Force Out Read Free

man.”
    â€œMake sure you’re at the train station,” Joey said. “If it doesn’t work, you sure don’t want to be in summer school. You can’t play for Center State select if that happens.”
    â€œStop worrying. We’re both gonna make the all-star team, even if we don’t win the championship.”
    â€œBut if we win it, it’s a lock. The champion team gets two automatic spots on the all-stars, and if you miss the championship game? It might hurt your chances with the voting.”
    â€œI’m sure you could win it without me. Even if you don’t, we’re both gonna make the all-stars. How could we not?”
    â€œYou’re sure? How could we not?” Joey stared at him for a second in the darkness. “Cut it out, will you? You think I’d be out here doing this if it was a sure thing? The only sure thing is that there’s no sure thing. Who always says that?”
    Joey didn’t wait for the answer. “Your dad, that’s who.”
    â€œOkay by me.” Zach shrugged. “Trust me, I’m dying to play in the championship and get one of those monster trophies. We got so robbed last year. Remember Jake Tennison walking seven kids in the bottom of the sixth? Seven . Now we get to bring home the iron, thanks to my bro.”
    Joey climbed up on his bike. He and Zach called each other bro because they felt like brothers. “Okay, enough talk. See you in the morning, bro.”
    â€œI’ll be there.”
    They slapped another high five and rode off their separate ways.
    By the time Joey got back, the mist had turned to a thick fog and he was nice and wet. He snuck inside and upstairs, changing into a dry T-shirt and boxers before climbing into bed. Instead of falling right to sleep, Joey stared at the ceiling. Little pale green dinosaur shapes glowed down on him, plastic decorations from a time years ago when he couldn’t get enough of dinosaurs. He usually didn’t even see them, but how often did he lie awake in bed? Zach wouldn’t be lying awake, that was certain.
    Almost nothing bothered Zach, and in this case, his friend’s happy-go-lucky attitude made Joey even more uptight. All the possibilities that would enable Mr. Kratz to show up—frazzled but on time at the train station tomorrow morning at seven thirty, just in time for the field trip—played over and over in Joey’s mind. Finally, he got up and walked down the hall for a drink in the bathroom his family shared.
    The streetlight bled through the fog and the lacy white curtains enough for him to fill the glass without flipping the switch. He looked at himself in the mirrored medicine cabinet door, just a glance, then looked again, not at himself but at the door. It was ajar. Behind it were his parents’ things. Joey opened it and looked at the bottles of pills, razors, creams, pads, and tubes of makeup. He reached up and turned a pill bottle to the left ever so slightly, then closed the door tight.
    He stepped back and looked at the mirror. Now he couldn’t remember if the door had been slightly open before or shut tight. He opened it slightly again, bothered that he had to be so precise but knowing that, with his mother, he did. He left it as it was and turned to go.
    Martin’s bedroom door—his mom called the big old closet a nursery—was open and Joey peeked in. His little brother lay sprawled out on top of the covers with his head tilted back and his mouth wide-open, snoring softly. Joey crept to the end of the hall and peeked in on his parents, two silent mountains under their covers. He stood there, even when his mom stirred and sat up, blinking.
    â€œJoey? What’s wrong?”

5
    Joey shifted his feet. The urge to tell her what he’d done swelled inside him. It wasn’t that he was exactly scared of his mom, but there was something about her presence. She was a sheriff’s deputy, tall, thick boned,