Wild Pitch Read Free Page B

if he were some kind of poisonous insect. “I’ll help myself!”
    While she started to unscramble herself from the bike and pick herself up, Eddie got the paper sack and started to refill
     it with the onions, the tomatoes, the head of lettuce, and the box of salt. Tip had picked up the egg carton and was replacing
     the few eggs that had managed to survive the accident.
    “There are only four that were broken,” he observed. “The rest look okay.”
    Phyl Monahan glared at him. “Only four?” she yelled. “Do you know how much eggs cost? But howwould you? You probably know nothing about eggs except to eat them! Neither one of you look as if you’ve got an ounce of brains
     —”
    She stopped as Eddie took out his imitation-leather coin purse and the folded dollar bill he had stashed in it. He’d been
     carrying it around for two weeks, waiting for something worthwhile to spend it on.
    “Here,” he said, unfolding it and handing it to her. “Take it. Here’s also fifty cents. If that’s not enough — ”
    “Here’s my dollar, too,” Tip cut in, unrolling a bill and holding it out to her.
    She grabbed Eddie’s. “One’s enough,” she said. Then she looked at the ugly blotch of smashed eggs on the street. “What a mess.
     You guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
    “The rain will wash it away,” said Eddie.
    Monahan grabbed her bike, lifted it upright, and started to ride it away, but stopped suddenly when a loud, rubbing sound
     came from the front wheel.
    “Oh, great!” she said sharply. “You’ve dented the fender. It’s rubbing against the wheel.”
    “Maybe I can fix it,” said Eddie. He stepped to the bike, grabbed the dented fender, and tried to pry it away from the wheel.
     It wouldn’t budge.
    “Who do you think you are?” Monahan snapped.“Mr. Muscles? Walk it home for me. That’s the least you can do.”
    Eddie looked at Tip. “Stay here with the bikes. I’ll walk it home for her.”
    He walked it alongside her while she carried the bag of groceries. Halfway down the block she stepped into a driveway, turned,
     and looked at him.
    “Lean it against the garage,” she ordered, looking at him as if he were a kind of insect she didn’t like. “And, thanks.”
    “You’re welcome,” he said, placing the bike where she had told him to. Then he ran back up the street to where Tip was waiting
     for him.
    “Man!” he said. “What a woman!”
    They got on their bikes and headed home. The heck with the ice cream, Eddie thought. He had lost his appetite for it. Even
     Tip, whose only fault was that he had gone along with Eddie’s crazy idea, didn’t care about having the stuff.
    “I just don’t understand why you wanted to go that way in the first place,” Tip exclaimed as they took their time riding home.
    “I just wanted to see where she lived. Her neighborhood,” replied Eddie.
    “But, why? What difference does it make?”
    “No difference.”
    “You wanted to see what she looks like in jeans? Is that it?”
    “No. I told you. I just wanted to see where she lived. That’s all there is to it. Forget it. Okay?”
    Tip could get real aggravating at times, he thought.
    “You’re crazy, you know that? You’re really crazy, Eddie Rhodes.”
    Sometimes a guy does things he can’t understand, Eddie told himself. If he can’t understand why he does them, how can he explain
     them? He just can’t.
    They rode their bikes down the street to their homes, Eddie splitting first, giving a wave to Tip as Tip rode on.
    It had turned out to be a very unsatisfying evening.

4
    Harry Goldman pitched in the game against the
Pirates. Eddie watched it from the bench, taking his turn to coach at first base at the top of the fourth inning.
    He had hoped he would pitch, because whoever pitched today wouldn’t be pitching next Tuesday. Coach Inger liked to alternate
     his pitchers just as he did his infielders and outfielders. He didn’t carry more than a thirteen-man team, and