Social Issues
It is amazing, Ben thought, how much good stuff people throw out. He knew something most grown-ups didn't know: Junk plus Imagination equaled Great Inventions. The Great Invention he and Jack were working on at the moment was a catapult. Ben dragged an old shovel and a flat piece of wood out of the shed.
"Yeah!" Jack said. He grabbed a piece of wire. "Let's use this."
Ben ran over to the bike rack. "Jessy, guess what?"
Jessy waved goodbye to her dad and turned to lock up her bike. "What?" She took off her helmet and smiled at him.
"You know my robot I've been building?"
"Of course." Jessy looked interested.
"Well..." Ben looked around to make sure no one was listening. He spoke in a whisper. "I know this sounds crazy, but it really works."
At first I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with this. But now that we were out of danger, I liked the adrenaline.
When Lizzy threw her ball, it flew up and up, over the fence at the end of Hanna’s yard.
“Ha!” Lizzy said. “I bet you can’t throw yours that far.”
“Oh yes I can,” said Hanna. She took a deep breath and threw as hard as she could.
That's when he saw it. A shadow behind a car parked on the other side of the street. It disappeared, only to reappear through the window of the car ahead. The sight of it made him whimper, the sound catching in his throat as he took off again, running.
This time he didn't stop until he reached the walkway to his house. Home, he thought. Home safe. But with his next step his foot landed on an icy patch. His arms rose instinctively, whirling, struggling for balance. It did no good. The ground below him vanished, and he fell. Pain, red as a fireball, exploded behind his eyes. He yelped.
Behind him, the voice said, "Gotcha now."
