Fan Fiction ❯ 15 Honeydew Lane ❯ A semi lonely walk ( Chapter 4 )

 

Chapter 4 - A semi lonely walk

 

As they walked up the street from home Nicolai hoped that he'd get more used to the city if he took a stroll around his neighborhood. Edgar was glad Nicolai brought him on his walk, especially since he felt bad about his argument with Lucy.

 

Nicolai stopped at a crosswalk and saw a park up ahead. Nicolai thought he might make a new friend there. Just then the light turned green and the cars and trucks stopped. He looked both ways to be sure all the traffic had stopped, then carefully and quickly crossed the street.

 

Once he arrived in the park, Nicolai felt nervous when he saw all the kids there. Some kids were playing a game of baseball; some were playing basketball on a hard blacktop, and some really young children were playing in the sandbox with their parents watching closely.

 

Nicolai and Edgar went over to the basketball court to get a better look at the game, as he watched he wondered if he would ask to join in. Then he saw an unusual sight. There was a player on the court he hadn't noticed before, Nicolai rubbed his eyes to be sure he saw it right, and indeed he had.

 

It was an alligator in a red and white jersey, he now had the ball, his sharp turns and quick speed were incredible, a girl player from the other team.

 

A teammate shouted to the alligator, “Pass to me Trey!” who quickly passed to the boy who then tossed it to the net before another kid tagged him out. The ball light bounced on the rim and right into the net. A girl in a referee shirt blew a whistle “Time up! Gary's team wins twenty-five to fifteen.”

 

The players shake with their teammates and showed good sportsmanship all around. Nicolai wanted to take this chance to ask to play, but felt too uncomfortable. “Come on Nicolai, this is your chance,” thought Nicolai, “but I'm too nervous.”

 

Feeling unsure, he quickly dashed off tugging hard on Edgar's leash pulling him slowly along. Back home, Rob; Heather and Vinola had left for the market. Lucy was lying comfortably under a tall apple tree.

 

Leon was close by climbing up the stem of a sunflower. “You mustn't loose heart, Lucy. Edgar wouldn't stay mad at you forever,” said the little mouse reaching the top of the sunflower stem “Besides you should take this as a good thing.”

 

“A good thing, what do you mean?” Lucy asked.

 

Leon slid down from the sunflower stem and gnawed it off till the sunflower landed on the ground. “Well I thought about what happened this morning,” Leon began “Though I understand you're side to the story, think for a minute about Edgar's side of it. If Heather was feeling down, so down she couldn't tell Nicolai, Vina, or even Rob how she was feeling. Wouldn't it feel only right that you would want to ease the pain?”

 

Lucy thought carefully of what Leon said and was juggling her thoughts in her mind. “He has a point. It would be nice to be with Heather that way,” she thought, “I guess after seeing all those shows on television about pets if anyone found out that animals could talk, they would be experimented on, or worse. But Nicolai would never allow that to happen, or would Heather, or would anyone in this family for that matter.”

 

She then stood up and looked out into the streets beyond the backyard. “So it's settled, I'm going to apologize to Edgar when he gets home.”

 

Meanwhile, Nicolai and Edgar were leaving the park when Nicolai noticed a wonderful smell. “Hmm, I wonder what that great smell is?” he asked himself.

 

Edgar had long since picked up the pleasant smell and was trying to see where it was coming from. “What is it Edgar?” Nicolai asked. Edgar finally determined it was from the right of the park entrance and pulled Nicolai along with him, “Hey, what's the hurry? Slow down!”

 

When they returned to the same crosswalk they used to get to the park Nicolai and Edgar both noticed there was a vendor with a pretzel cart. “A pretzel sounds good right about now.” Nicolai said to himself. The pretzel vendor noticed Nicolai approaching and set down his cart.

 

“Well hello there, would you like a pretzel?” he asked Nicolai

 

“Yes I think I could go for a snack right about now,” replied Nicolai, “What have you got?”

 

“We have regular, parmesan, garlic, and cinnamon apple.”

 

“They all sound good, and smell good too. I think I'll try the cinnamon apple.”

 

The pretzel vendor took a pair of tongs, and took out a cinnamon apple pretzel and wrapped it in waxy paper. “Here you are.” Nicolai took the pretzel from the vender's hand

 

“Thank you.” He said in response and quickly took a bite. “Hmm, it's warm and very good. How much do I owe you?” “It's ten cents a pretzel.” Nicolai reached into the right pocket of his kaki shorts and took out two nickels.

 

“I don't have a dime, but will these work?” he asked. “Sure, as long as its ten cents.” The vendor took the nickels and placed them in his unusual looking cash register. Nicolai looked both ways and ready to cross the street.

 

“Thank you.” He said as he carefully crossed the road. “You're welcome.” said the vendor and pulled his cart along to the park. As Nicolai walked for home he felt confused and angry with himself that he didn't approach any of the kids in the park and ask to join in.

 

“Why didn't I say anything?” he asked himself, “It was a good opportunity to make some new friends and I let it pass me by.”

 

As he headed for the last block to cross before heading home, he noticed a library on the corner. “Maybe I should join the library. Books are probably going to be my only friend this summer.” Nicolai said with annoyance.

 

When he returned home he saw everyone were still out, he just took out his house key when he heard a loud crash. He turned to see it was the alligator he met in the park, he fallen off his bike.