✓ | 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘 ☁︎ 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗥𝗼𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘇

Fourteen

Jordan knocks on the back door, with Scotty holding the dog, by its collar, having her still sternly caution of it.

All of them froze when seeing Mr. Mertle walk to the door.
Mertle was a somewhat round man, with dark skin, and blacked out glasses.

"Hello?" He spoke, with his natural rough voice, looking around.

"This is bad," Squints whispers to his friends, "This is very bad."

"W-We—We brought your dog home," The girl meekly said.

"Hercules? How'd he get out?"

The talkative glassed boy kept on, commenting, "I'm telling you guys, we should've just turned it loose."

The Watts girl couldn't answer him, nor Scotty, having Benny to explain.

"Well, what happened was, we got a baseball into your yard. We tried to get it back."

"So you're the ones that've been making all that racket," finalizing Mertle.

"Yes, sir," Scotty nods.

"You get it?" The older man holds out his hand for the ball, coming out to them.

Jordan took noticed that he was blind. Given by the glasses, not knowing who was outside, and the way he was positioned.

"Y-Yeah," Watts says, giving him the chewed up ball.

The man felts the ball, felt the rough dents and smelled the dog saliva on the baseball.

"Well, first time... that anybody ever got the best of old Hercules," Mertle remarked, "Why didn't you just knock on the door? I'd have gotten it for you."

Automatically, the entire team went after Squints, beating the daylights out of him, for feeding them false stories and causing them to be in more trouble then ever, out of my reason.

"We got the ball back, didn't we?"
"We almost got killed!"
"But we got the ball back!"

After the bickering of boys, Mertle actually found it amusing, laughing at them all, ganging up against the boy.

"Thanks for bring him home," The man smiles, "Come on in. We'll talk about this baseball."

With that Scotty walked into the house, with the beast, Hercules, at his side.
Jordan and Benny held hands as they walked into the house and closed the door behind them.

The three kids and the man sat in a room, filled with baseball merchandise, with fine items of collection; it was quite the amazement in Jordan's eyes.

"You in trouble, aren't you, son?" Mr. Mertle asked, feeling the ball once more.

"Yeah, well, uh, that was my stepdad's ball," Scotty explained, "I took it without asking. It was signed by Babe Ruth."

"George signed this?"
"George Herman Ruth? Yeah."

"I take it back. You're not in trouble. You're dead where you stand."

The kids didn't say anything because that was the truth.
That ball was worth much more than all three of them combined.
Jordan didn't blame the man for making that comment.

"Hold on. Hold on." Mertle walked over to a cupboard, which he found a ball, where he sat down, holding it up. "I'll trade ya."

Jordan grins, "That's nice of you, sir, but our ball is really signed by Babe Ruth."

"So's mine, with the rest of the 1927 Yankees."

Taken a closer look, the baseball Mertle had was covered in signatures for the Yankees team, both Jordan and Benny loved.

"Oh my god," The girl gasped.

"Murderer's Row! Lou Gehrig!"

"Babe Ruth!" Scotty smiles, "But why would you trade? That's ones all chewed up."

"I got a lot of good stuff. Look at that stuff. Besides, you need it more than I do."

Jordan looked around the room, seeing the jerseys and bats, the many signatures of other players from other teams.

Scotty, though, found the hit of who Mertle was.
"You knew Babe Ruth?"

Jordan and Benny turned to see a picture of a young Mr. Mertle standing beside Babe Ruth.

"George? I sure did. And he knew me. He was almost as great a hitter as I was. I would've broken his record, but..."

"You went blind," Jordan spoke.

"Yep. I used to crowd the plate... so the strike zone almost disappeared," He laughs, "Pitchers hate that."

Jordan smiles, knowing of that was how she plays, too.

"That's the way I played... 100 percent all the time. Baseball was life. And I was good at it, real good. And then... one day, a high fast one, and pow, lights went out."

Benny sighs, "I don't think we could talk this ball." As they all knew the value and significants it held for the old man.

"I'll tell you what. You guys come by once a week and talk baseball with me, we'll call it an even trade."

Smalls looked to Benny, who nodded his eye, seeming that it as well be a fair bargain.
The boy then looked to Jordan, who smiles, gesturing to have the same thought as Benny.

"Deal!" Scotty answer, proudly shakes Mertle's hand.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

Short, I know, but it is all for the last chapter!
~ Mariena