The ‘special ones’ were snowballs with ice in the middle. They were very fast and highly accurate, but could put a serious hurt on someone. Namely, Paul Bannon. Paul started it by getting the Willow Branch kids to make a few and Jimmy was hit in his throwing arm, causing it to go numb. Luke, Jimmy, and John lost that battle.
To get back at them, Jimmy made some for the next battle, and the three targeted Paul with the special snowballs. One nailed him right in the face. Paul ran home screaming with blood running down his chin and had to go to the emergency room where he received seven stitches. It was agreed upon after that, no one would use ice balls any more. This was supposed to be fun, after all.
Luke peeked over the wall again. “They’re splitting up.”
Jimmy stood and watched for a second. “Alright. Enough. We don’t have time for more. The wagon and three of them are moving toward our left, so John, you cover the right side, and me and Luke will cover the left. Make ‘em count.”
The rules were simple, the team with the most hits won. If you were defending, you were not allowed out from behind your barrier. If you were attacking, you could basically do anything you wanted. There were no referees, so the teams had to agree upon the winner after the battle, and this sometimes resulted in a shouting match over who the victor was. The honor system worked for the most part, but kids will be kids.
If you made a kid cry, the battle was over automatically, and the team with the crybaby lost. Because of this rule, both teams worked hard at making somebody bawl.
Two premature snowballs sailed over their heads and Luke grinned at Jimmy. “They suck!”
Jimmy laughed as he hefted two snowballs in his hands. “Ready?”
Luke nodded. “Yep,” John said.
“Now!”
All three stood as one and picked their targets. Luke saw Patrick Pemberton struggling with the wagon in the drifts of snow and aimed for his face. The first shot went wide right, but his second caught him in the neck. Patrick abandoned the wagon and ran for cover behind a tree a couple of feet away.
“One!” Luke yelled.
A snowball whizzed over his head, and he ducked down and grabbed two more. Jimmy knelt down and was hit in the top of his head as he grabbed for more. The other team yelled, “One!”
John yelled, “Two!” and then a second later, “Three!” and started laughing.
Snowballs were flying in all directions and it was hard for Luke to stay up for more than a second or two. Jimmy was whipping his arm in a frenzy, and John couldn’t stop laughing. Luke caught a slushy one in the chin. His face stung but he didn’t care. He pegged Patrick twice more and he and Jimmy hit Alan Grimes at the same time. They both yelled “Twelve!” together, then Luke grinned and yelled “Thirteen!”
The pile of snowballs was shrinking and Jimmy told Luke to make more. The wagon the other team had was still half full but lay in the open, stuck in the drifts. The other team had to break cover to get to their hoard, and every time they did someone would get pelted. Luke’s team was leading thirteen to seven.
Luke started scraping the ground. Dirt was showing in places and Luke couldn’t leave the cover of the wall for more snow. He shifted over to the right to dig deeper and began frantically scraping snow into a pile.
“I’m out!” John yelled.
“Take some of mine,” Jimmy yelled, tossing his brother a few. “Come on Luke!”
“There’s hardly any snow left!” Luke said. “I’m trying!”
A snowball bounced off the top of the wall and skipped into Luke’s hair. He didn’t even notice. He was forming snow into balls as fast as he could and when his pile was gone he knelt next to John and started digging near the right side of the wall. The Willow Branch boys were gaining on them and he heard them shout out ‘Eleven!’ as Jimmy cursed and spat snow from his mouth.
“Damn that hurt!”
Luke reached out beyond the wall and scooped snow into his side. A snowball whizzed past his head. He scraped another armful and something caught his eye. It looked like tan carpet or somebody’s discarded dirty coat buried in the snow. He scraped another armful toward him, uncovering more of the buried object, which now looked like fur and what Luke thought might be a red collar. He stopped and stared, not sure what to do. The battle seemed to fade into the background as his arm took on a life of its own, reaching toward the matted, dirty fur. He carefully scraped away some more and then stood, horrified. A snowball smacked into the side of his face and then he vomited all over the white snow as Patrick Pemberton yelled, “Twelve!”
Chapter 2
Eliana Pemberton cried into her pillow wondering when the ache in her chest would stop. Bentley, her two year old poodle mix and best friend in the world, was missing, and no one in the neighborhood had seen him. She put flyers up on every lamp post, knocked on every door, and searched relentlessly in all the places she knew he loved. He had disappeared, and she blamed herself.
Two years ago, it had taken quite a bit of begging and pleading for her mom to finally give in and let her have the dog. She promised no one else would have to take care of him, swearing she’d be the one to housebreak him, cleaning up after his messes. Her mother actually said she was proud of how Eliana stuck to her promise, even when Bentley was sick and having diarrhea, even when he cried at night the first week, and especially when her brother threatened to drown the dog after he chewed up his favorite shoes.
Eliana paid for new ones herself with her babysitting money. Two weeks of cleaning up after the Harris’ twins had been a nightmare, but Bentley had been worth it.
And now, one little lapse in attention, one moment of laziness, and everything she’d done in the past meant nothing. All the devotion and attention wasted and tossed away because she hadn’t wanted her feet to get cold. She hated herself and sobbed even harder as she thought of the last time she had seen him.
The snow had just fallen new and white, and Bentley needed to go. She had just gotten her pjs on when he whined at the back door.
“Bent, no. You just went. It’s cold now,” she said, and he cocked his head the way he always did at the sound of her voice, but then scratched at the door and whined again. She sighed and walked over as he wagged his tail and yipped at her, seeming to smile. He was so cute it was hard for her to stay irritated at him.
“Alright, but I’m staying in. It’s too cold and I don’t have any shoes.”
He cocked his head again, his ears perking up as she unlocked the back door and held it open. He took a few steps into the icy night and then stopped, waiting for her. He never went out by himself.
“No-you go. I’ll wait right here. Now hurry up.” She shooed at him with her hand and he got the point. She watched him make his way through the snow and ice, sniffing here and there, but taking his time.
“Bentley, come on! Hurry up! It’s freezing!”
He looked up once as she hugged herself against the cold and shivered, then he trotted off around the corner of the house into the dark as if on a mission.
“Bentley, no! Stay in the back yard! Bentley!” That was the last time she ever saw him.
They searched for over an hour with flashlights, but found nothing. It was as if he just up and vanished. They followed his footsteps in the new fallen snow to the front of the house where they disappeared into a row of bushes and never emerged again. Her mom couldn’t figure it out. It was as if someone picked him up and flew off with him. She waited all night by the back door so that when he found his way home, she would be there for him, but he never came back and she eventually dozed off sitting up against the door.
Now, as she cried harder, she hated herself for abandoning him. If only she’d put her shoes on and gone out with him on the leash, she’d be hugging him to her right now while he licked her face and rolled over to get his tummy scratched. She missed him so much.
She heard the front door slam shut and then her loser brother, Patrick, yelled up from the bottom of the stairs, “Ellie! I found your stupid dog!”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “Bentley!” she shouted as she jumped up from her bed and bounded down the steps. Her brother stood at the base of the stairs with a wicked grin on his face, but she was too excited to
