"Bo! Morgan!" Merril yelled as loud at he could. If anything happened to those kids.

"What? Whats wrong?" Morgan and Bo emerged from the crops. Graham looked as though he was about to have a nervous breakdown. He just stood there, trying to talk. Merril took over.

"Did you guys see anything?" He asked gently, trying not to scare Bo. "No, why would we see anything, the aliens are gon.Oh..no, they're gone.. They're not gonna come back.. Are they Dad?" Morgan asked uncertainly.

Graham shook his head. "No honey, they're not.. We just want.just want."

"To be careful," Bo whispered.

"Careful, exactly. Now you two promise me that you will not go anywhere without your uncle or me. Ok? Promise me."

" If they arent coming back why do we have to be careful?" Morgan asked. Graham could tell he didn't belive a word that he or his uncle was saying.

"Well, there could still be bodies, and .leftovers, and we just want you to be careful. So promise me," Graham looked at Bo, who was clutching he brother's hand like she was afraid to let go.

"We promise," she said, both for herself, and her brother. Morgan nodded.

"Ok then. Well, why don't we all go into town and get some ice cream?"



10 minutes later, they were parking in front of the police station. "Why are we here?' Asked Morgan suspiciously.

"Im going to talk to Carolyn about getting the house cleaned up." They all knew what he meant. "Merril, why don't you take Bo and Morgan down to Robinsons, and I'll meet you in half an hour right here."

"I want to go with Dad," Bo announced. "Your not supposed to go anywhere by yourself, remember Dad?"

"Bo, if you come with us, im sure uncle Merril will get you sprinkles," Morgan bribed.

Bo thought. "Ok, but only if they're the chololate kind," she decided, and the three of them crosed the street.

"Beaten by sprinkles," Graham thought to himself, as he walked to the police station.

Across the street, Merril and Morgan were trying to stop Bo from crying. Not many stores had been broken into, but unfortunatly it looked like Robinsons had. The windows were broken and things were strewn everywhere.

"Well, why don't we go to the candy store instead?" Bo stopped crying as they set down the street but still had an odd expression on her face.

"Well, I guess not all the aliens can be bad. They obviously like ice cream," he said, attempting humor. Morgan looked at him like he was crazy, but he heard Bo giggle. Soon they were all laughing.

When they got to the candy store, Merril bought them generous amounts of candy; some Popeye candy sticks for Graham and some Big League Chew for himself.

As they walked toward the park, Merril started daydreaming, which he hardly ever did anymore.



"Ok Merril, just remember, No Pressure, Ok? I want you to go out there, and decide for yourself how to swing. Its your choice, and I don't want you to think that just because this is our last swing, that we wont win the championships if you don't get a hit, that the team wont appreciate all of the other homeruns you've hit this season. Just go out there and.do your thing."

"Nice speech coach," thought Merril, as he walked up to home plate. He knew that if he screwed up this play and lost the chapionships, that his team would be crushed. They would try to hide it, but he knew how much this game meant to them, and to him.

He made the sign of the cross as he stepped up, and, looking up into the stands, he could see his older brother do the same thing. He took a deep breath and swung with all his might. He felt contact with the ball. Without even looking at the ball, his coach, his brother or the preety girl with red hair beside him; he ran.

It wasn't untill he had reached home that he heard the crowd cheering for him. As his team crowded around him, his coach crying, he heard the announcer's voice over the P.A

" Merril Hess, at 7 years old the youngest player on his team, the Tigers, has just won his team the Jr T-Ball Championships!"

As Merril came out of his daydream, he laughed ironiccly at the fact that that had probably been the happiest baseball game he had ever played.

"Um.Uncle Merril? You've been staring at that puddle for 10 minutes. We need to meet Dad soon," said Morgan, waving his hand in front of his uncle's face. Merril looked at his watch. Morgan was right. They had to meet Graham in 2 minutes. He got up from the bench he had been sitting on while the kids played in the park. As they walked back to where Graham had the car, Morgan asked him what he had been thinking about.

"Oh, just something that happened when your Dad and I were kids," he replied.

"Baseball?" asked Morgan tentatively.

Merril snapped his head back to face Morgan. "How did you guess?"

"Dad said almost all of your memories of when you were a kid were of baseball,"He said.

"Did he?"

"Yep," said Bo boldly. "He says you don't even remember when you almost burnt down your treehouse or flushed his golfish down the toilet when it was still alive, or---" She stopped when Merril raised his eyebrows and Morgan nudged her. Hard.

"Look, there's Dad," said Morgan, pointing to the car. Graham was leaning against the side of the car.

And he did not look happy. He looked as though he was about to have a nervous breakdown again.