Little Miss Maisy; Deleted Scenes

Ten.

Ten:

Partners In Crime

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"Alright, ready?" Eric waited until Maisy bobbed her head, bouncing her ponytail along with it.

Eric made sure she was watching before gently tossing the ball to her. But Maisy caught it with almost no problem, yet she caught it with both hands.

"I got it!" Maisy cheered for herself, bouncing in place as she did a little victory stance.

"Good job!" Eric gave her an approving smile before squatting down a little and holding his hands out. Signaling he was ready for his turn.

He couldn't find a glove, but since she was so little, Eric assumed she wouldn't have that hard of a throw.

"Now throw it back," Eric shifted his weight between his feet, waiting for the ball to come his way. "Just like I showed you, okay?"

He was ecstatic that Maisy was allowing him to teach her. He had been in baseball since he was her age, so he's been itching to pass the torch.

"Okay!" Maisy did a little wind up with her arm, then raised her foot up as she hurled it at Eric. Well, just next to him.

Instead of landing safely in Eric's hand, it flew past him and made impact with the decorative porcelain tree that sits upon the dining room table.

It wobbled before completely tipping, then rolled off the smooth surface. Shattering into several small shards.

For a couple of mere moments, Eric and Maisy only stared at the broken mess in horror. That little tree was brand new, yesterday new.

They had gone out shopping and Beau thought it would add a nice splash of holiday cheer to their home. He bought it n the spot and beamed at it once he found the perfect spot for it.

. . . But now, the remains of it lie shattered on the hardwood floor.

"Uh-oh," Maisy slowly backed up as she broke the silence, placing her hands behind her back. It was almost a reflex, so it would be known she didn't touch it.

"Uh-oh," Eric repeated as he glanced back at his little sister with a grimace. She was very young and as most know, the young ones tend to be tattletales.

"Stay there, don't move," Eric instructed, deciding to take action as quickly as possible. He went over to the pile, carefully picking up the biggest pieces and trying to hold them together.

As one could imagine, that didn't work very well. So, Eric looked back up at Maisy after thinking to himself. "Hey, Mais?"

"Yeah?" Maisy curiously watched him from afar, unsure of how to feel at the moment. She knows when something breaks that it's quite bad, but Eric seems to be content enough.

Sort of.

"You know that glue you used to put glitter on your drawings?" Eric described the best he could, trying to conceal the hopefulness in his voice. "Do you know where it is?"

•.

"Good. Now, hand me the rag."

Maisy obeyed, handing him the rag so he could wipe off the excess glue leaking from the cracks. Eric was in a state of total concentration, trying to piece together the shards with a combination of super glue and Maisy's craft glue.