Excerpt from the story

"WAR BETWEEN THE STATES"

All day Johnny was thinking hard about his baseball glove, about its oldness and badness and how much better he’d play with that great new glove for $44.99 in the Playtime Store. But Dad was mad at him for fooling around. He’d say “No” like nothing and he wouldn’t forget either, which meant no glove for a long time.

“Jose Alvarez is gonna beat me out for second base,” Johnny told himself. “I need the new glove more than anything.”

He had a good idea about Grandpa, though. If he charged his Grandpa ten bucks for each kiss he gave him, five kisses would be enough to buy the new glove! Still it would be awful, those greasy whiskers scraping his face and the old guy smell. Eww, he hated it but he wanted his glove so bad he’d do it. Sometimes Grandpa tried to get more than his money’s worth by holding Johnny tight and giving him a big gooey one, but that meant he’d have to pay another five bucks. For the whole forty-five bucks he’d let him, definitely.

            At dinner Johnny spoke up, “Mom, when are we going to Grandpa’s again?”

            “Next month,” Dad answered, not looking up from his book. He sounded angry. Next month was forever, there were only a few months of baseball in the whole year.