Read The Unwilling Umpire Online
Authors: Ron Roy
The Unwilling Umpire (7 page)
“Tie game!” Ruth Rose yelled. Dink could barely hear her. The crowd was screaming as Livvy dashed for home.
It was a grand slam! The game was over. The final score was
WOMEN
7,
MEN
6.
Josh slumped in his seat while Ruth Rose did a little dance next to him.
“Well, who’s up for an ice cream cone?” Dink asked, grinning at Josh.
“I am!” Ruth Rose said.
I received so many great suggestions for the U book title, including UNICORN, UMBRELLA, and UNCLE. But I finally decided on a baseball story because Matthew Johnson wrote to me and suggested that I use UMPIRE as part of my title. Thank you, Matthew.
From my readers, I get hundreds of letters and e-mails each week. Two questions I receive often are the following:
1. Where did you get the idea for the A to Z Mysteries?
2. Are Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose real kids?
My original idea for this mystery series came from my own reading. I love to read good mystery books, so I decided to write mysteries for kids. Each book in this series has started with one idea. From that idea, I develop a problem and a setting. Then I add
in characters, clues, and, finally, a solution to the problem. For every book in the series, I try to find a situation that kids would enjoy reading about.
For example, the N book shows Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose riding horses and panning for gold. In the E book, they learn about rare stamps. In
The Unwilling Umpire
, autographed baseballs get stolen, and the kids use a computer to help them in their search.
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are not real—they are fictional characters. But maybe you know kids who are like them. I think kids like these three would make great friends.
My story ideas come from many places, but especially from reading. I hope you will
always
be readers!
Happy reading!
Sincerely,
P.S. Please visit my Web site at
www.ronroy.com!
Collect clues with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose in their next exciting adventure
,
THE VAMPIRE’S VACATION
“Josh, why would a vampire pick Green Lawn for his vacation?” Dink asked.
But Josh wasn’t listening. He had his nose against the window. “There he is again!” he shrieked.
The man in black was crossing Main Street near the swan pond.
“Doesn’t he look like a vampire to you?” Josh asked Ellie.
Ellie didn’t answer. She just backed away from the window.
KC’s Discovery
KC Corcoran pulled a slip of paper out of her teachers baseball cap. She read the words on the paper and grinned.
“Who did you get, KC?” Mr. Alubicki asked.
“President Thornton,” KC said.
“No fair!” Marshall Li protested. “You already know everything about him.”
Mr. Alubicki smiled and passed the hat to Marshall, KC’s best friend. Marshall picked a slip. “Herbert Hoover?” he said. “I don’t even know who he is!”
“But you’ll know all about him after you write your report,” his teacher said.
Mr. Alubicki finished passing the hat around the room. “Okay, everyone, have a great weekend. Get started on your president reports. We’ll discuss them Monday.”
KC grabbed her backpack and followed Marshall out the door. They walked home together every day.
KC and Marshall lived in the same ten-story building in Washington, D.C. It stood between a pet shop and a Chinese restaurant.
They stopped on the way home to watch puppies and kittens through the pet-shop window.
“Why is everyone so crazy about furry animals?” Marshall asked. “Spiders make great pets, too!”
KC laughed. “Marsh, you can’t cuddle up with a spider.”
“Who says you can’t?” Marshall asked. “I wish Mr. A. would let us write about insects instead of presidents.”
Marshall loved anything with more than four legs. He kept jars of crawly things in his bedroom. Spike, his pet tarantula, slept in one of Marsh’s old baseball caps.
“Presidents’ Day is in February,” KC reminded her friend. “If we had an insects’ day, Mr. A. would let you write about Spike.”
“Spike’s not an insect,” Marshall said. “Tarantulas are spiders, and spiders are arachnids.”
“I know, I know,” KC said as she pushed open the glass door of their building. “You’ve told me a hundred times!”
“And you still don’t remember,”
grumbled Marshall. He pushed the elevator button.
Donald, the building manager, opened the elevator door. Donald ran the elevator and helped people get taxis out front.
“Hi, kids,” Donald said. “Got plans for the weekend?”
“We have to write reports,” Marshall told him. “About dead presidents.”
“Mine’s not dead,” KC told Donald. “I picked President Thornton!”
Donald smiled as he pressed the button for Marshall’s floor. “Lucky you! Maybe you’ll see him around town.”
Marshall got off on the third floor, and Donald took KC to the fifth. She let herself into the apartment with her key.
Lost and Found, her two kittens, came skidding across the wood floor when the
door opened. KC rubbed their bellies, then headed for the kitchen.
A note was taped to the fridge.
KC—I’ll be home around six. Have a snack. Love, Mom.
KC grabbed a banana and walked into the living room. Lost and Found scurried after her. She pulled
Your Presidents
from a bookshelf and looked up President Thornton.
“Listen,” she said to the kittens. “Zachary Thornton had five brothers and sisters. He raised chickens and sold eggs to help his family.” Then the caption of a picture caught her eye. “As a Boy Scout, Zachary Thornton earned twelve merit badges,” she read.
“See, Marshall was wrong,” KC mumbled. “I don’t know everything about
President Thornton. I had no idea he got twelve badges in Scouts.”
KC marked the page, then switched on her mom’s computer. She logged on to the Internet and found more about President Thornton. “Zachary Thornton is our fourth left-handed president,” KC read.
“Cool. We’re both left-handed!” KC said. She kept reading and noticed a headline from the
Washington Post
newspaper. “President Thornton Says No to Human Cloning.”
KC read the rest of the paragraph about scientists cloning animals. Marshall had told her that some scientists wanted to clone humans.
“I’m glad the president said no,” she said. “I only want one of me!”
KC shut off the computer and turned
on the TV. She flopped on the sofa and pulled the kittens onto her lap.
Cindy Sparks, the White House reporter, was just signing off.
“Someday that’ll be me,” KC told her kittens. She planned to become a TV anchorwoman after college.
KC peeled the banana and channel surfed. She found a live special on President Thornton at a press conference in the White House.
“Tomorrow morning,” said President Thornton, “I will make an announcement that will change human life forever.”
Then someone handed the president a stack of papers. He signed them slowly, as if he were tired. He didn’t smile or talk to anyone around him. He just took a paper, signed it, and reached for another.
Hmmm
, thought KC.
It’s not like him to be so quiet and serious. He looks sick.
KC noticed something else. “That’s weird,” she said. She called Marshall and told him to turn on channel 3.
“It’s the president,” Marshall said a few seconds later. “So?”
“Do you see anything weird?”
“Like what?”
“Marsh, he’s signing those papers with his right hand!”
Marshall laughed. “You called to tell me the president is right-handed?”
“No, he’s
left
-handed!”
“Oooh, let’s call 911,” Marshall said.
KC kept staring at the president on TV. Signing with the wrong hand. Looking tired and way too serious. Almost like a different person….
Her imagination kicked in. What if this guy was a fake? What if the real president had been kidnapped? What if he’d been drugged or… KC shook her head.
She could almost hear her mom warning her—for the millionth time—not to jump to conclusions.