New Neighbor

The baseball flies across the fence. A loud crash of glass

Christian and Rodney ran to the fence.

“Your mom is going to kill you.” Rodney says with a huge smile.

“Shut up, don’t say that, it’s your fault for throwing the ball so hard.” replies Christian.

They both jump up onto the boards of the privacy fence and peak their heads over to see where the ball went.

“Oh no, it’s the new neighbor’s house. Now, your mom really is going to kill you.” laughed Rodney.

“Oh God, why me?” whispered Christian.

Rodney punches Christian’s right arm, “that’s what happens when you got a mad swing.” he laughed again, “You’re going to the majors someday, I can tell” with a big smirk on his face.

Christian let out a small smirk, but then got serious. “Why haven’t they come out of the house yet, to check on the window?”

“I don’t know, maybe they aren’t home. Their driveway looks empty.” said Rodney.

“What your neighbor doesn’t know won’t hurt them. Plus, nobody saw where it came from” said Christian with a big smile on his face, “The ball could be anyone’s, everyone plays baseball around here.”

“Wait, isn’t that the ball with your name on it?” replied Rodney.

Christian’s face went from relieved to complete dread. His eyes grew large. Rodney started laughing like a lunatic falling off the fence and rolling on the grass to where he could barely breathe.

“This is all your fault, why couldn’t you just throw me a softball, ugh, I’m dead meat!” cried Christian clenching his hands on top of the wooden fence.

Rodney finally caught his breath and climbed back onto the fence, “Look don’t worry about it, let’s jump the fence, go in real quick, grab the ball and then nobody will ever know it was us.”

They both remained silent, looking at each other. Finally, Christian nodded his head, “Okay.”

They quickly jumped over the fence, and were into the new neighbor’s yard in no time. They ran up to the broken window and placed their backs against the exterior walls on opposite sides of the window, pretending they were in an action movie.

“Do you see the ball?” Christian looked, but couldn’t see well inside since the room wasn’t lit, the window was tinted black and the only light going into the room was from the daylight through the opening of the broken glass.

“I think so, it’s inside the house but I think I can reach it through the hole in the window.” replied Rodney, “Maybe I can grab it.”

They both look around the backyard to make sure no one was spying on them. Then Rodney tried to reach inside, “ It’s a little too far, like a few inches.”

“Here, let me try, I’m taller,” said Christian.

“Fine,” Rodney replied in defeat, “It’s not my fault my growth spurt hasn’t come yet.”

Christian was too focused on the ball; he needed to get it out of that house. He was reaching for it and was a couple inches away from it. He kept reaching and reaching but it was no use, it was too far yet he persisted, pressing the side of his face against the window.

Then he could feel two cold hands placing the baseball into his. It started Christian and he yanked his arm out of the house.

“Cool you got it, now let’s get out of here before someone sees us.” Said Rodney already running back towards the fence.

Christian was still a little flustered but followed Rodney, with the baseball with his name on it.

Towards the fence Christian ran, but before he climbed over it, he stopped to look back towards the window. He couldn’t see anything through the hole in the glass, yet had this eerie feeling like something was staring back at him.