Silverball

For Jonathan

Jimmy awoke to feel his mother shaking him. "Come on, Jimmy. Come on, sleepy bones. This is what you get for staying up late watching monster movies."

Jimmy pulled the covers over his head, but Mom kept at him. She brushed the comic books off the bedspread, and helped him slide out of the bed and into his chair. She wheeled him down to the bathroom and handed him his toothbrush.

"So what kind of day have you got planned today," she said over toast and eggs. "Danger, excitement, adventure?"

Jimmy blushed and smiled. "We have a quiz in math," he said.

Mom let Jimmy out at the school door. He pushed his chair away without saying goodbye. "Hey, Wheelie," a boy named Skinner said, "you rolled over my foot. Aren't you going to apologize? Kinda rude not to say you're sorry, don't you think?" Jimmy ignored him.

In math class Jimmy sat at the back of the room. The teacher never called on him there. He watched a girl named Lila in the third row. Lila was short but very smart, and he liked the look in her eyes -- she seemed brave.

At lunch he sat with Everett. Everett had a computer and collected dead bugs. He had a dried up praying mantis in a napkin. Jimmy liked it very much.

When the other kids went to gym, Jimmy sat in the teacher's lounge and did his English homework. He was writing a report on astronauts. He still had a bit of lunch left over -- a stick of string cheese.

The bus left him off at his house, and he wheeled up the ramp his mom had built, with the help of Uncle Fred. He fished the housekey from around his neck and opened the door. Mom wouldn't be home till after dark.

He made himself some cocoa in the microwave and wheeled himself in front of the TV. There was an afterschool special on the rainforest. Jimmy drank the cocoa and nibbled some raisins while he watched.

After the movie a new show came on, called Silverball. It began with a girl walking down the street, and some tough kids came up and started to bother her. The girl started to run, and the tough kids chased her.

Suddenly, out of the sky, came a zooming sound. It dived, and shot past them. The kids looked around, and the girl was gone.

But high in the sky, the girl had her arms around the neck of a new kind of masked hero -- Silverball. Silverball went wherever he liked in his streamlined jetchair. It flew, it dived, it spiraled down, down, down, wherever the handsome hero wanted it to go.

"Are you all right, miss?" the hero asked.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she said. "You saved me. Who are you? How did you know I needed help?"

"By day I'm just an ordinary citizen," he said. "You wouldn't think I was anything special to look at me. But at night my stratorocket takes me to the far ends of the universe, assisting the afflicted wherever they may be."

The girl looked deep into the hero's eyes. "How fast does this thing go?" she wanted to know.

"Hold tight, miss," said Silverball. And they sped up, to over 500 miles per hour, the jet engine making a loud hum beneath them. They shot out over the city, out over the farm lands, then veering right, rocketing over the water. They dropped down to about fifty feet of altitude, and roared over the rainforest canopy. Behind them, startled birds flew out of the treetops. The girl held tight around his neck and laughed.

Silverball and the girl flew under the treetops and sailed along from tree to tree, swinging from vines as the moneys looked on, perplexed. Suddenly, he heard a cry below. It was a boy, about Skinner's age, stuck up to his armpits in quicksand. "Help!" the boy cried.

Silverball swung low, scooped the boy up, and dropped him on dry land. "If you can walk, you should watch where you're walking!" she shouted, and sailed on, up over the trees. He heard a voice, familiar as home, calling his secret name.

"Jimmy?" It was a woman, a lovely lady, holding his coat and lunch bag. Silverball grinned and flew down to see her.

"Jimmy, wake up!"

Jimmy opened his eyes. His mom was standing over him. He was sitting slumped over in his chair. Mom was back from her job. Her coat smelled like french fries.

"What did I tell you about staying up so late last night?" she asked, and brushed the hair from his eyes.

"Sorry, Mom," he smiled bashfully. "But it was the one where they make a wife for Frankenstein."

"Come on, now, I'm going to put you to bed properly," she said, and wheeled him down the hall. "I'll get your toothbrush. You get out of those school clothes."

"Yes, ma'am."

"How was school today? Make any new friends?"

"Everett brought a praying mantis to lunch. Mom, do you think I could collect insects, too?"

"We'll see, dear." She tucked him in and kissed him goodnight.

Jimmy lay awake in his bed, blinking in the dark. Thinking of the girl in math class. Lila, he thought -- tomorrow he would say hello. E