A rabbit I suggested Yeah that’s it a rabbit Spike knows you have a pet rabbit Teddy said to Dylan A mutant rabbit with about nine ears maybe said Wayne Zane the catcher his mouth Teddy glared at him It’s a rabbit with a bunch of carrots in Just sayin said Wayne Someone tapped my shoulder I turned around and saw our boss Wally He was the Pines clubhouse manager He tugged on his mustache Chad I need to talk to you It’s important He looked worried and that made me worry Wally didn’t have an office but he had a desk in the corner of the equipment room We went there now What’s that for Wally pointed at my balloon giraffe I’d forgotten I was holding it Nothing I said I set it down and there was a POP Wally practically jumped out of his chair Gabbagah he shouted Sorry I said I had set one of the giraffe’s legs down on a thumbtack eye It just startled me said Wally giving the giraffe the evil The rest of the giraffe was slowly deflating I grabbed some tape from the desk and made a bandage Here’s the thing said Wally I can’t be here next Saturday I need you to take on some extra duties I picked you over Dylan because you know more about baseball
What do I have to do Lots of stuff Get here early on Friday and I’ll walk you through it OK Sure One thing you’ll have to do is make coffee Wally said Lance Pantaño is the starting pitcher Right I knew that Lance drank several cups of coffee before every game especially when he was pitching I had never used the big metal coffeemaker in the locker room It looked complicated When coffee was brewing the whole machine whistled and rattled like it might blow up But I didn’t want Wally to know I was scared I can do that I said No problem
Did you ever figure out what that thing is I asked Dylan pointing at his balloon animal We were crossing the parking lot after work The Pines were headed out on the road so we had to load up the bus after the game It had been a long day Maybe it’s a mosquito Dylan said He made the balloon thing fly then landed it on his arm and made slurping sounds Spike knows I’m going camping this week at Otter Lake Sounds like fun Dylan liked animals He probably loved camping out all that nature It’s great during the day he said I get to go hiking and swim in the lake I just don’t like it at night It gets so dark Don’t you have a lantern They don’t make a lantern big enough for how dark it gets Dylan replied There might be bears out there He shuddered We got to the end of the parking lot where we usually split up and headed home Guess I’ll see you next week Dylan said Don’t get eaten by a bear I told him Don’t even joke about that My giraffe was pretty much done for even with my first aid I kept it anyway since it came from a friend I set it next to the other balloon animals on my dresser I didn’t know why Abby kept giving me jungle animals but they did look good together even if the giraffe was the shortest one up there I thought about how Wally had reacted when the giraffe
popped He nearly jumped out of his chair and the pop wasn’t even all that loud Maybe he was scared of balloons Maybe that was why he was taking Balloon Day off It was funny to think of a grizzled old guy like Wally being afraid of balloons but people are afraid of all kinds of things I once saw a neighbor shriek and run inside after seeing a caterpillar and he was a grown man Even Dylan had just told me he was afraid of the dark I was only scared of one thing and it wasn’t silly at all I was afraid of that coffeemaker
