Sink it Rusty (5 page)

Suddenly, one of the players got hold of the ball. He yanked it hard. Rusty hung
on desperately. If he couldn't shoot, nobody was going to take the ball from him, either.

Rusty was jerked forward. He fell, struck the floor hard with his right knee. Pain shot through it. A boy tripped over him
as he did so, striking Rusty on the shoulder. But Rusty still held firmly onto the ball.

The whistle shrilled.

“Jump!” said the referee.

Joby helped Rusty to his feet. “Nice going, pal. You okay?”

Rusty nodded.

The Chiefs player outjumped him. Another Chiefs man took the tap, dribbled down-court.

Again the whistle. The referee signaled with his hands. Traveling. The ball returned to the Lakers.

The buzzer sounded. Mark Andrews came in. Rusty went out, limping.

Alec Daws looked sharply at Rusty and shook his head. “I don't know what to say to you, Rusty,” he said. “Do you want to get
really hurt out there?”

Rusty sat down. “I couldn't
give
them the ball,” he said. “Anyway, I didn't get hurt.”

“Oh, no?” The coach's brows arched. “Then why are you limping?”

Rusty shrugged. He didn't answer that one. After all, what did Coach expect? Everybody fell sometime!

“I might be wrong to let you play, Rusty,” murmured the coach. “You could get hurt badly. I wouldn't want that, not for the
world.” The coach looked Rusty squarely in the eyes. “Rusty, I wish I knew what to do.”

Rusty stared at him. His eyes dimmed.

“Please don't stop me from playing, Alec!” he cried all of a sudden. “You can't do that! I'll watch myself from now on. I
promise I won't get hurt. I promise!”

Alec looked at him a long time. He didn't say a word.

T
HERE
was one minute left in the first half. The Cannerville Lakers were four points behind. They were gradually catching up to
the Chiefs, thanks to Perry's lay-ups.

Lakers' ball. Bud Farris had it. He dribbled across the center line — and fumbled!
He fumbles so much!
thought Rusty.

A Chiefs man scooped up the ball. Quickly, Perry stole it from him! He shot a swift pass to Joby. Joby broke fast for the
basket, shot the ball against the board. Missed!

“Ooooo!” wailed the fans.

A wild scramble followed for the rebound. Perry got it, tapped it in!

Two points behind the Chiefs!

Chiefs' ball. They worked it to their back court. They tried to move into their front court, but couldn't. The Lakers had
it well guarded.

They tried a set. The ball struck the backboard, missed the rim. Corny Moon leaped, took the rebound, and dribbled all the
way up the court. He was chased by five Chiefs players, but no one reached him in time. Corny leaped, made the lay-up, and
tied the score, just as the half ended!

The Lakers rushed off happily for the locker room. Cheers from their fans trailed after them.

“You boys have improved wonderfully,” Coach Daws said, his eyes beaming as he
faced the eight boys sitting on benches between the two rows of lockers. “It makes me feel proud because, in a way, I'm a
part of you. You've come a long way in a short time. You've learned to play the game very well. You've listened to me and
remembered a lot of the things I've told you. More important still, you're all good sports. Maybe — just maybe — we might
go home this afternoon with a win!”

The second half went along with both teams scoring freely. The electric scoreboard flashed a new score first on the
HOME
side, and then on the
VISITORS
side. It seesawed back and forth like that.

With two minutes to play in the third quarter, the coach had Rusty go in. Rusty could hardly believe it. He was sure the coach
wasn't going to let him play again in this game.

Alec winked at him. “The right corner, Rusty. Let's see you dump in a couple.”

Rusty took his position to the right of the basket, and about five feet in from the out-of-bounds line. Nervously, he watched
the game as if he were a spectator.

Presently, the action was on the Lakers' front court. Perry flipped a pass to Ted. Ted bounced the ball to Rusty, and Rusty
shot.

Whack!
A hand slapped his wrist. The whistle shrilled.

The ball missed the hoop by a foot, but Rusty was given two shots for a personal foul.

Carefully he aimed at the basket. Shot.

Made it!

He aimed again. Shot. Again he made it!

“Thataboy, Rus!” Perry yelled.

A little while later the quarter ended.
Rusty expected to be taken out. But he was still in as the fourth quarter got underway. Action increased as the final minutes
on the big clock above the scoreboard ticked away. Now the Chiefs were in the lead. Now the Lakers.

Rusty felt himself penned in. He wanted to join in the action. He felt good now. The pain from the fall had long since vanished.
Gradually, he crept farther and farther away from the corner.

Lakers' ball. Perry passed it to Rusty. Rusty turned, dribbled twice, then shot. The ball struck the backboard, sank for two
points! At the same time, someone bumped into him, and a whistle pierced the gym.

“One shot!”

Rusty's face shone with perspiration as he stood on the free-throw line. His heart
hammered as he took the ball from the referee. He aimed, shot.

In!

The fans roared. The Lakers were ahead now — 43 to 41. Rusty breathed hard. He had done a lot of running in the last few minutes.

With two minutes to go, he was taken out.

“Nice game, Rusty,” said Alec. “But I almost yanked you when I saw you get out of that corner.”

Rusty looked at the coach. Alec's eyes were shining happily. Rusty smiled.

The Chiefs picked up another basket to tie the score. Then Ted arched in a set shot to put the Lakers ahead again. Five seconds
before the finish of the game, Joby tried a long set shot,
made it
, and the game was over.

Score: Lakers — 47; Chiefs — 43.

There was a lot of singing in the cars as the boys rode home. And there was a lot to sing about. They had beaten the team
that had whipped the Braves!

“No more games till after Christmas vacation,” announced Alec Daws. “But don't let that stop you from practicing at the barn!”

Marylou came home on Wednesday, just before the Christmas weekend. Mom, Dad, and Rusty were all happy to see her. It was obvious
she was glad to see them, too.

“Good to get away from those books for a while,” she said, “and be home again! How's my big brother doing?”

Rusty smiled. “I'm doing okay,” he said.
“I'm a forward on our basketball team, the Lakers.”

Marylou's cheeks dimpled. “I know,” she said. “Mom wrote me. How many games have you won? Tell me all about it.”

And Rusty did.

A few days after Christmas, Rusty took a long walk into the woods — the same woods he had gone into with Joby and Corny that
day when Joby had checked his traps.

He located the log stretched across the creek. Only now the water below it was frozen solid.

How often he had thought about this log! How often he remembered that terrible time when he had tried to crawl across it and
couldn't.

He approached it. Carefully, he put one foot on it, then the other. Little by little he moved his right foot forward, then
his left foot. He grew more frightened by the minute. The frozen creek was farther below him. And the log seemed so much longer!

He slid on a patch of ice! He fell off the log and struck the ice below. It didn't crack. And he wasn't hurt. At least the
ice was strong enough to hold him.

He climbed back up on the bank, and started across the log again. About a third of the way across, he slipped. Down he went
again!

He got up, tried it once more. He wasn't afraid now. He had become accustomed to the height. But he could not stay on the
log.

After the seventh try he became discouraged and gave up. He had gotten too
tired, anyway, to keep trying. And those falls had begun to hurt.

He turned, headed for home, and came face to face with Alec Daws, Perry Webb, and Joby Main!

They smiled at him.

Alec said, “Hi, Rusty! Joby said we might find you here!”

Rusty stared. What were they doing here? How long had they been watching him?

“Rusty,” said Alec, “you're trying too hard. You expect to do everything in a short time. That's impossible. You must take
it easier, or you'll hurt yourself badly. I know how you feel, kid. I know exactly.” Alec put out his hand, the one with the
black glove on it. “An accident did this. I'll never be able to play. But with you —someday you may be able to reach your
goal. You have everything, Rusty. Keep it that way. Just be sure you don't get hurt by doing anything foolish. Like walking
on slippery logs, for example. The trouble with you is, you want to rush things too much.”

Alec paused and grinned. “Come on. Let's get back to civilization. Got a surprise to show you.”

R
USTY
wondered what the surprise was, but he didn't ask. He didn't think Alec would tell him.

Wonder how long they had been watching me?
he thought again.

He walked with the boys and Alec back through the woods. They did not hurry.
They're walking slowly because of me
, Rusty thought.

Finally, they reached the road. The afternoon sun blazed in the blue sky, but the air was freezing cold. The boys' cheeks
were red as apples, their breaths puffs of fog.

They walked past the houses, and down the long, curving hill. From this high they were able to look down upon the lake. It
was frozen over. Kids were skating on it. Their gay laughter reached the boys and Alec.

The three boys walked abreast with Alec. They reached the bottom of the hill, turned left, and walked through the park toward
the lake. Rusty's legs ached from all that walking, and he wanted to rest.

Where is Alec taking us? What is the surprise he mentioned?

All at once, Rusty hardly cared about the surprise.

“I'm going to sit down on a bench,” he said, tiredly. “You guys go ahead.”

Alec looked at him. “Guess we walked pretty far, didn't we? Okay.” He looked
around, pointed at a bench near the edge of the lake. “Sit over there. Joby, stay with him. Come with me, Perry.”

Five minutes later a tiny iceboat with a navy-blue sail skimmed across the ice from the direction Alec and Perry had gone.
Rusty recognized Alec and Perry immediately, and his heart hammered. So this was Alec's surprise!

Alec was sitting in a seat with his hands on a control stick. His feet were on a crossbar underneath and in front of the sail.
Rusty realized that Alec was steering the iceboat with his feet.

In the seat behind Alec sat Perry. His feet were on a short crossbar under Alec's seat. A strap was around his chest. Halfway
between his seat and Alec's, underneath, was a long crossbar with a runner at each end.

Alec and Perry sailed around for a while, then returned. Alec gave Joby a ride, and finally Rusty.