Johnny Long Legs (3 page)

Presently there was Toby's face above him, eyes peering worriedly. “You hurt bad, Johnny? Something broken?”

“I don't think so, Toby.” He moved his hips, his arms, his legs.

“Better lie still, kid,” suggested the man named Ken. “A doctor can tell better than you.”

Johnny looked pleadingly at Toby. He didn't want to be taken to a hospital. He didn't want Mom and Dad to be worried about
him. Especially Mom. She was always deathly afraid of his getting hurt. What was she going to do now? Force him to quit basketball?
Would Dad feel the same way?

Other faces appeared in a ring above him.
One was Jim Sain's. His eyes were wide, anxious.

Presently the first man returned and said that an ambulance was on its way. Ten minutes later it arrived. Johnny was laid
into a stretcher, put into the ambulance, and driven away. Toby was allowed to go with him.

“It was Jim Sain's fault,” said Toby angrily.

“I should have seen the snowplow,” said Johnny. “But I didn't.”

A doctor examined him in the emergency room of the hospital. Mom and Dad had been summoned and were there in five minutes.
Their faces were pale and tense with worry.

“What happened, Johnny?” Mom asked in a thin, strained voice. “Tell me what happened. Toby, did you see the accident?”

“He ran across the road and didn't see the snowplow in time,” explained Toby. “It was snowing awfully hard.”

The doctor tapped Johnny on the legs after a while and smiled. “He'll be all right. Nothing's broken. His heavy coat must
have cushioned him from the blow. Take him home and put him to bed. He'll be all right in the morning.”

Johnny felt fine the next morning but Mom asked him to stay home from school anyway. He expected her to say that he had to
quit basketball but she didn't.

He got fidgety hanging around the house all morning. Mom must have noticed it, for she let him go to school in the afternoon.

He saw Jim look at him in surprise, but Jim said nothing and neither did he. Other guys wanted to know how he was. “Okay,”
he said simply.

Okay or not, Mom and Dad didn't permit him to play against the Red Foxes on Thursday. Since the game was at six-thirty, however,
they all went to see it.

Johnny heard a familiar voice shouting during the game and saw the man in the shabby coat and battered hat.
What an oddball,
thought Johnny.
This time the guy was rooting for the Red Foxes. Probably because the Foxes were the underdog,
Johnny assumed.
But what was he doing here now? Wasn't he a Hornet fan?

Later Johnny heard another familiar voice. He looked around and saw Jim Sain sitting with other Hornet players on the top
row, and suddenly he knew why the man in the bedraggled clothes was here. The Hornets had played the five o'clock game that
afternoon and most of the players, and the man, were staying to watch the White Cats-Red Foxes game.

Toby played his usual cool game and scored nine points. Rick led with thirteen. The White Cats took the win, 57 to 49.

Johnny started to leave the floor when a
voice at his side said quietly, “Sorry about the other night, Johnny.”

Johnny spun and looked directly into Jim Sain's eyes.
Did I hear right?
he thought.
Did he say he was sorry?

“That's okay,” murmured Johnny, too stunned to say any more.

The White Cats tangled with the Leopards on the 21st and Johnny had his first opportunity to play against the Dunk, Oscar
Hill. The Leopards wore black uniforms with white trim and the face of a leopard was painted on the front of their jerseys.

They started off hot as fire. The Dunk sank three baskets to put them in the lead, 6 to 0.

Johnny laid one up and then Toby sank one from his favorite spot, the corner. A jump ball was called when Johnny and Oscar
came down with the ball from the boards. Once again Johnny, a few inches
taller than the Dunk, failed to outjump his opponent.

The Cats went into the lead in the second quarter. In the third Johnny struck the Dunk's hands twice as the boy went up for
layups. Both times the Dunk scored baskets.

In the fourth Johnny struck the Dunk accidentally across the face as they both went up for a rebound.
Shreek!
went the whistle and the ref pointed the penalty finger at Johnny.

“One shot!” he said.

“What?” yelled Johnny and instant anger swelled inside of him. Without thinking he heaved the ball hard against the floor
and watched it bounce halfway up to the ceiling.
Shreeek!
went the whistle again.

“Technical!” shouted the ref and glared at Johnny. “One more exhibition like that and you're out of the game, sonny,” he warned.

T
he Dunk took two shots—one for the foul Johnny had committed on him, the other for the technical—and sank them both.

Toby took out the ball for the White Cats and passed to Cotton. Cotton bounced it to Stitch and Stitch passed to Johnny, who
started to run down the far side of the court.

Johnny saw the Dunk sprinting hard in an effort to intercept the ball and stretched his arms out for it just an instant before
the Dunk got there. The Dunk then guarded
him like a hawk, crowding him, and Johnny tried to pivot out of his way.

The whistle shrilled and Johnny stared at the ref.
What did I do now?
he wanted to yell.

The ref spun his hands. Traveling! Johnny took the ball in one hand and was about to strike it against the floor again but
caught himself in time. He swung the ball around in a swift, graceful arc and tossed it gently to the man in the striped shirt.

He glanced at the scoreboard. The White Cats were leading by two points, 57 to 55. What a surprise! He had thought sure that
the Leopards were ahead.

A Leopard sank a long one. At the whistle a horn buzzed and Johnny saw Nat Newton coming into the game. Nat pointed at him
and Johnny trotted off the court. He didn't go in again. The game went to the White Cats, 63 to 59.

“You've got to learn to control your temper, Johnny,” Coach Dates warned in the locker room. “Bouncing the ball like you did
is bad medicine.”

Johnny forced a grin. “I caught myself just in time when he called that traveling violation on me,” he said. “He sure would've
thrown me out of the game then.”

“You're darn right he would have,” said the coach. “If he didn't, I would have.”

“You did, anyway,” Johnny chuckled.

In the car Mom made the remark again that Johnny ought to give up basketball. “Everyone picks on him,” she said. “No one is
even giving him a chance to get adjusted.”

“I can't quit, Ma,” said Johnny. “I told you that. You just can't quit because of things like that.”

“Johnny's right, Celia,” said Dad. “Quitting isn't the way out of it. Johnny likes basketball. He'll get used to the rules
gradually.
He'll get to be quite a jumper, too. He'll get some knocks and bruises on the way but that's part of the game. Right, Johnny?”

“It sure is,” said Johnny.

Mom argued the point a little further, then gave up. She probably realized that this was one situation that whatever she said
would not change their minds.

Dad and the boys had cleared the snow away from the front of the garage, so Johnny took every available opportunity to practice
jumping. Toby got Dad's step-ladder and drew a chalk mark on the backboard where Johnny's fingertips touched.

“The day I'd like to see is when you out-jump Jim Sain,” said Toby. “If anybody gives me a pain it's him.”

The Swordtails played the White Cats on Thursday and took the game 61 to 50. Johnny scored eleven points. He was sure he would
have scored more had he been
able to outjump the Swordtails' lanky center, Steve Kadish.

Friday afternoon was Christmas Eve. Dad took it off and he, Grandpa, and the boys went after a Christmas tree. They cut one
down at a local farm, placed it on a stand in the living room, and decorated it that night. Christmas packages were piled
underneath it and opened the next morning. Dad shot flash pictures as the boys, Mom, and Grandpa opened their packages.

Johnny choked back tears as he unwrapped a sweater, two shirts, socks, two books on undersea adventure, and a camera set.
Toby got clothes too, plus a new stamp album and books on tropical fish.

What a Christmas,
thought Johnny.
What a real happy Christmas. It was only Mom and me before. Now there are five of us.

It was snowing thick flakes but Grandpa, Dad, Mom, and the boys walked the three
blocks to church. Afterwards Mom cooked a big dinner—baked ham with pineapple slices, potatoes, corn, pickles, and pie. In
the afternoon they went tobogganing. All except Grandpa.

“I was young enough last year,” he said. “But this year I'm too old for that sort of stuff.”

Mom, Dad, and the boys rode the toboggan together. Mom screamed and laughed most of the way down the hill. Johnny had never
seen her so happy.
Even though I'm having my problems with basketball,
he thought,
Mom and I have been the happiest we've ever been since the day she remarried and we came to live with Dad, Grandpa, and Toby.

Mom and Dad got tired after a few rides and went home. About four o'clock the boys decided to call it quits too. They had
walked a short distance on the road toward home
when a sleigh, drawn by two horses, started to pass by them.

“Hey, Johnny! Toby!” yelled a familiar voice. It was Stitch Buttons. “Hitch your rope to the back and I'll pull you!”

“Great!” cried Johnny.

He looped the rope around a metal peg on the right side, then sat on the toboggan with Toby. Stitch cracked his reins lightly
over the horses and they started off again.

“You never did this in New York City, did you?” cried Toby, laughing.

“I guess not!” said Johnny happily.

They reached the first house in town and Johnny heard some boys shouting to Stitch. Seconds later two boys passed by the sleigh,
pulling sleds toward the distant hill.

“Well, look who's getting a ride,” one of the boys exclaimed. “Hi, Johnny! Hi, Toby!”

Suddenly there was a loud shout and Johnny saw Jim Sain leaping from behind a
bush and yelling at the horses. One of the horses whinnied in fear and reared up on its hind legs.

“Hey, cut that out!” shouted Stitch.

But the sleigh started speeding down the street. Johnny and Toby grabbed the side rails of the toboggan to keep from being
jolted off.

“Halt!” yelled Stitch. “Halt!”

The horses seemed to run even faster.

People on the sidewalks began to scream.
What if we knock someone down?
thought Johnny, panic-stricken.
What if we hit a car?

The horses swung to the right at the corner. The sleigh started to swing, too. Its rear end skidded toward the left side of
the street, missing a car by inches. Just then the toboggan rolled over, spilling Johnny and Toby out onto the street.

T
he boys rolled over and over until they hit a snowbank. They sat up and stared dazedly at each other. “You okay?” asked Johnny
shakily.

“Yes. Are you?”

“I think so.”

They looked down the street at the sleigh and at Stitch pulling hard on the reins in a desperate effort to stop the horses.
Near the end of the block the horses slowed down and came to an abrupt halt, lifting their front hoofs high into the air and
whinnying loudly.

“Stitch has stopped them,” observed Johnny. “Come on.”

They ran down the street. Stitch was looking back at them. “You guys okay?” he shouted.

“Yes!” cried Johnny. He reached the sleigh and unhooked the rope of the toboggan.

“That darn Jim Sain,” Stitch said angrily. “He did it. He scared the horses.”

Stitch looked down the street behind him. Johnny looked too and saw Jim come running around the corner with the other boys
at his heels. They stopped instantly and Stitch shouted, “I'm going to tell the police about this, Sain! They'll fix you!”

Jim turned, walked back up the street, and vanished around the corner, his friends with him.

A policeman came running from the opposite direction.

“What's the trouble, young fella?” he
asked Stitch. “Those horses get away from you?”

“A kid jumped from behind a bush and scared them,” said Stitch. “They started running and I couldn't stop them for a while.
They're okay now.”

“Good. Move on. You're holding up traffic.”

Johnny wondered if Stitch was going to tell the policeman who the kid was, but Stitch didn't. He slapped the reins and the
horses moved on.

Johnny and Toby walked up on the sidewalk, pulling the toboggan after them. “Jim Sain's a real pain,” grumbled Toby. “He's
always doing something to make people mad. Why can't he do something good for a change?”

“Maybe he's unhappy,” said Johnny.

“Unhappy? Why should he be unhappy?”

Johnny shrugged. “I don't know. But look
at the clothes he wears to school. They're hardly ever clean and he wears the same pair of jeans over and over. And he hasn't
had a haircut since I've been here. Maybe he doesn't have anything and gets his kicks by being dirty to people.”

“Guess we're lucky,” reflected Toby. “Especially since you and Mom came to live with us.”

Johnny smiled and put an arm over Toby's shoulders. “You know what? I didn't know what to think at first. I was scared having
a new brother, a father, and a grandfather all of a sudden. I didn't think I could have fun in a small town, either.”

Toby's eyes flashed warmth. “Are you glad now you came?”

“Darn right. I wouldn't change this for a million bucks.”

S
chool was closed till Monday, January 3. Johnny had lots of time to practice jumping and jump shots. Especially jumping, because
he needed that most of all. He practiced several times a day and noticed that he was already jumping higher than before.

“You're gaining,” said Toby, drawing a new chalk mark where Johnny's fingertips touched the backboard. “About two inches.”