Like People in History by Felice Picano Read Free Book Online

Guy's relief) and replaced by the sailboat. Augie took that easily with his big onyx blaster. But Alistair won it back. On and on they went, until Augie hit lucky and the onyx almost cracked the sailboat in half knocking it out of the ring. Alistair now had one stone left.
    He stood up and began to powwow with the others.
    "Don't worry," I said to Augie. "You'll take him out and you'll pitch first tomorrow."
    They returned to the ring, and Alistair said, "It's obvious that I can't win unless I have a stone as good as Augie's onyx."
    "Does that mean you're giving up?" I asked.
    "No. It means that I need a stone as good as the onyx. I'm told there's only one other stone in this neighborhood that good. Your tourmaline."
    "My tourmaline?" I gasped.
    Now this was indeed a true fact. For the past two years, my tourmaline had terrorized the marble rings of our suburb, so dominating the game it effectively ended all play. However, my tourmaline wasn't merely a big, dense, beautiful multicolored stone. It was a gift from my uncle Ted, a Navy captain, who'd bought the large, expensive stone in Ceylon when he was on duty, and had it turned into special gifts for us—earrings for my mom, a charm for my sister's bracelet, and a playing marble for me. The thought of letting another person, never mind Alistair, use it was so unthinkable to me it literally nauseated me.
    "You've got it," Ronny said. "That means you guys intended to use it."
    "Did not!"
    "Then why'd you bring it?"
    "No one's using my tourmaline but me," I declared.
    "In that case you'll have to shoot against Augie," Alistair said, effectively trapping me.
    "Use the tortoiseshell," I said. "That's still left."
    "Everyone knows it's not as good," Kerry said.
    "Then use your head," I told him. "It's about the right size."
    We were gridlocked.
    Alistair stood up and said, "Well, guys, I've done everything I know to make this a fair match."
    The logical next assumption was that I was the one being unfair.
    "I'm not playing against Augie. Period,"
    "Then give me the tourmaline," Alistair said.
    I didn't know what to do. Looking at Augie was no help. Despite his terrific shooting, he now wore that hangdog look that showed that he was already defeated—not by a marble shooter, but by the complications my second cousin had introduced into the game, into our friendship, into poor Augie's until-then Edenically innocent life.
    "We're waiting!" Kerry sang out.
    I promised myself that the minute Alistair had gone back to Michigan, I'd waylay the little creep and beat him to the consistency of tapioca.
    I snuck a look at Alistair. He was enjoying this, really and truly enjoying the predicament he'd gotten me into, watching and waiting what I'd do to get out of it. That infuriated and decided me.
    "Fine! I'll shoot against Augie!" I declared.
    Before any of them could respond, I went to the circle, dropped to one knee, pulled out the tourmaline, and shot it hard, directly into the blank, glazed surface of the onyx lying in the middle of the ring.
    It gave the onyx a good smash and sent it whirling and gyrating out of the circle, then sent it whirling and gyrating back in again, where the onyx stopped, inert.
    "No fair!" Alistair shouted behind me.
    "It was a good shot!" the others shouted.
    It had been a good shot, an honest shot with a freak result. Any marble player worth his oats could see I'd really given it everything.
    The next shot was Augie's, and he took my tourmaline easily. A few days later, he actually tried to let me win it back. I said no, he should keep it.
    As for Alistair, he was livid. Truly livid, in that I'd done the honorable thing the honorable way and had honorably lost a valuable—even a legendary—marble, even if to my friend, and not one among them could say I'd in any way balked or complained about it.
    He waited until we got home before shoving me into the wall behind my bedroom door. Holding my own bat horizontally against my neck until I began to feel faint