Button Down by Anne Ylvisaker Read Free Book Online Page B

asked. Ned hesitated, but Ralph was right behind them and answered for him.
    “Sure you can. You and Aggie are faster than some of these fellows. We have to have substitutes, Ned. What if someone’s gone on the day we play Burton and Clyde? What then? We have to have extra players just in case. Look at Franklin. He didn’t play for a few days. And Mel was gone that day. What happens if a couple of guys are out? Plus, Burton and Clyde would never dare tackle a girl.”
    “Don’t be so sure about that,” said Tugs. “But I don’t care.”
    “Granddaddy,” said Ned, standing in front of the group at Granddaddy’s porch. Granddaddy slept on.
    “Granddaddy!” Ned said a little louder. Granddaddy snapped awake. He looked at the group and took off his glasses and rubbed them on his shirtfront, then put them on again.
    “Well, I’ll be jiggered,” he said. “I thought I was seeing things. There’s a whole lot of you. Go on around the back. I’ll be right there.”
    Ned followed Granddaddy into the house. “Are you sure this is all right, Granddaddy?”
    “Sure, sure!” said Granddaddy. “Just what the doctor ordered. I’m tired of sitting on that chair all day. Some youngsters around, that’s just the thing. Though, I think you got this without my help.”
    Ned was proud. “Sure,” he said. “But it would make them feel better if it came from you instead of me. More official.”
    “Good,” said Granddaddy. “I know just what to do.”
    “OK,” said Ned, and he led Granddaddy out the back door. Franklin had climbed the apple tree, and Mel was dangling off the lowest branch by his knees.
    “You have some food?” said Paul.
    “Bread and butter would do,” said Ralph.
    “Nope,” said Granddaddy. “Can’t say that snacks are my department. But I can give you some football advice.”
    Granddaddy sat on his barrel. The kids sprawled around him on the ground. They looked at him expectantly.
    “Now, then. Hmmm. So you want to beat Burton Ward at his own game. Well, then. I don’t think it will take much. But it will mean you need to be able to dodge and catch and throw. Dodge and catch and throw. Got it? You don’t want to get mowed over by those fellows, so you got to dodge. You want to get into the end zone with that ball, so you have to be able to throw and catch. And you have to listen to your quarterback. He’ll give you directions. Just do what he says, dodge and catch and throw, and you’ll be fine.”
    Granddaddy got up and started for the house.
    “Wait, Granddaddy,” said Ned. “How do we do that?”
    “Well, you practice catching and throwing and dodging, I suppose.” He stood there studying them. “How many days we got?”
    “We’re playing Saturday, after the Hawks game,” said Ned.
    “This is what?”
    “Wednesday,” said Tugs.
    “All right, then,” said Granddaddy. “Today we throw and catch. Tomorrow, the next step.”
    “What’s the next step?” asked Mel.
    “I’ll tell you tomorrow,” said Granddaddy. “Now, you there, bring over some apples from that pile. The rest of you, get into two lines facing each other. No, farther apart.”
    Granddaddy walked between the two rows. “Take a step back. Now another. OK, one more.” They were at the two edges of the yard. “Everyone in this line is going to take an apple and throw it to the person in the other line. Then they’ll pass it back.”
    They practiced throwing and catching for a while, then Granddaddy stopped them. “Now for dodging,” he said. “You aren’t the meatiest lot I’ve ever seen, but that just means you’ll be harder to grab. Be mosquitoes buzzing around the other team. It’ll drive ’em mad trying to swat you.”
    Granddaddy called Gladdy over. “Stand there like a statue,” he said. Then he waved his stick at the lot of them. “Now, line up here next to me. You’re going to run at Gladdy, dodge around her to the left, circle the apple tree to the right, then come back here and do