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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.
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