فصل 11

Monster Blood 2 - Chapter 11

“Hey, Dad, what’s up?” Evan stepped into the garage.

Mr. Ross stopped hammering and turned around. He smiled at Evan. “Want to see my newest work?” “Yeah. Sure,” Evan replied. Every weekend, his father spent hour after hour in his garage workshop, banging away on large sheets of metal, making what he called his “works”.

He chiseled and hammered and sawed, and put a lot of effort into his sculptures. But to Evan, they all looked like banged-up sheets of metal when they were finished.

Mr. Ross took a few steps back to admire his current project. He lowered his heavy mallet in one hand and pointed with the chisel he held in his other hand. “I used brass for this one,” he told Evan. “I call it ‘Autumn Leaf’.” Evan studied it thoughtfully. “It looks like a leaf,” he lied. It looks like Dad ruined a perfectly good piece of brass, he thought, trying to keep a straight face.

“It’s not supposed to look like a leaf,” Mr. Ross corrected Evan. “It’s supposed to look like my impression of a leaf.” “Oh.” Evan scratched his curly, red hair as he studied it some more. “Neat, Dad,” he said. “I see what you mean.” Then something else caught his eye. “Hey—what’s this?”

Evan carefully stepped over several jagged, bent shards of metal. He made his way to another metal sculpture and ran his hand over the smooth, shiny surface. It was an enormous aluminum cylinder that rested above a flat wooden base.

“Go ahead. Spin it,” Mr. Ross instructed, smiling proudly.

Evan pushed the cylinder with both hands. It spun slowly over the wooden base.

“I call it ‘The Wheel’,” his father told him.

Evan laughed. “That’s cool, Dad. You invented the wheel!”

“Don’t laugh!” Mr. Ross replied, grinning. “That sculpture was accepted at the annual arts competition at your school. I have to take it to the auditorium later this week.” Evan gave “The Wheel” another spin. “I’ll bet no one else made a wheel that really spins,” he told his father. “You can’t lose with this, Dad,” he teased.

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor,” Mr. Ross muttered with a frown.

Evan said good-bye and made his way out of the garage, stepping carefully over the jagged pieces of brass and tin. As he headed to the house, he could hear the clang clang clang as his dad hammered away on his impression of a leaf.

In the halls after school on Monday, Evan hurried around a corner and bumped right into Andy. “I can’t talk now,” he told her breathlessly. “I’m late for basketball tryouts.” He glanced down the long hall. It was nearly empty. The gym door opened, and he could hear the thump of basketballs against the floor.

“How come you’re late?” Andy demanded, blocking his path.

“Murphy kept me after class,” Evan told her with a groan. “He put me on permanent hamster duty. I have to take care of Cuddles every afternoon for the rest of my life.” “Bad news,” Andy murmured.

“No. That’s the good news,” Evan replied bitterly.

“What’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is that Mr. Murphy is also the basketball coach!”

“Well, good luck,” she said. “Hope you make the team.”

Evan ran past her, his heart pounding.

Mr. Murphy is such a rat, he thought unhappily. He’ll probably keep me off the team because I’m late to practice—even though it’s his fault I’m late!

Evan took a deep breath. No. Stop thinking like that, he scolded himself.

Think positive. I’ve got to think positive.

Sure, I’m not as tall as the other guys. Maybe I’m not as big or as strong. But I’m a good basketball player. And I can make this team.

I can make this team. I know I can!

Having finished his pep talk to himself, Evan pulled open the double gym doors and stepped into the huge, brightly lit gym.

“Think fast!” a voice called.

Evan felt his face explode with pain.

Then everything went black.