One day in the middle of July was perfect. Linda sat in the dugout with a copy of Cathcer in the Rye. The boys were at their best. She briefly looked up, seeing Benny a the catcher, DeNunez as the pitcher, and Ham up to bat.
They made sharp remarks to each other about how he couldn't hit the Heater. Linda rolled her eyes.
She looked up though when she heard and ear piercing smack against the bat.
She peered out of the shade and saw the ball go way past everything and into the backyard of someone's home.
Ham ran the past as the guys screamed at him. They threw their gloves at him. She blinked at went out there.
"Now we can't play no more!" Benny said.
"Can't you just hop over the fence?" Linda said.
"Yeah, Smarty, if we wanted to get eaten alive!" Squints said.
"Why? Are the people that live their cannibals?"
"Smarty," Benny started, "That thing... Is a monster."
"What 'thing', though?"
"The beast," everyone said in unison.
"What's that?"
"Do you even educate your girlfriend, Benny?" Ham said.
Timmy and Tommy were talking of never getting the ball again. Everyone had grim looks or were shaking their heads.
"But what is it?" she said, impatiently. Everyone looked amongst each other before saying in unison:
"Campout."
Linda begged her mother. Her mother was not the most accepting of people, let alone boys. She had traditional Mexican ideals. So the idea of Linda being alone all night with a bunch of teenage boys was not nearly the best idea to her.
Her father came home. Her father had traditional ideas as well, but in having so many children and seeing time change, he had grown more accepting. Everyday when Robert came home, he talked to his wife first, then his daughters, then his sons, respectively.
When he entered the room, he was not surprised to see Linda reading, and the toddlers asleep, but when he saw Linda holding a pillow and in a ball, he new she was upset. She would always do that of upset.
"Mi Córazon, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," she said. He sat on Martha's bed.
"Mi Córazon..."
"It's just Mama. She won't let me go sleep with my friends in the Sandlot." He stroked his chin. She did not look up from her book.
"If I talked to her, you promise these boys won't cause any trouble?" She perched up her head and nodded.
Her father smiled, and them gave the three girls in the room a kiss, before leaving the room.
Linda left after dinner to the Sandlot. She climbed into the treehouse with the rest of the boys.
When she arrived, she called up the tree. Benny opened the door and grinned. He pulled down the rope ladder and she climbed up.
Ham and Smalls were arguing about s'mores. Linda sat next to Benny in a little alcove. She was reading, and he was fidgeting, as if it was killing him not to be playing baseball.
"You seem a bit jumpy, Benny. Should you go and hit a few balls or something?"
"Nah," he said, tapping his fingers, and then picked at his nails. "I don't only think about baseball." Linda snorted.
"Then what could you possibly be nervous about?" Squints then called everyone to settle down. Linda listened drolly, as he explained the story of the beast.
"You cannot be serious, can you?" Linda said. "My little sister could tell me a more believable story than that!"
"Smarty, it's true!" Ham said, indignantly. Linda rolled her eyes.
"Fine, go look out the window then!" All the boys nodded in agreement. Benny grabbed her wrist before she could.
"Just trust us," Benny said. Linda looked at him, and jerked her hand away, before leaning back.
"You guys are kidding me. I am a social experiment of a bunch of baseball obsessed boys." She didn't bother defining the words in that sentence, as she was rubbing her temples.
Everyone was settled down, and she was left reading to herself, as the rest of the boys were asleep.
"Hey," Benny said out of the silence. Linda jumped and almost threw her book.
"Don't scare me like that!" she whispered, exasperated. He chuckled.
"Why aren't you asleep, Smarty?"
"Not tired."
"We were telling the truth you know, right?"
"Yeah, maybe the truth to you. I still don't believe it."
"Then believe me." She paused and looked at him. "That thing is a living nightmare. It could kill anyone."
"Is that why you wouldn't let me go near the window?" He didn't say anything. She shivered.
"Are you cold?" She nodded. "C'mere." She laid down. He moved closer to her, and put her underneath his blanket. She drew in a breath as he slowly put his muscular arms around her. He was so warm. "Better?"
"... Much." She fell asleep under the flannel blanket in the arms of Benny Rodriguez.
