The Warm Breathing Truck

The Warm Breathing Truck

By Elle Laub

It was a hot summer day, the sun was out, the birds were singing and it was just the right temperature to play one incredibly fun game. Can you guess what it was? It has 2 teams. One team is “kicking” and the other team is “fielding.” How about now? Well, the game was kickball. I was around 3 or 4 years old and this was my favorite game of all time.
My family and I lived in a cul-de-sac of 4 families. Teddy and Katie, the Degrandmonts, the Kopecs, and some other family, which I believe had no kids at the time. The 3 kids from the Degrandmonts were definitely part of the kickball squad. Whenever we felt like playing we went outside with the ball and after a while the other kids would join in. At that time, I couldn’t just “text” them since I didn’t have a phone and I was only 3 years old.
Particular on this day, everyone’s parents were out of the house doing errands of some sort and it was just us kids wandering around the house. We had an amazing idea. Why not play a game of kickball? It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining at just the right temperature. Teddy, my neighbor next door, came out of the house with the oval shaped bouncy ball and called me over to play. He too knew it was a great day to play! We knocked on the Degrandmonts door; luckily all 3 kids were home and were eager to play kickball. After we gathered every kid from their houses in our col-de-sac, it was time to pick teams. I had a strong kick compared to my other friends, so I was picked first or second every time.
“Elle!” Courtney, my sister, said.
“ The teams are SO unfair Courtney…” Katie, the 7 year old neighbor, exclaimed.
We row sham bowed to figure out who got to kick first and who had to play in the field first. My team, as Courtney as my captain was in the field first. I could not wait to go up and kick the crap out of the ball! I had just been practicing the other day, since it was summer and this was the prime time of the year to play kickball. 3 outs went by quick with Teddy on our team. He played goalie in his recreational soccer team and he didn’t mind if he had to dive or slide for the ball every once in a while. As teddy as our number one outfielder, we had an amazing pitcher, Courtney. She played softball and knew exactly how to spin a ball so the kicker can’t kick the ball as far as they liked. And this is why people said our team was unfair.
Finally it was our turn to bat. I was so excited because I was put 4th in the kicking order. In basball, the fourth one up to bat is known as the one who sweeps up the people on the bases. This is because they have the best arm and usually get home runs. This goes the same for kickball, the one with the strongest kick, is 4th up to bat. As I came up to bat, someone yelled, “WATCH OUT!” I thought they were just trying to fool me since they knew if I turned around it would distract me from the game, so I didn’t check. As soon as I was about to boot the ball out of the park, this loud grunting sound came up behind me as if it had been creeping up on me for a long period of time. At that moment, I screamed and yelled! What was it? I didn’t want to turn around just in case it was some kind of warm-breathing dragon. The sound began to sound more like an engine, so I realized it might be just some type of car. It was my mother. My plain old mother with the big truck Lexus. The car had scared the bejeebers out of me and I never got to kick my homerun. Ill always remember the time my mom snuck up behind me in her gigantic truck and have my first at bat ever, NOT be a homerun.