Free Shoeless Joe & Me by Dan Gutman Page A

mistake. There were no smoke detectors in 1919. Buildings used to burn down all the time back then.
    â€œYou might start a fire,” I explained.
    Joe shook his head, as if to say I was nuts. Hedropped the piece of paper into the little trash can next to the desk. As it fluttered into the basket all I could think of was that he had just thrown away a half million dollars. I tried not to react.
    â€œThat didn’t look so bad,” I said, encouragingly. “Try it again.”
    Joe took another sheet of paper and started over. Again, he painstakingly copied the autograph letter by letter. He didn’t like that one very much either and tossed it in the trash.
    I was counting in my head. That was one million dollars sitting in the garbage. I felt my heart racing in my chest.
    â€œYou’re doing great,” I said gently. “Why don’t you try another one?”
    Joe got as far as the word “best.” When he messed up the T , he crumpled up the piece of paper in disgust and threw it away.
    â€œOh, heck, Ah just ain’t no good at this stuff, and that’s all there is to it. Everything they write about me in the newspapers is lies anyway, so what’s the point in learnin’ how to read or write?”
    Joe blew out the candle and climbed into bed next to his sleeping wife. I slipped into my bed on the floor.
    â€œGood night, Joe.”
    â€œG’night, Stosh.”
    I lay there for a long time thinking. Not more than five feet away from me there was a wastebasket with the equivalent of a million dollars in it!
    I could buy a lot of stuff with a million dollars. A new house and car for my mom. A motorcycle for my dad. He’s always wanted one. And for me, well, I could pretty much clean out a sporting goods store.
    Should I take the autographs out of the garbage? I lay there thinking. Those autographs didn’t belong to me. They didn’t belong to anybody . They were garbage. Joe Jackson didn’t offer them to me. He threw them away. His intention was to burn them. Maybe it would be wrong for me to take them.
    Or maybe it would be right. I mean, who would it hurt if I kept a couple of pieces of paper that were in the garbage? Nobody. Technically, I wouldn’t be stealing anything. It would be more like scavenging or picking up a penny somebody had dropped in the street. I could always get Joe’s permission in the morning. Besides, I told myself, he never told me that I couldn’t have the signatures.
    It seemed so long ago that I had been hired to clean out the attic of Amanda Young, the old lady who used to live next door to me. That was where I found the valuable Honus Wagner card I had used to take my first trip through time. Back then, I thought long and hard about whether the right thing to do was for me to keep the card for myself or give it back to Miss Young. In the end, I decided to give it back to her.
    Once again, I had a decision to make. I lay there for a long time trying to decide what was the right thing to do.
    Joe’s breathing got slower, and in a few minutes he began to snore. Joe and Katie were asleep.
    I crept on my hands and knees in the dark until I was able to find the trash can. I picked out the two scraps of paper and put them inside the pocket of my pants.

15
Wake-up Call
    THE FIRST THING I NOTICED WHEN I WOKE UP IN THE morning was that my nose wasn’t running anymore. I was going to take one of my flu pills, but decided not to. I was all better.
    The second thing I noticed was the sound of the telephone ringing. I looked at Joe and Katie’s bed. It was empty. The shower was running in the bathroom, so I figured one or both of them were in there. I picked up the phone.
    â€œThis is your wake-up call,” a gruff voice barked before I could even say hello.
    â€œHuh?” I asked, glancing at the clock on the night table. It was nine o’clock.
    â€œWhere’s Jackson?” the voice on the phone