y dad had over a thousand books about everything from bread mold to black holes I figured he had to have one about making coffee Dad saw me going through the shelves Looking for something to read He sounded hopeful I need a book about coffee I need to know how to make it Your mother already made some Anyway you’re too young to drink coffee Drink it Bleah Coffee was just a mud puddle in a cup For some reason adults hadn’t figured that out I need to make coffee next week at work Oh Well watch me make it tomorrow morning We have the wrong kind of machine Ours didn’t shimmy or shake or make whistling noises It just gurgled a bit and dripped glop into a glass pot OK Then read the instructions that came with the coffeemaker I don’t know if we still have them The Pines machine was so old the original instructions probably came carved in
stone I’m sure you’ll be fine Dad left the room whistling He probably didn’t mean to sound like the coffee machine at work but he did I looked at his books for a while Dad is interested in everything He has books about history science cooking business and entertainment I saw a book about balloons and took it off the shelf If he had a book about making balloon animals I could have taught Abby a thing or two But it wasn’t about that kind of balloon It was about the kind of balloon you ride in That book was kind of interesting It made me want to ride in a hot-air balloon
I was bored all week I didn’t have school and I didn’t have a job I called some of my friends but it seemed like everybody was either at camp or on vacation with their family I wasn’t just bored I missed the Porcupines They’d gone on road trips before but this one felt longer It was because they were playing so well and were almost in first place It made every game more important I wished like anything I could be there I missed listening to the guys crack jokes in the locker room I missed shagging fly balls during batting practice I missed high-fiving the players when they scored a run I missed being part of the team I missed baseball so much that I volunteered to be a batboy for a T-ball tournament at the park But they wouldn’t take me The woman in charge said I was too old to play and too young to volunteer But I’m a professional I showed her my Porcupines badge That’s nice she said But there are rules Why don’t you stay and cheer for the players They can always use some encouragement So I watched part of the tournament It just made me miss the Porcupines even more
I also spent a lot of time playing with my baseball cards I’m always trying to figure out the best way to sort them Should I organize the binders by year or by team And inside each binder should I sort the players by card number by name by position or by uniform number The toughest decision was figuring out which cards should go into my red binder The red binder is my baseball card hall of fame The cards in there are not always the rarest cards or the most famous players They’re simply my favorite cards Some of the Porcupines think those cards are magic Earlier in the season a Rafael Furcal card helped Mike Stammer the shortstop turn an unassisted triple play Later a Bengie Molina card helped Sammy Solaris the designated hitter steal the first base of his career I didn’t think those cards were magic but I
