summertime is baseball in the park under angry suns and fat fluffy clouds. it is the sound of baseball cards in the spokes of bicycles. it is melted rocket pops and candy bars on sticky fingers. during summertime i tried to sell lemonade on the street corner and ended up with lemons.

ma?

what do you want?

can i make lemonade and sell it on the corner?

nope. nobody wants lemonade - not on a day like today.

why not? it’s hot outside. everybody would want lemonade if they saw it.

it’s 3 o’clock on a weekday afternoon. no one out there is going to buy lemonade just because you bring it to them.

why not ma? i can make lemonade just fine. they’ll like it just the same.

people don’t like to stop and get out of their cars for lemonade.

then i’ll run a drive through. they hold out the money and i bring out the juice. yep, door to door service. right ma?

what are you, a jehovah’s witness? don’t go making a mess. i just cleaned the kitchen.

c’mon ma. i can clean it all up.

yeah, sure. i have heard my full of it all.

i will ma. i promise. cross my heart and hope to die.

don’t get upset when your lemonade doesn’t sell. people aren’t interested anymore. life moves too fast.

yeah, yeah. you told me alright, ma. you told me good. i won’t sell a drop of lemonade. not one bit, and then i will have to drink it all myself. my lips will pucker up like a fish.

i made fishy faces at my mother as she turned her back to leave the room. she didn’t even notice. if she had then she would have whooped me. she had done it the day before today to both meandmylittlebrother for running around in the house. we knocked over a lamp just by accident and mom came in and whooped us both. it made my brother cry, so i took to screamin’ too, so as to make him feel better. but i wasn’t really screamin’, ‘cause i had put a pillow from the couch in my pants before my mom whooped us. the only time it ever hurt was the time she found the pillow in my pants. she pulled it out and then whooped me for a real long time. i cried that time, but that’s the only time i ever cried.

i carried the lemonade out to the street corner on my tippy toes. i wasn’t allowed to use the glass pitcher because my mom thought i would break it, but i sneaked it out anyways. The glass pitcher was cold on my hands. mymom would whoop me when she found out i took it. mylittlebrother brought the cups and my sign outside for me, so he’ll prolly get whooped too. i feel bad when he gets it ‘cause a’somethin’ i do, but if he minded so much he’d stop followin’ me around.

the sign read:

LEMONADE
25 sense.

i couldn’t draw pictures or nuthin’, so the sign was pretty lame. my mom had to draw the letters for me because she said that my writing was terrible. she told me that i misspelled sense, but i told her i liked it that way. she said it made no cents. i told her i didn’t care. i just liked lemonade. i even liked plain old lemons.

i sat on the corner with mylittlebrother drinking a glass of lemonade. the sun was hot, but there was a cold wind to keep us cool. Homerun Harry came by on his bicycle and He stopped to talk to me. we called him Homerun Harry ‘cause He sucked at baseball. we used to invite him along to play with us down at the park down the street. He didn’t usually come though, but sometimes He would. and when He did, boy did He stink it up. He always struck out and He ran funny too. He ran like a fat lady. He was skinny, like a pixie stick, but he ran with his arms out shaking and his legs real tight together. it was just like a fat lady. ask tommyandbobby. they’ll tell ya’ the same.

hey christian

hey Harry

hey christian, whydd’ya gotta sell that lemonade for all the time. it ain’t even real lemonade. it’s kool aid.

i like lemonade, Harry. everybody likes lemonade. and it’s real lemonade this time Harry. i promise - squeezed the lemons myself. You want some?

I don’t have any money.

You don’t need to have no sense for lemonade Harry. You can have some just the same.

okay, but do you want to go ride bikes?

yeah, sure thing, Harry. right after that glass of lemonade.


so Homerun Harry and i went out riding bikes and before long tommyandbobby were outside too. so we stopped in front of their house and asked if they wanted to ride bikes too. i liked tommyandbobby because they were brothers and they always wanted to play outside. we played baseball and rode bikes and played freeze tag. so Harry and i waited for tommyandbobby and then we all rode out into the street. we rode out into the street and formed a line all the way across it. we tried to go real fast, only Harry didn’t feel like it for some reason. He just kept looking up into the sky. He did it all the time and tommyandbobby made fun of him for it.

hey Harry. You want to go hit some home runs later?

nah. I want to ride bikes.

well we are going to go play baseball. You ought to come with Harry. You can stare into the sky while we hit baseballs over your head.

Harry just ignored them while they were laughing at Him. i ignored them too. the only time i laughed was when Harry got the only hit He’d ever had in baseball. He got so excited that He ran the wrong way around the bases. i laughed then, but i told him i was sorry later.

CAR!, tommy said.

CAR!, bobby said.

CAR!, i said.

tommyandbobby went over to the curb and i just rolled over to the opposite side of the street, but Harry didn’t do a thing. He just stared off into the clouds and kept riding his bike. the CAR saw him coming so it stopped moving and pulled as far off to the side as it could, but Harry kept on staring into the clouds and riding his bike.

CAR!, tommy yelled.

CAR!, bobby yelled.

CAR!, i yelled.

Homerun Harry didn’t say nuthin’. He didn’t look back or stop his bike or nuthin’. He rode his bike straight up into that parked CAR. His front tire hit the bumper on the CAR and the bike flipped forward and it threw Homerun Harry up into the sky like a kid throwing a baseball. He went way up in the air. Harry wasn’t much like a baseball though. He wasn’t thick enough to be a baseball. He was more like paper. He flipped half way over while He was in the air ‘cause the wind was blowing and then He fell down on the CAR with His head on the hood and his legs on the windshield. His crotch was in front of thedriver’s face behind the steering wheel.

thedriver got out of the car in ‘n awful hurry. he was asking Harry if Harry was okay. he was really worried. tommybobbyandme were worried too, but old Harry wasn’t. He hopped up and was standing on top of the CAR. thedriver turned white as a ghost. i think he thought Harry was some type of superhero or somethin’. and Harry really was a superhero, ‘cause he jumped off the CAR and was fine. He even got on his bike and rode home. He said he had to go anyways. He said that he had a lot of things to do before the weekend. and allthewhile tommybobbythedriverandme just watched Him. we just watched Him ride off without sayin’ nuthin’. And then thedriver turned around to get into his CAR, but he didn’t. he just started staring at his CAR. Harry’s feet had broken the glass of the windshield. you could tell ‘cause there was just these two holes where His feet had been. and then thedriver looked at the hood to his CAR by the engine and he turned even whiter than he done before. Harry’s body left a snow angel in it from when He fell on it. i swear thedriver must have thought Harry was a superhero or somethin’. tommyandbobby looked at eachother and then at thedriverandme and then they started peddling after Harry. thedriver just stood there looking at his car and i thought maybe i was supposed to say somethin’, but i didn’t know what. just then though i did know somethin’. I had forgotten the glass pitcher with the lemonade on the street corner. i ran to pick it up and put it safely back inside.

i didn’t see Harry until the next week. i didn’t try to talk to him or nuthin’, ‘cause He was busy on the weekends. i don’t know for real though, ‘cause my mom always told me that He just needed to rest from hangin’ out with me. when i did decide to go see Harry, i didn’t get what i expected. i knocked on the door and he opened it, only He didn’t look much like Harry anymore. He looked more like a cotton swab. He was standing real straight with his skinny legs and his head was wrapped in some type of paper. it was all white and as big as a bowling ball. it even had holes like a bowling ball. it had one for his eyes, one for his nose, and one for his mouth.

hey Harry

hey christian

whydd’ya all dressed up for Harry? it ain’t halloween. maybe you should go see a doctor, Harry.

I can’t come out and play with you anymore. I’m not aloud outside. I have to lay down, but I’m not aloud to go to sleep. I just have to lie there.

oh…Harry?

Harry closed the door on me. my lips began to pucker up like a fish. tears came to my eyes. i cried. i swear its’ the only time i’ve ever cried. my mom was right: Harry needed some rest from me for awhile. maybe someday soon if i take him a gift, like a glass of lemonade, then he might speak to me again. anyways, i like to share lemonade and i know that Harry don’t have any sense. He don’t have any sense at all.