OVERPOPULAS

Chapter 21

Mom laid out the plates for dinner and my dad took some baroque sausages and put them on a tray. It was a bright sunny day out in the backyard of my house, and Alice was out on the patio sitting down in a rocking chair and reading a book. I was looking out the sliding glass door, looking out at the backyard. Eric was playing with the dog out back, throwing a tennis ball and the dog would bring it back. I had a glass of soda in my hand as I opened the door and walked outside.

There was a picnic table set up with a red blanket on top of it. Mom was sitting down, and dad was gonna sit down when they both looked at me.

"Hey there sport!" My dad cheerfully said. "Just in time, we're about to have dinner. Have a seat."

I walked over and pulled out a wooden chair and sat down at the table. My mom slid me a plate with some hot dogs on a bun, they looked so good my mouth was watering just looking at them.

"Alice! Eric! Dinner is ready!" My mother called out. Eric got up from the grass with the dog and ran over.

"Alright, hot dogs! Dad always grills them the best." Eric said, quickly taking a seat next to me and grabbing a plate.

"You know it." My dad responded with a hardy laugh.

"Alice!" My mom shouted. "I told you dinner is ready!"

"Sorry mom, I was just finishing a chapter!" Alice yelled back, closing her book.

"You and your books."

Alice walked over and sat in between Eric and I. We all had hot dogs to eat and we chowed down on all of them, every single bite was delicious and I savored every single one of them. I had five hot dogs and some chips that Eric brought to the table. Drinking my soda and the taste goes down my throat and the taste soovers my taste buds.

Once all of us were done eating, mom got up from the table and took all of our plates and cups off the table and to the sink. She started washing the dishes, while my dad came up from behind her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Alice jumped from her seat and ran back all the way to the rocking chair and immediately picked up the book and started reading again.

"Hey Lee." Eric said to me, tossing a football into my arms. "Let's play catch."

I let out a smile and immediately got up from my chair. We went out to the yard and we started throwing the football back and forth.

"Come on, show me that arm of yours!" Eric shouted, as he started running back. I pulled my arm back and gave a hardy throw. Apparently I threw it too hard and it went over the fence of our yard and into the neighbors yard.

"Damn." Eric said, looking back at me. "Looks like you're too strong huh."

"Guess so." I jokingly responded, scratching my head. I walked over to the neighbors fence and that's when I noticed a sign.

BEWARE OF DOG

That's what it said, it was all yellow with a blacked out drawing of a big dog.

"Looks like we're not gonna get our football back." I said, looking at the sign.

"Don't worry!" Eric exclaimed as he started running towards the fence. "I'll get it!" He jumped onto the fence and started climbing it.

"Wait! Didn't you see the sign!?"

"Yeah, but don't worry. I'll be fine." Eric said that as he climbed the fence and hopped over to the other side. The ball was very close to the fence and I leaned up on the fence, looking through the little holes. Eric picked up the ball and turned around to face me. He lifted it up in the air and waved it, like he was waving at me in a crowd.