Excerpt: Meet-up Tonight at Silverleaf Mall

In frustration, I raised my arm to throw my cell phone, then thought better of it. If I broke the stupid, obsolete piece of junk, mom and dad would just make me buy a new one and pay whatever fee I’d need to pay to start service again. Definitely not worth the small satisfaction of seeing it hurl through the air. Then I noticed Benjy’s rubber ball. It was actually a souvenir ball from a musical we had attended when I was about Benjy’s age. He had inherited it, like all his toys, from my brother and me. You could just make out Twelve Dancing Princesses: The Musical” written in chipped off gold-painted letters and the suggestion of glitter trapped in the grimy transparent ball. I seized the ball and threw it across the room, where it made a satisfying thump and bounced back to me. I'd better stop or mom would be up to check on me. Just then, our noisy old radiator turned on and blew a shiver through the dust ruffle under my bed. The ruffle suggested itself as a good target, and I let fly. The ball hit the ruffle just an inch above the floor and disappeared under the bed. I heard a thump, then another thump and the distinctive sound of a ball bouncing down a very long flight of stairs. I knew the sound well. Benjy was forever tossing some ball down the steps to our basement. Only this sound was coming from under my bed. What was a flight of stairs doing under my bed? I jumped up and pushed my bed across the hardwood floor so I could see what had become of the ball. I was not prepared for the sight that awaited me.