Power Play
Copyright
TEXT COPYRIGHT © 1976 BY MATTHEW F. CHRISTOPHER
ILLUSTRATIONS COPYRIGHT © 1976 BY RAY BURNS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL MEANS INCLUDING INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. EXCEPT BY A REVIEWER WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW.
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First eBook Edition: December 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-09580-8
Contents
Copyright
Begin Reading
About the Author
“Tough luck, Rabbit!” shouted a fan as the ball missed the basket by inches. “What you need is go power!”
Rabbit blushed. He wished he was as tall as his brother Bones. He would show that smart-mouth fan then.
Bones caught the rebound, jumped, and made the basket.
Beetles 13, Flyers 10.
In the second quarter Rabbit caught a pass from Doc Fiddler, the Beetles’ left forward. He dribbled toward the basket, then tried a jump shot.
Thump! Moonie Gordon, the Flyers’ center, bumped his arm.
“Two shots!” cried the ref.
“Show us what you can do now, Rabbit!” the same fan shouted.
Rabbit badly wanted to win the fan’s approval as he stepped to the free-throw line. He bounced the ball a couple of times, then shot. The ball sank through the net without touching the rim.
“Yay!” the fan shouted. “Do it again, Rabbit!”
Rabbit did.
A thunder of applause exploded from the other Beetles’ fans.
Bones smiled at him. “Man, when you hit, the fans let you know about it, don’t they?”
Rabbit smiled back, feeling pleased that he had scored. “They just want to show their appreciation,” he said.
The Beetles were ahead for most of the game, but in the fourth quarter the Flyers came back and scored four baskets in a row. The score was now 38 to 36, Flyers’ favor.
Then Rabbit dumped in a shot from the right corner. Next he missed an easy lay-up.
“Get a ladder, Rabbit!” yelled the smart-mouth fan again.
Furious, Rabbit looked at the crowd. But, in that sea of faces, it was next to impossible to find anyone yelling at him.
Finally the Beetles won, 51 to 43. Even so, Rabbit wasn’t happy. He felt he was the poorest player on the team for sure. Even poorer than Nutsy Malone, who substituted for him once in a while.
He walked home alone after the game. Bones was ahead of him with Rico, Chet, and Nutsy.
Why wasn’t he born to be as tall as Bones? Or why wasn’t he real good at something — like dribbling, or shooting?
He had wished for months that he would become a good basketball player. Nothing else really mattered.
Suddenly an object on the sidewalk caught his eye. It was a bar of candy, still wrapped up in a brown, shiny wrapper.
He picked it up. CHOCO-POWER PLUS, he read. He had never seen a bar like it before.
“Eat Choco-Power Plus and feel the difference,” read the small print. “Take one bite and feel a tingle. Eat it all up and feel the POWER that will last for days!”
Rabbit turned the bar over. The wrapper wasn’t even loose. It looked safe to eat.
The thought of sinking his teeth into the candy made his mouth water. But who had dropped it, anyway? One of the guys with Bones?
“Hey, you guys!” he yelled, lifting up the bar. “Did one of you drop this bar of candy?”
They stopped, glanced back, looked at each other, and looked back again. “It doesn’t belong to any of us!” Rico shouted, and they went on.
Grinning happily, Rabbit removed the wrapper, stuck the bar into his mouth, and bit off a chunk. Mmm! Was it delicious! And, almost immediately, he really did begin to feel a tingle!
The more he ate, the stronger he felt it. He believed the candy was doing everything its label said it would!
The next basketball game came around almost before Rabbit realized it. It was against the Swallows.
Rabbit’s pulse quickened as he watched the ref toss the ball up between the two centers, Bones and Andy Snyder.
Andy outjumped Bones, tapping the ball to Nick Taggart. But Rabbit, moving like a flash, got to the ball and grabbed it away from Nick so fast that Nick blinked. Then Rabbit dribbled it down the sideline, stopped, dodged his guard, and shot. The ball rippled through the net!
“Now you’re cooking, Rabbit!” a voice shouted at him from the crowd. “Show ’em how to play the game, Rabbit, old kid!”
Rabbit showed ’em. He plunked in five lay-ups and four set shots in the first quarter, and six lay-ups and five set shots in the second. He strutted off the court at half time feeling very pleased with himself.
“I can’t believe it!” Bones exclaimed in the locker room. “You’re playing like a whiz, Rabbit!”
Coach Spinner smiled. “He’s been holding back on us. Keep it up, Rabbit, and you’ll be better than Bones!”
Rabbit sat proudly on the bench, a mile-wide grin on his face. “Know what?” he said. “I’m going to be the best. The greatest. You won’t have to put in a sub for me again, Coach. I’m your best player and I’ll score as many points as the rest of the guys put together.”
The coach’s eyebrows arched. “Oh, you will?”
“Won’t that be just grand,” said Bones, without smiling.
The second half was a breeze for the Beetles. They scored 28 points, 15 of which Rabbit scored himself.
They won the game 81 to 57, the highest score they had tallied so far this year.
“I was pretty good out there,”
Rabbit said to Rico after the game. He was surprised when Rico didn’t reply.
Rabbit arrived home, expecting a nice warm reception from his mom and dad.
He didn’t get it.
Disappointed, he looked at Bones. “Didn’t you tell them how many points I scored?” he asked.
“No. I thought you’d be happier to tell them that yourself, Mr. Wonderful,” Bones answered, and stormed out of the room.
So Rabbit told them. They looked at him as if he were making it all up. Then they smiled and hugged him. Dad said, “Well, keep up the good work, son. Just don’t get so good that you forget the other players on the team, that’s all.”
On Friday, when Rabbit and Bones were getting ready to leave for the game against the Hurricanes, there were several kids waiting on the sidewalk.
“What are they doing out there?” Rabbit asked curiously.
“They want to walk to the game with you,” said Bones. “After all, you’re a great hero, now.”
Rabbit felt a chill race up his spine. “You go by yourself, Bones,” he said nervously. “I’ll go out back and by way of the railroad tracks. I know I’m good, but I don’t want any crowd following me.”
He sneaked out the back door, ran across the yard, climbed over the fence, then ran to the railroad tracks.
He ran along them till he reached the long bridge. He knew it was dangerous to cross it, but he felt that the Choco Bar would give him power to run swiftly across before a train came along. He started to run but soon tired. He was halfway across the bridge when he thought he heard a whistle. He paused, listening for it to sound again.
It did! A train was coming!
He tried to go faster, missed a tie, and stumbled. He got up and looked back. Where was his newfound strength now? He heard the whistle again, but the train wasn’t in sight yet.
He hurried on, hoping to cross the bridge before the train reached it.
&n
bsp; He didn’t.
When he heard the blast again he looked back and saw that the train, smoke puffing from its smokestack, had started to cross the bridge!
He almost froze. He would never make it to the end of the bridge. Never.
Then he saw a concrete abutment that held up the tracks. There was just room enough to lie on it — if he could get to it in time.
Heart thumping, he hurried to it. Stumbled. Got up. Hurried again.
Behind him the train was closing in.
He reached the abutment and quickly clambered down to it. Then he lay there, trembling and sweating. He closed his eyes and covered his ears as the train thundered by only a couple of feet away from him.
After the train passed by he got up, his knees feeling like rubber, and walked slowly off the bridge.
Suddenly he saw, between two ties, another bar of CHOCO-POWER PLUS! Now, how did that get there? he asked himself. Was it just chance, or had someone put it there?
Right away he thought of the things that eating the first bar of CHOCO-POWER PLUS had done to him. Yes, it had helped him to play basketball better than anybody else. But look what that had done to him. It had turned him into a bragging, self-centered kid whose own brother had turned against him.
And look at what had happened to him on the bridge. He might have gotten killed!
And what had caused it all? His belief in the CHOCO-POWER PLUS candy! It had to be!
Without another thought, he picked up the new bar of candy and flung it into the river. Then he ran down the cinder bank, crossed over to a street, and headed for the school. He got there just a few minutes before the game was to start.
Quickly he put on his uniform and ran onto the court. The whistle blew.
Bones tapped the ball to Rico, and Rico passed it to Rabbit.
“Shoot, star! Shoot!” he cried.
Rabbit didn’t shoot, though. He passed to Doc, instead. Doc shot and scored. Later Rabbit passed the ball to Bones, who also scored.
“Hey, man!” cried Bones. “You’re your old self again! What happened to Mr. Wonderful?”
Rabbit smiled. “I threw him into the river,” he said.
Books by Matt Christopher
Sports Stories
THE LUCKY BASEBALL BAT
BASEBALL PALS
BASKETBALL SPARKPLUG
TWO STRIKES ON JOHNNY
LITTLE LEFTY
TOUCHDOWN FOR TOMMY
LONG STRETCH AT FIRST BASE
BREAK FOR THE BASKET
TALL MAN IN THE PIVOT
CHALLENGE AT SECOND BASE
CRACKERJACK HALFBACK
BASEBALL FLYHAWK
SINK IT, RUSTY
CATCHER WITH A GLASS ARM
WINGMAN ON ICE
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
THE COUNTERFEIT TACKLE
THE RELUCTANT PITCHER
LONG SHOT FOR PAUL
MIRACLE AT THE PLATE
THE TEAM THAT COULDN’T LOSE
THE YEAR MOM WON THE PENNANT
THE BASKET COUNTS
HARD DRIVE TO SHORT
CATCH THAT PASS!
SHORTSTOP FROM TOKYO
LUCKY SEVEN
JOHNNY LONG LEGS
LOOK WHO’S PLAYING FIRST BASE
TOUGH TO TACKLE
THE KID WHO ONLY HIT HOMERS
FACE-OFF
MYSTERY COACH
ICE MAGIC
NO ARM IN LEFT FIELD
JINX GLOVE
FRONT COURT HEX
THE TEAM THAT STOPPED MOVING
GLUE FINGERS
THE PIGEON WITH THE TENNIS ELBOW
THE SUBMARINE PITCH
POWER PLAY
Animal Stories
DESPERATE SEARCH
STRANDED
EARTHQUAKE
Power Play
Matts Christopher
Rabbit was only a fair basketball player. He sank his share of baskets, but he knew that he missed too many times, and he really hated it when the fans started to ride him. How he wished he were a star!
Then one day Rabbit finds a new kind of candy bar lying on the street. The wrapper promises instant power to anyone who eats the candy, and Rabbit decides to take a chance and see what happens. The results are more than he bargained for!
How Rabbit copes with the power and the problems the candy bar brings will interest anyone who likes to read sports stories.
Illustrated by Ray Burns
Matt Christopher, Power Play
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