9 Stay Together, Stay Together

CHAPTER NINE STAY TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER WE SAW ONE of Max's teammates heading toward the soccer fields. It wasn't Max. This player was too small to be Max. But it was still a totally bad sign. "It's not time for the game yet!" Simon exclaimed. "What's he doing here?!" "He probably got here early to warm up," Rosie said. "What if Max gets here early?!" Simon asked with wide-open eyes.

Rosie and I didn't answer. We just picked up the pipe as fast as we could. We had lots of trouble with it. First, when we started to stand it up, the pipe came apart at three different connectors. We put it back together, tried again, and it came loose at two other connectors. "Okay, wait," Rosie said after our second attempt. She had a plan. "Let's do this differently. I'll stay at this end—the bottom. Molly, you stand about a third of the way up. And Simon, you go between Molly and the far end. By slowly lifting it together, there will be less strain in the middle and I think we can stand it up."

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I went to my spot. And Simon went to his. "Okay," Rosie called to us. "One, two—" But Rosie stopped counting. She looked at Simon. And so did I. He was not grasping the pipe and getting ready to lift it. He stood over the pipe with his eyes closed. His two index fingers were pressed gently into the sides of his head. Rosie and I had never seen him do something like this before. We hustled toward him. When we got there, I whispered, "Simon?" It just seemed like I should whisper. I don't know why. "Shh," he whispered back. Rosie asked softly, "What are you doing?" "I'm using the Force," Simon said and slowly swayed his head back and forth like he was in a trance. "I am becoming one with the pipe. This has to work." "What?!" Rosie asked, this time not as softly. "I'm surrounding the pipe with positive energy," Simon said, still whispering and swaying. He chanted, "Stay together, stay together, stay together."

Then Simon opened his eyes and said, "It's ready now." "Are you crazy?" Rosie said and laughed. Simon said, "Maybe. But I'll try anything to get Max's ball back." After that, we got the pipe to stand up on the first try. Simon said it was the Force that did it, but he was just kidding. We knew it was the way we did it that