Free The Boy from Left Field by Tom Henighan Page A

voice. “You’ll like the class, too. Everything will be fine.”
    She turned to greet Hawk’s mother. “Hello, I’m Panny. You must be Hawk’s mother. I’m in his new class. He’s transferring tomorrow, right?”
    “That’s right,” Storm Cloud told her, sizing up the confident Panny. “I hope you can help Hawk fit in. I hope your class is friendly. He’s a smart boy, you know, which his teachers don’t seem to understand.”
    “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Panny reassured her. “We have two great teachers. And the class is fine. I was just going to fill in your Hawk on that. Give him a few tips. Maybe we could go for a Coke while you’re busy here.”
    Storm Cloud looked a little doubtful, but then with a glance at her selling table, still ignored by every passerby, she nodded. “Well, I guess so, but only for fifteen or twenty minutes. I’m just about to wrap up here. It hasn’t been a very good day.”
    Hawk knew she had the envelope with his dad’s money in her pocket, and that the day hadn’t been a total waste. “We’ll be back really soon, Mum,” he promised.
    The kids moved off quickly. Panny wheeled her bike along the sidewalk. “There’s a bench down the street,” she said. “We can talk for a few minutes.”
    “Somebody threw a rock at our taxi,” Hawk told her. “Do you think one of the gang followed Martin? Did he go looking for me? I can’t figure it out.”
    Panny looked grim. “That’s scary,” she said. “The sooner we get the police into this, the better. But Martin wasn’t followed — he told me he was very careful. I bet what happened was that Elroy told the gang that you were suspicious of him, and they decided to scare you. Since they’d stolen your glove in your neighbourhood, it would be no trick to figure out where you hung out. How many old taxis have a kid and his mum living in them?”
    “Gee, that’s right. I think that must be what happened.”
    “Sure it is! But listen, Hawk, Martin and I have a new idea. See what you think. Next baseball practice you and Martin have to go after Elroy and get him real scared. We think he might head off to check things out with the gang. Remember, we don’t think he’s one of them — they’re probably just testing him out. Probation, right? Martin can track him and learn some more about where the gang hangs out and who’s in it. Then maybe we can tell the police.”
    “Great! Sounds okay to me,” Hawk told her. He wasn’t so sure that things would run so smoothly, but what else could they do?
    “Good,” Panny said. “But I’ve got to go now. I cut out of a few important duties to come here. I’ll see you tomorrow, anyway.”
    “Yeah, I’d better go back,” Hawk said. “My mum looked a little suspicious. You know things are tricky between her and my dad. Now she wants to take me to Ottawa.”
    “Ottawa! Oh my God!”
    “Don’t worry. My dad won’t let it happen. He promised me, although she doesn’t know it.”
    “Wow, Hawk-boy. You have a complicated life. But don’t worry — I think things will get better for you.”
    “Yeah, I hope so. See you tomorrow, Panny.”
    Panny swung her bike around, waved, and zoomed back along the Danforth. Hawk went and bought a Coke, sat on the bench for a while, then walked slowly back to his mother. Pedestrians, still not buying anything, tramped past the table, but their numbers had thinned out. The afternoon was waning. The other two women had already departed and Storm Cloud was packing up.
    “I guess we’d better go home now,” his mother said. “Nobody’s buying anything today. I just saw that Panny shoot past. She flies around on her bike like some kind of elf-girl, doesn’t she? I sure hope she gave you some good advice about tomorrow.”

Chapter 9
    School Bells and Surprises
    Hawk trudged home with his mother, helping her carry some of the unsold items from her table. They said very little to each other on the way, but after a while Storm