Coach Amos Read Online Free Page B

this, don’t you?”
    Amos looked skeptical. “I guess so. But breathing into the phone? I thought only weirdos and perverts did stuff like that.”
    “It’s for a good cause.”
    “If you say so.”
    Dunc put in the quarter and dialed the number.
    A man answered. “Hello?”
    Amos held his hand over the receiver. “It’s the Godfather.”
    “Talk to him,” Dunc whispered.
    Amos started breathing in the phone as loud as he could. “This is Posey,” he said in a deep voice. He made a hoarse gasping sound. “All bets are off.”
    “What?” The voice on the other end was irritated. “You can’t do that! You know how it works. Nobody can take back a bet once it’s made.”
    Amos wheezed and coughed. “If you don’tlike it, I’ll be at the game tomorrow. We can discuss it there.”
    “Listen, Posey. If you think you can welch—”
    Amos interrupted. “Tomorrow, jerk-brain. And another thing—”
    Dunc hung up the phone. “I think that ought to do it.”
    “What did you do that for? I was just getting into it.”
    “That’s what I was afraid of. Come on. Let’s go to my house and work on a backup plan.”
    “What is there to work on? The reporter said she’d be there, didn’t she?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you talked Mr. Posey into coming down to watch the game, didn’t you?”
    Dunc nodded. “He said he’d come.”
    “Then there’s no problem. I’m going to catch the end of my movie. I want to see the worm slime people in living color. I’ll let you know how it turns out.”
    “But Amos, what if—”
    “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

“Mrs. Johnson is set, Amos. You wouldn’t know she was a reporter. She looks like a typical T-ball mom videotaping her son’s game.”
    “She
is
a typical T-ball mom.” Amos looked through the backstop at the bleachers. “I see Mr. Posey up there, but I don’t see the Godfather.”
    “He could be here. We don’t know what he looks like,” Dunc said.
    “Well, if something’s going to happen, it better do it soon. The game is almost over.”
    So far, the game was even. Both teamswere having a little trouble making it all the way around the bases.
    It was the last inning, and Sarah was up at bat. Sparky was on first. Sarah hit the ball. It fell off the T and rolled a couple of feet. She looked at Amos. He waved frantically for her to run. She turned and ran for all she was worth to first base. Sparky made a face, but when she got close to first, he ran on to second.
    The pitcher from the other team picked up the ball and threw it toward first base. It went high and to the right.
    Dunc yelled, “Keep going, Sparky! Run!”
    Sparky made it to third, with Sarah close on his heels. The little first baseman chased the ball down and made a gallant attempt to throw it to third base, but it didn’t even come close.
    “Come home!” Amos yelled.
    Sparky stood on third for a few seconds. He shrugged and then jogged to home plate. Sarah slid in right behind him.
    “We won!” Amos yelled.
    “We did?” Sparky looked surprised.
    “You and Sarah made points when you ran to home plate.”
    Sparky’s face lit up. “We did?”
    Dunc patted him on the back. “You were great.” He looked around at the team. “You all were.”
    A thunderous argument erupted in the stands. A man was shaking his fist and yelling at Mr. Posey. “You’re the one who wanted to call the bet off! Now that you’ve won, you want to collect. It doesn’t work both ways, Posey. We’ve been betting on games in this town for a long time. You know better.”
    A camera flashed. Mrs. Johnson had everything on videotape, plus she had taken a couple regular pictures for the newspaper. Now she was trying to get the two men to give her a statement. Mr. Posey sat down and talked to her quietly. The other man was still yelling.
    Dunc grinned. “Looks like Plan A is working.”
    “What was Plan B?” Amos asked.
    “It was a good one. It involved you, theguard dog down at the