Forlot: The Only Golf Course - Book Sixty-Eight

Chapter Four

The four of us watched the pink ball fly into the air and disappear deep in the woods surrounding the huge golf course. We were silent for about ten seconds before my friends and I laughed. We could not help it. It probably is the funniest - and dumbest - thing that my sister has ever done. I was happy that she is a klutz. That is what she gets for trying golf. She has not even started!

She will make golf a farce if she plays. Then people will avoid playing and watching it like the plague. I will not be the best golfer in town because golf will be obsolete. I will be a nobody living in Lizzy's shadow again. I may wind up...taking my life. I cannot let that happen. I can never let her play if I want the heart of golf to live on. I must sabotage her. And Frida and Anais will help.

"Shoot," Lizzy spoke. "I lost my favorite ball. It was my only one too. Now how will I play?"

My friends and I stopped laughing and looked at her.

"You brought only one ball?" Anais said.

"Did you know where you were going to?" Frida added. "Or did you think that there was a bar where you could flirt and sleep—"

"I will handle this," I reassured them. "After all...I am a golf expert. I know that you must move your ball - your white ball - using your club. Eh. Everybody knows this. You never throw your ball. You are not allowed to lay a finger on the ball unless that it is in a hazard."

Lizzy giggled and slapped my back, making me stagger forward. I managed to keep my balance. She tossed the pink golf bag on the grass and started to the woods. "It was an accident. I was startled by your friends."

Frida talked so loud that anyone near the course would have heard her. "Blaming everybody but yourself. That is the Lizzy way."

Lizzy was swaying her arms back and forth and giggled again. "What I said is a fact. I am so not stupid enough to chuck a ball into the woods."

I caught up to her just as she stopped at the edge of the woods. "Liz. What do you think that you are doing?"

She smiled at me. "I am fetching my ball. I cannot play without it."

Knew it.

"This will teach you to have spare balls. And they must not be pink."

"Is there a rule that the balls cannot be pink?"

"Not really. It is just that white balls are easier to find."

"But white balls get dirtier - and are not as pretty."

I grinned. "So I guess that we are not pretty."

"Huh?"

"You claimed that white balls are not pretty. Both of us have white skin. So we are not pretty."

"Silly balls do not compare to God's creations."

She mentions God or anything pertaining to Him from time to time to fool our family and her friends that she is a child of God. She is faaaaaaar beyond it.

I nodded to the woods. "You sure that you want to look for your ball in the dark woods?"

My sister brushed her long hair away from her eyes. "It is not difficult to find a clean, gorgeous ball."

"Unless that it is pink."

"Do you hate pink or something?"

"Guess that I am growing sick of pink." I wanted to say that seeing her ugly face makes me puke. But I did not want her to kill me and hide my body in the woods.

She looked back at the woods and took a step forward. She looked back at me. "Izzy? May I ask a favor of you? A small favor?"

I knew exactly what her favor was. I glared at her. "Let me guess. You want me to endanger my life by going in these woods to get back your ball."

Lizzy was taken aback. She clasped her hands together. "Wow. You must know a ton about me."

"More than you will ever know."

As much as I did not want to step foot into the woods - and it was dangerous because said woods were big and darker than the sky at night - I went. I knew the woods a little more than my sister. She would have gotten lost the moment that she stepped in! I tried convincing her that she could get more pink golf balls. As many as she wanted. But she still wanted the one in the woods. She said that she would not leave until she had it back. Dad and Mom would punish me if I left her.

They remember me only when I am in trouble.

I did not want to go alone and asked Anais and Frida if either wanted to join. I was a little surprised when they both volunteered. They are not chickens when it comes to me. They also did not want to stay with Lizzy, scared that she would try something - like stabbing them with one of her clubs.

"You will not leave while we are in the woods, will you? 'Cause you will not get your ball back if you do," I said.

Lizzy raised her right hand. "I swear to stay in this very spot until you return. But if you all do not return in the next forty-eight hours, I will just contact the police and report you missing. It hopefully will not come to that. I am positive that you will locate my ball in no time. The only thing that can stop you is a person or a creature in the woods. But what person would be lurking in them? You have to be really bored to be lurking near a course. And there are no such things as creatures. So there will be no problem."

"You done?" Frida asked.

"Yep."

Suddenly, I heard a low growl.