It was the day the pools opened and all the screaming children flocked to the water. Except for the lifeguards, which had to work all day, the older boys went to the movies. As for me, I went midday to attempt to pick up the girl working the popcorn, and try to get the manager to take suggestions. But again, he sent us out, telling us to lay off the girl and that he would try to dig up something good.
We sat on the curb outside the theater, and drank a pop. Thomas was sitting next to me. He was always a bit shy, and had short, curly black hair. Jacob, my younger brother, was on my left, pestering me to buy him a new baseball. I gave in.
“Come on!” Jacob yelled to me as he ran down the street to the drugstore.
“Oh, no! We can’t go in there, Jacob. He’ll kill us!”
“He can’t do anything, Michael. He’s the sales clerk today,” Jacob replied with his innocent face.
“No! Jac-”
Jacob raced into the store. I ran after him, pulling out the ninety-six cents that the baseballs cost.
“Just walk in, buy the ball, walk out,” I repeated in my head.
“What’s wrong?” Thomas inquired.
“Ray is working today,” I sighed.
Thomas cursed and ran harder.
“Hey, Ray!” Jacob hollered as he hopped onto the thick counter.
Ray leaned over and glared at him.
“If you’re here to buy, find what you want, and leave. If you’re here to fool around, get out.”
Jacob smirked.
“Well, I guess that just depends on how nice you are to me.”
“Well I guess that how you behave depends on if you walk or roll out!” Ray returned.
“Quit messing around and find the ball,” I said.
Jacob turned towards the door, surprised to find that Thomas and I had been calmly watching the entire exchange from the corner of the drugstore. He jumped down from the counter, and sauntered to a shelf. He spotted his item on the top, and began to clamber up. Jacob leaned back, and I saw a nail shoot out of the metal beam. Before I could warn him, the entire shelf toppled down onto him.
I stared in awe as Ray exploded into a fit of curses and Thomas ran the crash site.
Suddenly, Jacob’s head popped up, holding a baseball, and grinning.
“I got the one I wanted!” he said.
All we could do was sit down, laugh, and clean up the mess.
We rolled up alongside the curb, and Ray hopped out the car. He walked up to a dilapidated trailer. Except for the rust, the trailer was mainly a tannish yellow and had one window broken, with glass shards strewn under the bushes. But before Ray could knock, the screen door flew open, revealing Tommy Austin. Tommy was a piece of work. His long, blonde hair appeared almost drawn by an artist, he had his signature plain white T-shirt with a pair of torn up blue jeans.
