between excitement and apprehension. In the end he couldn't resist an invitation from his hero. He set the ray gun down on the merry-go-round and approached Robbie.

"Good boy," Robbie said, slipping away from the swingset and moving to the seesaw. He patted the empty seat on the lowered end of the beam and coaxed him closer with a big smile. Pixel shifted his stance but held back with an uncertain mumble, yet he could voice no reason for Ziggy to return.

Once Ziggy was settled in the seat Robbie walked towards the opposite end. He stuck a finger in his mouth and pulled it out to test the direction of the wind. Nodding he continued past the seesaw to the slide. Ziggy leaned over to watch him climb up the playground equipment.

"Where are you going? I thought we were going to play."

Robbie crouched at the top of the slide. His smile twisted into a sneer. "Bombs away," he said, and jumped from the slide to the raised end of the seesaw, slamming down on the lever with all his strength.

Ziggy was catapulted out of the playground. Pixel spun in place to keep the other boy in sight. "Ziggy!" he shouted. Ziggy shouted something back but his voice was carried off with him.

Robbie stepped off the seesaw, drawing Pixel's gaze back to him. The man shaded his eyes against the sun as he tracked Ziggy's course over town. He let out a low whistle. "That might be a new record." The crystal on Robbie's chest beeped and flashed. He spared it a glance and made a satisfied sound. "That'll teach him to take things that don't belong to him."

"Why would you do that?" Pixel exclaimed, attracting Robbie's attention. "He could get hurt, you've got to go after him!"

"Maybe I will," Robbie said, already turning his attention towards the Mind-Me-Matic remote. "First thing's first, though."