Stumptown Kid by Carol Gorman and Ron J. Findley Read Free Book Online Page B

that. Then he smirked and said, “Three o’ yours don’t count. They’re girls.”
    “You ain’t seen nothing till you seen these girls fight,” Walter said behind his catcher’s mask. “They’re like tigers. They could tear you apart.”
    “That so, lardbutt?” Lobo hollered. He rushed headlong at Walter.
    Walter, who’d been crouched in the catcher’s position, reeled back in surprise and fear and toppled over in the dirt.
    That was it for me. I’d been holding in my anger over Lobo at the tryouts. But when he went for Walter, the weakest kid in the neighborhood, I lost control and ran at him, screaming.
    Lobo was unprepared. I knocked him to the ground and began whomping on him real good. He yelled real loud, grabbed my hair, and pulled hard.
    I could hear all the guys running to us, shouting. Alan and Bowie hauled me off Lobo, who was still on his back on the ground, blood spurting from his nose. His buddies pulled him off the ground, and Lobo held onto his nose. The blood was pumping all over his shirt.
    He lunged at me, screaming words you read on bathroom walls, but his buddies held him so he couldn’t come closer.
    “You better watch your back,” Lobo cried, pointing at me and jabbing the air with his finger. “’Cause I’m gonna kill you, Stumptown! You hear me? I’m gonna kill you.”

Chapter Five
    I sat at the kitchen table and watched Vern Jardine stuff his mouth with my mom’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes. His face was long and narrow, and I couldn’t help thinking that he looked a little like a horse. His teeth were even kind of big. The more I thought about it, the more I wished he
was
a horse. I’d much rather my mom had a horse by that name than a boyfriend who sat across the table from me and bumped my knees. I shifted my legs to one side.
    Whinny, Vern. Giddy-up.
    “You’ve really outdone yourself, Mary,” he said. He’d taken off his suit jacket and stuck his napkin in the neck of his shirt so he wouldn’t mess up his front. He rubbed a corner of it over his mouth and said, “This is a great meal. Wouldn’t you say so, Charlie?”
    “Uh-hunh,” I said.
    The daisies were still standing in the canning jar on the table. It had been nice having company when Luther sat in the chair where Vern’s butt was parked now. At least, it was nice until Vern showed up.
    “After supper I have a surprise for you two,” Vern said.
    “What is it, Vern?” Mom smiled.
    “I wrote another song,” he said. “This one’s for you, hon, and I’ll sing it for you both.”
    Mom’s smile faded a bit, and I had all I could do to keep my face straight. Vern Jardine’s got the worst voice in the whole world, and when he sings, I swear if we had dogs in the neighborhood, they’d be howling under the windows.
    It was amazing how a day could start out so good and end up so rotten. After I left Luther at Landen’s it had all gone downhill. Everyone was excited after Lobo left the park. They slapped me on the back and said I was some kind of hero for sticking up for Walter and fighting Lobo, who had a good three inches and maybe ten or fifteen pounds on me.
    But if you want to know the truth, it was just dumb luck. I knocked him off his feet is all I did.
    But I kept thinking about Will and how he didn’t say a word to Lobo when he was yelling stuff at us. And how he didn’t move to help when Lobo attacked Walter or when I was fighting Lobo. When Lobo threatened me at the end, Will looked real upset, though. I think he was trying to tell me with his eyes that he was sorry. But he left with Lobo and those guys. Maybe he was scared, or maybe he didn’t want them mad at him, but I couldn’t help thinking that he wasn’t as much my friend today as he was a few days ago. I thought about calling him when I got home but decided not to. He should call
me
if he wanted to talk about it.
    And now Lobo had it in for me. Johnny had said, “Lobo’s right, Charlie. You’d better watch your back. If