The Big Hit
By Keeli Johnson
It was a hot afternoon in my grandma’s garden. Everybody was sitting outside sitting at the table. They were all enjoying the sunshine. While they were talking, I just ran over and blurted out, “Daddy, daddy let’s play baseball”. “Hold on just a sec.”, said my dad. Then they started talking about old people stuff, but I could not hold it in any longer. “Come on, come on!” I screamed even louder. “Sorry we can talk later”, said my dad. He even looked a little excited. The grass made a chomping noise when my dad’s long legs stepped on the grass, his turquoise eyes twinkled in the sunshine. His brown hair was the color of dirt. I ran over to the toy coffin, it really does look like a coffin. The toy coffin is filled with outside toys. “Ahh there is a spider in here!” I shrieked. “Just avoid the spider in here”, I reassured myself. I found the baseball bat, my hands brushed off the dust of the baseball bat.
Every time we play I have to work on something like raising my elbow higher or hitting the ball higher. This time I was working on not hitting the ball into the hedge. The ball was coming towards me. Pew!!! I hit the ball. It soared in the air for 5 seconds then it landed in the hedge. “Now Keeli you want to hit the ball the other way we do not want to hit it over the big hedge,” said my dad. I sighed. Sometimes I feel annoyed because I can’t be perfect. Can’t I ever be perfect? I hit the wrong and same way again on the left side. I watched the ball soar over the hedge, it was beautiful. “Oh wait I…..No! I did not….. daighghgh!” I said. Uh! Oh! I am going to get in trouble, I thought. I started to cry, “It is not my fault”, I wailed. “I know, I know”, said my dad calmly. “Come with me to the house where that ball wanted to go”, said my dad. “No n-o”, I screamed. This is the worst possible day ever, I thought.
“I uh can’t”, I said in a calmer voice. “Are you scared to go over to the neighbors house”, asked my dad looking straight at me. “Mhmm”, I nodded. “Well walk with me and I will tell you a story where I broke my neighbor’s window”,
said my dad. “Oh”. I giggled. But then I felt worried all over again, what if I broke my neighbor’s window. “Ok let’s go”, I said. I felt extra scared.
But as I was walking, memories started to float in to my head. I remembered the time when I was trying to fix the blinds but instead of fixing them I broke them. I thought I was going to get it but my dad just said, “Oh it is ok, no problem”.
My dad said, “We are almost there.” What if the neighbor is mean? I was really, really scared.
When we were walking I saw these flowers where you could suck nectar out of them. They were part of the vines they hung on the wall like prisoners. The flowers were yellow, bright yellow sometimes. Unfortunately right now they were brown. Maybe right now they feel how I feel. This is just the absolute, absolute worst day of my life, I thought. Why did I even play baseball? I hate baseball. “Hmpf”, I said softly.
My dad said, “We were there”. I got butterflies in my stomach. “Do I really have to do this?” I asked. “Yes, how about this I will knock”, said my dad. “No I will, girls are brave you know”, I said. I knocked softly on the man’s yard door. I knocked there because I saw a man in the yard. The man walked over I could hear the grass chomping just like my dad made the grass chomped. He opened the yard door. It looked like the man was in his about in his sixties. I peeked inside his yard. In fact it was a very nice yard. It had a chair like the ones you see at the pool, an umbrella and a table next to the chair and he also had some flowers. He picked up the ball. “Is this yours?” he asked. I nodded. He gave it to me. “Well here you go and have a nice day”, he said and smiled.
I did it! But I still never wanted to do it again. I felt so relieved that I did not break his window. It was so embarrassing!
We started walking home. Then my dad said, “That was not too bad was it”. “No but I still never want to do it again”, I said in a giggling voice. He laughed then I laughed. Then we walked home in silence. When we got home my grandma rushed to me and said, “Keeli you did it”. She gave me big hug. I was so happy I never knew everybody cared. I felt really special that everyone loved me.