NOW & FOREVER
Chapter Three
As they all stood in a big group, waiting for
their gym teacher, Rose couldn't help but giggle! She alone knew what Jack was
going to do, and it was a doozy!
The doors opened. In walked the tallest man
any of them had ever seen! He had to at least be six foot ten. He hardly fit
through the door!
"Um...Jack, are you sure that you want
to do this?"
"Yep. The bigger they are, the harder
they fall."
"We are going to do basketball this
term. Get with a partner and practice your chest passes. Now!" They all
jumped up and grabbed a ball.
"Rose, you have to come with me. All
right?"
"Okay. I hope you're better at
basketball than I am."
"Perfect! You’re...um...not that good at
basketball, so I want you to be talking to the sub over there, but you have to
be in the proper spot, okay? Stand just to the left of the key, but so that you
can see me, and have the sub standing right in the middle of the key. All
right?"
"Right."
"Okay! Let's do it!" Rose cautiously
approached the sub and asked him about the chest pass. She stood exactly where
Jack had told her to. Jack was doing perfect chest passes at the wall, and he
got closer and closer, when he all of a sudden took out a knife and cut the
cord that was attached to the basketball net. Immediately, it swung down and
neatly caught the sub around the shoulders, and he swung with the net back and
forth until the net stopped. Meanwhile, Jack had come around to make it look
like he was coming to get Rose to practice. The entire class was doubled over
in laughter. Hearing the commotion, the vice-principal had come down from the
office and immediately freed the sub.
"Jack, that was the funniest thing I've
ever seen! How on earth did you think of that?"
"Let's just say that it was compliments
from the Chippewa Falls Dawsons."
The lunch bell rang, and the class changed
out of their gym clothes, so eager were they to tell the rest of the school
what had happened to the sub.
"Jack, I want to come sit with you at
lunch. I can tell you the places we're going to visit this afternoon."
"All right."
They left the gym on their way to lunch,
talking excitedly about Jack's tour of Thunder Bay.
"Well, you must see Hillcrest Park,
Boulevard Lake, Current River, Centennial Park, and the last place we'll go is
the marina."
"Why the marina?"
"Well, that's the lakefront, and, of
course, our sailboat is down there, but we'll get there early so we can walk
down the boardwalk. And we must go to the train station."
"Okay. Okay. I see we're going to have
to leave early with so many places to go. I'll pick you up right after
school."
"Oh, you needn't worry about that. My
chauffeur will drive us."
"Oh. All right, I guess."
"All right. I'll see you later,
then."