All the Way Home (19 page)

“Just get me one run,” the pitcher Whitlow Wyatt told the rest of the team. “That’s all I’m going to need.” He told them he’d pitch the best game of his life. If it was the last thing he did, he’d never let one of the Braves get on base, much less hit a home run.

With every fan in Brooklyn glued to WOR and Red
Barber’s soft voice describing all of it, the Dodgers got Wyatt his run in the first inning, and then another in the second, and one in the third. Reiser made sure he hit one in the seventh. And not one of the Braves was able to score.

The game ended at six to nothing. They’d won their first pennant in twenty years.

In Windy Hill, the noise in Brick’s classroom was deafening. Brick closed his eyes, thinking of Reiser hitting that one in the seventh. He could almost see the ball with its red stitching spiraling through the air … but it wasn’t this game, it was the one with the girl reaching up as the ball dropped, reaching and holding, and becoming his best friend.

A few minutes later, the principal of the Windy Hill school backed a truck filled with watermelons into the yard and the teachers cut slices for everyone, and the kids gathered around Brick, who was the only one of them who had ever been to Ebbets Field.

Brooklyn went wild. “We’re in,” people yelled from one window to another. Kids banged on dishpans, Fourth of July horns blared, and Mrs. Warnicki gave the class a night off with no homework, which was just as well. Everyone who could would be going to Grand Central Station to welcome the Dodgers as they came in on the 10:25
P.M
. train from Boston.

Mariel was there wearing her straw hat, her blue party dress, and the old gold charm bracelet that Loretta had found for her. Loretta and Ambrose the cop were
with her. They ate hot dogs from the vendor, drank root beer, and saw it all: Leo Durocher, the manager, stepping off the train onto the platform, Dixie Walker and Cookie Lavagetto waving, Hilda the fan clanging her cowbell.

“It was a good year,” said Ambrose the cop. He reached for Mariel’s hand, and then Loretta’s.

“The best,” said Mariel.

Pete Reiser heard them as he went by. “You can say that again,” he said, tipping his hat, and he signed his name on their napkins.

About the Author

P
ATRICIA
R
EILLY
G
IFF
is the author of many beloved books for children, including the Kids of the Polk Street School books, the Friends and Amigos books, and the Polka Dot Private Eye books. Her novels for middle-grade readers include
The Gift of the Pirate Queen
and
Lily’s Crossing
, a Newbery Honor Book and a
Boston Globe–Horn Book
Honor Book.
Nory Ryan’s Song
, her most recent book for Random House, was an ALA Notable Book and a Best Book for Young Adults. Patricia Reilly Giff lives in Weston, Connecticut.