Steal That Base! (9 page)

• • •

Abby caught me and Dylan on our way out of the ballpark. She was dressed like Abby, not like Spike.

“Oh, good. You're still here.” She flipped the hood of her rain poncho. We stood under the overhang by the gate, where it was dry. I could see Uncle Rick's green car in the distance. He flashed his lights to show he'd seen us, and started cruising across the lot to get us.

“This is for you.” Abby handed me something damp. It was covered in plain white paper with baseballs drawn on it.

“Wow. Thanks. What is it?”

“Yeah, what's that?” Dylan asked.

“Chad gave me his Spike bobblehead so I could give it to a little girl. She loved it, by the way! I wanted to make it up to you . . .”

I tore open the paper. There was a white box. The same box the bobblehead had come in!

“You found another one?” I asked Abby. I opened the box. There was something inside, bundled in Bubble Wrap. I unrolled it. “Where did you get another bobblehead? Oh!”

I was holding a misshapen, handmade Spike bobblehead made of modeling clay. It was the kind of clay you dry out in the oven.

Abby hadn't found another bobblehead. She'd
made
one.

“I did the head separate, so it bobbles,” said Abby. “See?” She gave it a tap. “My dad helped me put the pieces together.”

The head wiggled—not really a nod, more like the clay porcupine was trying to shake water out of its ear.

“It's awesome!” I said.

I had something rarer and cooler than a Spike bobblehead. I had the only Spike bobblehead in the world that was made by Spike!

Kurtis Scaletta's previous books include
Mudville
, which
Booklist
called “a gift from the baseball gods” and named one of their 2009 Top 10 Sports Books for Youth. Kurtis lives in Minneapolis with his wife and son and some cats. He roots for the Minnesota Twins and the Saint Paul Saints. Find out more about him at
www.kurtisscaletta.com
.

Eric Wight was an animator for Disney, Warner Bros., and Cartoon Network before creating the critically acclaimed
Frankie Pickle
graphic novel series. He lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and is a diehard fan of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. You can check out all the fun he is having at
www.ericwight.com
.