Timmy's walk home part two

The sidewalk was crowded with kids and parents. Each one smiling and laughing or running. The kids running weren’t loaded down with stuff like Timmy was. Timmy thought these kids were lucky.

Just then a group of kids ran by and bumped Timmy from the side. His book bag swung out in front of him and nearly tripped him. His Abe Lincoln log cabin tipped out from under his arm and crashed to the sidewalk. The roof came part way off and the front came all the way off. He watched it fall in disbelief. He worked so hard on it. As he was bending to pick it up Billy Shuster from his class was running by and almost finished the log cabin off. His left foot nearly landed squarely on the unbroken remains of the cabin. Luckily he did some kind of half-jump side step and missed it entirely. He almost lost his balance but saved himself by swinging his arms.

“Ah man Timmy. That bites!” Billy said in a serious tone. He squatted down next to Timmy and helped him pick up the pieces.

“It’s no big deal. I can fix it.” Timmy said. “My dad will let me use his hot glue gun and it will be as good as new.” Timmy was pretty level headed kid. It took a lot to upset him.

“Well, that’s cool.” Billy said as he started walking along with Timmy, carrying the front of the cabin and half the roof because now it did fall all the way off.

“Where’s all your stuff?” Timmy asked Billy, wondering why Billy wasn’t loaded down the same way he was.

“I threw everything out. I didn’t make anything cool like this cabin, and my other projects were just dumb.”

“What about all your pencils and crayons and junk?” Timmy asked

“Threw ‘em out. They were all stubs anyway. Hey, what are you doing right now?” Billy asked.

“Walking home. Duh.” Timmy smirked.

“No dummy, I mean, are you doin’ anything right away when you get home.” Billy said smiling back.

“Just waiting for my dad to get home and have dinner. Why?”

“Me and Travis and a couple of his friends are gonna play in that abandoned lot down the street from your house. Wanna come?” Billy asked excitedly.

“I don’t know, my mom says that that place in dangerous. Broken glass, boards with nails sticking out of ‘em, maybe even rats.”

“Nah, it ain’t that bad. We play there all the time and I’ve never seen a rat.” This was a little white lie. Billy has actually been out in this lot with his older cousin, shooting rats with his pellet gun. Billy didn’t feel like he was lying though, the rats always ran away from people. He just really wanted Timmy to come along.

“I don’t know, my mom will worry if I don’t get home right after school. Besides, just what am I supposed to do with all this stuff?” Timmy really wanted to go. The empty lot looked like fun. He walked past it every day to and from school. It was only a block from his house. His parents never let him play there though because of all the junk laying around. There was old cars and window panes and steel drums and old used up appliances all over the place. Dad called it a “death trap.” He called city hall to complain about it a few times but they never did anything about it.

“Your mom won’t even know your late. We’ll just play one round of hide and seek and you’ll be home before you know it.” Billy said in his best big-brother voice.

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe just one game wouldn’t take too long.” Timmy answered, trying not to sound too unsure about it.

“Ok, cool.” Billy said excitedly. “Look, there’s Travis and his buddies now. Let’s run so that you won’t be too late for sure.”

The two boys took off like a streak like only boys can do. They ran up to meet Travis and his friends Earl and Chris. Billy yelled, “Hey Trav, Timmy’s gonna play too.”

“Cool.” Travis answered. “Let’s go.”

The five boys ran down the sidewalk together. The sweat ran down their faces and into their eyes, but they didn’t care how hot it was, summer had started and that’s all that matters.

They were two blocks from school..