The Away Game Read online

  Things went pretty well all afternoon. Rhino remembered what to do on all the routine plays. It wasn’t so easy on tricky ones like double-play attempts or when Dylan bunted and the throw came from the catcher.

  “Great work,” Coach said to him after practice. “Like everything else about playing first base, it will get easier after a while. Just relax. Soon you’ll square up automatically. You won’t have to think about it.”

  “Thanks, Coach.” Rhino gathered his bat and glove and sweatshirt from the bench. Then he heard a familiar voice.

  “It’s going to be a long weekend,” Dylan said, poking his head into the dugout. “No one to tuck you in at night or sing you a lullaby.”

  “Very funny,” Rhino replied. “Why don’t you grow up, Dylan? You always want to bully somebody.”

  “Yeah,” said Bella. “Grow up, Dylan. Rhino isn’t afraid of anything.”

  Dylan laughed. “Then he shouldn’t be bothered by a little teasing.”

  “I’m not,” Rhino said. He turned to Bella. “See you tomorrow in school.”

  As he walked home, Rhino tried to stay positive. He’d learned a new first-base skill today. The tournament would be exciting and fun.

  But one thought kept coming back to him. Two nights away from home. Even his thinker didn’t have a good response to that.

  Just stay focused, his thinker told him. Just have fun.

  Rhino knew that wouldn’t be easy. He stopped and looked back at the baseball field. He was comfortable here. He hit home runs and made great plays at first base. And his teammates considered him a leader.

  Everything would feel different on Saturday. He’d be away from home for the first time. And he’d also be away from his second home.

  Rhino rushed home from school on Friday. The bus was scheduled to leave for the state capital at 4:00 P.M., and he wanted to spend time with Grandpa first.

  Rhino carefully folded his Mustangs uniform and some extra clothes. “I’ll wear my cap,” he said to Grandpa, proudly placing the blue cap with the big white M on his head.

  “You look like an all-star,” Grandpa said with a grin.

  Rhino went to the kitchen and grabbed a loaf of bread. He counted out twelve slices, then took the peanut-butter and jelly jars from the cabinet. He was spreading peanut butter on the second slice when Grandpa came in.

  “That’s a lot of sandwiches,” Grandpa said.

  Rhino counted off the number on his fingers. “Dinner tonight; breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow; breakfast and lunch on Sunday.”

  Grandpa laughed. “You don’t need to bring your own food,” he said. “That will be provided.”

  “Oh.” Rhino looked at what he’d already prepared. “Maybe I should bring a few sandwiches anyway.”

  “Good idea,” Grandpa said. “How about two?” He started to put the unused slices back in the bread bag.

  “Midnight snacks,” Rhino said. “I get hungry!”

  “I know,” Grandpa said. “You and C.J. have mighty big appetites.”

  Grandpa drove Rhino to the baseball field, where a bus was waiting. Most of the team members were already on board.

  Cooper’s dad was waiting outside. He shook hands with Rhino and Grandpa James. “Cooper’s saving you a seat in there,” he said.

  Rhino gave Grandpa a hug. His eyes were stinging, but he smiled. He waved hard to Grandpa as the bus pulled away.

  Several parents were on the bus. They sat up front. Rhino felt better as soon as he took his seat next to Cooper. Bella switched on some music and they sang along as the bus headed down the highway.

  Everyone on the team had decided to make the trip. There was a lot of joking around and talk about how exciting the games would be. Rhino forgot all about being worried.

  “Why isn’t Cinderella a good shortstop?” Bella asked.

  No one knew the answer to Bella’s joke.

  “Because she runs away from the ball!”

  “I’ve got one,” Carlos said. “Why can’t a zebra ever reach first base?”

  “Because he can’t hold the bat?” Rhino asked.

  “No,” Carlos replied. “Three stripes and you’re out!”

  Most of the jokes were silly after that, but everyone was laughing and acting goofy. Almost everyone.

  Rhino glanced back. Dylan was sitting alone several rows behind him, staring out the window. He wasn’t laughing at all.

  Rhino nudged Cooper. “What’s with Dylan?”

  Cooper took a quick look. “Maybe he’s bus sick.”

  “It’s been a smooth ride,” Rhino said. He kneeled on the seat and said, “Hey, Dylan.”

  Dylan looked up.

  “You all right?” Rhino asked.

  Dylan nodded. “Just thinking about the tournament,” he said.

  “Think about it later,” Cooper said. “Have some fun.”

  Dylan pulled his Mustangs cap low over his eyes and shook his head.

  “Let him be,” Rhino said. At least Dylan wasn’t making fun of anyone, as he often did. But Dylan didn’t look serious. He looked worried.

  After a while, Rhino went back and sat across the aisle from Dylan. Dylan glared at him.

  “How’s your arm?” Rhino asked. Dylan was scheduled to pitch for the Mustangs tomorrow.

  Dylan bent his elbow and rubbed his bicep. “It feels great,” he said. He turned toward the window again. Then he asked, “You?”

  “I’m ready,” Rhino said. “A little nervous … about the tournament. I guess that’s natural.”

  Dylan hunched up and said, “Yeah.”

  Rhino could tell that Dylan didn’t feel like talking.

  After dinner at a pizza restaurant, the team checked into their hotel. “Nice room,” Cooper said. There were two beds and a cot. Rhino set his knapsack on the cot and looked around.

  “Do you want a bed?” Cooper asked.

  “You and your dad can have those,” Rhino said. The cot looked cozy. The beds were bigger than his at home.

  “Look how high up we are,” Cooper said, pointing out the window. Their room was on the eighth floor.

  Rhino looked out, too. The city was much bigger than their hometown—lots of tall buildings and busy streets. “I wonder where the baseball field is,” he said.

  Cooper pointed to a stadium about three blocks away. Bleachers wrapped around the entire baseball field, and colorful pennants blew in the breeze. It almost looked like a professional stadium.

  They heard laughing out in the hall, then a knock on the door. Carlos, Bella, and two other teammates came in.

  “Can we play some games in here?” Bella asked, holding up a box.

  “Sure,” said Cooper’s dad. He turned on the television to watch a baseball game. The kids crowded around the small table.

  “I love overnight trips,” Carlos said.

  That surprised Rhino. First of all, when had quiet Carlos ever been on a trip like this? And second, Carlos was usually nervous about things like baseball games and tests. Why was he so relaxed tonight?

  “My church choir goes on trips a couple of times a year,” Carlos said. “We sing at other churches. But the most fun is at night—telling jokes in the hotel rooms, making a mess with chips and sodas.”

  “Do your parents go on the trips with you?” Rhino asked. He immediately wished he hadn’t said that. Why else would he ask unless he was afraid of being away from Grandpa James?

  “Sometimes they do,” Carlos said. “Sometimes not.”

  Rhino nodded. He noticed that Bella was giving him a small smile. She winked.

  “Where’s everybody else?” Cooper asked.

  “In another room, doing the same thing we are,” Carlos said. “Except Dylan. He went right to bed.”

  “Is he all right?” Cooper’s dad asked.

  “I think so,” Carlos said. “He just said he was tired. Hey, why does it take so long to run from second base to third?”

  “It doesn’t,” Rhino replied.

  “It’s
a joke,” Carlos said. “It takes so long because there’s a short stop between the bases.”

  Rhino groaned. He tossed a pretzel at Carlos. Then he took a handful of chips and laughed. For the next hour he had a blast with his friends.

  “Lights out in ten minutes,” Cooper’s father announced. The others went back to their rooms.

  Rhino lay awake for a long time. He wasn’t used to the sounds of the city. He heard a siren in the distance, and a truck beeped down below.

  Tomorrow would be a big day. That stadium looked awesome.

  Rhino missed Grandpa James. He wished he could tell him that. He missed C.J., too.

  Rhino remembered C.J.’s story about camping out. The sights and sounds outside this hotel room were much different from the tent by the lake. But Rhino felt just as lonely as C.J. had.

  Then he remembered something else about C.J.’s trip. Have a snack, his thinker told him.

  Rhino quietly opened his knapsack. He unwrapped a PB&J sandwich. It was his favorite meal.

  It made him feel just a little bit better.

  Rhino yawned in the elevator as the team went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. He’d slept, but not as much as usual. Twice he’d woken up not knowing where he was. It made him jump.

  For once, Rhino didn’t feel hungry. He ordered two eggs and a slice of ham, but he stared at the food for a few minutes before taking a bite.

  “Not cooked the way you like it?” Cooper asked.

  “It’s fine,” Rhino said. He took another nibble. Grandpa made much better scrambled eggs. Better toast, too.

  Cooper’s dad’s phone rang. “Hello?” he said. “Oh, hi! Sure, he’s right here.” He reached across to Rhino. “It’s for you.”

  “Me?” Rhino took the phone. “Hello?”

  “Good morning, Little Rhino!” It sounded so good to hear Grandpa’s voice on the other end. Rhino forgot all about being homesick. He told Grandpa about the fancy hotel room and the view of the city. “We laughed a lot last night,” he said. “We played games and joked around. It was cool.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Grandpa said. “There’s nothing like bonding with your teammates. Now, you have a great game today. Can’t wait to hear about it.”

  “Wish you could see it!”

  Rhino dug into his eggs. They tasted much better. He spread his toast with butter and jelly and drank his entire glass of orange juice.

  Coach Ray stood up and tapped a fork on his plate to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s get suited up and meet in the lobby in fifteen minutes,” he said. “We’ll have batting practice at the field this morning. Game time is eleven o’clock. I want everybody looking sharp. Shirts tucked in. Caps on straight. We want to look like we belong here!”

  Rhino pulled the brim of his cap to make sure it was straight. Then he rushed upstairs to put on his uniform.

  A team in red-and-white pinstriped uniforms was leaving the field as the Mustangs arrived. Their jerseys said CARDINALS.

  “That’s the team from the capital league,” Coach said. “Our opponents this morning.”

  Some of the Cardinals looked much bigger than any of the Mustangs, Rhino thought. But maybe it was his imagination. They were all the same age—third- and fourth-graders.

  The grass was thick, and it smelled fresh—as if it had just been mowed. The base paths were marked with straight white lines. The scoreboard had advertisements for restaurants and other businesses.

  “Big time,” Cooper said.

  Rhino nodded. The outfield fence looked like it was a long way off. “Big field,” he said.

  “It’s exactly the same size as ours,” Coach said. “It just seems bigger.”

  It felt strange to be on a field surrounded by tall buildings. The field back home was in a large town park. The only tall things nearby were trees.

  Rhino kneeled in the on-deck circle as others took their swings. Dylan waited nearby. He was much quieter than usual.

  “Nice stadium, huh?” Rhino said.

  Dylan shrugged.

  “You sleep okay?” Rhino asked.

  “Like a ba—” Dylan stopped short. “Like a puppy,” he said.

  Rhino winced. Dylan had started to say “Like a baby.”

  “Right,” Rhino said. “It took a while to fall asleep, but …”

  “Me too,” Dylan replied. “Actually, puppies don’t sleep all that soundly. Not ours, anyway.”

  “You have a puppy?” Rhino asked.

  Dylan wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. “A Labrador. Ten weeks old. He misses his mother, so he cries at night when we’re trying to sleep.”

  “That’s too bad,” Rhino said. “It would break my heart.”

  Dylan shrugged. “I usually pick him up and put him on the foot of my bed,” he said. “That stops him from crying, but it’s a bad habit to get into. My dad says to just let him cry, otherwise he’ll never get over it.”

  On the field, Cooper bobbled a ground ball and let it slip away. A minute later, Bella dropped an easy fly ball in right field.

  “I think everybody’s nervous,” Rhino said. “We’d better settle down in time for the game.”

  Dylan let out his breath in a huff. “You’re up,” he said. “See if you can reach that fence.”

  Rhino picked up his bat and stepped toward the plate. Then he turned back. “What’s his name?” he asked Dylan.

  “Who?”

  “The puppy.”

  “Bruiser,” Dylan said. “But he isn’t tough at all.”

  Coach Ray was pitching. His throws were straight and fast, and Rhino lined the first two right up the middle.

  “Let’s see some power!” Carlos called from second base.

  Rhino fouled off a couple of pitches. Relax your shoulders, his thinker said. Smooth, steady swings.

  The next pitch was over the heart of the plate. Rhino whacked it and watched it soar high over right field. Bella didn’t even move from her spot. She just turned and waved good-bye to the ball.

  “Here we go!” Cooper called. “Just like back home!”

  Rhino hit another long one, which cleared the fence near the scoreboard. Soon everyone seemed looser—calling encouragement to one another and catching every ball that came their way. Now it seemed like a practice at their own field.

  “Look around,” Coach said as they gathered near home plate. “The distance between the bases is the same as at our field. The pitcher’s mound is the same distance away. And the outfield fences are the same height, too. Just think of this as another game and we’ll do fine.”

  The Mustangs put their hands together in a circle and chanted, “One … two … three … let’s go!”

  The Cardinals were as sharp as their uniforms. Their left-handed pitcher had a blazing fastball, and he struck out Cooper and Bella in the top of the first inning.

  Rhino gripped his bat as he took his place in the on-deck circle. He was the Mustangs’ cleanup hitter. But if Dylan struck out, too, there’d be no one on base to “clean up.”

  Dylan hit a weak grounder to the first baseman, who scooped up the ball and stepped on the base before Dylan could get there.

  “Defense!” Rhino called. He set his bat in the rack, grabbed his glove, and ran onto the field.

  Dylan walked slowly to the mound, looking very serious. He threw several warm-up pitches as Rhino tossed a ball “around the horn,” firing it to the other infielders.

  The bleachers were nearly full, and music played from the announcer’s booth while the Mustangs warmed up. Bright sunshine and a light breeze made for perfect baseball weather. Rhino felt great.

  Dylan had trouble settling down. He walked the first batter on four pitches.

  “No problem, Dylan!” Rhino called.

  “Get this next one!” yelled Bella. All the other Mustangs yelled encouragement, too.

  Rhino stayed close to the base so the runner wouldn’t take a big lead. The next batter swatted the ball deep into the gap between third bas
e and shortstop. Cooper chased it down and made a backhand grab. It was too late to get the runner at second, so Cooper threw the ball across the diamond to Rhino.

  The throw was high and to Rhino’s left. He leaped for it and made the catch. In the same motion, he swung his glove toward the batter, tagging him just before he reached the base.

  “Out!” called the umpire.

  “He’s going for third!” Dylan called.

  Rhino pivoted. The runner was more than halfway to third base. Rhino threw. The runner slid. Sara tagged him.

  “Safe!” was the call.

  “Square up, Rhino,” called Coach Ray.

  Rhino nodded. Would that have made a difference? Probably not. But he needed to remember that tip. He’d been off-balance when the throw came from Cooper. The baserunner had made a risky move in going for third, but it paid off.

  The Cardinals’ pitcher stepped up to the plate. He was tall and limber, with curly black hair sticking out the back of his helmet.

  “Let’s go!” came a cry from the Cardinals’ dugout. “Bring him home.”

  Dylan threw a couple of quick balls. Both were high and outside.

  “No batter!” Rhino called. “Just throw strikes.” He held up his index finger and called to his teammates. “One out!”

  Every Mustang was surprised when the batter bunted the ball up the first baseline. Rhino raced to the bag and planted his foot. The catcher grabbed the ball with his bare hand and threw.

  Rhino could barely see the ball as it streaked toward him behind the batter. He lifted his glove and somehow made the catch for the second out. But the other runner scored easily.

  “Nice bunt,” Rhino mumbled as the batter trotted past him to the dugout.

  “Thanks,” the kid said without looking back.

  The next hitter lined the ball straight at Rhino. He made the catch and ran to the dugout for his bat.

  He’d never heard his name announced before, so it was a big thrill as he stepped to the plate.

  “Leading off for the Mustangs: Number six, Ryan Howard.”

  The Mustangs’ parents cheered loudly in the bleachers. Everyone else clapped politely.