And Don't Bring Jeremy (8 page)

I couldn’t get the knack of holding the ball correctly, then throwing it strong. Eddie was becoming impatient. His face was turning red. Finally he told me to hold the ball by the tips of my fingers. “Try it this way,” he said, and I did.

“Not bad,” he admitted when I’d thrown a few. “Maybe your hand is too small to throw from your knuckles. Keep doing it this way for now.”

“Okay,” I agreed, surprised that it was finally working.

“Dad had me throwing like this last year,” he said. “I guess I should have started you off this way.”

I threw him a few more knuckleballs. I was just getting the hang of it when I noticed some kids walking toward us. It was Bobby Reese and Jason Marconi, two of the boys who usually played in our softball game.

Eddie must have seen them, too, because a minute later he said disgustedly, “Here they all come. Now we’ll never have a minute to ourselves.”

“Don’t you want to play today?” I asked hesitantly. Somehow, I’d just assumed we’d play in the game when all the kids arrived.

“I thought you wanted to work on your knuckleball. I thought that’s what we planned to do today.” He sounded hurt, like I was disappointing him.

“Sure I do,” I said quickly. “Let’s go. We can work on it in my backyard.”

“Great idea,” Eddie said, suddenly cheerful again. “If you’re going to be our team’s starting pitcher, you have to have every pitch down cold.”

I smiled, glad that he wasn’t jealous of me anymore on that account. Being jealous of me was just plain dumb. Eddie was a better all-around player than I was. How could he not know that?

Jeremy was wheeling his bicycle out of the garage when we got back to the house.

“The kids started coming for the softball game,” I told him, “so we decided to come back here and work on my pitching in the backyard.”

“Watch out for my garden,” he said, and he was off.

Our backyard was pretty much like all the others in the neighborhood—a terrace outside the den for sunning and barbecuing, then a lawn with a few trees bordered by bushes. Only most of our lawn was taken up with Jeremy’s garden—at least the whole right side of it was.

“Look at that garden,” Eddie said, whistling through his teeth.

It was pretty impressive. Jeremy had planted lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, and corn, all in large amounts.

“It’s Jeremy’s,” I said. “He’s real proud of it.”

“Oh.”

Eddie walked away from it as though it was suddenly a mess of poison ivy. “Sure takes up a lot of room, doesn’t it?” He laughed nastily.

I positioned myself next to the garden and waved my hand for Eddie to move farther down.

“Now be careful,” he said in falsetto. “Be sure not to step in your brother’s precious garden.”

I was sick and tired of his gibes, especially since I was suddenly afraid that he might try and ruin Jeremy’s garden out of spite. “That’s enough, Eddie,” I snapped. “Let’s just leave my brother out of this.”

As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted saying them. Now Eddie would blow his stack and go home. But to my surprise he only shrugged his shoulders and said, “Let’s play ball.”

The first knuckleball that I threw was a strike. I was glad. And I was glad that I’d finally spoken up to Eddie and nothing happened.

After a while I got tired of pitching and we had a great time just horsing around. We made up a hit-and-tag game for two people—something like spud—and that’s when it happened. I hadn’t realized that we’d gotten so close to Jeremy’s garden until I heard a crunch and felt something like twigs under my feet. When I looked down I saw two of the young pepper plants were under my sneakers. I’d also knocked over a few stakes that propped up the tomato plants, which were just starting to grow.

“Oh, God, look what I did.” I jumped out of the garden as if my feet were on fire.

“Hey, with that kind of height you can become a high jumper,” Eddie said.

“It’s not funny,” I said. “Jeremy’s going to be real upset.” I knelt down to look at the plants. The stems of two tomato plants were broken and the peppers were badly damaged. They all refused to stand upright. I tried to pack dirt around them like I’d seen Jeremy do, but it
didn’t do any good. They just flopped down toward the ground. I felt awful. Jeremy loved his garden and now I’d gone ahead and ruined four plants.

“I don’t know what to do,” I said finally, standing up. “Jeremy’s going to be real upset about this.”

Eddie patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I mean, it’s not as if we did it purposely. You tried to be careful, didn’t you? Accidents always happen.”

Was he making fun of me? For a minute I wasn’t sure.

“I just wasn’t careful enough,” I said. “I mean, I was watching to make sure I didn’t step in his garden, but then we were having so much fun…” I finished lamely, knowing it was no excuse. I
should
have been more careful and I hadn’t been. Boy, was Jeremy going to be mad at me when he saw what had happened.

“I think you should give them a good watering,” Eddie said. “I mean, everyone knows water is good for plants and helps make them grow. I bet it will revive these sad sacks.”

I looked at him questioningly. “Do you really think I should?”

Eddie nodded firmly. “I really do.”

I got the watering can from the garage. Eddie took it from me. “Here, let me do it.”

Before I could say a word, he was dousing the injured plants but good. “That should do it,” he said.

I knelt down to see the results. If anything the plants looked worse—drooping and falling into the mud.

Eddie poked me and I almost fell into the whole mess. “Look,” he said, “I think you better leave them alone. Those poor plants look like they’re drowning.” He started to laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right.” I just stood there, not knowing what I could do. I mean, there was nothing else to do—now.

“It’s best to just forget about those plants,” Eddie advised. “They’re goners.”

When I didn’t answer, he said, “Hey, let’s go over to the school and get into the game.”

“Naw, you go,” I said. I really felt bad.

“I’ll stay here with you, if you like.”

I looked at him, surprised. “Okay. We may as well play some Atari.”

We sat down in the den and started playing Donkey Kong and then Pac-Man. At first I couldn’t concentrate and Eddie kept winning. But soon I forgot about the plants and we were neck and neck. I was so engrossed in the game that I didn’t hear the front door.

“Who’s there?” I called up when I heard footsteps in the kitchen.

“It’s me,” Jeremy answered.

“Oh,” I said and went back to the game. I heard Jeremy go upstairs to his room. A little while later I heard the kitchen door slam. Just then I remembered the plants. I looked out the glass door and saw Jeremy running toward me, his eyes popping, his lips twisted with rage.

“What happened to my plants?” he screamed as he ran into the den. “They were fine when I left. Now they’re all stepped on and drowning.”

I opened my mouth to speak but before I could say one word, Jeremy was standing over Eddie, his hands making fists.

“You ruined them, didn’t you? I know you did!” he screamed.

“Take it easy,” Eddie said, getting up from the couch where we were sitting. “It was an accident.”

Jeremy pushed him back down. “Yeah, some accident. I know about you and your accidents.” His face was all scrunched up. I thought he was about to cry.

“It
was
an accident,” I said. “We were playing ball and I stepped on your plants. I’ll pay you back so you can buy some new ones.”

Jeremy turned on me. “It’s too late to buy new plants. And stop lying to protect this little creep. I know he did it, just as I know he put the shaving cream in Laura Lee’s locker.”

At that Eddie jumped to his feet, ready to kill. “You take that back, Krasner,” he snarled at my brother.

“I will not,” Jeremy said. “I saw you with the shaving cream that day and I’m going to tell Mr. Helmsley so tomorrow.”

Eddie laughed at him. “Yeah, you and who else? He won’t believe a re-tard.”

“Stop calling me a retard.”

I saw Jeremy’s hands go around Eddie’s neck and I got scared. I pounded Jeremy on the back until he let go.

“Cut it out, both of you,” I yelled. “I stepped on your precious plants, Jeremy, and I already told you I was sorry.”

Jeremy fixed his eyes on me. He seemed to be figuring something out, then he said, “And you’ll be sorry, too.” He stomped out of the room.

Eddie left right after that and Jeremy and I each stayed in our own rooms until Mom came home. Then each of us, separately of course, went to tell her his side of the story. I told her how sorry I was, but that Jeremy had no right to turn on us that way.

Mom sighed deeply and brushed back a strand of hair from her forehead. I could see that she was tired from standing all day at the bank.

“I’m sorry it happened, too,” she said. “You should have told your brother about it as soon as he came home.”

“I know,” I agreed. “Only I forgot for the minute. Eddie and I were playing Pac-Man.”

“Your brother’s garden is more important than a game,” she said sternly. “It’s the only thing he cares about in this world. You know that.”

“You’re right,” I answered meekly. “I did offer to pay for new plants.”

“Jeremy says it’s too late for planting,” Mom said. “I think what really got him mad was that you tried to drown them.”

“We thought water was good for them. What do I know about plants?”

Mom patted my arm. “All right, Adam. Go wash your hands and set the table. I’ll talk to Jeremy after dinner.”

Dinner was a silent affair for the three of us, since Dad was working late. For once, Mom made no attempt to draw us into conversation. Jeremy ate his food even more noisily than usual. Sometimes I’d catch him staring at me, scowling. When he did that I’d just look down.

I helped Mom clear the table and then went down to the den to watch TV. There wasn’t any ball game on that evening so I flipped through the channels. Nothing. How did they expect a kid to get through the evening?

I decided to go to my room and put my baseball collection in order. As I walked up the stairs I heard Jeremy running and then his door slam. I took one look in my room and screamed.

“Mom, Mom, come here!”

“What is it, Adam?” She sounded frightened as she hurried up the stairs.

“Just look,” I said, making no attempt to stop the tears rolling down my face. “Just look what he did. That moron!”

We both stared down at my floor. Jeremy had taken all of my baseball cards and ripped them in half.

CHAPTER 8

Mom and Dad punished Jeremy for what he did. First of all, he had to apologize to me, which was something I could have done without. I mean, who cared if he said he was sorry? He’d deliberately ripped up my cards, hadn’t he? Also, he was grounded for a week. I made it my business to keep out of his way, but whenever he passed me on the stairs or in the hall, he gave me a dirty look and started mumbling under his breath. When I complained to Mom about him, she let out a deep sigh and said something about his difficulties being a constant burden to him and his level of frustration reaching its breaking point when I’d stepped on his plants. I just nodded as if I understood, which I did in a way, but all the old disappointments and grievances I’d always felt about Jeremy just came into my mind. The baseball cards were the last straw. The next day I noticed that he’d put chicken wire around his precious garden. Too bad he hadn’t done it sooner. It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.

I decided to pretend that I didn’t have a brother. That I was an only child and that Jeremy was some kid my parents had taken in because he had no home and they’d felt sorry for him. I suppose it was a terrible thing to make up, but what good was Jeremy? I couldn’t play sports or games with him, or even talk to him. And as an older brother he was the pits. He never could help me with anything; in fact, I knew about more things than he did.
I
had to help him, and that wasn’t the way things were supposed to be. All he did was embarrass me. No wonder the other kids laughed at him. I’d just keep out of his way. And since it was the middle of June, that was an easy thing to do.

I called Eddie a few times, just to talk. I laughed when he made jokes about Jeremy—even when he said my parents should send him away to a school that had locks on the doors and bars on the windows. It felt good while he was still on the phone, but I felt rotten about it as soon as he hung up. Once or twice I wondered if Eddie had deliberately drowned Jeremy’s plants. But I knew it was a dumb thought and put it out of my mind.

The school year was winding down. As sixth graders, we hardly did any work anymore. It seemed we had an activity every other day, which was nice, since I was finally being included. First we had a picnic with the sixth-grade classes of the other two elementary schools in our district. We all had to bring our own lunch. Somehow or other, Danny and I got to sharing a blanket with Patty and Michelle. It turned out to be a good idea because we pooled all of our food and the girls had lots of cookies and cake. Just as we were through eating, two boys we’d played against in Little League came over to compliment me on my pitching. I could feel my ears growing warm and knew I was blushing because the girls were listening. When the boys left, Danny grinned.