Murphy & Mousetrap (10 page)

Big Foot steadied the ball on the penalty line. He stepped back and aligned a shot but stopped before he moved his foot. He walked slowly toward the ball a second time and turned the ball over and over slowly until he had it just right. He backed up again and pulled his leg back, connecting with the ball with such force that he sent it shooting past the goalie like a cannonball.

After four shooters from each side the score for penalty shots was one–one.

The last Thunderbird shooter set the ball on the line. He eyed the ball. He eyed Murphy. He drew his eyes from one side of the net to the other. Then he looked directly into Murphy's face. Murphy could feel the boy's piercing look. Murphy didn't move. He kept his gaze on the boy. When the shooter wound
up to kick, out of the corner of Murphy's eye he saw the boy turn slightly as he drove the ball. Without a thought Murphy's body met the ball in midair. He curled his thighs and shoulders around the slippery leather and landed in a heap on top of the ball.

Every Buckskin player rushed to meet him.

He did it. He did all he could do. Now it was all up to Albert.

Albert set the ball on the line. The crowd hushed. Although there were hundreds of adults, kids and even babies around the field, it was quiet except for the rush of cars on the street below.

The Thunderbird goalie quivered. He slapped his hands and tugged on his gloves. Murphy thought, Why didn't I use gloves?

Albert took his place. Murphy held both hands on his stomach to hold his guts inside. Albert stepped toward the ball and tapped it with the side of his toe. As if in slow motion the ball spiraled around and around past the feet of the goalie, who barely moved, and into the bottom left corner of the net.

After all ten shooters, the score for penalty shots was two to one, Buckskin Bulldogs over the Island Thunderbirds.

In the picture Albert holds the trophy. He sits with Murphy perched on his shoulders while the rest of the boys crowd in on either side. Uncle Rudy stands next to his team with a smile on his face that must make his cheeks hurt.

The picture doesn't show it, but close by Mom, Chas and Bernie are leaping and screaming so much that their throats are going to hurt for days.

Sylvia Olsen
has many sources of inspiration for her children's writing. Her mother and mother-in-law have more than two hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren between them! Sylvia has lived in the Tsartlip First Nation for almost thirty years. She works as a First Nation's community development consultant. Sylvia is the author of four other novels for children and teens:
No Time to Say Goodbye
,
The Girl With a Baby
, and
White Girl
, all published by Sono Nis Press, and
Catching Spring
, published by Orca.
Murphy and Mousetrap
is her second book with Orca.