Waiting It Out - Benny Rodriguez - Book 1

First and Second Attempts

Smalls found out his stepdad was coming back in 5 days. It sounds like a lot of time but we have no idea what we're gonna do to get the ball back.

After the fake was placed back in his trophy room, we all had the rest of the day to try and think of what to do.

Needless to say... we came up with nothing.

It's the day after now and we're sitting in the tree house quitely, trying to think of a way to get the ball without dieing.

"Hey, I got it!" Smalls says, breaking the silence. "Why don't we just go over, and knock on the door, and ask Mr. Mertle to get it for us?"

I personally didn't think it was a bad idea.

"Are you out of your mind? Mr. Mertle's the meanest old man that ever lived." Squints told him. "He's the one that made The Beast eat that kid. It's not an option Smalls. Forget about it!"

That's a bit much.

"Oh, okay. Sorry. I will." Smalls says.

"I'll try it." I tell everyone.

None of the wusses have the balls to.

"And have him send the dog on you?! Let's just look out the window." Squints says to the group.

We all go over to the windows and look down into Mertle's back yard.

After a few seconds, we hear the The Beast growl and the ball almost get tossed out of the dog house.

Of course all the boys jump back and run away from the winodw.

I didn't go right away but was forced to when Benny pulled on the belt loop of my jeans to bring me away from the window.

I don't care if this dog is seven feet tall, there's no way in hell he could jump up here.

"He's darin' us." Timmy says, pointing to the winodw with a toy arrow.

"We're on his territoy now." Ham tells us.

"Anybody got any bright ideas?" Benny asks the group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The best idea any of us could come up with was to take off one of the wooden boards at the bottom of the fence, take a stick, and try to poke it over.

Everbody except me and Squints are gonna control the stick. 

Squints elected to look over with some weird thing he made out of several cereal boxes that he insists will help him see better.

The two of us are sitting on the balcony, looking over the fence.

I'm only up here because they don't need 9 people to direct a stick. They don't need 8 but there's no point in arguing.

"Go!" Squints whisper-shouts to the boys, indicating it's safe for them to start moving the stick.

They end up pushing it about a foot away from the ball.

"Farther." Squints tells them.

They continue to push it through until it's grazing over the ball.

"Just a little bit farther." Squints says, looking back at the group.

They're about it start moving it when a big paw lands on the stick and the ball.

Of course I saw it coming but what would be the fun in telling them.

Besides, it's Squnits job to tell them what to do when.

They all start screaming and I'm just watching the scene with an unamused expression.

The Beast grabs the end of the stick with it's mouth and starts playing a tug-of-war with the boys pulling on the other end.

Eventually, The Beast releases and Ham pulls the stick back through the hole in the fence.

It's been bit a lot shorter now and has slober on the end of it.

This only makes the boys scream more and I can't help but roll my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since the easily broken stick didn't work out, we decided to try a metal pole with a pot on the end of it.

We're all back in our positions. Me and Squints on the balcony of the tree house and the rest holding onto the pole to maneuver it through the hole according to what Squints tells them.

"Father." Squints says.

The boys move the pole until it's less than 6 inches away from the ball.

"Just a little bit farther."

They move the pole over the ball and rotate the poll to have the pot facing down.

They gentley put the pot over the ball and have it touch the ground without a sound.

But this doesn't mean The Beast didn't notice.

"You got it. Pull it back." Squints tells them as I head to the ground, already knowing what's gonna happen.

I hear the guys start screaming and yelling at the others to pull it back.

This time, the pole is pulled through the hole and the boys all fall back.

The pole is somehow thrown over the fence, all twisted and bent.

Okay... maybe I didn't see that coming.

We all go over and form a circle around it.

"I think we've seriously underestimated The Beast." Timmy says, thinking out loud.

"We're obviously dealing with the superior intellegence." Squints tells us.

All the boys agree and I speak up, "I don't even want to know how it did that."