The Zombie in the Basement by Anthony Giangregorio Page B

be all over the school the next day that he’d chickened out. No, he had no choice now, he had to go in there and get the ball.
    “ Eric, give me a hand up, will ya?” Ricky asked his friend who moved into position. Eric laced his fingers together so they made a step and Ricky placed his right foot in them. Eric lifted up and Ricky felt himself raised into the air. He used his hands to keep himself from falling and a second later his head was even with the top of the iron fence.
    “ Come on, Ricky, you’re heavy, I can’t do this all day!” Eric shouted as he pushed up on Ricky’s foot.
    “ Hold on, let me get over,” Ricky replied as he placed both hands on the fence and pushed himself up. The top of the wrought iron fence had small nubs, no more than an inch high, but as Ricky went over, his left, rear pants pocket caught on one of the nubs, and as he swung over and let gravity bring him down, the back of his pants ripped, the sound filling the air and causing both Eric and Jimmy to wince when they saw what was happening.
    Ricky didn’t know yet, as he was concentrating on landing on the ground, not wanting to go over the fence head first. As he landed, going to one knee, he stood up with a grin. He’d made it.
    It was then that he felt a chill on his backside and could feel the gentle breeze touching the skin of his left butt cheek.
    “ Hey, did it just get colder?” Ricky asked.
    Both Jimmy and Eric began laughing, neither able to contain themselves. As they laughed, Ricky stared at them, thinking they were crazy, but then he felt another touch of a breeze and he reached back to feel the bare skin of his leg, just below the elastic band of his underwear.
    “ Oh, great, I ripped my pants,” he said. “My mom is gonna kill me, these were school pants, I didn’t change when I got home today.”
     
    Jimmy and Eric were still laughing, finding the situation hilarious.
    Ricky, deciding he’d better go with it or they would only tease him more, smiled widely and said, “Hey, guys, there’s a bright side to ripping my pants.”
    “ What’s that?” Eric asked between bouts of laughter.
    “ Well, I was almost going to go commando today; glad I changed my mind.”
    Eric and Jimmy made a disgusted face and both stopped laughing.
    “ Thank God you didn’t,” Jimmy told him. “The last thing I want to do is stare at your white butt.”
    “ Same here,” Eric said, nodding his head vigorously.
    Jimmy pointed behind Ricky. “Now go get the ball so we can get outta here, I gotta go soon,” Jimmy said.
    Ricky nodded and turned around—ignoring his two friends tittering—and faced the old house. Now that he was in the actual yard, it didn’t look any more welcoming.
     
    A crow was in a tree to his right and it cawed at him, as if it was angry about something. Ricky wondered if its home was in the yard and now Ricky had invaded that home. He had images of a hundred crows coming out of the trees and attacking him, their sharp claws and beaks wanting to hurt him, but he shook the images away, knowing to think like that would only freak him out more than he already was.
    Swallowing the knot in his throat, he began walking deeper into the yard. The ball was in the tall grass somewhere. With luck he would find it in a minute or so and then he could get out of the yard. It would be like he never did it, and they would have their ball and he would be the hero of the school when word got out he’d had the courage to come into old man Rollin’s yard.
    With Eric and Jimmy still snickering behind him, Ricky began to look for the ball.

 
    CHAPTER 3
     
     
    RICKY WAVED THE pollen away from his face as he walked deeper into the overgrown weeds. With each step he took, he released the pollen from the small cocoons that resided on the ends of the weeds. Sneezing more than once, he tried to step more carefully.
    The grass went up to his knees in some places, others it was laying on its side, brought down by the weight