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   Story: Becky's Birthday Road trip   
      
      
      
          Chuck E.  Cheese!   
      
       I was still asking myself How the hell did I get talked into this.   
      
       Becky's birthday was tomorrow, and somehow I got talked into driving 35   
   miles to take Becky and two friends to Chuck E.  Cheese tonight.  I don't   
   even like Chuck E.  Cheese.  I mean a piece of cardboard smeared with   
   tomato sauce would taste better than what they called pizza.  And if that   
   giant rodent had gotten into my face one more time, I was going to feed it   
   it's tail.   
      
       But it was almost over, we were halfway home.  And it's not as if I   
   didn't enjoy hanging with Becky.  Don't tell, but she was my favorite.   
      
       Becky, who would be eleven years old tomorrow, was on my softball team.   
   She was my right fielder, which if you know anything about girl's twelve   
   and under softball means she wasn't very good, but damn she had heart.  She   
   always tried harder than everyone else on the team and it didn't matter if   
   it was a mid-week practice or the big game, she gave it her all.  It's just   
   that her all wasn't very good.  She was also a diver, where she was a star,   
   but at softball, she sucked.   
      
       Becky was tall and skinny without any trace of the curves that make   
   women the most interesting race.  She had brown hair, cut short into what   
   they called a pixie cut back when I was a kid, who knows what they call it   
   now.  And she had these pale blue eyes that could look so sad when she   
   tilted her head and looked at you through the top of them, maybe that was   
   how I had gotten talked into this.   
      
       She'd invited Jennifer and her cousin Richard.  Jennifer was also on the   
   team.  She was twelve and turned thirteen in two weeks, the day after the   
   cut-off for the softball season.  Jennifer was also my next door neighbor,   
   so I spent a lot of time with her, usually giving her rides to games and   
   practices.  She was stocky, but in a athletic way, not fat.  And in the   
   last couple of years, she'd definitely developed some interesting curves.   
   Where Becky was a danger to her own team on the softball field, Jennifer   
   was a danger to everyone else in the league.  She was the hottest pitcher   
   in a very competitive league, a pretty fair shortstop when she wasn't   
   pitching, and led the league in home runs.   
      
       Richard was fourteen and in my humble opinion, a waste of space.   
      
       I'd foreseen some problems when Becky announced that Jennifer and   
   Richard were her choices for this road trip.  Because I knew that Jennifer   
   had had a crush on Richard most of the summer, and Richard, from what I   
   could see, was hot for any of my team that had tits.  And Jennifer led the   
   league there too.  I'd been afraid that the two of them might forget what   
   this trip was all about.   
      
       But so far, no problem.  Both of them had treated Becky as the birthday   
   girl.  The center of attention.   
      
       We were about ten miles from home, and it was just starting to get dusk.   
   You got to love these long summer nights.  The kids were in the back seat   
   with Becky in the middle.  I was driving peacefully except for the lump in   
   my stomach from what Chuck E.  Cheese called pizza.  Becky crawled over the   
   seat and settled in next to me.   
      
       "What are you doing, ewa?" I asked.  I'd called her ewa since we'd   
   watched `The Santa Clause' together at Christmas Dinner at her house last   
   year.  I was a bachelor without family in the area and her family took pity   
   on me.  Ewa stood for Elf with Attitude.   
      
       "Can we stop at the birdies?" she tilted her head and looked at me   
   through the top of those damn eyes.  "Please!"   
      
       The `birdies' were a family of hawks that lived behind a small country   
   school about a mile up the road.  "Sure, why not." I agreed.  The team   
   frequently stopped at the school on the way home from away games.  We'd   
   check on the birds or play on the playground.   
      
       The school was just a little ways off the highway surrounded by forest.   
   I turned into the deserted parking lot and shut off the car.  The three   
   kids were out like a shot and running toward the playground on the side of   
   the building.  I got out more slowly, wishing I had that much energy and   
   followed.   
      
       When I got to the playground, Jennifer was sitting on a bench watching   
   as Richard pushed Becky on a swing.  At the top of her arc, Becky pushed   
   off and dropped about six feet to the ground, "Can we see the birdies now?"   
      
      
       I nodded and looked at Jennifer who shook her head.  I didn't bother   
   checking with Richard.  I was pretty sure he would stay with Jennifer and   
   basically I didn't care.  I started walking toward the back of the school   
   and Becky skipped up beside me and took my hand.  It was enough to make me   
   wish I was eleven again myself.   
      
       We walked around the back of the school where there was another   
   playground with smaller equipment, and then through a path in the trees to   
   the nest.  When we got there, the nest, on the side of a small cliff was   
   empty.  I squatted down and Becky sat on my leg and we waited.  A couple of   
   minutes later I spotted a speck in the sky and pointed at it to Becky.  We   
   watched as the speck got bigger and became one of the young hawks.  It   
   landed at the nest and we could see that it had something in it's mouth.   
   It looked like a frog, but I wasn't sure.  Do hawks eat frogs?  Somehow I   
   never pictured that.   
      
       We watched for several minutes as the hawk had dinner and then took off   
   again, flying in ever increasing circles looking for dessert.   
      
       I pushed Becky to her feet and stood up.  My bones creaked.  Only twenty   
   and already I was turning into an old man.  We started walking back, Becky   
   again taking my hand.   
      
       As we turned the corner of the school we saw Jennifer sitting on   
   Richard's lap on one of the benches.  From the lip lock they had going, I   
   was pretty sure that at least one of them had a mouth with two tongues.   
   Before I could say anything, Becky put her finger to her lips and pulled me   
   back.  She pulled me to a swing set in the back playground and I sat down.   
   She crawled up and sat across my legs.   
      
       I'd been worried about how Becky would take it if her friend Jennifer   
   and cousin Richard started doing the boy-girl thing, especially on her   
   birthday trip.  But it looked like she was okay with and wanted to give   
   them some space.   
      
       "They were kissing pretty good." she commented.  "Richard's had a lot of   
   practice." she informed me.  I suppose Richard was a good looking boy, at   
   least Jennifer had always seemed to think he was hot.  "He's kissed Katie   
   Barnes and Tiffany Caldwell too." she added.  Two more of the older girls   
   on my team.  I made a note not to let him hand around practices anymore.   
      
       "I've never kissed anybody." she said with a sigh.   
      
       "No boyfriends?" I asked.  I'd seen a few boys her age hanging out at   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)