18 A New Sport

Chapter 18 A NEW SPORT When he opened his eyes, Coke was sprawled across lane two, his head and feet in the gutters, about ten feet in front of the pins. Pep was in the same position, lying across lane three. But neither of them knew that yet, because except for a few pinpoints of light, they were in total darkness. Somebody had taken off the poisoned bowling shoes and put their sneakers back on their feet. "Where are we?" Coke asked his sister. "What time is it?" "How should I know?" she replied. "Mrs. Higgins probably kidnapped us and put us in a cell while she decides what to do to us next." "How could we have been so stupid?" he said. "I can't believe we ever trusted her."

"We?" Pep replied. "I didn't trust her. You trusted her. I tried to run away as soon as I saw her face. You stopped me, remember?" "There's no point in arguing about it now," Coke said. "There's no point in arguing about it because I'm right," Pep replied angrily. "You have no argument." Actually, there was no point in arguing about it for another reason—they were about to be attacked. At the far end of lanes two and three, two men silently picked up bowling balls and got into position to bowl. Suddenly, all the lights in the International Bowling Training and Research Center flashed on. "What the—" Coke said, looking up. "I hear something," Pep said, her voice cracking. "What's that sound?" It was the distinctive sound of a fifteen- pound bowling ball hitting the wood floor and

rolling down an alley. Two bowling balls, to be precise. They were rolling down lanes two and three. "Watch out!" Coke shouted to his sister. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" she screamed. One of the balls was coming on a direct line toward Pep's head. The other one was about to hit Coke in the midsection. At the last possible instant, both twins flopped out of the way and narrowly avoided getting slammed. The balls passed harmlessly by, knocking down some of the pins behind them. The two men at the other end of lanes two and three had already picked up new balls and were preparing to heave them. "Stop!" Pep shouted uselessly. "Are you crazy?" "They're not crazy! They're trying to kill us!" Coke said. "Who are they?" "Who do you think? The bowler dudes!" Yes, the bowler dudes. The two mentally

challenged lunatics, who had been terrorizing the twins from the very beginning, were at it again. "Ha-ha-ha-ha!" cackled the bowler dude with the mustache. "This is fun!" He let loose with his second ball. Pep stumbled while trying to get up to dodge it and almost got hit in the ankle. Coke jumped up at the last instant and the clean-shaven bowler dude's ball passed right beneath him. "You like bowling?" shouted Mrs. Higgins from the front desk. "Let's see if you like it from the pin's point of view!" "We gotta get out of here!" Coke shouted, reaching over to grab Pep by the hand and pull her up. The bowler dudes had already picked up balls from the ball return. "Where are we going to go?" Pep yelled. "Over there!" Coke shouted, pointing to the far corner of the large building. "There's a fire exit! Follow me!" The twins, still feeling the effects of the

poison that had been put in their bowling shoes, struggled to get their footing on the slippery surface. Gingerly, they stepped over the gutter of lane three and hopped onto lane four. The bowler dudes, watching them carefully, moved over to lane four, both heaving balls down that alley at the same time. "Jump, Pep!" Coke shouted. They both jumped and narrowly evaded the balls. "Ooooh, I almost got a strike that time!" one of the bowler dudes shouted gleefully. "You need to work on your follow-through," his brother cackled as he picked up another ball. As the McDonald twins frantically scampered across lanes five and six, the bowler dudes moved across the floor with them, picking up balls and whipping them down the alley as fast as they could roll them. "Watch your left!" Coke shouted as he ran across lane seven. Pep dodged that ball, and the next one too.

As the twins dashed from lane to lane, the bowler dudes ran across the floor, chucking shot after shot at them. It was as though Coke and Pep were being attacked with cannonballs. "This is much more fun than aiming at pins," the mustachioed bowler dude said as he ran from lane nine to lane ten to let loose his next shot. "Yeah," said his clean-shaven brother, already at lane twelve. "It adds a human dimension to the game." "Hey, we invented a new sport!" the mustachioed bowler dude said, racing to pick up the next ball. "This should be in the Olympics! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" "Stop fooling around, you idiots!" shouted Mrs. Higgins from the front desk. "Knock them over! That's what I'm paying you for! Quick! They're getting away!" Coke and Pep managed to make it to lane nineteen without getting hit with more than a glancing blow. Coke was the first one to reach