Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow (3 page)

“How can I help?” “Put on your goggles,” he said, “and press the button on your wristband. Starwood Park needs some Zapato Power.”

My feet smoked as I zoomed ninety miles an hour in the heavy snow. Everywhere I ran, snow blew out behind me, just like a snow blower.

In less than fifteen minutes, Starwood Park had paths on all the sidewalks, just wide enough for people to get through.

“Your new invention is great!” I told Mr. Vaslov.

“Thanks, Freddie!” He grinned. “Now you can help me rescue some friends.”

He put my snowshoes in the tool shed and handed me a shovel. We spent the next hour shoveling out apartments blocked by the snow.

When we cleaned Maria’s door at 28G, her mother rushed out to kiss us.

“
Gracias
,
gracias
,” she said.

“
No hay problema
.” I grinned.

Sometimes I didn’t need Zapato Power to feel like a hero.

Maria came out of 28G wearing pink boots and gloves. Her little brother, Gio, was behind her, pulling a yellow plastic sled.

“Can you go to the hill with us?” he asked.

Mr. Vaslov took my shovel. “I can’t. But Freddie can if he asks his mother first.”

“Yippee!” Gio yelled, running through the snow paths I’d made on the sidewalks.

By the time we got there, every kid from Starwood Park was at the hill. But most of them were watching because only six kids had sleds.

Gio walked to the top with his yellow sled, then stopped, dead still, his eyes glued on the long way down. “Have I ever done this before?” he asked.

“Not sure,” Maria said. “You might have been too little the last time we had a big snow.”

Gio didn’t remember sledding. But I remembered the winter my dad came home from being a soldier for a little while. We rode together in the sled, laughing all the way down the hill. I’m proud that my dad was a hero, but I’ll always miss him too.

“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked Gio.

“Yes!” He hugged me. Little kids don’t mind being mushy.

We climbed onto the sled and Maria gave it a push.

“WHEEE!” Gio yelled.

As we swooshed down the hill, I noticed all the kids without sleds, watching with big eyes. Suddenly I had an idea so good, it felt like it came from my super zapatos, not my brain.

“Let’s all double up!”

“Then everybody gets a turn!” Maria said.

She asked her friend Jasmin to share. Soon all the kids were pairing up. Now more kids were sledding than watching, with lots of happy cheering.

“Faster! Faster!” Gio shouted all the way down the hill.

At the bottom, he jumped out and grabbed the rope pull. “Let’s go again, Freddie!”

“Not so fast!” A girl in a green coat stepped in front of us. “I want a turn!”

The girl chomped on a wad of purple bubblegum. I recognized the grape smell right away. Erika! She was not one of our favorite people at Starwood Park.

“On my sled?” Gio gulped. “Yeah!” Erika grabbed the rope out of Gio’s hand and ran up the hill. “Stop her!” Gio cried.

It was too late. We waited forever until Erika came back down.

“Here!” She dropped the sled at Gio’s feet as she popped a purple bubble. “Your sled is too slow. I’m going to find a better one.”

“She didn’t even share her ride,” Gio griped, picking up the rope.

Keeping as far away from Erika as we could, we went down the hill about a dozen more times. Then Gio walked over to a snowdrift and started digging with his mittens.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “Building a snow cave,” he said.

I started to help. Maria came over too. Pretty soon we had a space just big enough for three kids to sit crowded together.

“Who’s inside there?” A face appeared at the cave entrance. We saw a purple mouth and smelled grape bubblegum. Erika!

“Go away!” Gio yelled. “This is our snow cave!”

“Says who!” Erika banged on the top with her fists. Snow fell down on our heads.

“It’s crashing in!” we all screamed and crawled out.

By that time, Erika had walked away laughing.

“I’m tired of the way she’s always ruining everything,” Maria complained.

“Me too!” Gio folded his arms.

I nodded, wondering what I should do about it. Zapato Power was good for running fast. But I needed more than super speed to keep Erika from bothering my friends.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Vaslov rang the doorbell while Mom and I were eating breakfast.

“Sorry to disturb you so early,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” Mom asked. “The furnace in Building D broke.”

“In this cold weather?” Mom said. “That’s awful!”

Building D was where Erika lived. Did that mean she was shivering? I wondered if I should be sad about that.

“Fire trucks took everyone to Starwood Elementary,” Mr. Vaslov said. “They spent the night in the gym. It was on the news.”

Camping out at the school? Getting on TV? Why do mean people like Erika have all the luck?

“They need food,” Mr. Vaslov said. “I’ll call the neighbors,” Mom said.

“We’ll make meals.”

“Thank you,” said Mr. Vaslov. “And would you mind if I borrowed Freddie? There’s something he could help me with.”

“Of course,” said Mom, picking up the phone. “You can have him all day.”

Outside, Mr. Vaslov handed me the zapato snowshoes. “With people sleeping at the school, we need a path on the stairs to bring supplies. How about it, Freddie?”

Mr. Vaslov didn’t have to ask me twice. Snow flew everywhere as I zoomed up and down, faster than any machine.